180 Dessert - Chocolate Rasberry Tort

[Plowboy]

For anyone looking for a dessert entry for a comp, I'll spill the beans on one that worked for us... once. Blue Springs, MO 2005 we scored a 180 on this dessert. All 6 judges were 36 scores... extra perfect. The second place dessert was also a 180, but their 6th judge was a 34.

Anyway, since we've only done as well as 7-8 in contests since then, I figure it was a one hit wonder... for us anyway. We usually skip dessert entries at contests even if they are free entries. I'm better at eating desserts than creating them. This is on my blog today so I thought I'd share here as well. I'll see if I have a picture somewhere in the archives.




I’ve admitted that I’m not a baker, but every dog has its day. This recipe was the very first I’d ever entered in a dessert category of a large barbeque contest. Lightning definately struck because out of 78 teams, my creation was one of two ‘perfect’ scores that day. Since my score from the tie breaker judge was also perfect, my ‘tort’ won first place. It was a huge surprise, and serving cold glasses of milk with this rich, chocolate cake was a good move.


It all starts with two 99 cent boxes of cheap, supermarket brownie mix. Just get the store brand and don’t try to go gourmet on here. This will be a double layer cake, so make each box seperately in a spring form pan. The only adjustment to the recipe on the box is to replace the oil with applesauce. Plain applesauce is fine, but you could substitute with rasberry flavored applesauce if you wanted.




This cake can sit on a plate on its own, but my 1st place cake had pecans and dark chocolate chunks for a “crust” on the bottom. To put the cake on the nuts and chips while still warm will slightly melt the bottom layer to the crust.


Between the layers, add rasberry preserves… not jelly or jam. Again the supermarket brand will do fine. Straining the seeds is an optional step, but I hate crunching into rasberry seeds, so I remove them from the preserves. Strawberry preserves would also work well. Cherry will add a Black Forest feel to this cake. Add the second cake layer onto the preserves.


The ‘frosting’ is a rich layer of dark chocolate. In a double boiler, melt a package of Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Chips with a stick of sweet cream butter. Pour the melted dark chocolate over the cake. It will seek its own level and spill over the cake. Don’t try too hard to frost this cake with a knife. Just let it find its own way.


Its fairly simple and very, very rich. A small piece goes a long way and will be begging for a glass of milk.

[The Anchorman]

Got a pic of it? I want some now!
Ray

[Leeper]

Sounds great.

Any reason why NOT to use the fancier cake mixes and preserves? Are they just wasted on the overall final product?

How was it prsented? Fancy plate, paper plate, fruit on the plate?

[Solidkick]

Thanks for sharing.....in a dessert comp., it's hard to not do something with chocolate or ice cream and not place.....my wife did a beautiful blackberry cobbler dessert/arrangement for Charleston contest a couple of years back, hit a table where 2 judges didn't like blackberries....but that's OK....the "oohs and aahs" walking it up to the judges tent told us the real story, people were impressed!!

[Plowboy]

Chocolate + Cheesecake = Top 10... near as I can tell.