Hazelnut Torte

Jenny Sanders's Note:

This is an excellent, excellent cake, although not inexpensive to make. You can make it dairy free, just don't use butter on the pans. It can also be made gluten-free, if you use rice flour. I have not given instructions for icing it, but it should be iced and generally presented quite formally; this is a special occasion cake. I like either a chocolate frosting or glaze on this. Also I have tinted and rolled out marzipan which I then cut with cookie cutters and used to decorate the iced cake. If I put a chocolate glaze on it, I like to add a thin layer of apricot jam over the cake first. "Go nuts!" (Prep time does not include icing or decorating the cake.)

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

• 2 cups ground hazelnuts
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 tablespoons flour or 4 tablespoons rice flour
• 8 eggs

Directions:

1. Line the bottom of 2 round 9" cake pans with parchment paper.
2. Butter (or oil) and flour them, including the parchment paper on the bottoms.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
4. Blend 1/2 of each- that's 1/2 of each- of the nuts, sugar, flour and baking powder in a food processor until the nuts are powdered and everything is well blended.
5. Add 4 of the eggs and process well.
6. Pour into one of the cake pans.
7. Wash and dry the food processor parts.
8. Repeat with the other half of the ingredients and the other cake pan.
9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. DO NOT jiggle the pans during baking.
10. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then remove them carefully to a rack to finish cooling.

Reviews

[Is it tasty?]

My only substitution was to use Splenda instead of flour, and my cake turned out a bit dry. Don't know if that's why or if I should have used extra-large eggs. A good dark chocolate glaze or frosting would have really made the cake. The glaze recipe I tried (for the first time) was too runny.

[Chef #1169164]

Jenny this is a wonderful recipe and so easy. I've made it at least three times so far and I've just joined this site only so I can rate it. The only thing I don't understand is why you make it in two batches. Do you have a small food processor? I put everything in mine in one go, then pour it into two identical baking tins. Today being St Valentine's Day, I used heart-shaped silicone tins. The cakes are now cooling, later I'll sandwich them together with sweetened chestnut puree and ice it with ganache. Thank you for this recipe. Sunny www.slimmercook.com

[Chef #779475]

What a hit! I made this for my boyfriend's family dinner and everyone is asking for the recipe.. I covered the entire cake up with chocolate frosting, and it was all gone by the end of the night.. Awesome recipe!