Chocolate Torte made with homemade caramel, dark chocolate, and hazelnut flour topped with Kahlua Buttercream for a snowy day dessert?! Do I have your attention?!!
Super soft and moist torte transformed into a layer cake is just what you need this winter. I added a little coffee liquor rum to the buttercream for a boozy kick.
I’ve missed living in the mountains with all the snow covered pine trees. So, I decided to make a mountain top scene for my torte cake. A rustic design with buttercream layered across the sides and piped trees. Finished with a light dusting of powdered sugar, mixed with cinnamon.
Tips for Caramel Hazelnut Chocolate Torte Cake:
- Make Homemade Caramel or use store bought.
- Beat butter and sugar together until creamy with paddle attachment.
- Switch to whisk attachment for adding eggs, caramel, melted dark chocolate, and vanilla.
- Slowly spoon flour in while continuing to mix.
- Cake batter should resemble a thick mousse consistency.
- Spoon into cake pans and level with spatula.
- Bake until toothpick comes out just slightly gooey. Shouldn’t be wet with chocolate butter, but not a dry crumble.
- Cakes will have a slight cracked dome when baked, but deflate slightly to an even top as they cool.
- Let your cakes completely cool before adding buttercream.
- Place layers in the freezer for 30-45 minutes once cooled, to help with assembly.
Tips for Kahlua Buttercream:
- Make your buttercream while your cake layers are in the freezer.
- Always use room temperature butter when making your buttercream frosting.
- Use a piping bag or spatula to cover first cake layer with frosting.
- Cover the sides of cake with buttercream and add rough whispy stokes with spatula.
- Leave the top of your cake bare for the trees.
- Fit your piping bag with a Wilton #6B piping tip to create trees.
- Squeeze from top of piping bag until you have a good tree base, then slowly squeeze and lift to create the tree.
Caramel Hazelnut Chocolate Torte Cake
Chocolate Torte made with homemade caramel, dark chocolate, and cake flour, hazelnut flour then topped with Kahlua Buttercream.
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Servings: 12 slices
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 2 Cups Hazelnut Flour
- 1 Cup Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 8 Tbsp Butter, softened softened
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 8 Eggs
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup Caramel
- 12 oz Dark Chocolate melted
Kahlua Buttercream
- 8 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, softened
- 3 Tbsp Kahlua
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 6 Tbsp Almond Milk
- 4-5 Cups Powdered Sugar
Topping
- Ground Cinnamon for dusting
- Powdered Sugar for dusting
Instructions
Cake Batter
- Preheat Oven to 350 F (190 C) and prepare two 8 inch cake pans.
- In a medium bowl, hand whisk together flours, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer with whisk or paddle attachment, beat together sugar and butter on medium high speed until smooth.
- Add one egg at a time, continuing on medium speed until incorporated and mixture is fluffy.
- You may need to scrape sides and bottom of the bowl periodically to make sure all ingredients are well mixed.
- Add vanilla, caramel, and melted chocolate. Mix until incorporated.
- Slowly spoon flour mixture into wet mixture, continuing on medium speed until a thick mousse like batter is formed.
- Spoon batter into cake pans, dividing evenly amongst between the two. (Level batter with a spatula.)
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a little moist chocolate.
- (Bake on low to middle rack. I check each cake individually. )
- Once cake are done, place on cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.
- Next, place your hand on top of cake and flip upside down, to release cake from pan. (You can also fo this with a plate.)
- Wrap each layer in plastic wrap gently and place in freezer for 45 minutes.
Make your Kahlua Buttercream
- In bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment whip butter at medium high until smooth.
- Add Kahlua, vanilla and almond milk and whip again until creamy.
- Slowly spoon a cup of powdered sugar at a time into the mixture. Make sure each cup is well mixed before adding the second. (Again, you may need to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.)
- If you find your mixture is too thick add more almond milk a Tbsp at a time.
- If you find your mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar, mixing until desired thickness is reached.
Assemble Cake
- Remove layers from freezer.
- Unwrap and Peel the parchment paper from the bottom and set layers face up on counter.
- Grab your cake stand or serving dish and dollup a half dollar size of buttercream frosting onto the center.Place one layer onto cake stand.
- Spoon and smear a layer of Kahlua buttercream across the top. Slightly going over the edges.
- Add top layer of cake.
- Using an icing spatula or piping bag, cover sides with buttercream. Leave top of cake bare.
- Use an offset spatula to smooth the sides of the cake.
- Transfer remaining buttercream to piping bag with tip of choice. Begin to pipe trees.
- Start in the center of cake and move outward.
- Pipe a dollup of buttercream, then a second smaller dollop on the top to create a tree.
- Sprinkle trees with cinnamon and powdered sugar.
did you make this recipe?Mention @twocupsflour or tag #twocupsflour!