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FijiFlavors · Baden-Württemberg
Layered chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy of the Black Forest, with cherries and whipped cream, topped with chocolate shavings. Black Forest tourism presents it as the region’s most famous sweet specialty.
Traditional sweet from Baden-Württemberg
Also known as: torta Floresta Negra, Black Forest Cake
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte — Baden-Württemberg, Germany
The Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte is the Black Forest cake from the Black Forest region of mountains and woods in southwest Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is assembled with layers of chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirschwasser, the region’s cherry brandy, layered with cherries and whipped cream. On top go more whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings. Kirschwasser is indispensable: without it, pastry chefs say, it is not Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.
The name has several explanations. Black Forest tourism mentions some: the chocolate shavings would recall the dark forest; the name would come from the Kirschwasser produced in the region; or the colors would recall the traditional costume with the red-pompon hat, the Bollenhut, with a black dress, white blouse and red pompons.
The origin is disputed. The most cited version says pastry chef Josef Keller, born in Riedlingen and later established in Radolfzell near Lake Constance, created the cake in 1915 at a café in Bad Godesberg, now part of Bonn, outside the Black Forest. Regional tourism notes that that cake had a single layer and would be a precursor, and recalls that the combination of cooked cherries, cream and Kirschwasser was already a farmhouse dessert in the southern Black Forest. According to the town of Triberg, an apprentice of Keller brought the recipe to Triberg in 1929.
Today the cake is found in cafés and pastry shops across the region, from towns to trail huts, and is one of Germany’s best-known cakes. In Triberg, town of waterfalls and cuckoo clocks, cafés maintain the recipe attributed to Keller.
Baden-Württemberg
The Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte is the sweet specialty of the Black Forest, a region of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Chocolate sponge cake, Kirschwasser (cherry brandy), cherries (often sour cherries in syrup), whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
In slices, with coffee, in the afternoon, as part of the German coffee-and-cake ritual. It contains brandy, even if in a small amount.
Year round.
Your questions
Yes. The sponge cake is soaked in Kirschwasser, the Black Forest cherry brandy, an ingredient considered indispensable.
The origin is disputed. The most cited version attributes the creation to pastry chef Josef Keller in 1915 at a café in Bad Godesberg, outside the region; Black Forest tourism notes that the combination of cherries, cream and Kirschwasser was already a local dessert.
There are several explanations: the chocolate shavings would recall the dark forest, the name would come from the region’s Kirschwasser, or the colors would recall the traditional costume with the red-pompon hat.
Flavors of Germany
Aachen spice cookie, sweetened with syrup and with small pieces of brown candi sugar that crackle when you bite them. It can be hard or soft, plain, with almonds or coated in chocolate. It has a protected geographical indication from the European Union.
Fresh pasta dough filled with ground meat, spinach, soaked bread, onion and herbs, served in broth, browned with onions, or sliced and fried with egg. A Swabian dish with protected geographical indication since 2009, traditional at Easter week.
Dark beer with a smoky flavor, made with malt dried in the smoke of beech firewood. Bamberg tourism presents it as part of the city’s identity, and the traditional preparation is listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
Paste of camembert or brie cheese mashed with butter, paprika and, depending on the recipe, onion, cumin or beer; eaten with bread or a pretzel. A beer‑garden dish from Bavaria, with protected geographical indication since 2015.
Sausage sliced into rounds, topped with tomato sauce and curry powder, served with french fries or bread. The creation of the sauce is attributed to Herta Heuwer, who sold it in Berlin in 1949.
Kale slowly cooked with bacon, served with the smoked sausage Pinkel, smoked pork and potatoes. Bremen’s official portal presents it as the city’s best-known specialty, a winter dish of the Kohlfahrt.
Light, pale beer with top fermentation, served in a thin cylindrical 0.2‑liter glass by the breweries’ waiter, the Köbes. It is a protected geographical indication and may only be made in Cologne and in a few breweries in the region.
Sweet Christmas bread with raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, almonds and plenty of butter, coated with powdered sugar. Mentioned in Dresden since 1474, it has had protected geographical indication status since 2010.
Amber-colored beer, top-fermented with a pronounced bitterness, brewed in Düsseldorf’s brewery-taverns from a mid-19th-century recipe. The city’s tourism promotion presents it as the typical drink of the Altstadt.
Cold sauce of seven chopped fresh herbs with sour cream, served with hard‑boiled eggs and potatoes. The mixture of the seven herbs, grown largely in the Oberrad neighborhood, has protected geographical indication.
Sweet made from fermented, laminated dough with butter, sugar and cinnamon, rolled and pressed until it takes its characteristic flattened shape. Hamburg’s official portal presents it as a specialty of the city.
Dry, acidic apple wine, fully fermented, served in the Bembel ceramic jug and in the diamond-patterned glass called the Gerippte. It is a protected geographical indication of Hesse, and the apple wine culture of the state is listed in the German inventory of intangible heritage.
Little tart of shortcrust pastry filled with marzipan, almonds and a touch of jam or a cherry, with two strips of pastry crossed on top. It replaced the roasted lark, a Leipzig dish until the hunting ban in 1876.
White veal sausage with bacon and parsley, warmed in hot water and served with sweet mustard and a pretzel, traditionally before midday. It is one of Munich’s best-known specialties.
Honey cake with spices, walnuts and almonds, often baked on a thin wafer and covered with chocolate or icing. It has a protected geographical indication since 1996 and may only be made within Nuremberg.
Pork sausages 7 to 9 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram and grilled, served by the dozen with sauerkraut or inside a roll. They have protected geographical indication since 2003 and may only be made in Nuremberg.
Ball of strips of shortcrust pastry, fried and dusted with confectioners’ sugar, resembling a snowball. Rothenburg ob der Tauber tourism presents it as the city’s regional specialty.
Cake baked in thin layers on a spit that turns in front of a fire; when sliced it shows rings like those of a tree trunk. Made in Salzwedel since the early 19th century, it has been a protected geographical indication since 2010.
Long, thin pork sausage, 15 to 20 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram, cumin and garlic, grilled over charcoal and eaten in a small roll with mustard. The earliest known mention dates from 1404, and the name has protected geographical indication status since 2004.
