Daring Bake N : August Challenge: Dobos Torte

Well if I knew you were coming, I would have baked you a cake like this one....



The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of 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.



The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.



As you can see above, I made two small cakes by cutting the recipe in half. Me and Mr Cook are watching our waistlines (grow, unfortunately) and we certainly did not need any rich Hungarian desserts lying around to tempt us.

I added a bit of grand marnier to the sponge and used some fine dark chocolate that Simon brought me from Luxembourg to chocolatify (new word) the buttercream. The sponge and the buttercream frosting were heavenly. The hazelnuts were also a nice touch.



The challenging part of this "challenge" was applying the thin carmel layer.

But for me, the most challenging part of the carmel was eating it, not spreading it. It was a little to stickey for my new implants (let me clarify here : dental implant, I only have the dental type!) and frankly the thought of eating more carmel after I finally pried the first taste off of my dentrifices caused me a bit of stress. I don't think I was alone in this- other DB's had the same complaint.

Overall- a very nice cake if you remove the carmel top. I would definately consider experimenting with a softer carmel in the future. This cake was a bit time consuming as well. I think I would save the recipe for a special occaision.

If you would like a copy of the recipe let me know.