One of my best friend’s favourite dessert is black forest cake. Over the week-end, we gathered together at a local park for a socially-distanced picnic birthday celebration. Rather than make a cake, I decided to try baking black forest cupcakes.

Small-batch chocolate cupcakes

I had recently made this small-batch recipe for chocolate cupcakes by Celebrating Sweets and really liked how they had turned out. The chocolate cupcakes were super moist and not too sweet. I enjoy using small-batch recipes because I don’t have to bother doing the math to divide all the ingredients. This recipe makes 6 cupcakes.

Black forest cake and cherries

The key ingredient to a black forest cake is undoubtedly the cherries. I went back and forth on how I should incorporate the cherries. At first I thought about using canned cherry pie filling, but that seemed like cheating! I then debated between cherry jam or making cherry compote with frozen fruit. Sadly, fresh cherries were not in season. At the grocery store there was no cherry jam, so that made the decision easier.

Cherry compote recipe for black forest cupcakes

I defrosted 1 cup of cherries and chopped them into quarters. I proceeded to add them to a small pan along with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and about 1/4 cup of white sugar. I cooked the cherries on medium heat until all the sugar was dissolved and the mixture started to thicken. Since one of my friends does not consume alcohol, I could not add in Kirsch (cherry liquor) to the compote. My mom suggested adding in a teaspoon of almond extract instead to make the flavour pop. Thankfully I listened to her as it really made all the difference in the taste.

Stabilized whipped cream

Black forest cake uses whipped cream frosting and I was worried about how it would hold up in the heat during the picnic. The last thing I wanted was to have runny whipped cream! I discovered the baking secret of making stabilized whipped cream with gelatine. I followed this recipe to make the frosting, however I had mixed results. Be careful that your gelatine does not cool down too quickly and starts setting before you incorporate it into the whipped cream. That is what happened to me and I found myself with a few gelatine pieces. Luckily, I was able to remove most of them and it did not seem to impact the whipped cream. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised on how well the frosting held up.

Assembling the black forest cupcakes

To assemble the cupcakes, I hollowed out the centre of the cupcakes using a round piping tip and small coffee spoon. I filled in the hole with the cherry compote and piped some whipped cream frosting in a swirl on the top.

The final touch was a decorative chocolate piece. I melted dark chocolate and drizzled some on wax paper to make small swirls. I placed the tray in the freezer to allow the chocolate to set. To keep them from melting, I stored them in the fridge.

I was actually pretty pleased with the final product and I think it was a hit with the birthday girl as well! I also got to wear my brand new apron I got as a birthday gift. It’s super cute with the little lace detail along the top!