Signed us up for another baking class. This time it was in Zürich at Sherly's Kitchen. We baked individual mini Black Forest Cakes (Schwarzwälderkirschtorte) and Swiss Roulade (Swiss Jelly Roll). Both were absolutely delicious!!!!!
Zürich is Switzerland’s center of economic life and education. Located in the heart of Europe, the city offers all the modern amenities of a cosmopolitan metropolis, without sacrificing its natural side. Zürich has for years ranked among the world’s top cities in terms of quality of life. It is a boutique city that offers everything that implies, albeit in small and exquisite format.
Zürich’s inhabitants don’t just eat Bircher muesli and “Züri Gschnätzlets” (cubed beef in a rich cream sauce). They are veritable cosmopolitans and love sophisticated delicacies from across the globe. They do their utmost to embrace trends immediately – with creativity and delight. This earns them awards: Zurich has one of the highest numbers of Michelin-starred restaurants per inhabitant in Europe. The city’s rustic pubs, street food festivals and pop-up restaurants in empty factories are also enjoying a great degree of popularity. All the city’s culinary offerings – and a lot more besides – can be sampled by the way at the annual Food Zürich festival.
Once our train arrived in Zürich, we walked down the Bahnhofstrasse from the Bahnhof to the Zeughauskeller. Before we reached the restaurant, we needed to stop at Sprüngli for the truffle of the day. Michael wanted the milk and I chose the dark. Hand made and so delicious! They have a different milk, dark and specialty truffle each day. Today’s special’s choice was coconut. You can’t imagine how many businessmen buy their wife a truffle to bring home. The truffle is placed in a little brown box with a yellow ribbon, with the Sprüngli name, tied in a bow.
Regular truffles
A lady was adding decorations on top of the Luxemburgerli. A Luxemburgerli is a small flavored meringue with a flavored cream filling. So easy to just pop one in your mouth. In one or two bites; it is gone.
There are many Sprüngli desserts to tempt you.
If you want hand made chocolate bars, truffles, pralines, etc., then you must stop at Teuscher. Very, very, very, very expensive but extraordinary taste.
Decided to have lunch at the Zeughauskeller. The Zeughauskeller transformed from an armory to a place of culinary delights.
Beautiful wood carved ceiling
The Zeughauskeller was built in 1487, even before Columbus had discovered America. The name Zeughaus means that all kinds of weapons and armaments of war were stored and mended here. Unfortunately, the Middle Ages were known more about war than peace in Switzerland. Legend has it the crossbow, belonging to Wilhelm Tell, was stored here as well.
Since 1926, Zeughauskeller has been a peaceful and social meeting place. The weapons are only used as decoration and guests from all over the world are given a warm welcome.
The host of the restaurant is Tony Hammer. He has a motivated staff of 80 employees. Service is quick and the food is delicious. It is a favorite with the locals and the tourists.
When in Zürich, we always eat Züri-geschnetzeltes with Rösti. This is small pieces of veal with mushrooms in a cream sauce. Rösti is the Swiss national dish. It is like hash brown potatoes but more flavorful. You can taste the butter.
The main reason we came to Zürich today was to take a baking class at Sherly’s Kitchen. To our surprise and delight, Michael and I were the only two in class. Our instructor was Marina, whom came from Austria. We made individual mini Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälderkirschtorte) and Swiss Roulade (Swiss Jelly Roll).
The name Schwarzwälderkirschtorte comes from the hats the ladies wear in the Black Forest.
You use the basic sponge recipe for both.
In making cream Chantilly, the sugar to use is powdered sugar.
As soon as you put sugar and eggs together, the sugar will start to cook the eggs. You have to start whisking immediately in order to prevent that from happening.
If you want to separate the whites from the yolks, it is easier to do if the eggs are cold.
Nice stiff peaks with the egg whites.
It is important to weigh the ingredients. A scale works best.
Be careful folding in the ingredients or it will collapse and you have to start all over again. Take your time.
Zest half a lemon. The lemon goes in the roulade batter. The lemon reduces the flavor of the eggs so that the cake doesn't taste "eggy". Cocoa powder goes in the other batter.
We had a tasting of different jellies we wanted to use for the roulade- strawberry, plum, elderberry, raspberry or cherry. Michael and I agreed on raspberry even though strawberry is the jelly of choice. The warm sheet of sponge was rolled in a towel with a little sugar sprinkled on the towel.
Be careful pulling back the parchment paper. You don't want to crack the sponge.
Roll tightly
It was left to cool for 15 minutes. We carefully unrolled it and spread on the jelly and rolled it up again. We discussed we could have used whipped cream instead of jelly, too.
For a nice presentation, the ends were cut off. Powdered sugar was sifted on top. Marina used figs topped with a homemade caramel sauce and fresh mint as a garnish for the plate.
We used the same batter for the black forest cake and the roll: just divided it in half. When we make it at home, we will use a little more cocoa powder in the Black Forest Cake batter to give it a browner color.
Butter the pans for the black forest cake. Fill the pan half full.
We made 4 small individual Black Forest Cakes. We cut them in half and brushed the middle and top of the cake with the cherry juice from the can of cherries and Kirschwasser (cherry liquor). For the middle section, we piped whipped cream and added a ring of cherries. Next, the outside of the cake was decorated with whipped cream. Then, small pieces of shaved chocolate covered the outside. A cherry was placed on top.
Brush on some juice from the can of cherries and the cherry liquor: top of the cut side and the top piece
The jelly roll was cut in half so we could eat half there and take half back with us. We ate 2 of the 4 mini cakes. We enjoyed our delicious desserts with some black tea with vanilla. The tea bags were hand sewn. Very good tea!
We were going to take the other two cakes back to Interlaken with us. They only made it a little past Zürich. Of course, we didn’t want the whipped cream to spoil. We will enjoy the roulade later tonight.
Michael and I have taken many classes but we have to say this one was probably tied for a top spot. We highly recommend taking a class from Sherly's Kitchen! We had so much fun!