Valentine's Day: Chocolate Chip Black Forest Cake

I'm doing a re-do of this Blodgett/Herne favorite... Chocolate and fruit are hugely popular here, and I bet they inspire that reaction in a lot of places! This delicious dessert is marvelous, it's a crowd-pleaser (and if you use a mix cake instead of making the scratch recipe, the world won't end! I recommend the Duncan Hines white mix... it's my favorite white mix cake.)

The reason I'm doing a re-do is two-fold: I haven't cooked anything new this whole week! We had scalloped potatoes and ham on Sunday... RECIPE HERE!!!!

And apple crisp:  RECIPE HERE!!!!

And ol' Dave went down to the village for fish fry dinners on Friday. Every other night has been burgers or sandwiches because I'm having so much fun writing books. But that makes my cooking L-A-M-E! But this recipe isn't lame, it's marvelous!

CHOCOLATE CHIP/STRAWBERRY/OOPS!!!/BLACK CHERRY CAKE!!!

Ruthy here, the Yank, bringing you my little baking buds as we prepare for an awesome Valentine's Day celebration! Do not ask me how the day meant for lovers became a holiday for munchkins, but here you have my tiny peeps helping make chocolate chip cake.... from scratch. And note the Softasilk flour that my buddy Jan turned me onto!!! 

The cake recipe is from the reprint of my mother's 1950 edition Betty Crocker cookbook. This is the book that I taught myself from as a child, and when they did a reprint of it I grabbed it! And I love it.... And their newer editions, too, because there are great ideas in both!

I think I should rename this cake, though... I think "Black Forest Chocolate Chip Cake" would be more appropriate and you can blame the garlic for that.

You'll see. I promise....

So here's the recipe to use for 2 - 9" greased and floured pans:

Sift together:

2 7/8 cups sifted Softasilk flour
17/8 cups sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Add in with mixer:

2/3 cup shortening

Pour in a little over half of this mix:

1 1/4 cups milk
2 teaspoons flavoring (I used vanilla)

Beat 2 minutes.  Then add in the remaining milk mix and 5 egg whites, unwhipped.

Mix two more minutes. Cake can be baked as is for "Silver White Cake" or you can add in 3/4 to 1 cup of chocolate chips to batter. That's what I did for today's cake and this is called "New Chocolate Chip Cake" on page 149 of the Betty Crocker Cookbook, 1950 edition... 

RUTHY NEW NOTE: Now I use Ghirardelli barista chips I found on Amazon, these are amazing for recipes because they "suspend" in batter, instead of sinking!

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until cake springs back when touched lightly in center or a toothpick inserted in cake has just a few happy and moist crumbs clinging to it.

Okay, here's the dark chocolate filling I found on the same page, which I cannot believe I've never tried:


1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 square (chopped) dark baking chocolate
1 tablespoon butter

Mix egg yolk and cream in small, sturdy saucepan. Add sugar, chopped chocolate and butter. Heat over medium heat, stirring, until mixture just starts to boil around the outer edges... (I did this twice, stirred it down and then brought it to a beginning boil again)

This is what the chocolate looked like, chopped.

Remove from heat. Chill. Use as filling.

Now here's the faux pas of the day..... Clearly Washingtonian!!!! You'll see why.

I made a delightful strawberry filling for the center of the layers. Strawberry and chocolate are a match made in heaven, right? And I love heaven, so it sounded good.

I made it. It came out great... then I tasted it.

Garlic.

It tasted like garlic.

I used my cast aluminum pan and it must have had an essence of garlic in it from SOMETHING which does not speak well of my dishwashing skills.... So we THREW THAT OUT.... sighed a little, and went to fetch a bag of frozen dark cherries.... In a stainless steel pan this time I put about three cups of the frozen cherries and 3/4 cup of water.

Heat until you can mash the cherries somewhat.

ADD:  2/3 cup sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch.

Heat to boiling. Add 1 tablespoon of butter,stir until smooth, remove from heat and chill.

Now, the fun part!!! Let's build this bad boy!!!!

First, slice a layer in half making two thiiiiiin cakes:

Fill first layer with cherry filling and the place the second half of this first layer over the cherries. Spread chocolate filling on top. Put bottom half of next layer on chocolate. Spread more cherry filling on that layer...

Okay, this is looking amazing.... I'm dying to have some... And the cake is divine, great recipe!

Okay now put final cake layer on top. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. This helps the cake to keep from being "slippery" with so many fillings. Chilled fillings slip less.

Remove from fridge when you're ready to frost:

Whipped Cream Frosting:

2 to 3 cups of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip at high speed until cream forms firm peaks. Frost top, then sides of cake.

 I do the top first because it's easy to plop down a ton of whipped cream in the middle and work it to the sides without messing up the cake....

Then I frost the sides.

Then if I have enough whipped cream I pipe a border around the top and bottom, but I didn't this time so I scootched the whipped cream on top into a slightly higher outside edge making a whipped cream "hill" around the edge. Then I used the last cup or so of the dark cherry filling to "fill" the lake I made by hilling the whipped cream.

And here it is:

I think I'll dust the outer edge with baking chocolate powder... or a drizzled chocolate would be nice, too. Or chocolate curls... But without any of those, this is one amazing cake!  And here's a picture of it sliced....



And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked! Happy Valentine's Day!

Ruthy