Black Forest Dessert Sauce

Hi! How are ya? What's new? Good! Me? Well, let me tell you! I know it's been a month since I've promised to tell you about all the cakes, cakes and more cakes that have been flying out of my kitchen, but there have been so much happening since then that I barely know how I'll ever get you all caught up, so instead I'm going to just share everything and tomorrow we'll start fresh. Okay? Great.

A few weeks ago, I made sugar paste from scratch and created several of these:



And I put them on top of this:



A topper went on top of that (go figure) and turned it into this (picture pilfered compliments of South Branch Tavern and Grille):



It was a vanilla cake with lemon curd filling and italian meringue buttercream on the outside. Here's another pilfered picture of the insides:

And that one in the background up above? That was the groom's cake. A key lime pie cake to be exact, though there are no pictures of the insides. Guess the guy is a U of Miami fan?



Then there was this (ignore the bad lighting, it's what happens when you bake in the middle of the night), a rich chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge and fresh blackberries:



There was also an ENORMOUS cake covered in pink roses, but there are no pictures of that because it was finished and delivered at 2am, in the dead of night, under the cover of rain. Not kidding. I pulled the keys out of the mailbox, backed the car into the driveway, loaded the monster into the trunk, drove it two blocks to the clubhouse where the party was going to be and drove back as my drunk neighbors were coming back from a night of bar hopping.

There were cookies made, jam, gluten free scones (man do I need to keep working on those, they were NOT good), tarts and tartlettes and baked goods galore. There was a brunch with friends and lots and lots of wine. There was stress at work, lots of hours in front of the computer and many cups of tea. Oh yeah, and my tea kettle broke. Before you ask, it was an electric one and yes, the next one will be the old fashioned kind that doesn't require an outlet and never fails. And none of that even includes the half a dozen sewing projects I'd finished, including these two pillows (complete with zippers!):



There was also a LOT of greek yogurt. You see, I'm slowly working through my rather extensive stash of jams, jellies, sauces, and preserves of all kinds. I haven't even told you about HALF of my canning expeditions this summer (though I promise I will). And last week I have finally scraped clean the very last of the Black Forest dessert sauce that I made last summer. Since I've been eating it on top of yogurt, it's technically breakfast food. Plus there are cherries.



I had found a recipe for cherry sauce somewhere along the way and had heard of people adding cocoa to their canning projects, plus there's a bottle of kirschwasser hanging around in my liquor cabinet, and I had bought a giant box of dark black cherries for next to nothing from the back of a truck...ahem...so somehow all of these needed to come together. (And yes, I made another animated gif. I might be having too much fun with these).

And before I give you the recipe I have to tell you that right now I'm having a bit of a surreal moment. I've just come back from a walk on the beach where the ocean water is still warm enough to roll up your pants and walk barefoot along the surf. The moon is big and yellow and the sky is full of stars. I'm sitting on a sofa in a gorgeous beach house in Charleston, South Carolina and across from me is another late owl, Helene Dujardin, of the incredible blog Tartlette. I'll tell you about how THAT happened in a few days when this is all over, but in the mean time I'd just like to wish you all a happy fun filled weekend, because that's exactly what I intend to do myself.

Black Forest Dessert Sauce
Adapted from so many sources that I may as well call it my own.

3lbs dark black cherries, pitted
3 cups of sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 cup water
1/4 cup Kirschwasser

1. Combine everything except for the booze in a large pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring often for about 20 minutes.
2. Blend everything either with an immersion blender*, add the Kirsch and cook for another 5 minutes. 
3. Ladle into clean/sterilized jars and either boil in a water bath for 10 minutes if you want to keep it for a few months, or let it cool and keep in the fridge if you plan on eating it within a week or two. 
4. Pour over ice cream or yogurt and enjoy.

* I LOVE my immersion blender and highly recommend you get one, but if you don't want/have one I'd recommend blending the cherries before you cook them because blending hot sugar stuff is really scary.