Caramel Hazelut Chocolate Torte Cake

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

By Jenn

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Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 50 minutes mins

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.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

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