My roommate has a grown daughter he has not yet met. (we’ve been facebook friends with her for years now.) We are flying her out in mid-July for a visit and we are all very excited.
Her birthday will occur while she’s here, and she has requested a Black Forest cake. Because I’m a hopeless foodie, I found a recipe for a traditional proper one that sounds wonderful. The recipe involves fresh cherries that have been soaked in kirsch. (cherry brandy.)
I wasn’t absolutely sure that fresh cherries will still be around when I want them to be, so I bought them now.
My question is, how should I store them? Should I:
-
Pit them, freeze them, and then thaw them and soak them in kirsch when it’s time to make the cake?
-
Pit them, put them in the kirsch, and then freeze the whole thing?
Or some other way? I should add that anything involving keeping them in the fridge won’t work because the fridge is crap. Freezer works okay though.
Thanks for your help!
Make a syrup by dissolving as much sugar as you can in the kirsch (just keep adding more until you get to the point where undissolvled crystals of sugar persist at the bottom. Pack the pitted cherries in a jar and pour over the syrup to cover them completely. Put on the lid and store in a dark cupboard.
They won’t be ‘fresh’ when you take them out, but they should still be nice.
Personally, I’d pit them, bruise them a bit, mix with the brandy, and stick in the fridge (crappy or not) anyway. If it’s real kirsch or kirschwasser (75 proof or more) it will work as a preservative. If the cherry brandy is weaker than that, mix half and half with a strong neutral spirit (high ABV vodka or something).
The freezer is likely to make your mixture a bit weird, since the cherries will freeze but (most of) the eau de vie will not. I’m guessing you won’t get the benefit of the infusion in either the fruit or liquor.
Good luck! I haven’t had a real Black Forest gateau in forever. They are terrific.
Lol. When I read the title of the thread my first thought was that you store them in a Black Forest Cake, of course.
Well, it’s sorta cheap kirsch. (although surprisingly delicious) It says 30% alcohol; I believe that makes it 60 proof. I believe if I add some spirits it will be a little bit of rum. All those pirates can’t be wrong. 
I wanted to get high-end kirschwasser, really I did, but the plane ticket involved a bit of saving and so I couldn’t quite manage $40 a bottle.
The fridge is barely cold enough to keep milk from spoiling, and probably only because we go through it so fast.
Well, it’s only for ten or twelve days. Maybe I’ll hedge my bets and do half with the sugar syrup, and half in the fridge.
Thank you so much!