Welcome to the black forest! Black sounds like dangerous dark place, but also beauty in fashion and yummy in food as you may think of chocolate. It is called "the black forest or Schwarzwald" because the pine trees in this region are dense and look dark like the mysterious forest:
The black forest cake, "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte" in German, is named after the place of origin in Germany where the liquor (Kirschwasser = clear colorless fruit brandy) is produced. The cake consists of layers of chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream, dark chocolate flakes and cherries (cherry brandy and decorated cherries). The cherry brandy = Kirschwasser in German is made of sour cherries, clear color (colorless) and not sweet. You can buy at the black forest open air museum shop. (Kirschwasser or cherry brandies on the top left of the image):
But where is the black forest then? Black forest = Schwarzwald in German. It is located in Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany and borders France in the west and Switzerland in the south. According to my excursion map in 2009, the black forest is shown on the right along the Rhine.
The below image is the area that is called middle black forest = Mittelwald in German
It depends on how you drive, you will pass this area "Kaiserstuhl" = Kings chair or Throne. (Top right of my excursion map)
If you drive or walk through the forest, you may see this statue, "Geheimniss der Stille" = The Secret of Silence.
The highest point of this region is located at the top of a hill, called " Totenkopf" = skull, where the German king Otto III chose this place to execute the convicts by hanging there. (the top left of the image above the vineyard)
The farmer house in the forest is called " Vogtbauernhof".
The construction of the house is like in this model.
Traditional clothes or garment is called "Tracht" in German. The women hats are decorated with giant cherries!!! (just a joke...it is made of wool pompons) which is called " Bollenhut". The local costume became a symbol of the Black forest.
They kept food in a storage house that looks like this:
A lonely kiosk in the black forest:
To be labelled as the original black forest cake, the decorated cherries must be black cherries (sweet cherries). However, the black cherries on this image are actually not the cherries from the black forest, but Swiss cherries which are huge and chubby. It is perfect to use as a decoration on the cake or " Nice to eat you, cherries".
There is another well-known cherry cake that contains "Kirschwasser" as well, so called "Zuger Kirschtorte" = Cherry brandy cake of Zug (a city in Switzerland).
The cake has no chocolate layers, no whipped cream with decorated cherries, but it has very strong alcohol taste.
Have a Black forest day! Let's try our food venture map.
