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Doboš Torte

Doboš Torte

The most famous Hungarian cake in the world, Doboš Torte, was first made for the Hungarian state exhibition in 1885. It was made out of 8 separately baked layers of biscuit spread over with a cooked buttercream.

The torte’s author was a cook and a pastry chef, owner of a delicacy store and a pastry shop, author of fifteen cookbooks, Jozsef C. Doboš. Thanks to the cake, which achieved great success on the exhibition, Doboš became world famous for it. His pastry shop in the Kecskemet street became one of the most famous spots in Budapest and eating a piece of a cake inside became a matter of prestige.

The original Doboš torte was shipped to many elite pastry shops all over Europe, and the members of the high society, among who were and some crowned heads such as Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, ordered it for their banquets and celebrations. At the time of it’s highest popularity among admiring but also envious competition almost 120 copycat recipes circled. Of course, non of them was even close to the original.

To the surprise of many, years of countless attempts of reconstructing the original recipe were ended by Jozsef C. Doboš himself, who, in 1906, published the original recipe, after what he retired from the public life. His torte, though, became one of the world’s most famous cakes.

Valerija Rodek

Doboš torta

Doboš Torte

(adapted from here)

Chocolate Butter-cream

5 eggs
250 g sugar
125 g dark chocolate
320 g butter, on room temperature

With a mixer beat eggs with sugar until fluffy. Cook in a double boiler until thickens, stirring continuously. You’ll know it’s thick enough if when you scratch the bottom of a pot clear mark is visible. Add chocolate, stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Mix in the butter. Leave in the fridge until you prepare biscuits.

Biscuits

6 eggs
6 Tbsp sugar
7 Tbsp flour

Beat the egg whites stiff with a mixer. Add sugar and mix more until shiny. Then stir in egg yolks, one by one, and finaly, carefully whisk in the flour.

Measure the weight of the batter and divide into 10 equal parts. Heat oven on 390°F/200°C. Cut 10 circles out of baking paper, each 20 cm in diameter. For each biscuit you should line 20 cm diameter spring-form pan with a piece of previously cut baking paper, grease paper with some butter and bake 1/10 of the batter you’ve prepared for about 5-6 minutes, or until done. Cover each baked biscuit with damp kitchen cloth. Cut the last biscuit on 16 equal parts and place them on a large oven pan, a little separated from each other, to form a circle.

Caramel

200 g sugar
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Caramelize sugar on high heat. When it begins to darken, remove from heat and stir in butter and lemon juice. Stir well, return to heat and cook until it everything melts completely. Pour over the biscuit you’ve cut into 16 parts and layered on oven pan.

You can skip this part and not make the caramel and cut the final layer of biscuit. Most of the people don’t eat that part and only leave it on a plate (well, at least in my experience).

Assembling of the cake

Biscuit, layer of butter-cream, biscuit… Until you use all the ingredients. Leave some cream for spreading over the assembled cake. If you decided to make caramel decoration, using a pastry bag place 16 heaps of cream on top of the cake and place each of 16 caramel biscuits over.
  


  
The verdict: This is a must try out recipe! It is THE BEST Doboš torte I have ever had! Melita’s recipe is very precise and no way you can fail! I did make one tiny adjustment. As I made the cake in a 20 cm diameter spring form pan and was able to bake 10 thin layers of biscuit out of the batter, I made a little more filling – out of 5 instead of 4 eggs, but I didn’t change a thing in a recipe, only scaled it. If you manage to control yourself and leave the cake in a fridge for a day, it will be even better!

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46 Comments

  • Hayley February 9, 2009 3:31 pm

    Your photos are wonderful, and this torte looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!

  • Rosa’s Yummy Yums February 9, 2009 3:31 pm

    That Hungarian speciality looks extremely delicious! I’ll have to try it once…. Beautiful!cheers,Rosa

  • Laila February 9, 2009 3:35 pm

    Absolutely delicious .. love the photos .. Laila .. http://limeandlemon.wordpress.com/

  • Hedonistin February 9, 2009 7:37 pm

    The last time I had a Dobos Torte, it was from a bakery. It had only five or six layers and didn’t look half as good as yours. Wonderful photos!

  • redforever February 9, 2009 7:50 pm

    I think I will try this. My mother in law emigrated from Hungary and always made this for me for my birthday. She made it sound and look so easy.

  • chuck February 9, 2009 9:41 pm

    OMG, just look at the layers. A taste of heaven I’m sure!

  • Vali February 10, 2009 1:41 am

    Bez riječi sam ostala. Morat ću jedanput odvojiti cijelo popodne jer vidim da se stvarno isplati. :)

  • Sophie February 10, 2009 3:13 am

    I think this looks utterly delicious!

  • Anonymous February 10, 2009 6:37 am

    Jel moze recept na srpskom?

  • Fearless Kitchen February 10, 2009 8:02 am

    I don’t know if I would be able to control myself and leave this in the fridge for a day… it looks too good!

  • Medena (-Melitta-) February 10, 2009 9:56 am

    I am so glad you chose Dobos torte, and liked it!!! I had a problem restraining myself from eating it right after assembly! :)Thank you for a great post, and evaluation! Awesome photos, as always!

  • maslinka February 10, 2009 11:21 am

    predivno izgleda…zapala mi je za oko i mislila sam je praviti cerki za rodjendan ali me plasi ova karamel kora od gore pa se neckam… hm… tvoja je savrsena…

  • Snooky doodle February 10, 2009 12:09 pm

    what a delicious cake. I have to try this. you always make amazing recipes :)

  • Y February 10, 2009 4:46 pm

    Very beautiful, Marija! You’ve just reminded me that I haven’t spoken to a friend of mine in awhile – she makes equally beautiful Dobos.

  • studena February 10, 2009 11:55 pm

    Radila sam ju svega 2-3 puta u životu jer je stvarno “pipkava”, ali mislim da svatko, tko se zaista zanima za kulinarstvo, mora bar jednom probati napraviti ovu legendu :)Tvoja izgleda tako kao da je već spremna za muzej: savršeno :)

  • recipes2share February 11, 2009 12:33 am

    beautiful cake and photo’s- all those layers!

  • Andrea February 11, 2009 1:40 am

    Uvau, prekrasno ti je ispala torta. Kao i Maslinka ja se nikako ne mogu odlučiti napraviti dobošicu jer se pribojavam karamel kore na vrhu torte. To mi se čini jako zahtjevno, a tebi je ispalo prefektno. :)

  • Minja February 11, 2009 1:25 pm

    Nekada davno mi je bila omiljena torta i sad mi se čini da je nisam jela sto godina.Ovo tvoje parčence izgleda savršeno :)

  • farida February 11, 2009 9:33 pm

    Marija, this cake is on my to do list. I loved it when I saw it on Melita’s blog. I will definitely make it as soon as i get a chance. I can feel the yum already:)

  • Inmaculada (Adi) February 14, 2009 10:09 am

    Oh, oh, oh… Madre mía, so beautiful recipe¡¡¡I remember havinf this torte when I was a little child at one if the best “Cafetería” in Madrid… so nice memories.I could not remember what was the name given to that dessert, but IT WAS THIS¡¡Thanks so much for the recipe as well as for the pictures, you are a great fotographer.Best regards from Spain.

  • Mediterranean kiwi February 15, 2009 2:26 pm

    this looks fabulous – i dont know how you find the patience!

  • Vera February 16, 2009 8:35 pm

    I LOVE this torte, Marija! My best friend is Hungarian.

  • Beti February 23, 2009 12:08 pm

    I just made this cake a couple of days ago and it came out pretty good except for the caramel layer. How did you get yours so thin and how did you get it out without of the pan without cracking? I thought of replacing one of the tbsps of lemon juice with one of cream, to keep it a bit on the softer side. But other then that it was a lot of fun to make. Thank you for sharing.

  • Marija February 23, 2009 12:15 pm

    Hi Beti! Glad you liked the recipe :) About the caramel… You need to start cutting it before it hardens completely. When it’s about half way there.

  • iheartcakes August 18, 2009 1:36 pm

    That cake looks divine. I love that last picture – All those layers of buttercream. Yum!

  • cosmo2503 August 27, 2009 7:34 am

    Vidim da ti već imaš napravljanu Doboš tortu, a baš očekivala sam tvoj odgovor za DB i tvoju mini varijantu tortice.

  • Marija August 28, 2009 1:49 am

    @cosmo2503 – pa, da, bilo mi glupo da objavljujem isto, jer sam pravila po Melitinom receptu, koji bajdvej ne bih menjala ni za sta na svetu :)

  • Anonymous February 11, 2010 12:46 pm

    yeah ..taste of heaven…..I can say this for sure because I'm hungarian:D This is my favourite torte.Anyways one of my favourites is the 'kürtős-kalács' ,too.I have never thought,that it's famous. Réka

  • alma November 4, 2010 12:35 am

    prelijepa torta pravim odmah

  • Sara February 10, 2011 8:10 am

    Someday, someday…this looks amazing, but I have to admit I am intimidated by all those layers. When I finally get up the nerve I will be back here!

  • Kurtos Kalacs February 28, 2011 2:49 pm

    Great blogger, Thank you for delivering the outstanding blog. I found it useful.

  • Angelyn Benesch August 14, 2011 8:30 am

    I really appreciated prepared this, thanks!

  • JoAnn August 17, 2011 5:51 pm

    I’m not able to see the recipe, it takes me to a blogger site. Is this normal? I reallllyyy want to make this cake!

    • Marija October 4, 2011 2:04 pm

      Yes, it’s OK. It will take you to the site where is the original that I used.

  • JoAnn November 3, 2011 5:59 pm

    It won’t let me on the bloggers site. It says it is “protected.” Do you know if there is another place I can find the same recipe?!

    • Marija November 3, 2011 11:55 pm

      JoAnn, it seems that Cafe Chocolada has gone offline. I do have this recipe written on Serbian version of the blog and will translate it into English asap.

  • Rhoda November 11, 2011 5:25 pm

    I too would love to try this receipe but can’t get to the recipe.

  • Helen Williams June 3, 2012 6:29 pm

    Marija first of all I love reading your blog and your recipes are amazing. I’d love the dobos torte recipe too when you have time to type it out – thank you so much :)

  • Katie September 15, 2012 1:56 pm

    Hi there! Fantastic cake! Do you have the recipe as Cafe Chocolada no longer has it? Thanks!

    • Marija September 17, 2012 11:50 pm

      Katie, I will post the recipe soon.

  • Julija October 17, 2012 8:45 am

    hi Maria,
    I was gonna say the same thing as Katie did ;) I have made that exact recipe 3 years ago when I saw it on Cafe Chocolada, and it was amazing! if you could repost it, it’d be great! thank you!

  • Kica November 18, 2012 2:46 pm

    Sta se desilo sa puterom u buter kremi? Ja znam,ali nedostaje taj deo da bi recept bio potpun, promaklo vam je,
    pozdrav :)

    • Marija November 18, 2012 3:14 pm

      Upravo sam dodala :) Hvala puno!

  • flowerek February 10, 2014 8:46 pm

    I did it :) Thank you for the recipe.We liked it a lot :)

    • Marija February 12, 2014 1:33 pm

      Thank you! :)

  • Cris May 17, 2014 12:25 pm

    I just love a home made tasty dobos !

Comments are closed.