Hazelnut Torte

This is Aunt Dottie's description of Tante Helene's cake. There are three parts, the hazelnut cake, butter cream filling, and a rum glaze.

1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 1/2 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 5 egg whites, stiffly beaten 1 cup chopped hazelnuts

Dottie's recipe for hazelnut torte

Cream shortening. Add sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and add alternately with milk and vanilla, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in egg whites. Bake in 10 inch spring form at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes.

Butter Cream Filling

• 5 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 to 3/4 pound sweet butter

In top of double boiler put yolks, sugar, corn starch, and milk. Set over boiling water and cook, stirring constantly until thickened (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat and add vanilla. Let it cool.

Put the batter in the bowl of electric beater and add very small pieces of sweet butter up to about 3/4 pound. Beat until smooth after each addition. Put in refrigerator.

(I [Dottie] buy 2 sticks (1/2 pound) of sweet butter and use some of my salt butter for the rest. I have never had to use the full 3/4 pound.)

As I interpret this, Tante Helene used 3 sticks of unsalted butter, adding small bits and beating constantly. Dottie saved money by using 2 sticks of unsalted butter and then adding bits of salted butter until the cream got to the consistency she wanted. How thick (or thin, or fluffy) should butter cream be? That depends on individual taste and what a cook's family is used to.

Cut the cake through the middle. put in the butter cream (it will be a thick layer) on bottom half, put on top and proceed with the rum icing.

Some cooks divide the cake layers in half edgewise to make four layers, so the cream layers are not so thick.

Rum Icing

• 1 to 2 cups superfine sugar
• enough rum and water to make a runny paste

Mom [Tante Helene] took a couple of cups of 10x sugar and added some rum and a little water (very little) brought it to a boil and poured it over the cake,I never get this as nice as hers, but Kurt and the kids are happy with it and say it tastes the same.

10x sugar is confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar that has been milled 10 times to make finer than regular granulated sugar. Some companies add corn starch to powdered sugar keep it from caking, but that will affect the flavor and consistency of the icing. Dottie doesn't say how much rum. Add the liquid to the sugar in small bits, a teaspoonful or so at a time and stir until you get the thickness of icing you want. The glaze should not be so thin that it soaks into the cake. I always find it takes far less liquid than I expected. For a non-alcoholic cake, use orange juice and no water.