Eggless Black Forest Cake Recipe

Black Forest Cake is a delicious dessert with multiple layers of chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with whipped cream and cherries. The cake is further decorated with additional whipped cream, cherry toppings and chocolate shavings. An absolute delight, this cake is perfect for Christmas, New Year Party, Valentine's day or Kids birthday party.  Preparing your own black forest cake at home from scratch gives you a feeling of both pride and satisfaction especially when the cake is egg-less , butter-less and made from whole wheat flour and replaces refined sugar with jaggery !

I attempted this beauty for the first time, last year on my son's birthday. The recipe pics were lying in my drafts since then and i could not find enough time and patience to pen down this lengthy post. Anyways..the cake turned out super chocolaty , rich and luscious. I followed my basic chocolate sponge cake recipe  using whole wheat flour, jaggery and butter milk) as a base for this black forest cake. As i served the cake for birthday ,i made 2 egg-less chocolate sponge cakes and sliced each cake into 2 parts , so i had a total of 4 layers for my black forest cake. For the whip cream frosting , i have used Amul fresh cream and whipped it manually using a hand blender , so this cake does not require any fancy ingredients or equipment and can be made at home with easily available ingredients. Only it requires extra time and efforts but trust me the end results are worth it ! I baked the cakes one day prior and refrigerated them and did the whip cream frosting and decoration on the second day. This made the job manageable and easy. So lets get started :) 

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 35 minutes per sponge cake

Serves: 1 large black forest cake

Ingredients for the egg-less chocolate sponge cake: (the measurements are for 1 cake)

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup jaggery powder
• 1 cup cold butter milk / plain water
• 1/4 cup oil ( use any non fragrant cooking oil)
• 3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Other ingredients:

• 200 ml Amul fresh cream or chilled heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoon icing sugar
• 10-12 whole cherries for decoration
• Chocolate shavings for decoration 
• 1/4 cup cherry syrup or 1 tablespoon powdered sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Method:

1. Grease or line a round baking pan of 8" diameter and keep aside. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. 

                              

2. Now sieve whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, salt , baking powder and baking soda twice in a bowl.

3. In another bowl take buttermilk and add jaggery powder to it. Stir until the jaggery dissolves completely. Next add oil and vanilla extract and blend well. Our wet ingredients are ready.

4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients. Blend well with a spatula. There should be no lumps in the batter. The batter is thin and free flowing as shown in the pic below.

5. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan. Tap the pan to release the air bubbles. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Keep an eye after 30 minutes as temperature differs from oven to oven. Do a check test by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If it is sticky bake the cake for additional 5 minutes.

6. Allow the cake to cool down at room temperature. Run a knife through the edges of the cake pan. Keep an inverted plate over the cake pan and holding it, slowly invert the cake pan over that plate. Now peel out the parchment paper from the base of the cake. Similarly prepare one more chocolate sponge cake.

7. To make the sugar syrup, add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar in 1/4 cup water and allow to boil. Put off the flame and allow the syrup to cool down. Chill a bowl and hand whisk in refrigerator. ( we will require this while whipping the cream)

8. Once both the cakes are baked and cooled down completely , keep the top of the cake facing you. Slice the cake neatly from the centre using a large knife. Remove the top half of the cake and keep aside. Keep the sliced cakes covered until we prepare the cream .

9.  Take the Amul fresh cream which is chilled in the refrigerator for a day. Take a big bowl and add ice cubes to it. Over this keep another chilled bowl . Pour the cream in it along with icing sugar and start whisking the cream with a chilled wire whisk , first at a medium speed and then at high speed for about 15 minutes. If you use a whipping cream, it requires very less time, but the Amul fresh cream has less fat in it compared to whipping cream so it takes longer. Also if you use a stand mixer, you will require only 7-8 minutes. Whip the cream until you see soft spikes . Refrigerate the whipped cream until use.

10. Take a chilled chocolate bar and keep it at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Now using a vegetable peeler, take out chocolate shavings. Keep them also refrigerated until use.

11. Now we will start with the assembling of the black forest cake. At first keep 1 half of the cake on a parchment paper lined plate. Sprinkle some cherry syrup or sugar syrup over the cake evenly.  Now take 1-2 tablespoon of whipped cream and spread evenly over it using a spatula. You may add a layer of chopped cherries over this, I have not added.

12. Carefully keep the top half of the cake over it . Again sprinkle sugar syrup evenly, then spread the whipped cream. Repeat the same with the remaining 2 halves of the cakes . Spread the cream evenly over the top layer and also on all sides of the cake . If you have a cake decorating stand the job is more easy.

13. Now sprinkle the chocolate shavings over the top layer of the cake and also on all the sides. Fill the remaining cream in a zip lock bag and make a small hole at one corner of the bag. If you have decorative nozzles add them or just make small swirls on the cake which resemble as roses. Keep one cheery over each of the cream rose and decorate the cake artistically.

  14. The beautiful and delicious Egg-less black forest cake is ready. Cover the cake with a large bowl without it touching the sides of the cake and place it in a refrigerator for the cream icing to set. Keep the cake for 2-3 hours or overnight. Slice the cake and serve it and enjoy !

  Recipe Notes:

• Whole wheat flour used in this recipe to make the basic chocolate sponge cake is the regular ata we use to make chapatis. 
• Use good quality cocoa powder for better results. 
• The cherries i have used here are the pitted sweet cherries, that are easily available in sweet shops in India. You may use the canned cherries if you wish.
• I have used Amul fresh cream, but you may use any whipping cream or the non dairy whipping cream instead.
• In case the whipped cream gets softened while decorating the cake, refrigerate it for a while.
• Chill the Amul fresh cream in a refrigerator for a day or so before whipping it.
• The cake has to be stored in a refrigerator covered with a large bowl, that does not touch the sides of the cake. The cake remains good for about 2 days on refrigeration.

This delicious eggless black forest cake is featured in the #145th #FoodieMondayBloghop where the theme for this week is #Cakes.
                                     

I hope you like to try out this beautiful and delicious eggless black forest cake for your loved ones. If you try out, do share your feed back with us. 

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For more Eggless cake recipes, do check my posts on

• Egg-less Butter-less Marble Cake

                                    

• Eggless Chocolate Cake

                                    

• Eggless Whole Wheat Banana Bread

                          

• Plum Bundt Cake

                                    

• Egg-less Pineapple Upside-Down cake

                                    

• Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake

                                    

• Eggless Suji Tutti Frutti Cake

                                    

• Moist Carrot Cake

                     

• Eggless Ragi Banana Chocolate Cake