Dobos Torta? Verdict: lush

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 Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

This month, we Daring Bakers were set to make a cake I have never heard of - a Hungarian classic called the Dobos Torta. Layers and layers of thin sponge, sandwiched together and iced all over.

You can get the recipe here. Normally, as a new-ish DB, I tend to stick quite closely to the recipe, but this month I decided to make a few variations of my own, and presented a lovely rectangular eight layer dark-chocolate-orange-and-almond cake.

To do this, I doubled the cake mix recipe, and made 5 11-inch squares, which I later trimmed and cut in half. My filling is alternating layers of home-made orange curd (Delia's recipe), and dark chocolate ganache. The flavours go beautifully together.

In all, I am pleasantly surprised. This was a LOT of work - it took me much longer than the estimated times we were given, but I guess that's always the way with new recipes - but the finished product was very classy. A great 'posh' cake, and it definitely tastes Central European - lovely with coffee.

Not sure I would make it again, unless it was for a very special occasion (and I'd certainly drop the caramel-covered cake wedges, which were overly-hard-work and not very tasty), but it was a great challenge - I really feel like I've stretched myself on this one.