Black Forest Cherry Cake

The history of black forest cherry cake could not be proven neither in the chronicles of cherrywater-manufacturers nor in the German gourmet archives. Several communities in the black forrest were arguing about who first introduced this cake, until researchers could finally prove that the baker Josef Keller from Radolfzell was the inventor of this world famous specialty. During his long life Keller loved to tell the story of his invention. Lots of students from Bonn used to come to the famous café "Anger" in Radolfzell (where anger does not stand for the English word describing the state of being angry but something like a hill) to have cherries cream. Keller was preparing for his masters test and liked to experiment with different ingredients. One day in the year 1915 he had the idea of putting cherries on chocolate biscuit, to add a liquor known as cherry water and decorate it with chocolate shavings, his creation was very successful with his customers. Later he continued this tradition in the café Keller in Radolfzell which quickly became the specialty of his house.Until his death in 1981 he claimed to be the inventor of this type of cake. Especially he was proud to tell how a colleague of his demonstrated the preparation of this cake in Japan where he was asked to do it on national TV in 1978. Nowadays, the creation is offered in several variations. A certain percentage of cherry water is common in every type though.

Guten Appetit!