A and I are forever in the search for good, sponge cream cake, none of the frozen stuff you get in the icy department store aisles or the stale icing- sugared pastries in the so-called bakeries here in Dublin.
So there we were in London, strolling down Chinatown and it was nearly Valentine's Day and all the store fronts were decorated with hearts and pink stuff. So distracted by all the ornamentation and filigree, we happened upon across a cute little bakery and went in for a snoop and there they were! Displays of the yummiest looking cakes on earth and they had Black Forest too! Let me put this in context now,I have been searching for the original Black Forest Cake since God Knows When (read: a-very-holy-guacamole-long-time) and it doesn't seem to exist in Ireland. Or Dublin atleast. I ask people and they scratch their heads and look perplexed like I've asked them what the seventy six thousand and two hundred and thirty five squared is by four sixty seven. So they scratch their chins and go "Black Forest...?" "Hmmm maybe in Germany.." "Ummm...ahhhh...ooohhh...yeah I don't know"
Like hello. It's cake, It's black, it's Foresty. Has no-one heard of it?! So imagine my ecstasy when I found what looked like a mini-Black Forest. So, back to London and there's this big sign saying Black Forest cake for £1.79 and the Chinese lady behind the counter nods her head when we ask her "Is this the Black Forest cake?" It didn't look like Black Forest but what the hey, who was I to digress...?
So we packed our mini-Black Forests and headed for the nearest cafe. One spoonful of the cake and the realisation came that we, once again, had been duped.
The 'cakes' in question were swiss rolls, with whipped cream and a glazed cherry on top, disguised as mini-Black-Forests for the poor, uninitiated, English-speaking loser-tourists. There was no sign of maraschino cherries, kirsch, or that stickly sponge filler sandwiched between chocolatey layers that makes the Black Forest so irresistible. The only thing they had in common was the chocolate flavour.
But hey, they were pretty good for a swiss roll.
The search continues...
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