Cake or cupcake, Black Forest

Charlotte Rutledge’s selected Black Forest cake stacks four chocolate-cake layers with whipped cream and tart cherries. King Arthur describes the dessert as associated with southwestern Germany; this version uses a jar of cherry pie filling and offers fresh cherries and grated dark chocolate on top.

Dutch-process cocoa, cake flour, granulated sugar, buttermilk powder, baking powder, baking soda and table salt form the dry mixture, with cake enhancer optional. Water, vegetable oil and vanilla are beaten into it before four eggs enter one at a time.

The batter bakes in two greased round pans, and the cakes cool completely. Cherries from the selected jar are strained from their syrup, with both kept; Kirsch and cherry flavour are independently optional additions to the reserved syrup.

Heavy cream is whipped with icing sugar and a separate portion of vanilla to stiff peaks. Each cake is split in two, and syrup, cream and one-third of the cherries fill each of the first three layers before the final cake layer is placed on top.

The remaining whipped cream covers the top and sides of this version. Optional fresh cherries and grated dark chocolate finish the surface, and the completed cake is refrigerated until ready to serve, preserving its tall chocolate, cherry and cream presentation.