Quinoa Black Forest Cake

This Black Forest cake features a rich and moist gluten-free chocolate cake made with quinoa and layered with cherry filling and light whipped cream frosting. Quinoa chocolate cake is a simple blender cake that can be put together in 5 minutes and yet, it is the most decadent chocolate cake you will ever have!

What is Quinoa Black forest cake?

A black forest cake or a black forest gateau is based on a German dessert called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte or Black Forest Cherry-torte. It typically has a soft and moist chocolate cake, Cherry filling, light and airy vanilla whipped cream frosting and chocolate shavings. We are simply switching up the chocolate cake with a moist and decadent quinoa chocolate cake, making it completely gluten-free and healthy for you!

How to make the Quinoa Black Forest Cake?

A regular black forest cake has four parts:

1. Rich and decadent chocolate cake
2. Cherry filling
3. Fluffy and light Whipped cream frosting
4. Chocolate shavings or chocolate bark (this is totally optional)

Let’s see each layer of Quinoa Black Forest Cake in detail:

Quinoa Chocolate cake:

You might ask why quinoa in a cake? Because it’s so moist, delicious and completely gluten-free. You wont believe me until you try it. The whole batter can be made in one simple step and one blender, no sifting of flours, no beating of eggs, nothing!

• First, we need cooked quinoa to start with. I am using my Instant pot to cook my quinoa. In Instant pot, add 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup water and pressure cook/manual mode for 6 minutes, vent in sealing position. Let the pressure release naturally(NPR). You can do pot-in-pot as well.
• You can cook the quinoa on the stovetop too. Let the quinoa and water come to a boil, simmer it for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is completely cooked.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit(350F) and let the quinoa cool down completely(we don’t want to cook the eggs). Add a cup of cooked quinoa to a blender. Add eggs, pure vanilla, milk and oil, blend it on low speed till the quinoa is well blended. Please make sure to blend the ingredients on low speed, we want to incorporate air into the batter.

• While the batter is slowly blending, prepare your cake pans. I am using 6 inch round cake pans for a small cake. This recipe makes a 3 layer 6 inch cake. Please look below for recommendations on other sized cake pans we can use for this recipe.
• Spray the pans with avocado oil spray and line them with parchment paper.
• Add sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Blend again on low speed until everything is just mixed through. Don’t over blend your batter.
• Divide the batter into 3 pans equally. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cherry filling:

The most important part of a black forest cake is cherries. Some recipes use cherry compote or use cherry pie filling but I like using whole soaked cherries. I use a whole pitted cherries can to make the job easy. If you like a cherry pie kinda filling, use ready-made cherry pie filling can or make a compote like in this recipe: Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes – Blissful Bites by Tay

• While the cake is baking, make a reduction of the cherry syrup from the whole pitted cherries can. Drain the cherries and reserve the syrup.
• Pour the syrup into a saucepan, add a splash of vanilla extract and heat on the stove top till it becomes thick and reduces. You will get about 3/4 cup of syrup from the can, reduce it to 1/4 cup. Adding cherry liqueur is optional but its highly recommended.
• Cut the whole cherries into halves and set them aside.

Whipped Cream Frosting:

• Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract to heavy cream. Whip until stiff peaks form.

Chocolate Shavings or extra chocolate decorations(Optional):

For chocolate shavings, simply grate a chocolate bar onto a parchment paper or directly on the top of the cake and apply on the sides too. If you want to make a chocolate bark like in the above pictures, do this:

• Melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave or double boiler and spread into a thin layer on a parchment paper.
• Place another parchment paper on the chocolate and roll it up. Place in the refrigerator and let it chill. When you unroll, the chocolate can be easily broken into bark.

How to assemble the cake?

The key part of assembling a whipped cream frosted cake is to chill everything. Chill your cake, your syrup, your cherries, your chocolate bark and your whipped cream. I make cake the day before and make fresh whipped cream when I am ready to assemble. The whipped cream can be chilled in the fridge for half hour before assembling. A good thing about this quinoa cake is, that it bakes pretty flat, there is no dome on top of the cake that needs to flattened. In case, you need to flatten your cake, use this cake leveler.

• Run a knife around the edges of the cake pan and gently remove the cake and the parchment paper stuck to it. Apply tiny amount of frosting on your cake board and place a layer of cake.
• Brush the cake with cherry syrup and add whipped cream frosting evenly. Layer halved cherries on the whipped cream and repeat the process.
• Apply whipped cream frosting on the sides and all over the cake.
• Grate some chocolate on top of the cake and press the chocolate bark on sides.
• Using a star tip, pipe some beautiful swirls on top of the cake. All this decoration is entirely optional, just let your creativity flow and slather the cake with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate.

Can we use Quinoa flour in the Quinoa Black Forest Cake?

Unfortunately, not in this cake. The black forest cake is all about a moist cake and the quinoa flour will make the cake dry. I promise to come up with a really nice recipe with quinoa flour.

What equipment is used to make the cake?

• Three 6-inch Cake pans
• Vitamix blender or any blender
• Hand mixer
• Cake decorating set: Cake turntable, offset spatula, piping bags, tips, etc. This is a very inexpensive cake decorating set and you can do all your basic decorating easily with this, I love it!

Substitute cake pans and adjusted timings we can use for this recipe:

Don’t worry if you don’t have the 6-inch cake pans. Double the recipe as needed to make more layers. The same recipe measurements can be used to make:

Cake pan	Cook Time	Yields
Cupcake pan	12-18 minutes	10-12 cupcakes
9 inch round pan	18-25 minutes	1 cake layer
8 inch square pan	18-20 minutes	1 cake layer

Can I avoid cherries in this cake?

A black forest cake needs cherries but, if you are not a fan of cherries like my kids, avoid them and top the cake with plain or chocolate whipped cream. It will taste amazing!

Other Healthy Desserts on the blog:

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