Saturday 15 August 2009

DOBOS TORTE

Dobos Torte was first introduced at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885; Franz Joseph I and his Empress Elisabeth were among the first to taste it. The cake soon became popular throughout Europe as it was different from all others. It was simple but elegant, as opposed to the multi-storey, flaming cakes of the age. Its other secret was its use of fine buttercream, which was very little known at the time; cake fillings and frostings were usually made with cooked pastry cream or whipped cream. The chocolate buttercream and the batter of the cake were both invented by Jozsef C. Dobos.

It is a five-layer sponge cake, layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with thin caramel slices. The sides of the cake are sometimes coated with ground hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts or almonds but the original cake is without coat, since it was a slice of a big cake. Dobos's aim was to make a cake that would last longer than other pastries, in an age when cooling techniques were limited. The caramel topping helps keep the cake from drying out. The cake is also often called 'Dobos-torta' or 'Dobostorta'. **Thanks to wiki

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

Yes sure this is one time consuming project, but once you have planned everything it could just fall into place without any issues.
So lets get along with the recipe, you could use any variation you like in terms of flavour and the basic genoise as well, i choose a lemon genoise with lemon butter cream on the inside and chocolate butter cream ganache on the outside.
The Recipe that i used for the genoise is by Vegan YUm YUm
2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
r1/2 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs Earth Balance Margarine
2 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice and Zest of 1 whole Lemon
1 Cup Water
3/4 Milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add butter, water, and lemon juice and beat well . Add the remaining ingredients and beat again. Pour the batter into the lined jelly roll pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is lightly browned.
Allow to cool in pan until just warm.
Remove the cake from the pan on a heat proof plastic sheet and roll a rolling pin lightly over the whole cake to make it a little more thin.
Once done let it cool and then cut the cake into 5 equal layers. Keep this aside and get your butter cream ready.

Lemon Butter Cream Frosting
2 ½ tablespoons softened butter
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice Cream the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy, add the lemon juice and lemon zest to it, combine well and keep aside.

Chocolate Butter Cream Ganache
2 cups dark chocolate, 1 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 cup sugar
Melt all the above ingredients in a pan on low flame. Mix well and let it cool.

Caramel topping
1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultra fine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grape seed, rice bran, sunflower)

Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel. Pour this over your layer and let it cool.

Assembling the Cake:
Divide your lemon butter cream into 5 equal parts, take one layer of your sponge and spread lemon butter cream evenly on it, sandwich it with the other layer of the sponge... repeat till all your 4 layers are sandwiched. Cover the cake with your Chocolate Butter Cream and decorate with the caramel layer. Refrigerate until cool. :)


Well never heard about it until this months DB's challenge. This awesome layered cake is heavenly. The rich butter cream makes it apt for calling it a celebration in it self.









15 comments:

  1. Love that picture of the cut torta. Yummy lemon buttercream so light and delicious....Bravo and kudos to you. Cheeers from Audax in Australia

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  2. That's positively BEAUTIFUL. I'm jealous of your mad decorating skills.

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  3. Wow very nicely done, lovely decoration as well :)

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  4. wow! beautifully done! love the deco! =)

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  5. Wow, it looks amazing and, from your description, I'm sure it tasted fantastic too!

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  6. Great. Lemon buttercream sounds interesting.

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  9. Gorgeous pictures! This looks delicious!

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  10. I just discovered your blog!!!... I am so happy I found a vegan blog just like mine :)
    I'll come back!
    Kisses from my kitchen,
    Cynthia

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  13. hey really enjoyed your blog, recently started my check it out if you would like at www.veghunter.wordpress.com
    keep up the great work!!!

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  14. yummy, looks amazing. I love your decoration on top.

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