Gluten Free Chocolate Nut Torte

About ten years ago, I found a stained and wrinkled cookbook  (the 1976 Elegant Economical Egg Cookbook by Lou Pappas) at a yard sale and bought it for a quarter.  This minimal investment has inspired all number of fanciful ideas.  This is my dressed up (and economized and thinned down, believe it or not!) version of one of his cakes.  His version, in turn, was inspired by a Viennese recipe.

Gluten Free Chocolate Nut Torte

Makes 2 10" rounds, one to eat and one to take

Ingredients
one 12" bag semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled to room temperature (don't melt directly over heat or in microwave because of the risk of scorching.  melt in a bowl over a pan of hot water or in a double boiler)

4 c ground nuts. (I usually use about 1/2 preground almond flour, which is often reasonably inexpensive - if you're not comparing it to white flour - and 1/2 fresh hazelnuts and pecans ground in my food processor.  I buy all of them in bulk to save money.)

4 tbsp. dark cocoa powder

1 1/4 softened real butter

3/4-1 c sugar (I usually use Sucanat, which is less processed. Brown would probably also be  tasty and is cheaper.)

1 tsp. each vanilla, almond flavoring and ground nutmeg

1/4 c. cold strong coffee (I add a teaspoon or two of instant coffee grounds to ramp up the flavor)

1 c. chopped dried cranberries or cherries

a dozen very fresh extra large eggs, separated and room temperature

Fruit glaze

approx 1/3 c. blackberry, marionberry or cherry all fruit jam, blended smooth

Buttercream frosting (I cut this recipe in half and only frost the cake I take to the party because we LOVE this stuff too much and can hardly keep our fingers out of the mixing bowl. So we try not to keep it in the house.) That said, the cake is fabulous with it so you may want to make it and just try not to eat it straight out of the bowl.

8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 c. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. each vanilla and almond flavoring

DIRECTIONS

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolks. Stir in cool, melted chocolate, nuts, fruit, cocoa, flavorings, coffee.

In a separate, very clean bowl with NO TRACE OF FAT IN IT, beat egg whites until stiff. You can add a tsp. of cream of tartar if you want. If the eggs are very fresh, you won't need it. Fold egg whites into cake batter carefully.

Pour batter into pre-greased and floured (use powdered carob if you can't used gluten or real flour and butter or baking spray meant for cakes) 10" springform pans. (I also use a variety of little glass pans if I am going multiple places.  The cake may not come out very cleanly, but the frosting will hide small holes.)

Bake at 350 for approx 45 minutes. Don't open the oven early or the cakes will fall. Poke with sharp thing - toothpick or skewer or whatever - to make sure cake is done. Cool on a rack before unmolding. Cake will fall a little but not much.

Spread a small amount of cooled jam onto cake - basically make it shiny. Don't glop it on. Let sit half an hour or so to soak in.

Beat all frosting ingredients together. Spread on cake. Decorate afterwards with nuts and dried cranberries.

Try not to eat it all in one night.