August Daring Bakers' Challenge

I bring you August's Challenge...a day late. Yes, I am late though with good reason I assure you. Flying home, helping my sister move, running errands, and finally seeing my boyfriend again made for a very busy (but great) yesterday. Busy and no time to blog. But now, I have finally opened my laptop to share with you the first homemade cake I have EVER made (I'm not kidding):

Dobos Torte

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.

So a cake, eh? As mentioned, I had never before made a cake from scratch. Weird, yes, but well I hate cake! Why eat something so sweet it gives one a bellyache after a single bite? And why make something I hate? I don't know. However, I was finally convinced. What won me over in the end was 1) the torte looked so beautiful and 2) it was a European Torte after all. I hoped it would be less sweet than American treats.

So I began baking... and then, this daring baker learned a lesson.

Once the baking was complete, I shared the Dobos at a birthday party. There were only a few guests so I expected to have at least half of the torte for photography purposes. At the end of the party about half of the torte was left. Good. But then, over the next couple days the torte VANISHED--before I was able to take any pictures. At least, someone got this little snapshot of my roommate holding the cake for the birthday girl. From now on, photography comes first and sharing food comes second! Lesson learned.

(You can barely see the Dobos so I recommend visiting The Daring Kitchen's homepage to see what the Dobos Torte really looks like.)

Now, the Torte was exceptionally fun to bake, and I felt so artistic creating the layers and the caramel doused wedges. However, I spent nearly three hours on this challenge! I blame Miss Betty Crocker who was MIA, leaving me alone to fend for myself. I followed the recipe (link is at bottom of post) almost exactly. Instead of using nuts, I sprinkled the Dobos with cinnamon and I used less than half of the butter for which the frosting recipe called. The butter cream frosting still turned out well--easy to spread, etc. Also, I'm assuming cutting one and a half sticks of butter would make the Dobos healthier...slightly, just slightly.

If I may say so myself, I feel a little proud of my first homemade cake-baking experience. Thanks for a fun challenge.

The recipe for the Dobos Torte can be found here.