The purpose of this week’s assignment was to learn decorating techniques. In previous posts, I’ve shared my attempts to pipe Italian buttercream and Italian meringue. So, to make of my homework a new experience, I prepared Black Forest cupcakes and piped whipped Brandy whipped cream on them.

Black Forest or “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte” is a very common German cake. It is integrated by 3 layers of chocolate genoise dipped in Brandy syrup that alternate with whipped cream and cherries. It is usually decorated with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings.

Since cupcakes are not layered, I just cut out a hole in the center of each cupcake and introduced a big black cherry. Then, I poured about 3 spoonfuls of Brandy syrup on top of each cupcake and piped whipped cream.

I still remember the first time I baked a Black Forest. I will never forget how my whipped cream melted and I ended up with a soupy cake. Therefore, this time I mixed a little bit of gelatine while whipping the cream and improve its consistency, and it really made a difference. The whipped cream was very steady and the decorations were nice.

The recipe can be found here.