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Black Forest Trifle

Black Forest gâteau, with its blend of chocolate, cream, cherries and Kirsch, may be a real symbol of the seventies - but that doesn’t stop it being delicious. This trifle uses those same lovely flavours to even more spectacular effect. If you don’t have time to make the cherry blondies for the base, you can always use a good shop-bought sponge cake instead.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,175 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two 20cm (8in) sandwich tins. Beat the butter and 225g caster sugar until pale, then beat in the eggs one at a time with the vanilla extract.

  2. Melt the 225g white chocolate and stir it into the batter. Fold in the self-raising flour and chopped glacé cherries, then divide between the tins.

  3. Bake for 25 minutes until risen and a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

  4. For the custard, whisk the 4 egg yolks, 100g caster sugar and plain flour. Heat the milk and 150ml double cream until steaming, then pour onto the yolks, whisking.

  5. Return the mixture to the pan and stir over low heat until thickened and it reaches 160°F (71°C). Off the heat, stir in one 100g portion of dark chocolate until melted. Cover and chill.

  6. Drain the morello cherries, reserving the juice. Mix the kirsch with a splash of the reserved juice. Warm the cherry conserve in a small pan until spreadable.

  7. Whip the 200ml double cream to soft peaks, then fold in the mascarpone.

  8. Break the sponges into pieces in a glass bowl. Spoon over the kirsch mixture, then layer with morello cherries, custard, cherry conserve and the mascarpone cream. Repeat the layers.

  9. Finely grate the 25g dark chocolate over the top, then chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,018 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs