You know what I look forward to most? Those nights when it’s just my man and I sitting in the basement watching bad movie, sneaking popcorn that I didn’t want from him and mocking one another for our taste in movies. Those nights are my favorites. As much as I love a random drive to the beach or a night out on the town the ones at home with no expectations really seal the deal for me. However, those nights meal smaller, not so complex meals and I miss the excuse to whip out my fancy spatulas.
My second favorite has to be the nights when we have company over. A few friends and a great meal. Good company around the fire pit, sticks and marshmallows in hand, beer and good laughs all around. Those are the memories I dig. And what are those nights for besides showing off your mad skills in the kitchen. 
Swiss Black Forest Cake
Discovered on Hot Polka Dot, Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible.
Ingredients:
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cake flour (or substitute)
- 2 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 cup whipping cream
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 454g can pitted bing cherries
- 3 tbsp spiced rum
- 1 ounce semisweet chocolate, grated or shaved
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9 inch spring form pan and set it aside.
In a small heavy sauce pan combine the chopped chocolate and water then bring it to a slow boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove it from the heat once it thickens to a pudding consistency and stirring leaves temporary lines in the surface. Set it aside and let it cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer and the whisk attachment beat the eggs and sugar until they triple in volume. Gently but quickly fold in the cake flour half at a time until it’s just incorporated. Next fold in the cooled chocolate mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared spring form pan and bake it for 25 – 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. The top of the cake will rise while baking then lower slightly when it’s done and feel springy to the touch. The sides will also shrink as they pull away from the pan.
Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow it to sit for 10 – 15 minutes before releasing the cake from the spring form to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling start on the Super Stabilized Whipped Cream. Refrigerate a large mixing bowl and whisk attachment for at least 15 minutes.
Meanwhile in a small heatproof bowl combine the gelatin and water. Let it soften for about 5 minutes then place the bowl in a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the gelatin is dissolved. Set the gelatin mixture aside and let it reach room temperature before adding it to the whipped cream, about 7 minutes.
In the chilled bowl beat the cream and sugar until traces of beater marks begin to show distinctly on the surface. Add the gelatin mixture in a steady stream while beating constantly then add the vanilla and beat it further until stiff peaks form.
Drain the can of cherries and reserve the syrup. Set aside 12 cherries to top the cake later. With a cake leveler or a long serrated knife level off the top of the cooled Chocolate Génoise Cake and slice it into 2 even layers. In a small bowl combine the reserved cherry syrup and spiced rum then drizzle it evenly over each cake layer.
This cake is a beautiful showpiece for a dinner party (or any reason you may want to make it). I loved making it and trying to sneak cherries into our house without Handsome noticing (#fail). My warning to anyone who wants to make this ahead of time is to not place the cherries on top until the last minute. Mine shriveled and stained the cake a bit in the fridge. I was still proud to serve it but it didn’t have the wow factor it did a few hours before.
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What a gorgeous cake! It sounds so delicious, too!
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Are you kidding me? I want to be your neighbor!! This is gorgeous…and that cream layer in the middle?! Come to mama!!
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Stunning cake…your cute tweet drew me over and I love this even with the shriveled cherries
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Oh my yum! Can you make one for me? Pretty Please????
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Oh my, what a beautiful cake!
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Good lord, that’s some yummy looking cake. I would love to have a slice of that while watching the 5th Element
Best bad movie ever made! Buzzed
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My girlfriend and I would love this! I’ll take two slices, please! Wait, that won’t leave me any. Make that THREE slices.
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This looks so decadent and delicious, love it!!
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I totally agree: my husband and I love those evenings in just watching a really silly, fun movie together and making fun of it all. As for the other, we rarely have company as our friends all live so far. But if you bake cakes like this I want to be on YOUR party list! Gorgeous! I love The Cake Bible but wonder if I could ever turn out a wake this stunning!
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It’s soo perfect… any words i say woul scr** it all! A wonder!
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Hello gorgeous cake!!! Your lucky guests…I’m jealous!
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You do have some mad skills, I would have loved to be your guest when this was served! Elegant and rich, your pictures tell it all. thanks for sharing.buzz
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This is just so beautiful! I remember walking all over Triberg, a village in the Black Forest looking for a bakiery that served this cake. At last, we found a small restaurant around late afternoon … we had coffee and Black forest cake … thank you for such a wonderful memory!
PS. Please consider putting a ‘printer friendly link’ on your site for your recipes (not the whole post, like some others do). Thanks!
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I have to look away, it’s making me want it too bad. Sounds so sinful and delicious, two of my favorite combos. Have to make this soon. Hope you had a great holiday weekend.
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Looks beautiful and sounds lovely. I know what you mean about simple being the best time together.
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That is such a beautiful cake! Picture perfect… I love a good homemade black forest cake, and this one looks incredible! Thank you for sharing
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You got mad kitchen skillz! Seriously, I saw this on tasteologie (or one of the sites, can’t remember which) and my jaw dropped!
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Anything that says black forest catches my eye. So I pop by and I am blown away by your gorgeous cake. I am bookmarking this for a cool day I can bake. I cannot wait to try this out. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
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Oh Kita! You’re a woman after my own heart!! Wanna be BFF’s? If you give me this cake I promise to be your friend forever
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Kita Reply:
July 6th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Totally!
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I have a recipe for a Black Russian cake with vodka & kahlua but I’d rather get lost in your Black Forest. Good tip about the cherries although I don’t think I would have noticed if you hadn’t mentioned how they look.
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Beautiful cake! I can totally relate to the bad movie watching. My beau is into the old drive in movies, but sometimes they’re a little worse than I can take. Nothing beats a chill night on the coach with your main squeeze… except for this cake, of course. Gorgeous!
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What lucky dinner guests! That make looks so pretty and delish. Black forrest is one of my favorites but I have never tried to make it myself before. YUM!
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My favorite nights are also movies on the couch, teasing the husband. Way too much fun. This is his favorite kind of cake. I’ll be making it for his birthday!
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I love making food for a dinner party. Nothing is better than sharing great food with friends and family. This cake looks delicious – anything with shredded chocolate on top is a bit of heaven.
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Kita this is beautiful and very very tasty looking cake.
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Great picture too! Wonderful job!!I think that is my kind of night too..just popcorn, movies and relaxation with my man
Have a great the rest of the week!
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Sounds like some great memories! It’s the simple things
Now, the cake is spectacular! Out of this world and will be saved for future “wow factor” friend nights 
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Black Forrest is my husbands favorite cake. I need to make this for him as a surprise. It looks very decadent.
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This is the best cake ever!
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What a beautiful cake. I’ll never tire of black forest cake. it’s one of my absolute favourites. Yours look so luscious. So perfect.
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Beautiful! This cake wants to be in my belly…oh yes.
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What a beautttiffulll looking cake. Love the photos against the dark background, a nice change the the normal shots and gives this cake ATTITUDE
bet it tastes dangerously irresistible, loverlyyy
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What a stunning cake! Black Forest is a family favorite, so I will have to give this a try soon!
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Holy moly Kita, this looks amazing!
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I miss having a night just to watch a silly movie while eating popcorn, but I can definitely take some time off to enjoy a slice of this delicious cake.
It’s perfect!
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Gotta love your take on Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte. If you can get you hands on Kirsch, black cherry liqueur it is great.
This looks so good a a definite WOW factor at a dinner party.
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Oh. I want this. All of it. Now. I may just make it and bury my face in it
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The cake looks amazing and your pictures are always fantastic.
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I feel exactly the same way, I would much rather just stay home with my wife and enjoy the time together. The only other thing that makes me truly happy is feeding others!
Your cake with all that wonderful whipped cream looks soooooo good! I would love to sample a piece with my coffee!
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This cake looks so delicious! I love that it isn’t really frosted, just piled high with whipped cream! I could have used this to top off my week!
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I love beautiful cakes – yours looks so delicious! I’m sure your company so happy that you shared it with them.
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The cake looks gorgous.
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What a fantastic presentation. Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
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Wow that looks incredible! It looks so fancy and I love black forest cake. Yum!
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I love movie nights with Hubby too. Though we have the same taste in movies so I have to find other things to tease him about.
Your black forest cake is absolutely amazing. I’ll be the company you want to have over if you’d like! Any day.
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What a great cake! Love everything about it!
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Isn’t it just the most beautiful cake you’ve ever seen!? So glad you tried it because it’s kind of time consuming, but totally impressive. Those lazy nights on the couch with my mister are my favourite too!
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