Mocha Chocolate Torte
Submitted by melbrimc
Layered mocha chocolate torte with bloomed cocoa cake, espresso-spiked ermine filling, pecans, and creamy white frosting. Four-layer celebration cake.
YIELD
14 servingsPREP
40 minCOOK
35 minREADY
75 minA four-layer mocha chocolate torte built from three classic American baking techniques: a buttermilk cocoa cake, an old-school ermine-style mocha filling, and a fluffy white powdered sugar frosting. Each cake gets split horizontally so you end up with four thin, even layers and three generous strata of coffee-spiked chocolate buttercream between them.
The cocoa gets bloomed with boiling water before going into the batter, a step that wakes up its deeper flavor compounds and turns the cake from merely chocolate into deeply chocolate. The buttermilk reacts with the baking soda for the soft, tender crumb that holds up to slicing without crumbling.
The filling is a true ermine: cooked flour and milk paste creamed into butter and sugar with cocoa and dissolved instant coffee. The result tastes like silk, less sweet than American buttercream, with the right body to spread between layers without sliding out.
Pro Tips
- Cool both the cocoa paste and the flour-milk paste completely before mixing into the cake or filling. Warm pastes ruin the texture
- Split each cake layer with a long serrated knife. Score around the side first as a guide, then saw through evenly
- Beat the filling a full 5 minutes after combining. Underbeating gives a heavy, dense paste instead of a fluffy spread
- Refrigerate the assembled torte 1 hour before slicing. Cold cake cuts cleanly and the layers hold their stack
Variations
- Stir 2 tablespoons of Kahlúa or coffee liqueur into the filling for a more grown-up flavor
- Use walnuts instead of pecans inside the filling for a different nut character
- Top with chocolate ganache instead of the white frosting for a sleeker, more dramatic finish
Ingredients
Directions
For cake, make a paste of cocoa and water.
Cool and set aside.
Sift together flour, soda and salt; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter.
Add eggs and vanilla. Blend in cocoa mixture.
Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Blend until smooth.
Pour into two greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.
Bake at 350℉ (180℃) F for 35 minutes or until cake tests done.
Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
For filling, cook flour and milk in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick.
Cool.
Meanwhile, cream sugar and butter until light.
Dissolve coffee in water; add with vanilla, cocoa and milk mixture to creamed mixture.
Beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Fold in nuts.
Split each cake layer in half.
Divide filling into thirds and spread between layers.
For frosting, cream shortening and butter.
Add milk, water, vanilla, salt and half the sugar.
Beat well.
Add remaining sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy.
Spread over top and sides of cake.
Garnish with pecan halves, if desired.
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