Food with JP passion: Tasty Torte
By JP Kennedy
John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook and an avid fan of collecting cookery books with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking. His passion for proper family cooking stems from his TWO Grandmothers who were both excellent cooks, one of whom was a trained chef. JP promises to bring us plenty of family-inspired recipes and tasty treats while showing us how to get the basics right.
This is an old recipe I have recently rediscovered and I asked myself the question; why did I ever stop making it? This is a delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe that is great for when you are entertaining as it can be made well in advance of your guests arrival.
I first learned to make this cake after I received a lovely birthday gift from my parents to attend The Cookery School by Clodagh McKenna baking class at the Village at Lyons and this was one of the cakes we made that day.
I’ve amassed more and more cookbooks and recipes over the years and upon a recent tidy out of all things cookery I came across the recipe and decided I had to make it again; not just for its delicious taste but also for nostalgic purposes as this cake evokes wonderful memories for me.
Give this a try and maybe this torte cake will become one of your favourite family recipes too.
Delicious Flourless Chocolate Torte
Ingredients:
- 200g good quality dark bitter Chocolate (Again like my brownie recipe I use 70% cocoa solids good quality dark chocolate)
- 150g castor sugar
- 150g unsalted butter
- 100g ground almonds
- 5 eggs separated
- 1 tablespoon strong espresso coffee
- 1 tablespoon of rum
- Icing sugar to decorate
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a large bowl sitting over a pot of barley simmering water, melt the chocolate, coffee, rum and sugar.
3. Once melted remove from the heat and stir well until everything is well combined.
4. Add the ground almonds and mix well.
5. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time and in a separate bowl beat the egg whites together until stiff and peaks form.
6. Stir in a couple of spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate batter mix to lighten it first, before gently folding in the rest until well combined.
7. Pop the cake batter in a buttered and floured 20cm round cake tin and bake for 40-50 mins.
8. If you prefer the cake more fudgey bake for less time or more cakey bake for the longer time.
9. Leave to cool before removing from the cake tin and dust with icing sugar to serve. Served with deliciously whipped double cream and enjoy.
When I look back on the occasions I have made this torte it is always a celebration. Over the years it has been a regular at my Christmas themed supper on New Years Eve.
I made it last year for my younger brother Barry’s wings celebration after he passed his final pilots training flight test and it went down a treat.
The bitter chocolate coupled with the rum and coffee are a match made in heaven and really brings out the chocolate flavour beautifully.
While there is no flour in this cake, the ground almonds make this torte deliciously rich so it will go a long way serving between 6-8 people, 6-8 very happy people I guarantee you!
Contact JP On:
Twitter: @JPKCooking
Email: JPKCooking@gmail.com
Instagram: jpkennedy.kennedy
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