When I was a kid we lived in this beautiful house in a small village which had a huge backyard full of fruit trees and bushes. I absolutely loved it. I spent all of the summer playing outside, picking some cherries or strawberries on the go if I got hungry. When fall came, our garden was full of apples and plums. Basically, I never hat to go inside to eat. Lunch was everywhere.

We only had one cherry tree but if we were lucky it was absolutely loaded with cherries. I would give anything to have such a garden today but the only thing growing on my balcony are herbs and tomatoes. So I´m left with my memories. And fresh cherries from the market.

I would say Black Forest gâteau is the most traditional and most famous German cake recipe. I´ve never made it before so I had no idea how this recipe would turn out. But I said I would bake my way through traditional German cakes, so here I am.

It´s also the first time you will be seeing my hands in one of the pictures. Usually I´m using my boyfriend as a prop but this time his job was not in front but behind the camera and I think he did a pretty great job too.

Now, about this recipe. I used a 20 cm spring pan. If you are using a bigger one, you might have to adapt the recipe, otherwise the sponge cake will be too flat to cut into three parts. The original recipe calls for gelatin for the whipped cream but I left it out and it worked just as well. Especially if you are planning to eat the cake right away. Which, who are we kidding, is going to happen anyway.

For the sponge cake (20 cm spring pan):

3 eggs

3 tbsp. water

90 g sugar

1 tbsp. vanila extract

1 pinch of salt

90 g all purpose flour

½ baking powder

2 tbsp. dark cocoa

For the filling:

150 g fresh, canned or frozen cherries

1 tbsp. lemon juice

70 ml cherry juice

1 ½ tbsp. corn starch

2 tbsp. sugar

600 cream for whipping

6 tbsp. sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a spring form with parchment paper or butter it. For the sponge cake, using an electric hand mixer, mix eggs, water, sugar, vanilla extract and salt for about 5 minutes until creamy. Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa and add to the mixture. Place the batter in the spring pan and bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting the cake two times.

2) Wash fresh cherries and take out the cores. If using canned cherries, drain them. Frozen cherries can be used like that. Mix lemon juice and cherry juice, add corn starch and let cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the cherries and, if necessary, sweeten with 1-2 tbsp. sugar. Place the cherries on the first cake and let cool. Whip cream with the remaining sugar.

3) Place 1/3 of the whipped cream on top of the cherries. Add the second cake, the second third of the cream and then the last cake. Use the remaining whipped cream to completely frost the cake. Decorate with cherries and/or chocolate sprinkles.

Merken