The Sugar Bar

I promised a chocolate torte recipe and here it is! It’s an easy to remember recipe I picked out of a book whilst staying at the boyfriend’s house; a real gem of a recipe, this torte is extremely rich but light – the ultimate chocolate decadent indulgence. It’s got a lovely wrinkly top, is usually quite crumbly at the sides and I find it’s sunken shape simply adorable. When I took this out of the oven, I had to garner all my mental strength to block out the calorie warnings the better half of my psyche was sending out. Pffft. I am having cake today and nothing is going to stop me. Not even the morning-after guilt is going to deter my determination to eat a fat slice. TO SELF: I need that. And that’s that. No arguments.

There’s also the fact that I should really be unpacking and reorganizing my room. So baking is really procrastination in disguise. I made up for that with about 10 mins of taking out the collected rubbish in my bedroom. The bin bag was about the size of Santa’s xmas present sack (on a really busy day) dragged down three flights of stairs, through the living area, out the door, through the front porch past the main gate to the rubbish bins right at which the bag had finally decided to give way and exploded to reveal an embarrassing variety of things: old books, used tissues, an in-the-process-of-oxidization apple core, the odd broken trinket purchased years ago when I thought I was cool, a used ballpoint ben that had seen better days, etc. It wasn’t fun I can tell you, trying to clean up this explosion of mine. Talk about a blast from the past.

Now wouldn’t you say it’s all the more reason to have a nice sitdown out on the patio with the dogs, a cold glass of Pimm’s and a slice of cake?

This recipe, I must say is rather special to me. It was recently added to my collection of other simple, rustic, unpretentious cake recipes; it is also a pudding recipe that the boyfriend and I followed for a dinner we were supposed to cook for the -rents. Well, his parents. Baking highstrung and nervous is not pleasant but the end results, I can say, were pretty damn good. And although our main course didn’t go quite according to plan due to unforeseen circumstances, the pudding was spot on. I reckon on his part, it was a pretty amusing sight to watch me squirm, forget the sequence of events when it comes to whisking, turn sheet-white and have my tongue turn to stone upon the appearance of Parent A. Preparing the brandy cream was a little bit of challenge as I was so tempted to down the whole bottle for Dutch courage. Thankfully I did not and I survived the ‘ordeal’. I exaggerate, as is appropriate to my storytelling style. The dinner was very nice and pleasant, and pretty much ended on a dreamy chocolate-induced note. Whey!

I love chocolate and love it in all its many forms except for the unfortunate few: white chocolate, orange chocolate and chocolate ice cream. It’s not that I won’t eat them. I just prefer not to because I don’t 100% enjoy them as I do, say, with very dark chocolate, molten chocolate cakes, brownies, hot chocolates, etc. Chocolate torte, on the other hand, is top on my list of chocolate cakes. I just love the way it looks. It makes me think of everything homemade, natural, gatherings with friends, the childhood favourites we always come back to like barley sugar, popcorn and TV dinners but with posh candles, grandmothers, my lovely cocker spaniel who looks a little rough-around-the-edges kind of dishevelled. Besides, tortes are made with just butter, eggs, brown sugar and chocolate. It’s really a recipe for chocaholics that does not deviate at all from the VIP ingredient – CHOCOLATE! For me, this is the LBD of all cakes. You can dress it down or jazz it up. Either way, it’s still superdeeduper good and you can’t fault it for its classic simplicity and elegance. 

I used to be a big fan of Devils’ Food Cake. I am a torte convert now. And I’m glad to share this recipe with y’all since it not only makes me reach chocolate high in 2 seconds flat, it has given me quite a few interesting memories and a wonderful opportunity to boss a special someone around the kitchen.

So…what’s your favourite chocolate sweet then? Mudpie? The notorious gooey brownie? Molten chocolate puds? Would love to hear what you’ve gotta say and if anyone else shares the same passion for tortes.

I could stay and talk but I’ve got a chicken that needs to be roasted before Mum gets home and if that bird ain’t golden brown and glossy with a honey lemon glaze by the time she’s back from the hairdressers, I might be in some trouble. So laters, I gotta go get roasting.

Dark Chocolate Torte with Brandy Cream
Ingredients

250g 70% cocoa dark chocolate, broken up into chunks
125g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
6 medium eggs, separated
100g + 25g light muscovado sugar

Grease and line a springform pan.
Preheat oven to 160d Celsius.

Separate the eggs, placing the egg yolks in a larger bowl than the egg whites. Set aside.

In a glass bowl over a bain-marie, gently melt the dark chocolate and butter. Stir at regular intervals to ensure that all the pieces are melted. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Whisk the egg yolks with 100g sugar for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture leaves a trail when whisk is lifted. The yolks should have become thick, doubled in amount and turned a light lemon yellowy colour. Fold in the chocolate mixture.

In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until peaking. Gradually whisk in remaining 25g sugar. Then, fold a quarter of the whites into the chocolate yolk mixture to lighten it. Finally, fold in the remaining whites until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix.

Pour into the prepared springform pan and place in preheated oven to bake for 30 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack in the springform pan til it is cool enough to handle. Remove from pan and let cool on a cool cake stand. I prefer not to let the torte cool directly on a wire rack as it is often too delicate and crumbly.

Some prefer to have their tortes cooled in the fridge so it becomes firmer and fudge-like. I like to serve mine immediately or have it warmed in the microwave for about 10 seconds before topping with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

For the brandy cream:

double cream
1-3 tbs brandy, depending on how much cream you are serving

I do not follow a recipe when it comes to brandy cream. I simply pour some double cream and a few tablespoons of brandy to my taste into a bowl. Whip whip whip. And serve.

Because my kitchen was boiling hot in this tropical heat, my cream melted fairly quick but nothing could take away the gorgeousness of this brandy-tasting cream. Melted or no, heavenly.