Millennium Torte from Baker’s Tour
This cake was created by the pastry chef Josef Haslinger of Vienna’s fanciest fancy food store, Julius Meinl am Graben, in honor of the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is a rich chocolate nut cake with a chocolate glaze, decorated with gold leaf. This is my version of the cake, not the official recipe from Meinl.
One 10-inch round cake, about 12 servings
CAKE BATTER
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
7 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
7 large eggs, separated
1 1/3 cups (about 5 1/2 ounces) ground hazelnuts or walnuts
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
Pinch salt
CURRANT GLAZE
1 cup currant jelly
CHOCOLATE GLAZE
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Gold leaf for decorating
One 10-inch round cake pan, 2 inches deep, buttered and the bottom lined with a disk of buttered parchment or wax paper
Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with half the sugar on medium speed until light, about 5 minutes. Beat in the chocolate and scrape down the bowl and beater with a large rubber spatula.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating smooth after each addition. Beat in the ground nuts and bread crumbs. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the batter a good stir with a large rubber spatula. If you have only one mixer bowl, scrape the butter and yolk mixture into a medium bowl and wash the mixer bowl with hot soapy water, then rinse and dry it.
In the clean, dry mixer bowl, whip the egg whites and salt with the whisk attachment on medium speed, until the egg whites are white, opaque, and beginning to hold their shape. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and whip in the remaining sugar in a stream, continuing to whip until the egg whites hold a soft, glossy peak.
Stir a quarter of the egg whites into the batter, and then gently fold in the rest to avoid deflating the egg whites and losing air in the batter.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake until it is well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake emerges dry, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then invert it onto the rack and lift off the pan. Cool the cake completely on the rack.
To finish the cake, turn it right side up again and trim the top of the cake straight if it has sunk slightly in the center. Turn the cake over again onto a cardboard so that the smooth bottom of the cake is now facing up.
For the currant glaze, place the jelly in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a boil and reduce until no longer watery, about 5 minutes. Use a small pastry brush to paint the glaze all over the outside of the cake. Position the cake on a rack over a clean jelly roll pan before preparing the chocolate glaze.
For the chocolate glaze, stir together the water, corn syrup, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring the syrup to a full rolling boil, stirring occasionally to make sure that all the sugar crystals dissolve. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate. Gently shake the pan to make sure that all the chocolate is submerged in the syrup. Let the glaze stand for 2 minutes to melt the chocolate. Whisk the glaze smooth and immediately pour the glaze over the cake, starting in the center of the cake and making a spiral with the stream of glaze falling from the pan, ending with a final pour on the top edge of the cake. Quickly patch up any bare spots on the side of the cake with a small spatula, using the glaze that has dripped onto the pan under the cake. Let the cake stay in place on the rack for at least 30 minutes to set the glaze.
Use a small paring knife to detach the bottom edge of the cake from the rack before trying to move it. Place the cake on a platter and decorate with shreds of gold leaf.