Classic Black Forest Cake ~ Chit chat with Vineetha Susheeb of Malabar Ruchi

Its really a pure joy for me to share my little blog with some of my wonderful friends who are bloggers too. Today I have a special friend who has amazed me with her bakes and Indian recipes so much that I almost seem to drool over her creations every single time. She is one charming person who is so friendly, caring and someone who is a pure joy to be around with, I am sure you must have guested who is it by just looking at the cake above ;-) its none other than Vineetha Susheeb who blogs at Malabar Ruchi. Vinee as I call her is one of the bloggers whom I have meet in real life too. She is an excellent baker and surely has an eye for detail to all her recipes. Vinee you already know this I not only admire your recipes but also your lovely photography skills that simply bring out all your luscious creations. 

So few months back I had reserved a spot for Vinee for a guest post in my blog and she so greatly accepted to do one almost instantly. To be honest the anticipation of what she will make or bake was too much of a torture to me. And to keep the excitement sure enough Vinee told me she had baked a Black Forest Cake just for the guest post. Now tell me how can I not be excited when my lovely friend baked my favorite cake just for me. Vinee honestly today seems like my birthday for sure :P thanks a lot hon for the lovely cake, simply drooling over it...

I have few of my favorites which I would love to try from Vinee's blog - Strawberry jam, Eggless Cinnamom rolls, Malabar Chicken Biryani, Pirate pizza, Coconut cupcake, Carrot cupcakes and many more. What I really love about her blog is that she not only has recipes from her hometown Kerala but almost seems to have versatility in her recipes right from Biryani, Suchi, Cake, desserts and so on.

Vinee so happy to share my space with you today and thanks a lot for taking time to do the chitchat really enjoyed doing this post with you.... hugs

CHIT CHAT WITH VINEETHA

1. Let us know a brief about yourself and your education background?

That’s quite tough,well..people who know me tells me often that I am a naive person and kind of push over. I am friendly by nature and treasure my friendship a lot. I forgive and forget things quickly so I don’t have any enemies. Regarding my qualification I did a masters in Pharmaceutical chemistry but now I think will excel better in cooking and baking than my subject 

2. What inspired you to start a food blog?

It was hubby who inspired me to start a blog, he used to appreciate my cooking a lot even during my initial days of my cooking which gave me all the confidence to try new things and to even start a blog.

3. Who got you interested in cooking? And whose cooking style is your biggest influence? 

I think I had that interest deep inside me which I discovered only after marriage with my hubby's help. My cooking was influenced mostly from my mum during the initial days but now it is from the internet and talented blogger friends around me .

4.Which cuisine according to you seems more challenging to cook up?

Honestly I don’t have an answer for that, since I cook Indian food everyday its not challenging for me but if I try something new from any other cuisine I find it challenging and keep my fingers crossed till I taste it.

5. You have a lil adorable son and what are his favorites from your blog? Being a mom you must face challenges to feed your little one how do you overcome them on a daily basis?

Thank good my little one is not a picky eater, he eats everything and is willing to try anything new, So I call myself as lucky mum when it comes to feeding my kid, he eats by himself without any complaint unless its spicy ,so I always make sure that food is not spicy for him or make it mild by mixing with yogurt.

6. You have a great collection of recipes in your blog, and most of your bakes are exceptional, are these recipes a result of demand from hungry tummies at home? or is it a personal interest to try new recipes?

Ha ha..No,it’s not at because of the demand from hungry tummies, it’s just because I get bored of eating the same thing. It also works as a remedy when I get too lazy to cook,so if I have to try anything new, I will be of full energy and don’t mind cooking or standing in the kitchen longer and in the end we get to eat something new too.

7. Being an awesome baker that you are, you must be having few baking legends as your inspiration to bake, do name a few for us?

Oh no don’t call me an awesome baker, I am still learning and there is a long way to go before I call myself a good baker. But my inspiration to bake is from Nigella Lawson, Rachel Allen, Merry Berry and last but not least fellow bloggers 

8. From a wife, to a mom, to a food blogger... how has your life shaped so far and what are your other passions apart from cooking?

The role of a wife was quite easy but after being a mum I had to say good bye to to my careless attitude and become more responsible. I think being a  food blogger is much easier than the wife and mum role, but finding time for blogging is quite challenging.

I had many passions before I got into blogging, I was so into arts and crafts and I have done quite a few glass paintings, metal embossing, nib painting, ceramic modelling, fabric painting, flower making and all but now after cooking, blogging and household chores, I don’t find time for my other hobbies.

9. Being a food blogger we all get into the habit of prop collection, food photography and also writing interesting intros to posts. What is your favorite aspect of blogging and how do you manage to tick the cards with the above?

Now I am so much into collecting props (read junk) in the name of blogging but I love my props which is making blogging more interesting these days and photography is something which I working on now and I have to say the props have inspired me a lot improve my pictures. I also like to scribble something before goingto recipe which I believe brings some life to the post .

10. You are too good in fondant cakes, how did you learn to make them? is there a basic recipe or a start up recipe from your blog to guide us in making fondant cakes?

I am self taught when it comes to cake decoration and I still believe that my cakes have lots of room to improve and I am still learning. I am not a perfectionist and lose patience easily, so by the time my decoration is almost half done I lose my patience which reflects on rest of the decoration. These days I have started posting few step by step clicks on how I made figurines and all but in future I will try and do post some basics which  might help newbies .

Over to Vinee....

Priya and I share a special friendship and I was really lucky to meet her in person when she came for Bloggers buzz in London. Ever since we have been catching up every now and then through phone calls and mails and the real bummer was when she has moved back to India. I really wish she still lived here. She is a talented blogger and I really like her  South Indian specials as well as the  classic bakes. I myself have tried her Raw mango rice and we all loved it.

Talking about Black forest cake, I have tried black forest cake quite a few times and expect one time, all the  other time cake came out so well and it was a real treat. So if you are planning to make this I would advise you to be a bit careful with folding because if you over do the folding you might end up with a bread like cake due to the formation of gluten, especially while making a genoise sponge ( the one I made for this recipe ), it is better to under fold it and if you get it right I assure you that it will be an amazing cake and one of the best black forest cake you can make. I can assure you  this because I have tried few other black forest recipes and have even posted 2 different recipes for black forest cake  in my blog but those two were not as delicious as this one. 

BLACK FOREST CAKE RECIPE

Recipe Source ~ Joy of Baking
Serves ~10 generously
Makes ~ 9 " cake (I had tripled the recipe to serve 25)
Prep time in total ~ 30 mins
Bake time ~ 30 mins
Cooling time ~ 2 hours

Ingredients

For genoise sponge

Unsalted butter – 42gm/ 3 tbs (melted )

Cake flour – ½ cup / 60 gm

Cocoa powder – 1/3 cup/ 30 gm

Sugar – 2/3  cup / 135 gm

Eggs (large ) – 4 no

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

For sugar syrup

Sugar-1/2cup

Water - 1 cup

Brandy - 2 tbs

For filling

Doublecream – 600 ml ( 2 ½ cup)

Powdered sugar- 5tbs or according to your sweetness

Glaced cherries - 200 gm

For decoration

Grated chocolate/ chocolate strands

Cherries

Method

• Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, salt and keep it aside.
• In a heat proof bowl break 4 eggs and add sugar. Whisk them  over a simmering pan of water for about 5 minutes, transfer it into the bowl of an  electric mixer and beat on high speed for about 5 minutes. The batter will fall like thick ribbons.
• Add vanilla extract and beat.
• Add 1/3 rd of the sifted flour to the egg mixture and gently fold in.
• Add the other 1/3 rd flour and  gently fold in and finally add rest of  flour and gently fold in. Do not over fold.
• Take 1 cup of the batter and gently fold it with melted butter (melted butter is not added directly to the whole of the batter to keep the  lightness of the batter)
• Pour the butter flour mixture to the remaining batter and gently fold in.
• Pour the batter into  a greased 8 inch or 9 inch cake and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree celsius for 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Making the sugar syrup

• In a saucepan add water, sugar and brandy and place over the flame until sugar has dissolved. Let it cool down.

Making  Whipped cream frosting

• In a  big bowl pour the cream, add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Assembling the cake

• Using a sharp knife cut the cake into two layers. Turn over the cake to make the top of the cake facing bottom.
• Take one layer of cake and place them on a cake stand /board and with a tooth pick gently pierce  the sponge. With a small spoon pour the sugar syrup on the sponge.
• Once its soaked spread the whipped cream evenly and also spread some cherries above the cream.
• Place the second layer on top of it and repeat the same process of moistening the cake with sugar syrup.
• Cover the whole cake with rest of whipped cream  and  decorate as u like with grated chocolate, cherries and cream.