Passionate About Baking: torte

It was the big FOUR for my elder sister. She celebrated her birthday on the first Sunday of the new year. We helped with some of the planning. It was my honour to bake a birthday cake for her celebration. We discussed about the cake which she would like to have. Finally, we confirmed on dark chocolate truffle torte as she is a chocolate fanatic, but dislikes normal flour cakes!

Since she was inviting friends and family members, she needed a cake that is enough to feed about 30 persons. I proposed to make a 2-tier cake for her and she was agreeable. The largest cake that could fit into my oven was 10". So I made a 10" and 8" round cakes for her, and topped them with lots of strawberries and blueberries.

At her request to have one more dessert for her catering food, I decided to make mini Nutella Cupcakes and have them displayed in my 3-tier trays. I also made a mini-tag for it. Some of her friends actually thought that the cupcakes came with the caterer! *grin*

Back to the dark, rich chocolate torte. I've made this torte before and I really like it. It is very smooth. It's like the cake version of nama chocolates. You can find the original recipe from Rose Levy here, and a recipe with slight modification from Taste Goblet Blog. The original recipe makes a 8", approx. 1.5" high cake. Actually, a 10" cake is enough to serve about 20-25 persons as the cake is really rich.

For the 10" cake, I doubled the recipe, and made a 2" high cake. This is how I made it.

Recipe for 10" Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, adapted from "The Cake Bible"

Ingredients:
908g 70% Chocolates, chopped coarsely (You can use any bittersweet chocolates, like Valrhona, Aalst etc)
454g Unsalted butter
12 Large eggs, (600g withou shells)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Prepare a 10" springform pan, buttered, and bottom lined with buttered parchment or wax paper; outside of pan wrapped with a double layer of heavy-duty foil. A bigger pan to serve as a water bath.
2. Melt chocolates and butter in a large bowl in a microwave. Check and stir every 5secs. Do not over heat the chocolates. Stir until smooth. Leave aside.
3. Whisk the eggs in another large bowl over double boiler until warm to touch.
4. Remove from heat and continue beating until the mixture triples in volume and holds soft peaks.
5. Fold half of the eggs into the chocolate mixture until it is almost incorporated. It is important that you fold the EGGS into the chocolate and not the other way because this keeps the torte light.
6 Fold the remaining half of the eggs into the chocolate-egg mixture until it is just blended and no streaks remain. Use a rubber spatula to finish folding, scraping up the mixture from the bottom to ensure that all the heavier chocolate mixture gets incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the 10" pan and place in a hot water bath.
8. Bake for 8 mins. Then cover the top of the cake loosely with a large piece of foil and bake another 16 mins. The cake will look barely done, with centre wobbly, but it’s supposed to be that way.
9. Remove cake from oven and from the water bath and leave to cool for an hour in the pan, on a wire rack. Cover tightly and chill overnight.
10. To remove cake from tin, use a torch, hair drier, or a hot damp towel to wipe the sides of the pan. (I used a blow torch.)
11. Run a thin metal spatula around the sides of the torte and release the sides of the springform pan. Place the plastic-wrapped plate on top and invert the torte onto it. Peel off greaseproof paper at the bottom of the torte. Turn it over again onto a serving plate/board.
12. Decorate as desired. Or topped it with whipping cream before serving. Enjoy!

Note:
~ Bring the cake out of the fridge about half an hour before serving. When it is softer, you will be able to experience the smooth texture that melts in your mouth.
~ Best served with strawberries or raspberries to complement the dark chocolates.
~ You may add 3 tbsp of sugar if you prefer a sweeter torte. Add it to the eggs when you are beating it.