After the Black Forest Trout and the Black Forest Ham have got the EU – official seal the Black Forest Cake is expected to get one, too. At least, that is what Mr Bonde, Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Minister of Consumer Protection, is hoping for. On the 6th of September he and the Association for the Protection of the Black Forest Cake instigated the application procedure in Baiersbronn. On that point, the minister represented: “The Black Forest Cake is one of the most known and most popular cakes of the world and so, it is a top culinary messenger of the Black Forest region and of the whole Baden-Wuerttemberg. Specialties like these are a feature of the gourmet land.”
If the application is successful the sweet calorie bomb will be the first German product with the label “Guaranteed Traditional Specialty” (g.t.S.). Unlike the Black Forest Ham, which has the label “Protected Geographical Indication” controlling the origin, they want to control the manufacturing process of the Black Forest Cake. So, it is expected that only those cakes will be allowed to be called Black Forest Cake which will be made according to the traditional recipe and consequently consist of cream, Black Forest kirsch with cherries and dark sponge cake bases. Besides, the milk for the cream needs to have at least a 30% fat content and the sponge cake base must consist of 5% of cocoa.
The sweet temptation soon with the EU – official seal: Black Forest Cake*
The first written evidence of the Black Forest Cake dates back to 1934. Johannes Martin Erich Weber moaned back then in his work: “250 Confectionary Specialties and how they emerge” that “many of the finest specialties of the confectionary business are produced only in the leading firms of the big cities, by contrast, an increased number of confectioners are unfortunately unknown.” To put that right he published among other things the recipe for the Black Forest Classic which although does not quite comply with the Black Forest Cake. So, back then, they used hazelnut short pastry for the cake base which should be brushed with cherry jam.
Until recently, the confectioner Josef Keller from Godsberg was considered to be the “inventor” of the Black Forest Cake. He claimed the first time he baked the cake was in 1915. However, there is no solid evidence for that. On the contrary, with the research of Udo Rauch, who was the registrar of the city archive of Tübingen, they found that the place of origin is exactly this city on the Neckar River, i.e. Tübingen. So, at least the origin place of the Black Forest Cake is close by the Black Forest. The cake is said to have been done by Erwin Hilebrandt for the first time in the spring of 1930 in the café “Walz” of this town. Two years later the cake was presented on the “National Confectioner Day”. The big break for the doubtless most favorite cake of Germany was long in coming. In 1949 the cake ranked only at the 13th place among the best known 15 cakes. A possible predecessor is the Swiss “Black Forest Cake” which also consists of black chocolate and cream but contains neither cherries nor kirsch.
According to the ministry the procedure of appreciation of the Black Forest Cake as the “guaranteed traditional specialty” will last at least until 2015. Hence, the next Cherry Cake Festival in Todtnautenberg, which will take place in two years, has to get along without this official seal.
*(Sources: News release of the Ministry for Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Baden Wuerttemberg, Wikipedia, Conditoreimuseum Kitzingen/Main; Picture: Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA 2.0: Ras67/Kozuch)
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