Halloween Chocolate and Caramel Torte

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Summer is gone and fall is here. The children are all getting excited for costumes, pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and decorating the house!

Now, I know when you think of October you think of pumpkin, or maybe an apple dessert. I know, I do too!

This Halloween Chocolate and Caramel Tort has neither of those things in it, what’s going on? This doesn’t belong in a fall dessert section?

Well, two of my daughters were invited to a birthday party this past weekend, and it was Halloween themed. Well, soft of. It was Wednesday themed!

One of my daughters has a peanut allergy, so when she goes to friends houses to eat, I will usually send her her own food. I wanted to make something that would match with the cake everyone else at the party would be eating.

I had wanted to make this Chocolate and Caramel Tort for a while now, but every birthday, at our house, I usually make a fun cake that the kids get to choose. So finally, I had my chance!

This recipe is pretty simple and so full of flavour! My husband had a piece to take with him, the same day as the birthday party. He said it was his second favourite cake he has ever had! (His first favourite is Tres Leches cake. He requests it EVERY SINGLE birthday, for as long as I can remember)

What is a Torte

A torte is similar to a cake. It has multiple layers, which are usually filled with whipped cream, icings, preserves, fruit curds, etc. The “cake” part is much heavier than a traditional sponge cake. It is more like a cookie. It is, stiff, when you remove it from the pan. The main cookie layers can be a variety of flavours, as well as the filling.

Alternative Flavour Ideas

I feel like the sky is the limit for this dessert! Some torte recipes that I would love to make recipes for are:

Strawberry and cream – Vanilla cookie layers, filled with whipped strawberry cream and cut up fresh strawberries.

Lemon – Lemon cookie layers, filled with lemon curd and cream.

Raspberry Lemon – Lemon cookie layers, filled with raspberry preserves, vanilla buttercream, and fresh raspberries on top.

Pumpkin Torte (Since we’ve been thinking of fall desserts!) Pumpkin spiced vanilla cookie layers, a pumpkin cream cheese filling, and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbles on the outside.

Blueberries and cream tort – (This might be my favourite idea!) Vanilla cookie layers, Blueberry pie filling, and whipping cream.

Honestly, they all sound amazing! I can’t wait to make them all!

Which one would you like to try? Is there a different flavour combination you have made?

Making a Halloween Chocolate and Caramel Torte

I had a recipe, from my grandmother, for Chocolate Cream Torte, but it sounded a little too boring to me. Plus, my husband isn’t really a chocolate fan, so I knew I would need to make it a little more exciting to get him to eat it. I have a recipe for Caramel icing that he absolutely LOVES! He says it tastes exactly like crème sucre, (which is a French Canadian treat). If you’ve had it you know!

I figured, making it a chocolate and Caramel dessert would be a win. (It was!) We needed to decorate it as well. I decided to go with a big spider web and pumpkins.

The spider web is made by heating melting chocolate. I just put some chocolate wafers in a sealed piping bag and put it in hot water. When it was melted, I just snipped off the tip. When the warm chocolate touched the cold whipping cream on top of the torte, it didn’t take long to set up.

For the Pumpkins, I added orange food colouring to stabilized whipping cream (whipping cream with a bit of cornstarch added to it). I placed that in a piping bag with an open star tip and it gave the perfect grooves for the side of a pumpkin. I finished them by putting a little dab of the chocolate in the centre of each one, and some green icing for leaves and vines.

It turned out pretty cute, if you ask me!

This is how a Halloween Chocolate and Caramel Torte came to be! You have to try it! Even if it is not Halloween, skip the decorations and you have a beautiful dessert for any occasion!

Ingredients for Chocolate and Caramel Torte

Cookie

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

¼ cup water

1 tsp vanilla

Filling

2 ½-3 cups whipping cream (depending on how thick you like the cream layer to be)

½ cup white sugar

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Half of a recipe for Caramel Icing

Melting chocolate wafers (optional)

Food colouring (optional)

Method for Chocolate Caramel Torte

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment. (Or in a bowl by hand.) Cream the butter and sugars, until light and fluffy.
4. Mix in the water and vanilla.
5. Add the flour mixture. Mix to a dough.
6. Draw four 8-inch circles onto parchment paper.
7. Split the dough into 4 equal parts. Press each part onto the 8-inch circle.
8. Press the dough out with your hands to form a circle.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.
10. Cool completely before adding the filling.

For the filling

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients except for the cream.
2. Chill for 30 mins. Meanwhile, prepare the caramel icing recipe.
3. Add 2 cups of cream to the chilled bowl. Whip until stiff peaks.

Assembly of Chocolate Caramel Torte

1. Place a thin layer of the caramel icing on the top of all the cookie circles.
2. Place the first cookie and caramel layer on a cake stand.
3. Cover with a layer of the chocolate cream.
4. Place the next cookie layer on top then add the chocolate cream.
5. Place the next cookie layer on top of the last two. Top with the rest of the chocolate cream.
6. Place the final cookie and caramel.
7. In the bowl of the stand mixer, whip the remaining whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of icing sugar.
8. Reserving about a half cup of the whipped cream. (This will be for the pumpkin decoration) Spread the rest on the top of the cake.
9. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. (This will allow the layers to soften slightly)

Decorations For Halloween Chocolate Caramel Torte

1. In a piping bag place ¼ cup of chocolate melting wafers. Place in a cup of hot tea water.
2. Mix the reserved whipping cream with orange food colouring.
3. Cut the tip off the piping bag and pipe a spiders web on top of the Chocolate Caramel Torte.
4. Place the orange whipping cream in a piping bag with an open star tip and pipe pumpkins around the top of the cake. Add the chocolate to the top as stems.
5. If desired you can add green icing as leaves and vines.

I would love to know what type of decorations you added to yours!