Black Forest Gateau

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (22 ratings)

Serve in a Martini glass

Ingredients:
1 12 oz Absolut Vanilia Vodka
23 oz Black raspberry liqueur (e.g. Chambord)
12 oz Dark crème de cacao liqueur
14 oz Kirschwasser (cherry) eau-de-vie
14 oz Joseph Cartron Double Crème de Cassis de Bourgogne
12 oz Single cream/half-and-half
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of cacao powder.
  3. STIR first 5 ingredients with ice.
  4. STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Carefully FLOAT cream. (Lightly whip or shake sealed container before pouring cream to aerate.)
  6. Garnish with a dusting of cacao powder over the cocktail.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

  • Single cream/half-and-half - Dairy

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 6/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 4/10
Cocktail of the day:

28th March 2025 is Black Forest Gâteau Day

Review:

Dessert by name and dessert by nature: naughty but nice.

View readers' comments

History:

Adapted from a recipe created in 2002 at Hush Restaurant in London, England. Hush's recipe lacked three of the essentials in a Black Forest Gâteau: kirsch, cherries and chocolate. Hence, on 28th March 2022, I created the recipe above. Hush's original Black Forest Gâteau recipe:
60ml (2oz) Vodka
22.5ml (¾oz) Chambord liqueur
22.5ml (¾oz) Crème de fraise
7.5ml (¼ oz) Crème de cassis
22.5 (¾oz) Cream

Nutrition:

One serving of Black Forest Gateau contains 280 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.5 standard drinks
  • 19.25% alc./vol. (19.25° proof)
  • 21.2 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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I D’s Avatar I D
29th March at 20:12
I ran out of creme de cacao so used 50% extra volume of Mozart (milk chocolate) - very convincing BFG taste.
Cameron Carter’s Avatar Cameron Carter
28th March 2023 at 21:32
I had no vanilla-flavored vodka, so added a few drops of Bob's Vanilla Bitters, also substituting clear for dark creme de cacao. I finally got a cream float to work! Very tasty dessert-style cocktail. Well done recipe!
Chris Brislawn’s Avatar Chris Brislawn
28th March 2023 at 03:27
This was an exercise in substitutions. No vanilla vodka so added 1/4 tsp Mexican vanilla extract. No Chambord so muddled 4 raspberries instead. Only have white creme de cacao. Simon is right: needs more cherry so added 1/2 tsp Luxardo cherry syrup and a Luxardo-on-a-cocktail-sword garnish. Added a dash of Angostura cocoa bitters, just because. Used coupes. Everything else per Simon's recipe. Wife agrees it's pretty tasty. All we need now is a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte to enjoy with it!