Baking is Love: black forest birthday cake.

My sweetest little sister is turning 22 today! :)

Oh God, how I miss her A LOT.

Since we live 6898 miles apart right now (I'm in Heidelberg and she's in Jakarta) and we haven't met since last October, I still love her the most and please always know that nothing will ever change.

Today, I baked her a birthday cake from the distance! Yaay. I just want her to know that even I can't be there to celebrate this special day, June 17th each year will remain as the most special day in my heart. :)

Black Forest Birthday Cake! - a simple yet delicious celebration cake which consists of three layers of moist chocolate cake, with vanilla whipped cream frosting between each layer, fresh cherries and chocolate shavings as garnish on top!. If you fancy, you can also added more cherries between each layer too - together with the whipped cream frosting. It might definitely give you more of the sour flavour (but pretty good if you love cherries!). Yummy!

Anyone's having birthday soon??? This would be a perfect option for a birthday gift! Or if you wanna try the simpler one, you can also have a go with my Black Forest-stuffed Cupcakes which I made last week! It tastes delicious as well.

For this cake itself, you can prepare the cake layers up to one day in advance. Just wrap them tightly in a plastic wrap and store at room temperature. Or alternatively, the whole cake could also be prepared up to one day in advance by chilling it in the refrigrator, then let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving.

Making a 20-23 cm cake.

For the chocolate cake:

Ingredients:

195 grams all purpose flour

200 grams granulated white sugar

25 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

75 grams unsalted butter, melted

240 ml warm water

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of the oven.

2). In an ungreased 18 cm circle cake pan, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3). Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. With a fork, mix all the ingredients together until well blended.

4). Evenly divide the batter between the three prepared pans, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula. Bake to ca. 10-15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.
5). Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool, in their pans, for about 10 minutes. Let them cool completely before frosting.

For the vanilla whipped cream frosting :

Ingredients:

480 ml (2 cups) heavy cream
2 tablespoons icing or powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For topping / decoration:

fresh cherries
50 grams chocolate shavings

Directions:

1). In a large bowl, with a hand mixer on medium-high speed, whip the heavy cream until it reaches stiff peaks. It takes for about 1 minute.
2). Gently fold in the milk and powdered/icing sugar, then add the vanilla extract. (if you like more icing, just double the recipe!).

3). Place one cake layer (bottom side facing up) on your serving plate and spread with about 90 ml of frosting. Place the other cake layer on top of the frosting, spread it again with 90 ml of frosting, then place the last cake layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting.
4). Decorate the cake with fresh cherries on top, then add some chocolate shavings (milk or dark chocolate one) as much as you want or in any other way you fancy. I pressed some chocolate shavings also onto the sides of the cake. Make it beautiful!
5). Done and serve!.

Enjoy! Hope you guys like it!