Daring Bakers tackle Dobos Torte!

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.

Since I'd already made this in cake class just a few months back I was going to sit this challenge out, it wasnt my favourite cake. But I suddenly felt inspired, I had some extra chocolate buttercream in the fridge, and it seemed like a good opportunity to play with my food and give it a try.

Dobos torte is a multi layered cake, composed of a sponge, chocolate buttercream, and a top sponge layer which is covered in caramel. I enjoyed the caramel part, but I find the sponge chewy and not so appetizing. I prefer buttery and crumbly, or oozy and gooey.

It quickly became apparent that making little cakes is harder than it looks! The sponge was easy enough, I halved the recipe, then spread onto a parchment on a baking sheet. It was very quick to stamp out circles with a cookie cutter. It was harder to cleanly spread buttercream onto the little discs, and I didnt have the patience to cleanly smooth it to make for a perfect presentation, so I placed almond slices on the sides of the cake. I then saved some circles, pouring caramel over them and placing them on top of my little cakes.

Please head on over to the daring kitchen for the recipe, or to join in the challenges, and to see how the other daring bakers got on.