GETTING HIGH ON BLACK FOREST CAKE

I just had my first piece of authentic Black Forest Cake at Café Schafer in Triberg, Germany, and I’m here to tell you that it packs a wallop. Drenched in a cherry liqueur called kirsch, you should be carded when you order a slice of the decadent chocolate cake layered with cherries and whipped cream, and you definitely don’t want to light a match near it or you’ll risk turning your dessert into a flambé.

Triberg is a village in the Black Forest, and the home of generations of cuckoo clock makers. I asked fifth generation clock maker Reinhard Herr, of the Hubert Herr company, where I could get a slice of authentic Black Forest cake and he walked me over to Café Schafer. The pink building with white awnings houses one of the oldest conditerei in the village, and serves the original recipe that was invented by Josef Keller.

It turns out that August Schafer was an apprentice of Keller’s, and Keller generously gave him the recipe for the decadent cake to use at his own café when he returned to Triberg in 1929.

This is not a dessert for children, as there is a very strong alcohol taste from the kirsch, but for grown-ups, it sure beats an after dinner brandy. ( 2.6 Euros a slice or about $3.70 US)