Frankly, I'm quite shocked. 2 of my Singaporean friends thought the Black Forest cake had blueberries in it, including one whom I consider more worldly than me.

So I did a pop quiz ("does black forest cake have blueberries in it?"), and the results are as follows:

Yes, it has blueberries - 18
Unsure, probably yes - 6
Unsure, probably no - 4
No - 5 (one thought it had black currant)

This sample excludes those who were unsure or didn't know, as well as I "i would hope so" (?!), but includes someone who lived near the Black Forest for 3 months, who said: "eh, not sure what sort of berries it is. but there are berries~~". I responded that cherries are not berries and she said "yes they are in german". GAH.

The answer, as one might have guessed, is that no. Real Black Forest Cake has cherries and cherry liqueur. It seems the version in Singapore is adulterated, so it behooves me to spread the message about authentic Black Forest Cake. A theory someone posed was the Singaporeans think cherries are blueberries, but I think this unlikely.

Someone questions my methodology: "actually i suspect it's just psychological influence of your question. as in, they used to think they didn't have blueberries until you posed that question and then they think... ohhh must have blueberries." Of course, there is no other possible way to ask this question and anyway I was regaled with anecdotes of growing up on Blueberry Black Forest Cake.

Whether this is one of those things that improves upon adulteration, like how so many swear by Malaysian Palm Oil Milo over the Original Australian Milo (I must do a side-by-side taste test one day), I do not know. [Someone: MILO IS AUSTRALIAN?? O_O i think all random 4 letter brands are malaysian. like klim. klim is dutch???????????????????????????????????? wtf. i thought only malaysians could come up with such a cheesy name]

Incidentally I'm not particularly fond of Black Forest Cake, but I feel compelled to right this wrong (though, as someone might ask, one shouldn't have 'issues' when suffering never comes into the picture), and the magnitude of the con perpetrated on unsuspecting Singaporeans just shocks me.


Cheat Eat: Cake Fraud?

"Can a Black Forest cake be called a Black Forest if it is not filled with cherries?...

The Black Forest cake was filled with blueberries. In our many years of eating Black Forest cakes, we have never encountered a cake not filled with cherries until this one. I was particularly disappointed as sour cherries were my favourite. The original German name, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte literally translates to Black Forest Cherry Cake. If the cake had other fillings, to call it a Black Forest would be, in my opinion, rather misleading."