Before we delve further into the delicacy that is the Black Forest Cake, two small but important distinctions concerning terminology: Black Forest Cake in German is called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, literally Black Forest Cherry Tart. Note that the English translation turns the tart into a cake and drops the cherries. For pastry chefs, an important distinction!
What Goes Inside? – Black Forest Cake Ingredients
A traditional Black Forest Cake consists of cream (lots of it), dark sponge cake layers, chocolate shavings, cherries and the famous Black Forest cherry brandy or any cherry brandy for that matter. For those who want to make a non-alcoholic version of the cake, the cherry brandy can be substituted with a similar baking flavor.
However, be aware that the creation cannot be called Black Forest cake then – at least officially. According to the German “Guidelines for Fine Bakery Products” that determine the ingredients of select German tarts and pastries, the cherry brandy flavor in a Black Forest Cake has to be “clearly distinguishable”.
Early Versions of the Black Forest Cake
Two preliminary Black Forest Cake creations could have been predecessors of the famous tart – or at least a combination of both. One is a cherry dessert that was popular in the southern Black Forest region in the 19th century. It consisted of stewed cherries served with whipped cream, often laced with cherry brandy.
The second one is a popular dessert from Switzerland called Schwarzwaldtorte or Black Forest Tart. Here, a sponge cake base is garnished with cherries and often served with whipped cream on top. Cherry brandy is not added in this version. However, if one combines the popular dessert from the Black Forest with the Swiss recipe, one almost has a Black Forest Cake as we know it today.
Who Invented the Black Forest Cake?
Pastry chef Josef Keller claims to have seen a combination of both Black Forest Cake predecessors at Café Agner in Bonn where he worked in 1915. Keller claims to have refined this dessert and sold it as Black Forest Cake at his Lake Constance bakery in 1927/28. He thus considers himself the inventor of the Black Forest Cake.
An archivist from the southern German city of Tübingen recently refuted Keller’s claim by proving that he wasn’t working at Café Agner in 1915 but serving in the military. According to pastry chef Hermann Rammensee, Black Forest Cake became popular in German after Rammensee’s colleague, pastry chef Erwin Hildenbrand, introduced the tart at Café Walz in Tübingen in 1930.
While looking through his uncle’s scrapbook, Hildenbrand’s nephew Kurt discovered an old photograph from 1936 showing his uncle making a Black Forest Cake. The photograph and other biographical details seem to support the story from Tübingen.
How Did the Black Forest Cake Get Its Name?
Last but not least, let’s answer a question that many people may wonder about: How did the Black Forest Cake get its name? For once, through its connection with the Black Forest, namely by having its roots there and by providing the most important ingredient, the cherry brandy that the Black Forest is famous for.
But there’s another theory that is a bit more romantic and borrows from Sleeping Beauty. Remember, as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as ebony? It is said that the colors of the Black Forest Cake match those of the traditional dress worn by women from the Black Forest region: the blouse as white as the cake’s cream, the “Bollenhut” (the hat with the big red fluffy balls on top) as red as the cherries, and the dress as black as the chocolate shavings. This explanation is surely imaginative!
Regardless of what story one believes, it is a fact that the Black Forest Cake’s popularity started in southern Germany after 1930 and then spread to the rest of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Today, the cake is world famous and the original German Black Forest Cake recipe or similar versions can be found in many countries.
Sources:
Black Forest Cake - History (in German)
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
