#dobos cake

.sweetober day 29

My mother used to make the most delicious butter cream cakes. She would make one a week, it usually had three layers, two chocolate cake and the middle layer would be a vanilla flavoured cake, and each layer would be about 3 cm high. There would be a thick layer of chocolate butter cream between the layers on cake. She would bake the cake in an ice tray, which was about 30 cm by 45 cm long, and the cake would be about 10cm high. A truly decadent cake. My father loved this cake but he never ate it! Whenever it would disappear, we would ask who ate the cake, his response was always “Not me, I didn’t eat the cake, I just tasted it!” “Yes” we would reply, “you just tasted the whole cake!”

I was looking through an old magazine the other day and found this recipe for a Dobos Cake. I decided to make it for my friends birthday.

This was done in three parts. The first part was the cake. Very basic ingredients:

8 eggs, seperated 400 gms caster sugar, (keep 150gms aside to carmelize) 250 gms, gluten free plain flour 125 gms butter, melted then cooled 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts to serve

This cake is usually cooked on three trays, with the batter spread thinly, I used 2 aluminium pie trays, which I alternated to cook the cakes. This mixture made enough mixture to make 10 round cakes.

Method:

1. Put eggwhites into a bowl and use an electric mixer and beat on medium until the eggs form soft peaks. Add 250gms of the caster sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time until it has all been dissolved. Whisk for about 5 minutes or until it is thick and glossy. Fold in the yolks, vanilla, flour and butter.

Place about 100gms of mixture into an oiled pie tin. I put a folded sheet of baking paper on the hotplate, place the tray onto the paper, cover with more paper. Lower the lid and cook for about 6 minutes. This is plenty of time for the cake to cook.

When all 10 cakes had been cooked and cooled, I prepared the butter cream.

Buttercream Ingredients: 500gms icing sugar 250 gms unsalted butter at room tempreture 125 ml milk 2 teaspoon vanilla 250gms 70% dark chocolate, melted, at room tempreture.

Put icing sugar and butter into a bowl and beat with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla and the melted chocolate. Beat until smooth.

I melted the chocolate on the sandwich maker. I placed the broken chocolate onto a papered hot plate, covered with a sheet of paper and lowered the lid. It took about 1 minute to melt the chocolate.

When the buttercream is ready, prepare the cake. I sliced one cake in half, this would be used to decorate the cake.

Put one cake onto a plate and cover with the butter cream, place another cake on top and spread with cream. Continue in this way until you have made a stack of 4 cakes. Spread cream all over cake. Reserve about 2 tablespoons. (I made 3 layered cakes, 2 with 4 layers, one with 3 layers and one with 2 layers)

Put the remaining 150 gms of sugar into a tray and place onto the hotplate. Cook until the sugar dissolves and turns a caramel colour. (I attempted to do this on the sandwich maker but I ran out of time, so I actually did this part on the conventional oven) pour the carmelised sugar over the two pieces of cake, I had cut in half. Work quickly when you are pouring the carmelised sugar, spread it evenly. Use an oiled knife to cut the carmelized disks. Try to cut them evenly!

I added chopped nuts to the remaining butter cream and made small balls and placed them onto the top of the cake.

Place the cut wedges of carmelized cake onto the top of the cake.

Serve and enjoy.