TCB: Black Forrest Cake and Biscuit de Savoie

A couple of cakes I made recently outside the HCB bakers. Both from TCB.
Black Forrest Cake. I made 1/2 recipe of Moist Chocolate Genoise, split it in half. Syruped with the reduced canned cherry syrup with brandy. I baked the cake in a regular 9 inch pan. I placed the 1st layer inside a springfoam pan (without the bottom). Top with the Stabilized Whipped Cream, then poked in the halved cherry all around the insides, placed the 2nd layer on top, top again with whipped cream, then piped the swirls (I don’t know if they’re rosettes or what shapes they are LOL). Top with cherries and shaved chocolate.
A couple of changes to the recipe: the last time I made this cake (a couple of years ago), it was too alcoholic for me. Since I made this for a dinner party where I’m not sure people are used to hard liquor, I only use less than 1/2 the required brandy amount. Unfortunately, I think I reduce it too much because we ended up not tasting the alcohol at all. Funny enough, a couple of friend there said it’s too much alcohol - so I guess it’s a good decision.
Tasting impression: Aside from the lack of alcohol, the cake is really good. I find the whipped cream is too plain, probably also because there’s not much alcohol taste in the cake so the plain whipped cream flavor stands out more. For next time, if I use less alcohol in the syrup, I want to try adding liqour to the whipped cream or making the light whipped ganache variation (which sounds really yummy!).



Biscuit de Savoie. I mistakenly ordered two 9 x 1.5 inch Magic Line pan from Amazon (instead of 9 x 2 inch pan). Good thing is that these pan becomes the perfect excuse for Biscuit de Savoie. I’ve been wanting to try this one ever since I saw Hector’s amazing project. The recipe calls for three 9 x 1.5 inch layers but I only made 2 layers so I multiple the recipe by 2/3. The cake itself is very easy to make, no real suprises or crazy challenges. I syruped the cake with Chambord. The frosting is Raspberry Mousseline from TCB (with a couple of tablespoon of Chambord). I loved raspberries so I actually made the full recipe of the raspberry sauce so I can use some to drizzle on top of the cake. I also didn’t add too much sugar in the sauce so it taste pretty tart, which I love and it ended up going well with the sweet cake.
Tasting impression: There are no words to describe this cake. It is soooooo yummy. The Biscuit is so moist and tender and sweet. And mousseline is so heavenly! It kinda bothered me that the cake is so pink though. I think it’s super cute but everytime I eat it I think “hm.. it’s really pink.” I also find it hillarious that it bothered me, considering there’s no artificial flavoring and the pink color comes from the frozen raspberries.