• Being bad never tasted so good. Eschew your diet and sink your teeth into this decadent, lustful, silky smooth chocolate torte with ganache and cherries…

    Recipe by Toni Scorgie and Nadine Waner of The Tart 
    Photographs by Graeme Borchers

    The Tart Boutique Catering & Individually Crafted Cakes, 48 Jan Smuts Avenue, Forest Town, Johannesburg. Call 011-646-4781 or email [email protected].

    Chocolate torte with ganache and cherries

    Serves: 1 torte
    Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins

    Ingredients

    • Torte

    • 500ml (2 cups) good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
    • 170g butter
    • 80ml (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) instant espresso powder
    • 4 large eggs
    • 200g (1 cup) sugar
    • 60g (½ cup) cake flour
    • Ganache

    • 500ml (2 cups) good-quality dark chocolate
    • 5ml (1 tsp) oil
    • 250ml (1 cup) fresh cream
    • cherries, to serve

    Instructions

    1

    Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly butter a 20cm heart-shaped springform cake tin and set aside.

    2

    Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan over low heat. Add the cocoa powder and espresso, mix until smooth and set aside to cool.

    3

    Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and flour until combined and foamy.

    4

    Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake until a knife pulls out moist crumbs when inserted in the middle, about 45 minutes.

    5

    Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.

    6

    Run a knife along the edges of the torte to loosen it from the sides. Cool for 5 minutes and remove the sides of the tin.

    7

    Invert the cake on a serving platter and cool completely.

    8

    For the ganache, melt all the ingredients together over a low heat.

    9

    Pour the ganache over the top of the torte and cover with cherries or any other seasonal fruit.