Dobos Torte

Claire Clark shares the Dobos torte recipe she learned at college, while explicitly declining to confirm it as the original. Her version combines orange-zested sponge, chocolate buttercream, hazelnuts and caramel decoration.

The sponge uses separated eggs: yolks are whisked with half the icing sugar and vanilla, while whites take the other half. Flour and the whisked whites are folded into the yolks, followed by orange zest.

The buttercream combines melted dark chocolate with a mixture of egg yolks and cooked sugar syrup. Unsalted butter is added gradually, followed by orange oil and salt.

Six sponge strips are stacked with buttercream between them. More buttercream covers the top and sides, chopped toasted hazelnuts coat the sides, and the cake is chilled to firm up.

A separate sugar-and-water mixture is cooked into golden caramel and spooned into irregular shapes. Once these cool and harden, they decorate the cake removed from the fridge.