Easy Black Forest Cake

Except for my freshman year of college, I lived in a private apartment which was six blocks away from the edge of campus.  Along the route was a German bakery, Woerner's Pastry and Coffee Shop.  I passed it almost every day for three years but fear of mustard kept me away from the restaurant portion.  I would occasionally stop in to buy  a napoleon from the pastry case.  The napoleons sat amidst other pastries, cakes, and tortes.  The bakery seemed to have an endless supply of sachertorte and black forest cake.  I was immediately turned off by all the little seeds in the sachertorte filling, but the black forest cake was intriguing.  Unfortunately, I left Seattle before trying Woerner's black forest cake.

Being a perennial favorite of sweet tooth people like myself, some versions of black forest cake are very complicated to make.  Some boast over 3 layers of chocolate cake with a fancy creamy filling between each layer (Woerner's version was like this).  In local cookbooks, a shortcut version of black forest cake, sometimes called chocolate cherry cake, can be found in many volumes.  I've tested several versions and have tweaked the best one to make it my own.  The greatest variance between recipes came in the amount of eggs.  Some recipes call for as little as two eggs, while other specify "4 large eggs".  The cake seems to be the highest with four eggs.  One recipe said to "jigger in some rum".  My touch was to add a bit of amaretto di saronno, since cherries and almonds go well together.

And yes, Melissa, you are right. . .I do like a cold cake, so you can probably guess where I would suggest storing the cake.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Easy Black Forest Cake

     1 box (about 18 oz) Devil's food cake mix*

     4 eggs

     1 c vegetable oil

     1 tbsp amaretto di saronno

     1 can cherry pie filling

     1 c sugar

     6 tbsp butter

     1/3 c milk

     1 c chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate will work)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and amaretto.  Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Add cherry pie filling.  mix until gel is incorporated into batter.  Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13" pan.  Bake 55 minutes.  Cool cake in pan on a rack for 25 minutes before starting on frosting.  Cook sugar, butter and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips.  Continue stirring until chocolate chips are melted.  Pour over cake.  

*If you are using a new cake mix with less than 18 oz (about 15 oz.), add 6 tbsp flour to cake mix before proceeding with recipe.