A Birthday Cake! Or was it? - Dark & White Chocolate Torte

So it was my husband’s birthday.  It was extra special because it was also the day that Mimi completed 22 months. A cake was definitely in order. So I flipped and flipped through my baking books, gmail document folders, bloggers’ recipe indexes for that special cake. Everything looked like it was done to death. So I started scouting for other options such as tarts and pies and even puddings. But none of them would look good with candles on them in my head. So finally I spotted a new sort of word in one of my baking books about chocolate – Torte.

I chose the one that looked very rustic and sophisticated in its own sweet way. Imagine a soft, gooey chocolate cream as a layer between two tortes and covered with white chocolate icing all over. I thought it should be good, new and a challenge to try something I haven’t tried before. But my sound advice would that always attempt done-to-death kind of stuff on important occasions. The ones that are tried and test and the ones that you are confident that you and pull off decently well. But my adventurous side was too kicked in to not want to try a Dark and White Chocolate Torte.

I was completely taken aback when I saw no mention of butter in the torte recipe. Instead it asked for colossal number of eggs- 4 nos., very little flour. I was in high spirits and even sifted the flour twice( because there was only little to sift:-))

When it came out from the oven it looked like a thick slab that was springy to touch and dense at sight. Not the most pleasing to tell you the truth. The recipe asked for cutting the torte into two from the middle. I realized it way too thin to be cut into two. So I baked another one – so another 4 eggs gone. Now this better be fantastic, I hoped.  With two thick slabs of torte – neither of which looked anything like a cake- I was determined to do wonders with the icing to cover the goof up. I melted chocolate in boiling cream and whisked to make it thick. I realized I had picked a local brand of cream instead of  a good one. The cream refused to stay and kept running in different directions. Clearly, it wasn’t a birthday cake -making day. With a forced smile, I got the white chocolate icing done and got the cake assembled just in time. Peeled some chocolate curls off a chocolate bar to salvage whatever little I could in terms of appearance atleast.

Now it was time to cut the cake and I brought out my biggest, strongest bread knife to do the honours. It took some time and effort by two people to get a slice out so you do get an idea that it was  a tough cake to beat. People were kind enough to sample the cake with plastered smiles since they didn’t want to disappoint me. Well, I knew the truth. The flavours were really good but the texture was the problem. The entire time, I kept pondering over, where I went wrong? Was the recipe not that great or did I do something wrong?

Anyways the recipe is here,

Recipe for Dark & White Chocolate Torte

Serves six

Ingredients

For the Torte

4 eggs ( I had to make to tortes so had to use 8 eggs)

100 g castor sugar

100 g of plain flour

For the Chocolate Cream

300 ml double cream

150 g plain chocolate , broken into small pieces

For the White Chocolate Icing

75g white chocolate

15 g butter

1 tbsp milk

4 tbsp icing sugar

Chocolate curls for decoration

Preparation

1. Grease a 20 cm /8 inch round spring form cake tin and line the base with baking  paper( I had to do this twice to get two tortes).

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for about 10 mins or more until the mixture is very light and foamy. The whisk should leave a trail that lasts a few seconds when lifted

3. Sift the flour and fold in with a metal spoon or spatula. Pour into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven 180 C/350 F/ Gas Mark 4, for 35 – 40 minutes or until springy to touch. Leave to cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. To make the chocolate cream, place the cream in a saucepan and bring it to boil, stirring. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Remove from heat,  transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Beat with wooden spoon until thick.

5. To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter together and stir until blended. Whisk in the milk and icing sugar. Continue whisking for a few minutes until the icing is cool. Pour it over the cake and spread with a spatula to coat the top and sides. Decorate with Chocolate curls  ( used a vegetable peeler to carve the curls out of a chocolate bar) . Leave to set.

Notes: * The gentle act of folding the flour into the egg- sugar mixture was the one that failed me, in my opinion.

* Buying good quality ingredients is imperative. The double cream let me down and so I am not going to act stingy when it comes to buying quality products.

* Always stick to something that you are comfortable baking on special occasions, else you would be writing notes like this!

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