Home on the Range - by Colette Geier

Honey and Hazelnut Torte

La Dolce Vita in the high country.

 

Honey and Hazelnut torteA plethora of Murrindindi produce sends Colette on a trip down memory lane.

 

 First published in 
 North by Northeast Magazine 
Oct 2015

I’m not a big fan of traditional wedding cake. My view has nothing to do with the old joke about what it does to a bride’s sexual appetite, I find that rather amusing, I just think most people don’t prioritise the right aspects.

Folks spend hundreds of hours (and dollars) making wedding cakes that look like works of art, but give little thought to the inside.

Cut it open and you’ll generally find either a nasty dry fruit cake or a stodgy, bland mudcake served with a gargantuan slab of disgusting Royal icing that is inevitably picked off and left sitting on the side of the plate.

Weddings are big business and getting more expensive by the minute so it makes a lot of sense to use the wedding cake as dessert rather than pay for another course but please, I beg you. Make it something worth eating.

It’s easy to get caught when Aunty Maude (who has won 1st place for her cake decorating at the local show for the last 30 years) offers to do the cake for nothing, but stand firm. There is no place in a stylish modern wedding for a 3-tiered monstrosity complete with white columns and endless sprays of apricot sugar roses (even if you do belong to a branch of some obscure Orthodox church).

But what has my gripe with wedding cakes got to do with life in Northeast Victoria you may wonder? Simple, I’m giving you the recipe for my own wedding cake which was anything but ordinary and it just happens all the main ingredients to recreate it are produced right here on your door step.

It occurred to me to share it as I was driving to Buxton last week. By the time I’d passed some beehives, a hazelnut grove, an egg farm an olive grove and arrived at a coffee roaster, I knew exactly which recipe to pull out.

I like a deadline and making my wedding cake was no exception. I had finished making my wedding dress around midnight the night before the wedding and the cake was finished the following day with just enough time to get home and get ready before saying I do.

The cake was huge, 3 levels high, smothered with white Italian meringue and a mass in gaudy brightly coloured sugar roses, but we were also married by the ex-mayor of Wodonga dressed in an Elvis suit, so it’s fair to say we were pushing the kitsch theme a little.

Elvis is alive and living in Wodonga

My wedding cake was not exactly something a single girl would want to stash under her pillow at night to find a beau, but believe me, there was no need for that old tradition. All the booze consumed at our wedding made sure plenty of romance took place amongst the single folk.

The components of this cake are not my invention; I just combined a couple of different cultures to make the most out of both.

The basis of this dessert is Lekah (Jewish honey cake) traditionally eaten during the holiday of Rosh Hashanah to ensure a ‘sweet’ new year.

There are probably a few Jewish bakers out there who would be horrified at the idea of stuffing traditional Honey cake with roasted hazelnuts, Frangelico and buttercream and it is totally gilding the lily. Honey cake is sublime on its own, but I’ve never been good at knowing when to stop.

Whatever your opinion, the honey cake worked its magic and has ensured my husband and I the ‘sweetest’ of marriages and anyway, stuff moderation, I’m a big supporter of the ‘more is more’ approach.

 

 

 

 

Honey and Hazelnut Torte

Honey cake:

1 cup strong coffee (I use 4 shots)

1 cup honey

1 cup olive oil

4 eggs

3 cups SR flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Use the hot coffee to help melt the honey and then combine all ingredients together and mix until smooth.

Divide into twin loaf or sponge tins (or a large round tin) lined with baking paper and bake at 180°c (160°c if fan forced) for an hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Hazelnut Buttercream:

2 cups of milk

4 tablespoons of custard powder (or corn flour)

1/3 cup Frangelico liqueur (optional)

2 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 cups hazelnuts

3 cups icing sugar

2 cups (2 blocks) of butter (room temp)

Whilst the cake is cooking, put the raw hazelnuts on a separate baking tray and throw them in the oven along with the cake until the skins crack and they start to brown (5-10 minutes), remove and allow to cool.

Mix the custard powder with a little of the milk to form a smooth paste and then pour in the remaining milk. This can be cooked in a saucepan or in a microwave just be sure to watch it or it will boil over. When the custard is thick, pour it into a mixing bowl and allow to cool, stirring occasionally so as not to form a thick skin.

Once the nuts are cool place them on a clean tea towel, gather the edges together (so they don’t escape) and rub and shake the bundle vigorously to help remove the skins. Don’t worry if some of the skins don’t come off, this will add a little colour.

Discard the skins and grind the nuts in a food processor, a spice grinder (or a mortar and pestle if you’re Amish).

If you want to make praline for the top, be sure to keep a handful of nuts whole.

Mix the cold custard, icing sugar, liqueur and vanilla with a beater until smooth. Slowly add the butter once spoon at a time until it is smooth and pale and finally beat through the hazelnut meal. Refrigerate the buttercream until it is firm enough to spread thickly.

Hazelnut Praline:

Place 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and boil to hardball stage (Google hard ball if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)

Pour onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and scatter with the reserved nuts.

Allow to cool and then break apart with a rolling pin or knife handle.

To assemble:

Slice the cool cake into even layers (I use a book or a chopping board as a guide to keep them even).

Liberally sandwich each layer with buttercream and then coat the entire thing. Top with Praline and refrigerate till firm.

Remove from the fridge an hour before serving, as the buttercream is much better when it’s not too cold.

 

 

 

 

 

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