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Black Forest Gâteau with Rum

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa powder and rum work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 56 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6-8
Prep30 min
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). Grease and line two round cake tins.

  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa together, then fold into the creamed mixture, adding a splash of water if it is too stiff. Divide between the tins.

  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until springy and a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

  5. Drain the cherries and keep the juice. Mix the arrowroot with a little juice, then heat the rest of the juice with the cherries and stir in the arrowroot mixture until thickened. Cool.

  6. Stir about two-thirds of the rum into the cooled cherries, keeping a few cherries whole for decoration. Sprinkle the remaining rum over the cut cake layers.

  7. Whip the double cream with the 1 tbsp caster sugar until it holds soft peaks.

  8. Layer one cake with half the cherries and some cream, add the second cake, then spread the remaining cream over the top and sides. Decorate with the reserved cherries.

  9. Grate the dark chocolate and press it onto the sides and top. Chill for 30 minutes 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. Cocoa powder + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Cocoa powder + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,007 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, egg, cream, rum):

  1. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Sweet potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, egg, cream, rum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).