Day 1

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 150°C, top and bottom heat.
• In a tall jar, combine soy milk, vegetable oil, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt.
• Blend with a hand blender for 30 seconds.
• In a big bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and baking powder.
• Add the liquids and whisk until the flour is fully incorporated but don’t overmix.
• Pour the batter into a greased and lined cake pan or ring.
• Bake at 150°C for 60 to 70 minutes.
• Check the cake after 60 minutes with a wooden skewer. If there’s no liquid and just a few crumbs remain it’s ready to come out of the oven.
• Allow the cake to cool completely at room temperature for at least two hours.
• Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for four hours or best overnight.

Crème Diplomate – Part 1

• Place 400 g of milk in a small pot with a lid.
• Add the seeds of two vanilla beans and the vanilla pod shells.
• Infuse over the lowest heat for 30 minutes with the lid on.
• Mix the remaining milk with cornstarch in a bowl until smooth.
• Bring the milk in the pot to a boil and remove the vanilla pods.
• Add the starch-milk mixture and bring it to a boil.
• Thicken the mixture while stirring constantly with a whisk.
• Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cold butter.
• Cover the surface directly with plastic wrap.
• Let it cool and then place it in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 2 hours.

Cherry Filling

• In a small pot, combine the liquid of the cherries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch.
• Place the pot on medium heat and whisk the mixture until it thickens.
• Add most of the cherries to the pot, reserving 12 to 16 for decoration.
• Then cook it for another two minutes.
• Wrap the surface in clingfilm and let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating it overnight.

Day 2

Crème Diplomate – Part 2

• Whip the vegan cream and powdered sugar together in a tall bowl until medium peaks form.
• Do not overwhip, as the cream will become too stiff.
• Stir the pudding-like cream from part 1 with a whisk until it is smooth again.
• Fold in the whipped cream and mix until a uniform cream forms.
• Fill the Crème Diplomate into a piping bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Assembly

• Using a sharp bread knife, cut the cake into two to three layers.
• Begin with the first layer and pipe a border of cream around it to prevent the cherry filling from spilling out.
• Next, spread half of the cherry filling over the cake.
• Place the second layer on top and repeat the cream border and cherry filling process.
• Finally, add the last cake layer.
• Spread a thin layer of cream over the cake to create a crumb coat. This prevents any cake crumbs from showing on the outside of your finished cake.
• Allow the crumb coating to sit in the fridge for 20 minutes and refrigerate the remaining cream for the same duration.
• Spread most of the remaining cream evenly over the cake and flatten it with a metal spatula.
• You can use the remaining cream to decorate the cake with a piping bag and a star nozzle.
• A vegetable peeler is perfect for creating these chocolate shavings to sprinkle over the Black Forest cake’s top and sides.
• Finish decorating the cake by placing the remaining cherries on top of the piped cream.