Alan Davidson

Black Forest Gateau

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Black Forest gateau Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in German, a baroque confection of layers of chocolate cake, interspersed with whipped cream and stoned, cooked, sweetened sour cherries. The cake layers are often sprinkled with kirsch, and the whole is covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate curls.

This confection is not one which has a long history. It has been suggested that it was created in the 1930s in Berlin, but firm evidence is elusive. What is certain is that in the last decades of the 20th century it made a triumphant entry into the dessert course of restaurants in Britain (and no doubt elsewhere) and reigned for a time as ‘top favourite’. This is no doubt due to the fact that, properly made, it is delicious.