When I tell people that this is a pecan torte, the usual reaction is staring at me and asking "so what is it?" Well, it's mostly eggs, sugar, and pecans. It's a kind of cake that doesn't really have much flour in it. Which makes it excellent for modifying!
Make sure you get good pecans for this. They are the primary ingredient, so if you have a bad batch, the whole thing will taste off.
You definitely need a food processor to make this. I tried using a blender once to see if it would work. The answer is no. No, it does not. My sources LIED. Use the food processor.
First, you put in the eggs and sugar.
Then you process them! I know, it's a real shocker.
Next, dump in the pecans and process them until they look well-ground. They will still be large visible flecks though. Which is totally fine and normal.
The recipes I referenced to make this used orange zest, but that was a lot of work and left a huge flavor gap that made my mouth sad. So I tried adding ground ginger, and it fixed the flavor gap. The next time I made it after that, I deliberately experimented with just the ginger.
(I did not forget to buy oranges and declare it an experiment because I didn't want to go to the store again. I just want that known throughout the land.)
And the experiment was successful! Just ground ginger actually tasted better than with orange zest. So now that is the official recipe. This led to much rejoicing. By my family. Because they can convince me to make it more often when I don't have to fight oranges for their zest.
Anyway, the next step is adding in the dry ingredients. Then processing them.
Hopefully, you coerced a family member into cutting out parchment paper circles for the bottom of the pans already. If not, remind them that you are making delicious cake for them and it would be much easier if they could help a little. Or do it yourself. That's the less fun option.
You can pour the batter onto the pans. Or ladle it if you are chicken-hearted and afraid of spillage.
Then you bake them! And kindly let them rest in the pan before flipping them out. Preferably onto a plate. Unless you are frazzled and forget, then you grab a cooling rack and the cakes stick to it and get cross-hatching designs dug into them that you cover with frosting. Theoretically.
Then put the arbitrarily decided bottom layer and whatever you will be using to serve it. And cover it with frosting! I recommend using chocolate buttercream frosting. But you can do what you want. It's your kitchen.
After there is a nice coating of frosting, flip the top layer on. From the plate it was on to begin with. You totally didn't painstakingly peel it off the cooling rack and put it on the plate mere moments ago.
And then you finish frosting everything! And by everything, I mean the top and sides of the cake. Not random passers by or your own fingers.
When you're ready to devour it, slice it with a bread knife and serve. Yes, a bread knife because the pie cutter squashes it and makes the pieces all torn and lumpy.
Then you are ready to be very confused as to where it went the next day. Because you and your family definitely have enough self-restraint to not eat a whole cake in one day. Just like mine!
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