Black Forest Gateau

Name: Black Forest Gateau
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Vanilla vodka — 45 ml (1 1/2 oz); Raspberry liqueur — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Brown crème de cacao — 15 ml (1/2 oz); Kirschwasser (cherry) — 10 ml (1/3 oz); Crème de Cassis — 10 ml (1/3 oz); Single cream/half-and-half — 15 ml (1/2 oz)

Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 23.7% ABV ∙

The Black Forest Gateau stirs vanilla vodka, raspberry and cassis liqueurs, brown crème de cacao, kirschwasser and cream into cherry-chocolate cake in a glass. Rich chocolate and cream lead, cherry and dark berry weave underneath, and a faint kirsch bite keeps the finish from turning cloying — a dessert stand-in after dinner.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Cacao powder

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
Stir the first 5 ingredients with ice: Vanilla vodka 45 mlRaspberry liqueur 20 mlBrown crème de cacao 15 mlKirschwasser 10 mlCrème de Cassis 10 ml
Strain into the chilled glass
Carefully float Single cream/half-and-half 15 ml
Garnish with a dusting of cacao powder over the cocktail

Tips

Stir, do not shake, since the cream will aerate and turn frothy rather than silky if agitated too hard over ice.
Stir with large ice cubes for about 20-25 seconds to chill and lightly dilute without over-diluting the six-way layered mix of liqueurs and cream.
Add the single cream last so it sits on top briefly, giving a visual cue before stirring fully incorporates it into the vodka-liqueur base.
Dust cacao powder over the surface only after straining into the chilled martini glass, using a fine sieve for an even, unclumped layer.

History

The Black Forest Gateau cocktail is a dessert-style drink devised in 2002 at Hush Restaurant in London, England, as a liquid take on the layered German cake of the same name. Hush's original recipe combined vodka, Chambord raspberry liqueur, crème de fraise (strawberry liqueur), crème de cassis, and cream, though it notably omitted the kirsch, cherries, and chocolate that define the actual gateau — a gap later bartenders and recipe writers have filled with kirschwasser and crème de cacao to bring the drink closer to its namesake dessert.

The cake itself, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, is German, built from chocolate sponge, whipped cream, cherries, and Kirschwasser (cherry brandy), and takes its Black Forest name from that kirsch, traditionally distilled in Germany's Black Forest region, rather than from the cake being invented there. Its own origin is disputed: confectioner Josef Keller claimed decades later to have created it in 1915 at a café in Bad Godesberg, but rival accounts credit other confectioners and later decades, and the earliest surviving written recipe dates only to 1927.