Okay guys… let’s put our collective heads together, here’s the challenge!!
Authenticate German Black Forest Cake
So here are the components and my suggested ingredients, all input is welcome however:
Components
The cake itself
While this can be amazingly subjective, looking from an old recipe (from my grandmother’s “secret stash” when her mother escaped from The Netherlands shortly before WWI started) here’s what the cake consists of or is essentially a rum infused chocolate cake batter, not milk chocolate - but not dark chocolate either, rich but not overly sweet with a light hint of rum to it.
The frosting/icing
After looking at the ingredients itself, there is no doubt whatsoever - it is a true light Bavarian cream icing with diced cherries included for a tangy and sweet fruit hint to the icing. There is also a small amount of cherry liquor in the icing as well (never knew that one before, good thing I looked in some of my old boxes collecting dust in the rafters of my garage today).
Flavor notes and possible flavor ingredients
Not an exhaustive list - looking for other options on this as well…
I second what @BathVaper said as it was exactly what I was going to say. At least about the Chocolate Deutsch and Bing Cherry.
The Chocolate Deutsch is a really great chocolate cake, but it does have some coconut and caramel notes and will overpower easily. I’d recommend starting super low. The coconut does seem to dissipate some after awhile so if you weren’t wanting it, that should be fine. Inawera milk chocolate at a low % might boost the chocolate.
TPA’s Jamaican rum is sweeter than FA’s Jamaican rum. That’s the extent of my rum knowledge. LoL. @Kinnikinnick recommends Inawera’s rum (plain, NOT Jamaican) for a lot of things and I keep meaning to grab some. Might be worth a look.
Bavarian creams abound (check the flavor DB if you don’t believe me ;)), but I might consider Vienna Cream also. To me, it’s a little bit lighter in flavor. You can always do a 50/50 with bavarian or add some marshmallow or meringue for sweetening.
Flavorah’s Bing Cherry is the first I’ve come across that isn’t overpowering and doesn’t taste like cough syrup cherry. I’ve heard good things about Inawera’s Cherries and I bought some but haven’t tried it yet.
The only additives I think I’d use are Marshmallow/Meringue for sweetening and mouthfeel, and maybe a tiny bit of AP for that bready taste and to compliment the chocolate.
Most of the flavors you’ve listed I haven’t tried, so I can’t comment on them. Good luck, this sounds really tasty. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread.
Read @Josephine_van_Rijn 's link A real German Chocolate Cake has alcohol!
You can’t read the text so I cut/pasted here
“As a German woman, it breaks my heart to see all of these ‘black forest cakes’ in North America made with sickeningly sweet icing and gross cherry pie filling.This cake isn’t meant to be very sweet but is rather a dessert for adults with deep rich flavours and enough alcohol to make your head spin! If you cannot get fresh cherries you can use canned Bing cherries but please do not use cherry pie filling because it will take away from the authentic taste of the cake. If can’t find Kirsch do not use another type of alcohol because it will not turn out the same - instead use cherry juice. Because of the high alcohol content only serve this to adults.”
Ok here it is. Might want to take a second to read Jose’s link above. Not too sweet, dark chocolatey cake and Cherry liqueur. This is a recipe of bullying flavors that don’t play well with the other kids. The Cherries in Liqueur (INW) likes to mask all other flavors, but met it’s match with Chocolate Fudge Brownie (CAP). Oh and a shout out to GremlinDIYs Chocolate Overload. It vapes as rich chocolate cake with cherry that lingers on the exhale.
Remembering this is a collaboration (OP) please feel free to try and give this cake some whippier cream topping. Mine is only 24 hours old and I have hopes the chocolate, creams, and cherries develop well over time …However it’s pretty good right now! I was tempted to bump the Cherries but I’ll wait.
Consider using Double or dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate combined to come up with a chocolate flavor that meets your needs, a combination of maraschino and cherry extract flavors for the cherry, the cherry extract flavor from TPA is the best I’ve smelled, and although I haven’t succeeded in a cherry juice yet those are the two I that seem to be the most realistic…
Yeah, I am tempted to add juuust wee bit more cherry …another cherry. The “Cherries in Liqueur” hit the Kirsch mark, but I’m afraid to go higher. It’s super strong and lingers, but at 1% it’s very nice and doesn’t overpower or build up on your palate like say cinnamon (but I can see it wants to). I’d like more cherry flavor tho that doesn’t linger …maybe another 0.5% Cherries (INW)
@Walt_RealFlavors this is right up RealFlavor’s swim lane (thinking Bread Pudding). The challenge here was to make your German gramma’s not-too-sweet cake. I will need to make a 120 of this to have enough to steep as I have vaped 15 mls of mine in 24 hours (after a 24 hour steep).
I’ll just be over here chain vaping chocolate cake and patting myself on the back as I think very few people have Inawera’s Cherries in Liqueur, because I bought it from a Vendor at a steep discount …likely based on the fact no one was buying. There are very few recipes on ELR that use it and it’s likely equally hard to buy (no demand) …however it’s pretty much on target for this challenge.
Fellow GCC makers feel free to hack at the Cherry. There’s more than one way to make a chocolate cake too! What are those brownies where you top with cream cheese and cherry jelly and swirl? ohhh yeah some cream cheese icing!
@BoDarc
I did this Jan. 12, 2016. (first column is original) Reduced it Jan. 22,2016 (second column is recuction)
TFA Maraschino Cherry 2-- .5*
TFA White Chocolate 5---- 6
CAP Sweet Cream 8 — 7
TFA Whipped Cream 6---- 3
TFA Smooth 2 ---- 1.5
TFA Marshmallow ---- 4
I can still taste the cherry in the HH357 (my last one) that I tried it in. I have soaked it in vodka, run it for an hour in the UC It is cherry for life. Sadly it’s not a good cherry alone. mixed with the extract flavor and cut to .25% It might work but I don’t want to ruin any of my tanks.
Went on to try it mixed 50/50 with the cherry extract and vaped it in the same 357, but the residual flavor is so nasty I can’t tell. I’m gonna have to get some coils put on one of my drippers and try it there, I’ll have to have my DIL’s brother make me a set
I test mix hot in my RDA. I make 10ml needle bottles of 10% single flavors and add to existing juice to see how it drives the flavor. White Chocolate!? I might have to drip a bit of that over the GCC. Yeah I have heard of a couple of what I would call “staining” flavors (CAP Cucumber?). that sux and makes you wonder how good they are to vape. I mean what can get into glass and stainless steel that lingers like that and won’t wash out? herrmmm
I need to whip up some Cherries (INW) and some Cream Cheese Icing testers BTW I’m the guy who drinks the red syrup out of the Maraschino cherry jar in the fridge.
I used to but found out it was better reduced and put in cream cheese frosting. YUM!!!
It’s also good to drizzle into a Mountain Dew. A whole small bottle in a 7/11 double gulp.
I am playing with this one ha. I may have something to send to you by Monday. Just a little spare playing around in my personal lab… Yes… Walt has his own lab where no one can bug him haha.
On the upside, the bing cherries are in!
as I have vaped 15 mls of mine in 24 hours (after a 24 hour steep).