Amongst the most well-known of German culinary products all around the globe is the Black Forest cherry cake, the heavenly desert made of layers of fresh cream, chocolate cakes and plenty of sour cherries soaked in traditional Black Forest Kirschwasser, a clear colourless doubled-distilled cherry brandy produced in the Black Forest region in southern Baden, Germany.
The secret of a truly remarkable and delicious Black Forest cherry cake lies in the clever use of authentic Kirschwasser. Too little of it would not bring out the delicate taste of fresh cream and dark chocolate; while too much of it would drown out the fruity flavour of the sour cherries and overshadow the light texture of fresh cream and chocolates.
The origin of the Black Forest cake has long been a matter of dispute.
The name is derived from the key ingredient in its making - the real Kirschwasser
or cherry brandy - which is produced in the Black Forest region of
southern Germany, but some confectioners from the northern city of
Berlin have claimed to be the creater of this wonderful piece of cake.
Nowadays Black Forest cherry cakes are readily available everywhere in Germany, not just in bakery and cafes, but even in deep-freezed pre-packaged boxes at major supermarket chains. The thing is, Black Forest cakes available in different cafes and shops still taste dramatically different, and not every piece of Black Forest cherry cake is what it claims it is. To be brutally honest, virtually none of the Black Forest cakes I have tried outside of southern Baden or northern parts of German-speaking Switzerland can be considered the authentic Black Forest cherry cakes. How can a piece of ordinary-tasting chocolate and cream layered cake call itself Black Forest cherry cake if there is neither one single drop of Black Forest cherry schnapps nor any brandy-soaked cherries inside the cake? I am serious, there should be an European Union Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status for all Black Forest cakes as well, because it really drives me crazy each time I see factory-manufactured cream-and-chocolate layered cakes strewn with chocolate flakes being marketed as 'Black Forest cakes' all over the world.
To cut a long story short, one of the best places to have a real piece of Black Forest cake is none other than the hometown of the authentic Kirschwasser, i.e. southern parts of the Black Forest region, in the districts of Freiburg as well as Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. The further away it is from the southern fringe of the Black Forest, the less authentic the Black Forest cherry cake becomes. Just imagine: even the Black Forest cherry cakes I had in Offenburg and Baden-Baden, both less than an hour's journey by high-speed train from Freiburg, have been awful; how bad and unauthentic it would be if you come across it thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic? Until now I have never tasted any decent Black Forest cake outside of southern Germany, let along in the US or anywhere in Asia, where real cherry schnapps are simply unavailable.
And even in Freiburg and many Black Forest towns such as Titisee or Staufen, where Black Forest cherry cake is the staple of any cafes and half-decent bakery, the quality of the cakes available also varies greatly from place to place. So far, the cafe that produces arguably one of the best Black Forest cakes in the world is Cafe Schmidt in Freiburg, a 100-year old confectionary near the university's main campus in the old town of Freiburg. As someone who has lived in Freiburg for almost one decade and having tried all kinds of Black Forest cakes all over the world, both in Germany and abroad, I can safely conclude that the Black Forest cake from Cafe Schmidt tops the list of all-time greats, and it tastes even better than the Black Forest cakes available in Cafe Decker in the town of Staufen. In fact, the Black Forest cherry cake from Cafe Schmidt is so damn great that I once took the high speed train from Frankfurt airport to Freiburg immediately after I stepped off the overnight flight from South Africa to Germany, and before I was supposed to board an afternoon flight from Frankfurt to London - and spent less than an hour in the town of Freiburg just to have a piece of this stuff before flying to London. Next time you are in Freiburg, make sure you try out this amazing piece of cake. After that you will never be fooled by the fake 'Black Forest cherry cakes' on sale in US and other parts of the world again.
Café Schmidt
Bertoldstraße 19a
79098 Freiburg Telefon: 0761 36967
Telefax: 0761 2021927
http://www.cafeschmidt.de/
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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