Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Gâteau) is probably the most recognizable German cake outside Europe. Combinations of walnuts, heavy cream and Kirsch were popular in the Habsburg empire since the first decades of the nineteenth century and there was one variation of this dessert with added
biscuits that reminds of English trifle but it didn't use cherries at all. Authorship of the sophisticated recipe we know today as Black Forest Gâteau was claimed in 1915 by a Joseph Keller, pastry shop owner in Bonn -500km north of the Black Forest- but his story was not verified. Another confectioner's name was linked with Black Forest Gâteau for a while but food historians are not sure when the famous German recipe was actually developed. All we know is that it was first recorded in the 1930s.
There are several hypotheses about why the cake was named 'Black Forest': a) that chocolate shavings in the topping remind of a dark forest, b) that Kirsch, which is liberally used in the recipe, is made with cherries from the Black Forest, c) that 'black' imitates the colour of the women's traditional costume from the Black Forest (while cherries in the topping imitate the colour of the pompons in their hats), d) that Black Forest Gâteau is the descendant of Swiss Black Forest Cake, which is a different recipe altogether.
 |
| The Black Forest on the Tabula Peutingeriana (13th c. copy of a Roman map) |
The notorious Black Forest is a mountain range in southwestern Germany (and not only). Most of it is covered by dense woodland - originally the Hercynian Forest that was mentioned in classical works by Aristotle, Julius Caesar, and Pliny the Elder, among others. It was a fascinating element because it stretched from modern France, Switzerland, and Germany to Czech & Slovak, Polish, Lithuanian and Romanian ground, dividing most of the Continent in two halves. The original broad-leaf and coniferous woods of the mountain
range have largely been destroyed by foresters and replaced with other trees so
the lands of the Black Forest are not deprived of green. Etymologically: 'Hercynian' is proto-Celtic, derived from erkuna (meaning 'oak'), which is not very different from querqus (also meaning 'oak' in Latin) probably because, according to Roman sources, the forest was crammed with giant oaks but 'Hercynian' also sounds like 'Perkunas', the ancient Baltic god of thunder.
There are more stories about the Black Forest than we realize even though it's not always mentioned by this name because the Hercynian Forest covered so much of Continental Europe so it's really a great pity that all that's left to remind of its glory is the Black Forest Gâteau. My own first encounter with the name was through a Jules Verne favorite, César Cascabel (1867), in which the protagonists, a family of 'saltimbanques', give a performance that is called 'The Brigands of the Black Forest'.
Today Black Forest Gâteau is a chocolate cake of three layers. The filling consists of whipped cream and maybe also fresh cherries and the sponge cakes are brushed with Kirsch (the cherry-flavored liqueur produced in the southwest of Germany). The assembled cake is topped with more whipped cream and decorated with chocolate shavings and cherries. Since most recipes today insist on using fresh cherries, Black Forest Gâteau must be a summer recipe. However, 250 Konditorei-Spezialitäten und wie sie entstehen: Der prakt. Unterr. in 580 Bildern von Werdegängen aus 24 Fachabteilgn bei kleinster Massenberechng (1934) by J. M. Erich Weber featured a recipe without chocolate other than in the topping. The bottom layer was made of shortcrust pastry with ground hazelnuts and liberally brushed with cherry jam. The next layer consisted of 'walnut mass' topped with buttercream, and this pattern was repeated once - so two layers of 'walnut mass' and two of buttercream. Finally, the Black Forest Gâteau was decorated with chocolate shavings and braised cherries.
Official regulations for Black Forest Gâteau allow the combination
of whipped cream and buttercream. They also note
that chocolate in the 'Viennese' or 'biscuit' layers must be at least 3%
of their weight. Buttercream is a late 19th century development originating from Hungary, where a talented pastrymaker used it for Dobos torta.
There are several methods for preparing buttercream today (German,
French, Swiss, American) but J. M. Erich Weber's recipe suggested using
gelatine, which is probably a loan from Bavarian cream ('bavaroise'). The most intriguing part of the 1934 recipe was definitey the 'walnut mass'. It was inspired by the much older German dessert of cherries and walnuts that people accompanied with loads of whipped cream and
Kirsch. The modern version of 'walnut mass' is a bit more complicated: roughly chopped walnuts are dipped
in a mixture of caramelized sugar and heavy cream with added honey, resulting in a confection like panforte that German pastrymakers use as filling in a tart.
.JPG)
Comments