prinzregent torte
categories: Cake | Desserts | International
Prepared: 2002-08-10
(austrian 8-layer chocolate cake)
Ingredients:
cake
- 9 oz butter, salted
- 9 oz sugar
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 lg eggs, beaten
- 1 2/3 cups cake flour, about -(sift before measuring!!)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups chocolate pudding (extra strong)
- 7 oz unsalted butter
- 1 2/3 cup powdered 10X sugar
- 1 oz cocoa powder, bitter
- 1 oz butter (sweet), melted
- 3 tbsp. water, boiling - (up to 4 tbsp)
Preparation:
- In an electric mixer, whip the salted butter.
add sugar, vanilla, and eggs.
beat smooth. - 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. - make 8 layers, each less than 5 mm thick, by baking each in the bottom of a 20-cm springform layer pan.
do this by cutting a round of baker's parchment 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. - bake each layer for 7 minutes in a preheated 200C oven.
stack the layers separated by waxed paper. - Make the pudding.
Use more chocolate in the pudding 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. - 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. - 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. - make a chocolate frosting: sift the powdered 10X sugar and cocoa together, add the melted butter while stirring constantly, then add boiling water.
- frost the cake, taking pains to make sure the sides are perfectly smooth and the top is perfectly smooth.
let the cake sit at cool room temperature for at least an hour before serving.
- 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 magnificent recipe that always evokes incredulous
cries of pleasure 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.
- 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.
the heart shaped prinzregent
torte that i made for our one year dating anniversary