What does a forest taste like?
Okay, so this is probably a weird inquiry, but I can’t seem to stop trying to figure it out. I want to figure out how to make a cake with flavours that make you think “dark, misty forest” when you eat it. Basically, if Heston Blumenthal was trying to recreate the Black Forest cake to capture more of the essence of the Black Forest, what would he make? Im thinking along the lines of maybe blackberry, plum, clove, nutmeg, juniper, hazelnut, bergamot tea, thyme, maybe make a spruce tip syrup? Maybe some kind of alcohol that boasts of mossy, oaky notes? I think the main flavours I gotta hit are like dark and deep, mossy, woody, resinous. Can I make a cake that tastes like wet decomposing leaves and pine sap and have it actually taste good??? This is what I need to discover. Any tips at all would be appreciated.
8 Comments
Maybe some sandalwood powder (food grade) it's sort of like cinnamon -really earthy. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about it. It's brick color.
Maybe Sumac? As a spice...
There are also some liqueurs available that have herbal sort of flavors but off the top of my head, I can't remember what they are called. Google 'herbal liqueurs.'
I recently made black garlic pinwheel cookies. 🙂
Make a paste from the black garlic give it a bit of lemon zest. Use this as your filling. Perhaps use bran for your cake base (as part of the flour mix?) Make a glaze from steeped juniper berries and water with powdered sugar... this is as far as my tired brain gets regarding this cake.
Too weird for words.
I think the cake itself should be very moist, and I remembered these recipes that you could use as a base.
https://food52.com/recipes/39601-laurie-colwin-s-damp-gingerbread
https://food52.com/recipes/20091-nigella-lawson-s-dense-chocolate-loaf-cake
Before you start ordering a bunch of syrups, I’d suggest trying what you have. Rosemary could evoke pine and cedar. Maybe some finely ground dehydrated mushrooms? Also, if it’s legal where you are, cannabis could give you some earthy notes as well. Try grinding your herbs all up together and really smelling them to make sure that’s the sensation you’re going for before baking it. I’d stick to no more than two or three things so the flavors and aromas don’t get muddied. I like chocolate for its natural bitterness, but you could also use the gingerbread base and get that bitterness from molasses. Good luck! Please let us know what happens.
A few ideas, product suggestions.
The traditional Black Forest cake has cherries and cherry spirits (kirschwasser), so maybe some of that as fruit.
There are various (newish) tree syrups on the Canadian market and maybe elsewhere...not just maple, but maybe pine and birch. Hard to find and expensive, but maybe worth it. See if you can find one or more of those.
Pierre Herme in his recipe for Pain d'epices calls for fir, pine or forest honey.
Any honey from bees near evergreens.
Like your suggestions of bergamot, spruce and juniper
Would truffle oil or truffles work, or be discordance? Other fungus?
Good luck on ideas and the cake itself. Please let us know your results.