Thursday, August 27, 2009

Daring Bakers: Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Failed Dobos Torte

It's hard to believe, but this is my twelfth challenge as a Daring Baker. It was just a year ago that I was rolling up my sleeves and rolling out lavash crackers accompanied with vegan dips. Who can forget the tossing of pizza? The most memorable, has to be the one that took the longest (3 days!!). Not all challenges have been successful. Overwhipping egg whites leads to an incredibly dry and tasteless flourless chocolate cake. Luckily I was able to try it again a while later and it turned out great. I hope to one day re-do this challenge because unfortunately, my "anniversary" Daring Bakers challenge was a complete fail. This torte is pretty simple if you think about it. It's several layers of sponge cake with chocolate buttercream and then a sponge layer coated in caramel. I first ran in to problems creating the sponge layers. My first few layers were too thin and were not coming off the parchment so I added some flour to the batter and made thicker layers. I was about to give up because I was running out of time (housewarming party to go to), but I finally got about five sponges to work with. The chocolate buttercream was a breeze, but even with chilling it was a little too soupy. The caramel was an absolute disaster. I now know that lemon juice has no business in caramel. It was repulsive.

Dobos Torte

Luckily, I was able to drown my sorrows in the pudding-like buttercream. At least this wasn't a super expensive failure. I took a bottle of wine to the housewarming instead of the cake fail.

Dobos Torte

PS, Don't be fooled by the semi-normal slice pictures. This was a total disaster. I hope to try it again soon.

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22 comments:

hampshire said...

Fabulous !!!!!!!!!!!! now i feel hungry.....

Erica said...

It turned out soooo pretty. I've never even heard of this dessert! I love seeing the results of all your daring baker challenges

Evan said...

Awwww!!! Sorry for your mishaps, but we all have them. Happy Daring Baker's anniversary!

Pearl said...

wow that dessert looks so cool!

maybelles mom said...

its really a failure? the pictures really are a fake out.

Mary Bergfeld said...

I love your honesty. If you decide to try again, I heartily recommend Maida Heatter's recipe.

Angry Asian said...

you are too hard on yourself. your cake looks wonderful, did it taste good? had you shown up to my place with this creation, i would've LOVED it.

you're so good to attempt things again!

vanillasugarblog said...

you know this would fly at an abstract art show right?
I would still eat it....

MarthaAndMe said...

Lemon juice in caramel does sound horrid, but your cake looks very nice.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

I'm sorry to hear that you had problems! It nonetheless looks delicious!

Cheers,

Rosa

Juliana said...

Yummie! This torte looks fantastic!

Diana said...

As someone who is CONSTANTLY failing in the kitchen, it's nice to see that someone else has similiar... problems.

Way to stick with it though. I probably would have started crying and chucked the whole thing in the garbage.

Madame Fromage said...

Awww, disaster or no, this looks like a fun challenge. I love the idea of Daring Bakers cooking the same things all across the country. Great blog@

Engineer Baker said...

Oh no! I'm sorry it wasn't a success in your eyes - it does look quite tasty though! And yes, the buttercream was amazing.

anna said...

Aww, we all have failures sometimes! It sure LOOKS good, and I'd love to see what happens if you try it again! At least you got yummy chocolate buttercream out of it ;)

Reeni said...

I'm sorry it didn't turn out! I don't like the sound of lemon in caramel either - that is just weird. I'm glad you got to at least eat the butter cream for all that work!

The Cooking Photographer said...

I bow to you daring bakers. Yikes!

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

This is gorgeous, I would love to taste it.

Anonymous said...

No matter how seasoned a baker you are, you will always have a few fails. I'm glad you shared so people will know it doesn't just happen to them. At least it looks pretty.

Hilda said...

Thanks for the tip about the lemon in the caramel Esi, I was really skeptical about it and you pushed me over the edge. Yours looks like it tasted good and I agree that this sponge recipe was weird and not a very good sponge to my taste. I think I might try it w/ a different sponge recipe and dark chocolate this winter, too hot now for such a thing right? ;) and Happy 1 yr DB anniversary!

Lisa said...

Dang, I'm so sorry it didn't work out for you, but as you inferred, the photos of it are really beautiful and mouth watering. Trust me, I'd eat that cake up before you could say 'Dobos Torte'..LOL

Chef Fresco said...

Bummer! I've read other of the baker's not having great results w. this one either, so at least you're not alone! It still looks pretty!