Original Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte means Black Forest Gâteau. I have made two of these before in my life, but the recipe I used for this one is authentic. I received this recipe from the grandmother of my boyfriend, in a nice little keepsake book. The recipe comes straight from Germany, the location of the Black Forest, and of course the original Black Forest cake. The recipe was written in German, since it is a German recipe and my boyfriend's grandmother lives in Germany. So thank you to my boyfriend and his mother for translating the recipe for me!

I was very excited to try this recipe. Black Forest cake is popular around the time of the German celebration of Oktoberfest, so I decided to try a trial run of the cake before then. My father's birthday seemed like the ideal time to test it, which works out well because it is also close to the birthday of my boyfriend's mother. She definitely deserves some cake for all the trouble she went through in translating the recipe. I wanted to do a trial run because, like many older or authentic recipes, the directions are not completely specific, the availability of ingredients differs between here and Germany, and it is possible some information was lost in translation. So if something does not work out this time, I can try to improve upon it for next time. Also, there were two options for the chocolate cake layers included: a chocolate spongecake and a cocoa biscuit. This time I will be trying the spongecake, as it seems easier with more familiar ingredients, but I certainly may try the biscuit recipe another time! I won't share this recipe - since it was a gift to me and is authentic, but also because the recipe translation can be a bit confusing, and the original is written in German. Tomorrow however, I will share a step-by-step procedure with pictures.