Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by April of Short + Rose. She selected the Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte and you can get the complete recipe on her blog. Dorie describes the inspiration for this cake as a Black Forest Cake, but it’s quite different. This has a dense chocolate brownie layer with dried cherries and chocolate chunks which is then topped with a mascarpone mousse. I love chocolate and cherry together so I was really excited to make this recipe.

I made this torte on a day when I was making quite a few other things, and I think that was a mistake. The recipe uses up a lot of dishes: a bowl for the flour, a saucepan, a double boiler, and two mixing bowls for my stand mixer. When I started this recipe, I think I had already done the dishes a few times, and I ended up doing the dishes a couple more times by the end of the day. I have to say that I prefer recipes that use fewer dishes! I was a little frustrated just reading through the recipe!

Once I got started, the cake wasn’t difficult, but it did have a lot of components. One of the main components is bringing cherries and cherry brandy to a boil and then setting it alight to burn off the alcohol. I’ve done this a couple times but it’s still a little scary. I lit mine and it seemed to burn for a really long time. I finally put a lid on my pan so the flames would go out. It had been a busy day and I didn’t really have the patience for a kitchen fire. I also was worried that I over mixed the batter, since it was hard to get the chocolate mixed in to the eggs. It still seemed fairly light and airy when I put it in the pan to bake, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I refrigerated my torte overnight, and I would recommend doing that. It was a little hard to cut straight out of the refrigerator, but the mousse tastes best when it is really cold. This is super rich and you can’t eat a very big piece. I think you could take the brownie layer and bake it in a brownie pan and make some fine brownies. For the torte, I think the brownie later is a little too thick. I would also leave the chopped chocolate out, since the chunks were a bit too much. I loved the cherries though. I also loved the mousse, and I think it would work with so many different cakes. This torte would be a great choice for a fancy dinner as long as you have some patience (and maybe someone to do the dishes).

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 284-285.