When I saw this theme I knew I had the right stuff to participate. I broke out my stash of Scharffenberger 65% (pre-hersheys) and began chopping away! Added just a bit of white chocolate and came up with this torte. I was inspired by a torte in the book Pure Chocolate but needed to edit the recipe a bit for times sake.
Start off by making a whit chocolate ganache. 16 oz of good quality white chocolate. Remember, unless it lists cocoa butter in the ingredient panel, you don't have white chocolate. You have a representation of white something, but it isn't chocolate. It must have cocoa butter in it if you want to call it chocolate. Chop it into small pieces and add 8 oz of heavy cream that has been heated to just under a boil. Stir together. Allow this to cool completely(this could take up to four hours). Once cooled, whip it up with your mixer until it is light and fluffy. Set aside.
Bake up you favorite dark chocolate cake. I chose Hershey's deep dark chocolate cake. Pour the batter in a quarter sheet pan and bake until done. Let it cool completely. Once cooled, cut it in to three equal pieces (or as close to equal as you can). Place one layer on a rack.
Get your white chocolate ganache. Put half of the ganache on the first layer and spread it out to cover the whole layer. Add the second layer of cake and use the rest of the ganache to cover the top of this layer. Top with third layer. Square off the cake to even up the sides and place in the freezer to cool very well; about thirty minutes.
Now you'll need about 12 oz of good quality dark chocolate. Chop it up into small pieces. Add 8 oz of heavy cream that has been heated just under a boil and stir carefully until the chocolate is completely melted. It should look like this:
Get the cake from the freezer. Begin pouring the ganache over the cake, making sure to cover all the sides. Save a bit to finish off the top of your cake when you have the sides covered. Once the cake is completely covered in ganache, take a bit of the left over white ganache and pipe three strips of white the length of the cake. Using a toothpick, drag it through the white stripes in a figure 8. It will swirl the white ganache into the chocolate to form a pleasing visual effect for your cake top. Place in the refrigerator to cool. Remove thirty minutes prior to serving.
Go for it! You'll be very pleased with your trip to the dark side!
