Glazed Hazelnut Torte

I have started to work my way through Classic German Baking. It is a well-written book and the recipes are uniformly tempting. Given that I still have some hazelnuts from my Seattle trip, I decided to give this cake a try.

I toasted, then ground the hazelnuts. I was a bit short so I added a few almonds.

Seven room-temperature eggs, separated.

I creamed together the butter and egg yolks.

I then folded in the hazelnuts + flour. The amount of flour is small compared to the nuts.

This is an old fashioned cake that gets its body from egg whites. I whipped the whites into firm peaks.

I then folded them into the remainder of the batter, striking a balance between mixing and inflation.

Into the springform pan for a 45 minute bake.

Once the cake was cool, I split it open and filled it with preserves. I used strawberries rather than raspberries since I am still working off a huge surplus of strawberry preserves from last summer’s canning extravaganza.

I then reassembled the cake and coated it with a glaze made of powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Cakes with large amounts of nut flour are best left for at least a day before eating. Waiting was hard but worth the self-restraint. The crumb of the cake, consisting as it does mostly of nuts, has a very different taste and texture that I greatly enjoyed. The book repeatedly reminds us that German sweets are not so sweet by American standards. I agree and I prefer the more moderated sweetness. This cake in particular demonstrates a wonderful balance between sweet and tart.

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