People who like to eat desserts know Black Forest cake. If sausages are the representative of German cuisine, then Black Forest cake is the representative of German desserts.
However, if you think you can eat Black Forest cake in any restaurant in Germany, then you are wrong. For Germans, Black Forest cake has strict standards and procedures, and is protected. If the chef does not follow the standards and even names the cake made from other ingredients as Black Forest Cake, there may even be risks associated with the store. So many restaurants think they cannot meet the standards and choose not to do it.
Is the Black Forest cake related to the Black Forest in the mountainous areas of southwestern Germany? There is no definitive answer to this question. Some people believe that the black chocolate chips on the Black Forest cake are reminiscent of Black Forest, while others believe that the important ingredient of Black Forest cake, cherry wine, is a specialty of Black Forest, hence its name. There is another theory that suggests that the Black Forest cake did not originate from the Black Forest. It is likely named after the cake's resemblance to the ethnic costumes of the Black Forest region. The black chocolate crumbs resemble a black coat, the white cream resembles a white shirt, and the cherries on the cream remind people of the black forest's unique white background, red bead, and large velvet cap, also known as the "onion cap" in the legend.
I personally tend to lean towards the first two statements for a simple reason: in local German restaurants, if you want to find the Black Forest cake, the Black Forest region has the highest chance.
At the mountaintop restaurant in the suburbs of Freiburg, the Black Forest cake seems to be the top choice. Facing the mountains and fields of forest (named Black Forest because it is too dense and dark), lighting a black forest cake seems to complement each other.
Black Forest cake became popular in the 1930s and has become one of the most famous desserts in the world to this day. But to be honest, the black forest cake I usually eat in domestic restaurants always carries a faint taste of preservatives. This is because most restaurants do not strictly choose the ingredients required for Black Forest cake, such as fresh cherries turning into canned cherries.
The essence of Black Forest cake lies in cherries. Every year during the cherry harvest season, housewives in the Black Forest region stuffing cherries one by one into the layers of the cake. This is both visible and invisible: they also add a large amount of cherry juice when whipping cream, and when making cake embryos, they add a large amount of cherry juice and cherry wine to the batter.
It is interesting that there was a case in Germany where consumers sued the store for the low cherry content of Black Forest cake. The German government has therefore made relevant regulations: the fresh cream of Black Forest cake must contain at least 80 grams of cherry juice.