The Idea:
I received information from a friend that for mother’s day a local „celebrity” chef was going host a country torte contest for his TV show. My first task was to find out exactly what was meant by „country” torte. The only printed requirements were 1) it has to be sweet; 2) 20 eggs must be used; 3) butter must be used. Well, these requirements only made me realize that I was going to be making a huge torte since most of my recipes for a single cake require about 3-5 eggs. I asked around and the best information I received was that it was supposed to be something your country grandmother would make. My options were wide open. I eliminated chocolate as an option and tried to think of what torte ingredients were „local.” This led me to base my torte on blackberries and hazelnuts. I imagined three cake layers separated by frosting and berry filling. I had no clue what it would look like, as decorating is not my strong point, but I was inspired by a local children’s author when I decided on the title of my entry: „Woodland Mystery.” (It sounds better in Latvian- Meža mistērija).
The Recipe:
Starting from from the bottom:
Layer 1- I googled moistest yellow cake and used the recipe from Cheftalk.com.
Layer 2- Frosting and this layer were Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC) with almond extract.
Layer 3- My friend BethAnne a while ago sent me a recipe for a french hazelnut cake, Creusois which is basically egg whites sugar and hazelnuts.
Layer4- Blackberry Filling from MyRecipes.com.
Layer 5- Same as layer 1.
Layer 6-Frosting- IMBC.
Decorations- Standard buttercream (basically butter & enormous amounts of powdered sugar). Before decorations-about 12kg!
Alterations-
-My blackberry filling was made with my own blackberry preserves rather than fozen fruit, so I reduced the sugar amount in the recipe.