Black Forest Chocolate Torte

Peter has been sober for some months now. The relief lives in my body in a way I had forgotten was possible. The relief is a physical thing — looser shoulders, a chest that takes a fuller breath, sleep that does not break at 3 AM with the question "is the phone going to ring with the wrong news." The phone has not rung with the wrong news. The phone has rung with Peter's voice, every day, sometimes twice. The relief is the answer to the prayer I had stopped allowing myself to pray. Peter came up for a long weekend. He looked good. He brought Janet (the new woman). She made banana bread. She held her own in the kitchen. She made me laugh — twice, both times at her own expense, which is the kind of self-deprecation that signals an emotionally healthy person. I think this might be the one. I think this might be the one Peter has been waiting for, the one who can match his particular wounded honesty with her own steady-handed kindness. Karin is having heart trouble. She had a procedure. She is fine. Stockholm is far. I called every day for two weeks. She said: "You are the most insistent sister." I said: "You are the only sister in Sweden." Fair, she said. We laughed. The laughing across the Atlantic, mediated by video call, is its own form of intimacy. We are eighty and seventy-something and we are still the small girls in the kitchen on Fifth Street, in some way that the years have not erased. I cooked Strawberry pie this week. Fresh strawberries in a pre-baked butter crust, glazed with strawberry juice thickened with cornstarch. Topped with whipped cream. Eaten cold from the fridge. The Damiano Center on Thursday. Gerald told me a long story about a bus accident he had survived in 1988 in Duluth. He had not told me before. He has been telling me more stories lately. I am the audience he has been gathering, slowly, over years. I listen. I do not interrupt. The stories are the gift he is giving. Pappa would have liked this week. The fish were biting. The weather was clear. The Vikings won. He would have approved of all three. Pappa was a man of small approvals — he did not say much, but he made a small grunt of acknowledgment when something was right, and the grunt was the highest praise he gave. I miss the grunt. I miss being given the grunt. It is enough. It has to be. And on a morning like this, with the lake doing what the lake does and the dog at my feet and the bread on the counter and the kitchen warm enough to live in, it is. I keep a small notebook on the kitchen counter — green spiral-bound, from the drugstore. I write in it most days. The notebook holds the things I do not want to forget — Erik's stories about Pappa, Karin's notes about Mormor, Sophie's first words about her babies, the recipes I have changed slightly and want to remember in their changed form. The notebook is a small museum. The museum will go to Anna eventually, and then to Sophie, and then to Sophie's daughter Ingrid, and then onward. It is enough.

Peter’s visit called for something that felt like more than a weeknight dessert — something layered and deliberate, the kind of thing you make when the relief in your chest is big enough to justify the extra dishes. I had been thinking about this torte since the phone calls started coming twice a day instead of not at all. Janet brought her banana bread, and I wanted to have something waiting on the counter that said, quietly, I knew you were coming and I prepared. A Black Forest Chocolate Torte is exactly that kind of cake — dark and honest on the inside, soft and generous on the outside, holding everything together with cream.

Prep Time: 35 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min (plus 2 hrs chilling) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong brewed black coffee, cooled
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the cherry filling:
2 cans (14.5 oz each) pitted dark sweet cherries in juice
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp kirsch or cherry liqueur (optional — omit for non-alcoholic)
For the whipped cream:
3 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the garnish:
3 oz dark chocolate, shaved with a vegetable peeler
12 fresh or maraschino cherries with stems

Instructions

Heat and prepare. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and grease the parchment. Set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until fully combined.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, coffee, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until smooth and uniform.
Combine and bake. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined — do not overmix. Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake 30–35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the cherry filling. Drain the cherries, reserving 1 cup of the juice. Whisk cornstarch and sugar into the reserved juice in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and turns glossy, about 4–5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cherries and kirsch if using. Cool completely before assembling.
Whip the cream. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer with cold beaters, whip the heavy cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and continue whipping to firm peaks. Do not over-beat. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
Slice the cake layers. Once fully cooled, use a long serrated knife to slice each cake layer in half horizontally, giving you four thin layers total.
Assemble the torte. Place the first cake layer on a serving plate or cake board. Spread a generous layer of whipped cream over the surface, then spoon one-third of the cherry filling over the cream, leaving a 1/2-inch border at the edge. Repeat with the second and third layers. Place the final cake layer on top.
Frost and decorate. Use the remaining whipped cream to cover the top and sides of the torte in an even layer. Press chocolate shavings gently onto the sides and scatter them across the top. Arrange the whole cherries decoratively around the top edge.
Chill before serving. Refrigerate the assembled torte for at least 2 hours before slicing. Serve cold. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Black Forest Chocolate Torte — A Table Worth Coming Back To