This diner originally set out to be a pie shop. When self-described pie lady Meg Heriford opened it five years before this article was written, customers would queue for slices of her cherry and banana cream pies. Then, on a whim, Meg made a hazelnut cake with brown-butter caramel buttercream and a dark chocolate drizzle. "I don't know what came over me," she says. Before long, Meg and her team were trying their hand at upgraded coconut, German chocolate, and red velvet cakes, and the cakes drew lines just as fast as the pies did. The diner's signature Black Forest cake, finished with Italian black cherries, typically sells out in under an hour.
Info
- Cook time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 slices
Ingredients
Cake
- Cooking spray
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups strong hot coffee
Ganache
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup chopped Luxardo or Amarena cherries
Buttercream
- 6 large egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 5 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon cherry liqueur or a few drops of cherry extract
- Luxardo or Amarena cherries (syrup reserved), for garnish
Instructions
- Make the cake: Set oven racks in the upper and lower thirds and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray three 10-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the milk and vanilla. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed to low; beat in the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk mixture, until combined.
- Stir in the hot coffee (the batter will be thin). Divide among the prepared pans. Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out mostly clean, 30 to 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the ganache: Melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water). Let cool slightly. Add the cherries and let cool.
- Make the buttercream: Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over the pan of simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water). Heat, whisking, until a candy thermometer reaches 185 degrees F, about 5 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the mixer and beat on medium-high speed until the egg whites are stiff and glossy and the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Beat in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Add the cherry liqueur and continue to beat until smooth. Beat in cherry syrup, 1 teaspoon at a time, to tint the frosting pink.
- Spread half of the ganache on one cake and top with a second cake. Repeat with another layer of ganache and the remaining cake. Trim the sides of the cake with a serrated knife to make them even; crumble the trimmings. Frost the cake with the buttercream and pipe some around the top. Top with cherries and the reserved cake crumbs.
