Daring Bakers - Dobos Torte

Dobos Torte, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways ...

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.

Let me say that I LOVED this month's Daring Baker's challenge. This cake is the type of challenge that I joined the Daring Bakers for, because it is something I would be too scared to attempt without a prod, and which teaches me new things, while looking and tasting just gorgeous. Sure, it was time consuming; sure, there a few points (especially when I was up to scraping my sixth round of sponge into shape and ferrying it to the oven) when I thought, "Why??" But the end result is absolutely devine, and gives me a sense of personal satisfaction and achievement.

The ever so fine layers of sponge interleaved with soft, chocolatey, light-as-a-feather buttecream, and topped precariously by toffee coated cake wedges then finished with hazelnuts, is just a heavenly combination. My "spokes" did not want to stand up at an angle because of the softness of the buttecream (oh, and I had 8 slightly larger and heavier wedges rather than 12 smaller ones), but I don't care - I think they look grand arranged in a segmented circle on top of the cake.

My photos were taken before the cake was chilled, and it held together well, even on slicing.

I think you have the idea that I loved this cake, so without further ado, here are some photos of my experiences.

Here is the sponge batter with the egg whites being folded in:

This is a sponge disc pre-baking after being carefully scraped into shape:

and after baking:

These are the toffee covered cake wedges - I had already cut the cake layer into quarters before I realised that I was never going to get 12 equal bits from there, so I stuck with 8:

Here is the "pancake stack" during construction of the cake:

And this is a slice of the finished product - just look at all of those beautiful layers:

Thanks to Angela and Lorraine for choosing this delightful challenge - I had a blast both making it and eating it.

For more Dobos Torte variations, please check out the Daring Bakers blogroll.