Daring Kitchen: Dobos Torta

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague



So this month was super fun to do. For those of you who don't know a dobos torta is a sponge cake with layers of dark chocolate butter cream and a caramel covered sponge cake decorative top.

I chose to create individual tortes, and added marzipan layers that really complemented the chocolate. 6 cupcake sized treats used 1/2 the recipe for the batter, 1/2 butter cream, and 1/8 the caramel.

The sponge cake was tricky. It was hard trying to get even layers out of it, but in the end I just wound up counter stacking the wonky sizes. It tasted alright, for people who like sponge cake I'm sure it was wonderful, but personally I'm not likely to make it again. I prefer a heavier cake, not this rubbery eggy stuff.

I LOVED the butter cream. It used dark chocolate, was easy to make even with a hand held whisk, and tasted wonderful.

The caramel on the other hand was horrid. I had no problems spreading it because of the size of the tortes there was very little used. The color (at first) was perfect, and it hardened just like it was supposed to. But 2 things then went horribly wrong. It tasted like... gross. Yes gross has a taste and that was it. Secondly, these were made a day before the cake was frosted, and when I went to use them the caramel had melted. It was probably due to the high humidity where we live, but still it was irritating.

The torte all put together tasted wonderful (well after you picked off the caramel top) I heard it was even better refrigerated although the ones I kept never made it that far. The almond and chocolate blended wonderfully, and I will most certainly be trying that combo in other deserts.