Chocolate cake has a special place in my heart and I always feel guilty after looking at it. Maybe because I still remember eating only one slice of my birthday cake from 2 years ago (which I baked and iced myself) and having to throw most of it away as I fell sick. I’ve baked and not baked (I’m looking at you no-bakes) numerous chocolate cakes and today’s instance is no different except for the fact that it turned out a little bit different than what I though it would: a torte instead of a cake.

Now you may be wondering (or not if you’re not interested) what a torte is and why I’m comparing it to a cake. A torte is basically a richer, denser version of a cake that has no or little flour. Instead of flour, tortes rely on ground nuts to provide structure to them. In my instance I only realised this after looking back at the recipe: it had more nuts than it did flour and no leavening agents, but lots of eggs.

Initially I thought that the first step (creaming eggs and sugar) would give a result similar to chiffon cake (Notice that I’m using the word similar and not same; that’s because chiffon cakes have only whites, this cake uses the whole egg). I noticed I wasn’t using (only) whites to make meringue and the recipe did not call for any baking soda/ powder. This left me wondering how the cake was going to rise in the oven. My suspicions were correct and it barely rose, turning out to be a torte rather than a 2 layered cake!

If you’ve read up to here (I know no one reads my blog posts) I’m really sorry for this cake analysis. But let’s come to the other components! We have a rich chocolate ganache and some feathered white chocolate for some theatrical awe. The result? A dense, pistachio loaded cake with decadent ganache. It’s not too sweet, not too heavy; just the right ticket, as Harry’s Aunt Marge once said.

There's never enough chocolate.

Chocolate & pistachio torte:

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• 2.75 oz dark chocolate, melted
• 1 cup chopped toasted pistachios

Grease a 7 inch baking pan and line it with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 325F/ about 132C. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the eggs and sugar for about 10 minutes with an electric mixer until the mixture is pale yellow and foamy. Sift and fold the flour and cocoa powder into this mixture. Gently add and fold in the melted chocolate and butter until just combined. Fold in the chopped pistachios. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Chocolate ganache:

• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 100g dark chocolate

In a pan, heat the cream on a low flame until it just starts to bubble. Add the chocolate and allow it to melt in the cream, stirring occasionally to break any lumps. Once the chocolate has combined and you no longer see white streaks of cream, remove from heat and cool slightly.

Feathering and assembly:

• 60g white/ milk chocolate
• 1 tbsp. butter
• Prepared ganache

Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler. While the chocolate is melting, spread the ganache over the cooled cake using an offset spatula. There may be some extra ganache, so enjoy! Once the chocolate has melted, add the butter and stir. Cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a piping bag with a round tip 4 (I use Wilton), or any other small round tip. Pipe circles onto the ganache. Feather with a toothpick. Allow to set in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes then it’s all yours!