Chocolate Truffle Torte

Last week was my lovely sister's birthday, so I decided that as my baking skills have developed quite well I should have a go at making her a birthday cake. Not just any birthday cake though, I decided to make an attempt at a Chocolate Truffle Torte, a recipe I found in a great book -  'Rosie's Pantry: Baking, a collection of essential recipes'. My lovely friend over at Orchard House Living had given me this book a couple of months ago, and I finally got round to trying out one of the recipes. Unfortunately, the 'Rosie's Pantry' range (previously sold by Boots) seems to have been discontinued, and I can only find the book on eBay now

I had one sort-of practise run the week before my sister's birthday, where I made the torte for the very first time. It turned out very well, was very delicious (so much lovely chocolate!), but I felt that the cake base was a tad thin for my liking. Therefore I made some adjustments to the recipe when I made the birthday cake.

Ingredients (serves 10 apparently):
For the cake - 

• Butter, for greasing (I used the cake release spray instead again).
• 110g/4oz golden caster sugar (original recipe calls for 55g/2oz)
• 4 eggs (original recipe - 2 eggs)
• 50g/2oz plain flour (original recipe - 25g/1oz)
• 50g/2oz cocoa powder (original recipe - 25g/1oz)
• 50ml/2fl.oz cold strong black coffee (I used espresso powder)
• 2 tbsp Brandy

For the topping - 

• 600ml/20fl.oz whipping cream
• 425g/15oz plain chocolate, melted and cooled
• Icing sugar, to decorate
• Cocoa powder, to decorate

First, I lined the base of a 23cm/9inch springform cake tin with baking paper, before greasing the sides with the cake release spray. I then set the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.

Tin prepped, along with the cocoa powder and flour.

Next I put the eggs and the caster sugar into a heat-proof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water. I whisked the eggs and sugar together until pale and mousse-like.

Moussey goodness.

I then gently folded the flour and cocoa powder into the moussey batter, and then poured it into the prepared cake tin.

Adding the cocoa powder and flour.

Batter ready for the oven.

The batter was then baked in preheated the oven for ten minutes, until it was risen and firm to the touch. It was then transferred to a wire rack to cool.

Ooh, cake.

Looking good!

The coffee and brandy were mixed together to create a mixture that smelled incredible. Once the cake had cooled sufficiently, it was put back into the newly-washed tin, and then was brushed with the coffee and brandy mixture.

Ready for brandy and coffee.

A suitably coffee-and-brandy-drenched sponge.

Next, I had to make the yummy topping that goes on top of the sponge. This involved firstly melting all the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once it was fully melted, I set it aside to cool slightly.

Delicious, melted chocolate.

Next, I poured the cream into a bowl and whipped it until it formed very soft peaks.

That's a lot of whipped cream. Yum!

Then I gently folded the melted chocolate into the whipped cream, and then poured the mixture over the sponge. The torte was then placed in the refrigerator to chill for five hours and the set.

Lovely marbling.

Looking good.

Ready for the fridge.

Once the torte had chilled and set, it was carefully removed from the springform tin. A small amount of the chocolate and cream mixture stuck to the sides of the tin, but not enough to ruin the look of the torte. I did, however, smooth out the sides of the torte a little.

Chilled, set, and ready for decoration.

Then it was time to decorate the torte. I started by sifting cocoa powder over the surface of the torte, before placing three strips of waxed card on top of the torte as a mask. With this mask prepared, I then sifted icing sugar over the torte to create a striped pattern.

Layer of cocoa powder nicely done.

Less-than-tidy but still decent-ish stripes.

Then it was time for the final flourish - the candles!

Yay! Candles!

I must admit, I was quite pleased with how the torte turned out. It sat in the fridge oh-so-temptingly until my sister came over and picked it up.

Deliciousness.

Of course, we had to try some of it immediately, just to make sure it was acceptable. It seemed to pas the sister test, so that's good.

It didn't take us long to try some.

Yet again, I seem to have found a recipe that I can only highly recommend. The torte is delicious, and not too sweet, as it only uses plain chocolate. The sponge is wonderfully light, and with the coffee and brandy has a delightful flavour. The main thing, of course, is that my sister loved it, which was the whole point really.

Another very successful recipe!

Beckie.

Chocolate-Glazed Chocolate Tart

Apologies again for yet another delay in my posting.  I have just gone through the rather arduous process of moving house, so things were a little hectic recently.  Still, I haven't forgotten about my love of baking, and I have a particularly lovely and delicious recipe to discuss here.

I actually came across this recipe on BuzzFeed when I read the article "71 Reasons Candy Hearts Are Stupid".  Several of the delicious-looking desserts called out to me, and I finally picked this chocolate tart to have a go at making.

Now the recipe calls for the use of something called 'graham crackers' for the tart base.  I believe that these are an American biscuit, so as they are not readily available in the UK I substituted them with good old Bourbon biscuits.  This had worked nicely in the American pies I'd previously made, so I thought they'd be just the thing.

As ever, I had a great deal of fun bashing the biscuits into tiny pieces:

So many crushed biscuits!

After these were combined with the sugar and the butter, they were then pressed into the tart tin, and then baked in the oven.  I'd never baked this type of tart base before (previously I'd left it to set in the fridge), so I was interested to see how it would turn out.  My main worry was it collapsing in the oven, or when it was taken out of the tin.  However, aside from a little bit of the butter seeping out of the base and the tin, it turned out quite nicely:

Baked biscuit base.

So then came time to make the filling.  A two-stage process, I was concerned about getting the texture of the truffle-like filling right.  Luckily, the process of the truffle filling was not too dissimilar to the custard tart filling I've made before, although obviously this one had the addition of some rather lovely chocolate.  This was then very carefully baked in the oven until it was just set:

Truffle-y goodness.

The only (very small) issue I came across here was the emergence of a few bubbles on the top of the filling.  I simply popped them, and hoped that they would be adequately covered by the chocolate glaze that I would make next.

So after a suitable cooling period, it was then onto making the chocolate glaze to go on top of the filling.  I'd had a go at making a chocolate ganache before, and it had not worked out well at all, but I was determined to have another go.  Obviously the recipe calls for the use of corn syrup, which is again not widely available here in the UK.  Therefore I used golden syrup instead.  This seemed to work incredibly well, and did not affect the flavour of the glaze at all.  The glaze appeared to have the perfect texture once everything had been stirred together, so I bit the bullet and poured it on top of the tart filling.

A rather nice chocolate glaze on top.

Well, it looked rather good to me, and it also covered up the air bubble holes very nice and quite evenly as well.  Yes, there were a couple of wobbles in it, but as a whole I was quite pleased with the results.  I then left the glaze for about an hour to set (sat on the counter top, not in the fridge, which is very important to know).  Once everything had set, the final result was rather pleasing.

The finished tart!

Not only did the tart come out of the tin nicely (the tart crust held perfectly), but it also cut beautifully as well.  The tart held it's structure perfectly, and looked incredible when slices were cut out.

Yum!

This proved to be one of my most popular recipes yet.  The tart filling was not too sweet, and had a rich, luxurious flavour that was an absolute delight to eat.  One thing I will mention, the glaze soon loses its glossiness if the tart is put in the fridge, so be prepared for this is you have to store it in the fridge for some reason.  If this is the case, I have found that the gloss can be brought back if you very carefully heat the glaze by using a hairdryer on a low setting (yet another trick seen on The Great British Bake Off).

I can definitely recommend this recipe - it is a fantastic tart, and well worth making, particularly for a special occasion (although I'll make it anytime).

Beckie.