SUNDAY DESSERT #86: Eszterházy Torta ("Ester-hah-zee Tohr-tah")
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Hungary 🇭🇺
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Advanced
INSPIRATION: If a recipe calls for almonds and hazelnuts, it immediately gets placed in the "Autumn" category of my brain. It's now officially fall, so let's celebrate with cake!
RECEPTION/COMMENTARY: Prince Paul III Anton Eszterházy was the current monarch of Austro-Hungary when this cake was invented. Not quite how I would go about it, but I guess it makes sense to name your new creation after your royal leader? That's authentic patriotism for you right there!
The six "cake" layers are actually baked almond meringue rounds; sort of like large, flattened macarons. These then get sandwiched between layers of custard buttercream frosting. Yes, custard buttercream! It's very similar to French buttercream due to the rich egg yolk and vanilla flavoring. And oh, you guys... it brings regular American buttercream to its knees!
Anyway, the custard softens the crusty meringues to a cake-like consistency overnight, making it easy to cut into and eat. The exterior gets glazed and then decorated with chopped hazelnuts and an intricate, web-like design of chocolate icing (which looks fancy but is ironically the easiest part of making this dessert).
This cake is GOOD! It is so incredibly moist and has an appetizing texture balance between smooth and crunchy! I thought it was a 10, but my husband gave it a 7 because he said it was really sweet. So I guess we can average that to 8.5? Either way, it was well received by our taste buds.
WOULD I MAKE IT AGAIN? I think I would! It is a lot of work to make, but (for me) the taste was pleasant enough to be worth it.
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