Black Forest Cake (Hong Kong style)

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This recipe is for the Hong Kong style black forest cake. While an authentic black forest cake recipe calls for cherries and cherry wine, this spin on the cake that I grew up eating calls for blackcurrant jello cubes as the filling instead.

Ingredients (8 inch)

Cake base

  • 6 eggs
  • 70ml vegetable oil
  • 65g cake flour (or 52g all-purpose flour + 13g corn starch)
  • 30g cocoa powder (Dutch processed, if you can find them)
  • 110ml Milk
  • 60g Sugar (I used confectioner's sugar, but granulated sugar should work just fine)

Jello

The jello is tricky to get in the US. The cake calls for blackcurrant flavored jello, but that is difficult to find in the US. You can try substituting with grape flavored or your favorite jello flavor. For the taste from my childhood memories, I opted to make the jello from Ribena (blackcurrant juice concentrate) with gelatin powder.
  • 90ml Ribena – The Ribena I bought is a concentrate; the instructions on the bottle recommends mixing 1 part concentrate with 4 parts water for drinking.
  • 1 packet (1/4 oz) gelatin powder
  • 150ml hot water
Alternatively, if you want to use store bought jello powder, you need to add extra gelatin powder to make the consistency firmer, like in "finger jello" recipes.
  • 56g (1/2 box) Jello powder (flavor of choice)
  • 120ml hot water
  • 1/2 packet (1/8 oz) Gelatin powder
Note: Feedback on my cake was it can have even more jello in it. Feel free to adjust the amount to your liking.

Whipped cream

  • 420ml heavy whipping cream
  • 10g confectioner's sugar
  • 20g instant pudding powder (chocolate flavor)

Chocolate ganache

  • 140g chocolate (72% cocoa, which turned out to be a bit too bitter for my taste)
  • 200ml heavy cream

Chocolate mirror glaze (optional)

  • 2 packets (1/2 oz) gelatin powder
  • 150ml water
  • 150ml heavy cream
  • 100g cocoa powder
  • 120g confectioner's sugar

Steps

Cake base

  1. In a bowl, add the vegetable oil and cocoa powder and mix until completely dissolved. This step is important to do first to ensure the cocoa powder doesn't form lumps.
  2. Crack and separate the eggs
  3. Add the egg yolks to the cocoa powder mixture. The resulting mixture will be like a paste.
  4. Add milk to the mixture in a few batches, mixing it in until smooth
  5. In another bowl, beat the egg whites and the sugar together until soft peak forms
  6. Combine the meringue (beaten egg whites) with the rest of the ingredients
  7. You may grease the bottom of the pan with a tiny bit of butter, but do not grease the sides of the pan, otherwise the cake will not rise properly.
  8. Bake the cake in 300°F for 1 hour
  9. Cool the cake upside-down on a wire rack
  10. When the cake is completely cool, wrap and freeze in the freezer (make sure there is enough flat space to put it, to precent the cake from deforming)

Jello

  1. In a rectangular pan / lunch box, add the jello powder (as necessary) and gelatin powder
  2. Add hot water to the pan, and stir until the powder is completely dissolved
  3. Add Ribena to the mixture as necessary
  4. Refrigerate over night to set
  5. Cut the jello into small cubes (~1cm) with a knife

Whipped cream

  1. Put a large mixing bowl (glass preferred) and the beaters in the freezer overnight, and make sure the whipping cream is cold in the fridge.
  2. Add the whipping cream into the mixing bowl, and start beating until before soft peaks form
  3. Add confectioner's sugar and whip it into the cream
  4. Add instant pudding powder and whip it into the cream as well, whipping until stiff

Ganache

  1. Pour the heavy cream into a microwave safe bowl, heating for 20 seconds at a time until warm to the touch, and then continue heating for 10 seconds at a time until you see some steam even after stirring
  2. Add chocolate to the cream, and mix until completely dissolved (Note: the chocolate should be a room temperature)
  3. Once the ganache is cooled to room temperature, whip until it holds its shape

Chocolate mirror glaze

  1. Add a little bit of water to a bowl, and add the gelatin powder in to bloom it
  2. In another bowl, mix the cocoa powder and water until completely smooth
  3. Add the heavy cream and sugar to the mixture
  4. Heat the mixture (in microwave or stovetop) until steam starts coming out
  5. Add the bloomed gelatin (which should now have absorbed all the water, and have the texture that is like a super thick jello) into the mixture and stir until dissolved completely. (Stir in the figure-8 motion will help avoid adding too many air bubbles into the mixture)
  6. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer
  7. Wait until the mixture is cool to the touch
  8. Just before glazing, mix the glaze until even, and pass it through the mesh strainer once more time, into a jug or measuring cup

Combining the cake

  1. Take the cake out of the freezer, and cut it into 3 layers. Each layer should be about 2/3 inch thick
  2. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream, and then put a layer of jello cubes on top
  3. Add more whipped cream to fill in the gaps between the jello cubes
  4. Add the second layer of cake, and press lightly to make sure the cake layers stick together
  5. Repeat steps 2-5 for the next layer
  6. Cool the cake in the refrigerator
  7. Once the cake is cooled, frost with a layer of whipped ganache on the sides and the top
  8. Refrigerate until the ganache is completely set
  9. (Optional) Pour the mirror glaze on top, completely covering the top. The sides can either be completely covered, or partially covered to create a drip effect.
  10. Add fruits (typically red) on top, like cherries or strawberries for decoration.













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