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PRINZ-TORTE - Austrian 8-layer chocolate cake
I made this recipe for my boyfriend on his birthday and he
asked me to marry him (I did). I'm not saying for sure that
the Prinzregent Torte is why Don wanted to marry me, but
I've always worried that it might have been. It is a magni-
ficent recipe that always evokes incredulous cries of pleas-
ure from people that I serve it to. The cake is a lot of
work, so I only make it about once a year, but the people
that I make it for feel very special.
CAKE
260 g salted butter
210 g sugar
0.5 ml vanilla extract
4 eggs, (large, or 5 medium) beaten.
150 g cake flour
75 g cornstarch
5 ml baking powder
FILLING
500 ml chocolate pudding (extra strong)
200 g unsalted butter
220 g powdered 10X sugar
FROSTING
30 ml bitter cocoa powder
30 g melted sweet butter
40-60 ml boiling water
(1) In an electric mixer, whip the salted butter. Add
sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Beat smooth.
(2) Mix flour with cornstarch and baking powder and
sift a second time (you sifted it once before you
measured it, right?). Add flour mixture to egg
mixture, stirring constantly.
(3) Make 8 layers, each less than 5 mm thick, by bak-
ing each in the bottom of a 20-cm springform layer
pan. Do this by cutting a round of baker's parch-
ment that exactly fits the bottom of the layer
pan, then using a spatula to spread the dough
evenly over the parchment. Make sure that it
doesn't get too thin at the edges.
(4) Bake each layer for 7 minutes in a preheated 200
deg. C oven. Stack the layers separated by waxed
paper.
(5) Make the pudding. Use more chocolate in the pud-
ding than you would normally use. If you want to
be lazy and use pudding from a mix, then add 15 ml
of top-quality cocoa to the pudding mix. Stir the
pudding while it cools so that it does not
congeal.
(6) Beat the unsalted butter until it is very smooth.
When the butter and pudding are about the same
temperature, add the pudding to the butter to get
an even, smooth buttercream.
(7) Use the pudding/butter mixture as mortar, and
layer the cake together, spreading the
pudding/butter evenly between the layers. Make
sure the layers are even, and parallel; if they
are not, or if one is not straight, you can mend
things with a little extra pudding here and there.
Do not put pudding on top of the topmost layer,
and try not to get too much on the outside edges.
(8) Make a chocolate frosting: sift the powdered 10X
sugar and cocoa together, add the melted butter
while stirring constantly, then add boiling water.
(9) Frost the cake, taking pains to make sure the
sides are perfectly smooth and the top is per-
fectly smooth. Let the cake sit at cool room tem-
perature for at least an hour before serving.
If you are not an experienced baker, you should be warned
that in recipes like this it is important to measure exactly
and to follow the instructions exactly. People who prefer to
cook by testing, tasting, and adding more ingredients should
avoid intricate baking.
These layers are baked in the bottom of a springform pan.
Such a pan bottom is 20 cm in diameter, and has a raised lip
that is about 2 mm high. It resembles a miniature pizza
pan. I have never succeeded in making this torte with layers
bigger than 25 cm; 20 cm is easier. The baker's parchment is
crucial and there is no good substitute, though buttered
kraft paper (from shopping bags) will work in a pinch. Use a
new piece of parchment for each layer. If you don't make the
layers straight, then when you pile them up, the cake will
be mounded up in the middle or will sag down in the middle
or will tilt to one side.
If you are not an experienced cake froster, then make double
the recipe of frosting. Unskilled frosters usually use too
much frosting, and you don't really want to run out. You can
charge money to people who want to lick the spoon if there
is any left over.
Difficulty: rather difficult. Time: 1 hour. Precision:
measure carefully.
Delight Covill
Fairchild Camera and Instrument
| Last modified: 9 May 2006 | 8 hits in May 2013 |
