Shmoo Torte has been my husband’s favourite dessert for years, so I figured it would make a perfect 50th birthday cake for him. It’s actually not that difficult to make, but does contain pecans, so it’s not appropriate if you’re serving it to guests that may have a nut allergy. I was given this recipe many years ago, but my good friend Pat. I must admit I have only made it a few times, but only because it is much too dangerous to have in the house! This is an incredibly delicious recipe and a guaranteed hit!

Shmoo Torte Recipe:

Cake Ingredients:

• 12 eggs (separated)
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 2 cups ground pecans
• 1 cup of cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Separate the eggs and then beat the egg whites until very stiff.
3. Add cream of tartar. Beat. Slowly add 1 cup of sugar, beating as you add it.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla. Continue to beat this mixture until it is thick and light.
5. Fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites.l
6. Sift the cake flour and baking powder together. Fold the dry ingredients into the eggs.
7. Fold in the ground pecans.
8. Divide the batter in half and pour into two greased angel cake pans.
9. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 300 degrees on the lowest rack in the oven.
10. When the cakes are done, invert them immediately to cool.
11. Remove the cakes from the pan while they are still warm. (I actually baked my cakes the day before and left them in the pans until the next day with a clean towel laying over the tops of the completely cooled cakes. I simply used a butter knife and slid it around the edges and the cakes released just fine.)
12. Cut the cooled cakes in half so that you end up with 4 horizontal layers.
13. Place whipped cream between the layers and on top.
14. Drizzle a scant amount of caramel sauce over the top to decorate the cake. (I didn’t do this because it was a birthday cake and I wanted to pipe on top, but normally I would.)
15. Serve the torte with warm caramel sauce drizzled on top. (It isn’t necessary, but if you want to “plate” it nicely, add a little extra dollop of whipped cream and then the caramel sauce drizzled on top, with a pecan set in it for a lovely presentation.)

Caramel Sauce:

• 2 cups of whipping cream
• 2 heaping tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of brown sugar (packed)

Place the ingredients in a sauce pan and let simmer cover for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (When I make a sauce like this, I will often put it on the stove early in the day on the lowest setting on my stove until all of the ingredients are melted and well mixed. I will then turn it off and just let it stand until closer to serving time and then just heat it up.)

Cream for Layers:

• 3 cups of whipping cream
• 1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoons of icing sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the cream until it holds its shape. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat to mix. (The original recipe calls for 2 cups whip cream, 1+ T. icing sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla, but I find that it isn’t quite enough to get good coverage of the sides and top, so the above is 1 1/2 times the original and made plenty.)

*This recipe makes a lovely tall 4 layer torte that served all 20 people at Tim’s birthday. The pieces weren’t huge, but everyone got a piece and there was a good hunk of cake left. I was worried about how many it would feed and actually made 12 cupcakes as well, just in case. I would say this cake would easily serve 16 to 20 people.

*I have also halved this recipe and made only one cake when serving less people.  I then slice the single cake into thirds to get 3 layers.

*I don’t generally have “cake flour” in my house, but did go to “Bulk Barn” and bought 1 cup just for this recipe. I am not sure how important that is??

Did you know?

I already had this recipe, but was originally wondering if I might try to bake it in regular round cake pans, so was researching to see if it would work or not? (I found mixed responses to this and ended up using my angel pan and a borrowed one from a neighbour.) Anyway, in my research I discovered that Shmoo Torte is somewhat of a Winnipeg/Manitoba phenomena. I never realized that, but evidently it’s rare to find it in a bakery or on a dessert menu outside of our lovely province. Interesting? I don’t know if there is any truth to this or not, but if you are reading this post and you live outside Manitoba, I’d love to know if you’ve ever heard of Shmoo Torte before. If Shmoo is new to you, it is an absolute MUST TRY!  Let me know how it works out for you when you have a chance to try it!

P.S. I didn’t have a great picture from the party, so I “plated” a piece this morning just for this post. After snapping a few pictures, I thought “Ah, what the hell! No body else is around…”, so I ate it for breakfast! Not the healthiest start to the date, but well worth the temporary euphoria!