Kitchen Experiment: Esterhazy Torta, a First Attempt

Happy 2019, everyone! I hope that 2018 treated you well, and that 2019 will be even better to you. And for my first offering of 2019, I present to you a little kitchen experiment: Esterhazy Torta!

I thought I'd kick off the year with someone I've been wanting to try ever since I did the Doboš Torte in 2017. Decadent confections of Central Europe hold a lot of fascination for me, and this delight from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire is quite an unusual treat. A good start to what I hope is a year of shameless experimentation.

2018 was my least prolific year on this blog since 2016, which makes sense as 2017 was the most prolific year of my blog ever. I suppose I used up all my ideas in 2017! And this year had a punishingly long hot summer, which curbed the baking output somewhat. But I have a lot of good plans for this year, including more videos (I got a nice bit of practise in last year, and learnt from a multitude of mistakes) and designing a cookery book for my own personal entertainment. Who knows, I might release it some day.

But in my own real life outside of the blog, I already know that 2019 will bring at least two wonderful things to my family. Firstly, I'm getting married in June to my best friend and the love of my life, which will be the best thing to happen to me in my life so far. And secondly, I will be an aunt! My oldest brother's daughter is due at the end of April, or the beginning of May, and she will be born in Cavan, where my brother and his wife will be living from February onward.

Once the Christmas feasting is over and forgotten about, I will start on my wedding cake trials. I will try a cupcake wedding cake, and a traditional tiered cake.

But, back to the cake!

Esterhazy Torta is a dacquoise cake, which is basically a fancy French term for a layered cake made from nutty meringues, sort of like macaroons. Dacquoise cakes can be layered with all sorts of things, like creme patissiere, whipped cream, melted chocolate, or buttercream. This cake is made of delicate walnut dacquoise layers, sandwiched with vanilla and amaretto flavoured French buttercream, which is a style of buttercream that uses an egg yolk custard. It's very, very similar to Ermine buttercream, like in my red velvet cake.

Having made this cake, I can assure you it's absolutely not my thing at all. It sounded great on paper, but in reality it was far too rich and sickly. Nuts, vanilla, eggs, butter, and amaretto together is just unrelentingly sweet. If you like sugarbombs, then this is for you.

How I Made this Cake

To make the dacquoise layers, I made a simple French meringue with one egg white and one ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar. I folded in an ounce of ground walnuts, which had been lightly toasted in a dry frying pan. I divided the mixture in four (although, in retrospect, in three would have got nicer, thicker layers) and spread it out thinly into four 4 inch circles. I baked them at 180C for 6 minutes.

To make the buttercream, I gently cooked the egg yolk, an ounce of sugar, and an ounce of milk in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until I had a nice, thick custard. I allowed this to cool completely before whipping in two ounces of room temperature butter to make an icing.

To assemble, I brushed the cake layers with amaretto, and layered the cake and iced the outside. I packed chopped walnuts onto the sides, and feathered the top with some dark chocolate.

How I Would Do This Cake Differently in Future

I think in future to take the edge off the sweetness, I would use some cream cheese in the icing to add a note of tanginess. I would also use dark rum in place of amaretto, which has a much harsher quality. I would also make the dacquoise layers thicker and the icing layers thinner, more like a glue to hold it together. I would also use a traditional glacé icing topping, maybe made with a little lemon juice, to balance the sickliness with some more tang.

Keep your eyes peeled for further experiments!