BLACK FOREST CAKE

yield: Serves 8

ingredients

Cake

  • 1 box Betty Crocker’s Devils Food Cake

    • 3 eggs

    • 1/2 cup vegetable oil

    • 1 cup water

Chocolate Trees

  • 1 4oz bar chocolate, Ghirardelli 70% Cacao

Filling and Topping

  • One 8-oz jar Francine’s Outrageous Cherry Chocolate Sauce®

Whipped Cream

  • 1/2 cup of mascarpone

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream

  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preparation

  1. Grease two 9 or 8 inch round cake pans with PAM Baking (with Flour). Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees.

  2. Follow the instructions on the box mix then equally distribute the batter between the two cake pans. Bake according to the box or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

  3. Place the bowl of your mixer and whisk attachment in the fridge.

  4. Take out two cookie sheets and line them with wax paper.

  5. Roughly chop the chocolate bar. Put the chocolate into a heat safe bowl over a simmer pot of water and stir until melted and smooth, then pour into a pastry bag or Ziploc bag. A good tip for this step is to set up your bag open in a glass so you can hold the bowl in one hand, a spatula in the other, and the bag remains open and stable. 

  6. Cut a small hole at the bottom of your pastry bag or in one of the corners of your Ziploc. On your wax paper lined cookie sheets, slowly create upside down “V”s gradually getting longer as you move to the bottom and then go back through the center connecting all of your branches with a strong mid line trunk. Vary the heights between 8 and 4 inches tall. You can also draw or print tree images and place them behind the wax paper and trace with chocolate. Reinforce any spots that seem thinner than 1mm.

    The amount needed to cover the cake will depend on your tree widths and preferences, but I recommend making at least 14 as they are delicate and some may snap when removing them from the wax paper. Place in the fridge to set, at least thirty minutes. 

  7. Take the lid off of the jar of Outrageous Cherry Chocolat and heat in the microwave until a spreadable consistency, about 5-10 seconds from room temperature. Stir within the jar. 

  8. Take one layer of the cake out of its pan and position it on a cake board or plate. Next, with a small offset spatula spread about half of the Outrageous Cherry Chocolat over the cake layer. Then set the layer in the fridge for about 15 minutes before topping with the bare layer of cake and returning to the fridge. 

  9. Remove bowl and whisk attachment from the fridge. Whip the Mascarpone and heavy whipping cream until soft peaks. Add powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form, careful not to over mix. 

  10. Assemble the cake. Remove cake from the fridge and frost with Mascarpone whipped cream. Reheat the remaining Outrageous Cherry Chocolat for another 10 seconds in the microwave, and gently spoon on top of the frosted cake, spreading with the back of the spoon. Place in the fridge. 

  11. A few minutes before serving, remove your chocolate trees from the fridge. Carefully pull the trees off the wax paper. They may break or start to melt if handled too much, so proceed in sections if you can. Place the trees around the outside of the cake, gently pushing them into the whipped cream. Serve!