Air Blower
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Dear sirs and madams of VU,
I have a special request that's very near and dear to my heart and if you'll bare with me I'll give the explanation then get on with the request. This may be TL;DR for some and if that's the case then by all means please skip to the request itself and see if you could help this 50 year old man-child capture some of his youth in a bottle to be vaped on quiet nights with eyes closed while reminiscing of good times gone by and those yet to come.
The background; I grew up in a very tight knit family and like many of you, my memories are heavily spiced with the flavours of my childhood. My ancestry is mainly Slavic with German (Maternal side), Hungarian and French Canadian (Paternal side) foods forming the basis of those memories. Sunday dinners with family were always and still are a prominent part of my week. It's rare that my and my brothers family don't share a meal on a weekend and these meals are always open to aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and in-laws to join. Over the years our family has grown to include many new flavours as we're a pretty multicultural bunch with East Indian, Pakistani, African and southern US genealogies rooting our familial tree firmly to the ground.
I love the new flavours that have become a part of my family experience and it's not unusual for a family meal to include traditional tourtiere, perogy, paprikash, lecso, beans with rice and curries depending on who shows up and who brings what. I quiver in anticipation of holidays where we're all under the same roof at the same time. Fusions of all these traditions are not uncommon as we have a family filled with great cooks who all appreciate what our familial capillaries bring to the heart of our shared tables. Among these cooks are giants. The rest of us plant our feet on their shoulders to pass down what we've been taught to our children, some of whom will become the giants of their generations.
The most influential of these giants, to me personally, was my paternal grandmother (Hungarian). During my college years I spent a lot of time on weekends driving from Calgary to my grandparents house in a little town called Nanton about an hour south to help them do the things their aging bodies no longer allowed them to do. My rewards were the knowledge I was being a good grandson and the bumper of my 1982 Celica hatchback dragging on the ground on the way home due to all the homemade food grandma had packed into my car while I was doing her bidding elsewhere.
Among these foods there's one thing that stands out as a homing beacon for my brother and I to always find our way back to our childhoods and our family tree. It was typically only prepared for Christmas and if either my brother or I were confronted in a game of word association with the word "Christmas" our first retort (pun intended) would inevitably be "Torte Cake". I've tried many Hungarian dobos tortes and grandmas is still the best. Her torte did not have the caramel top and when I asked her about it once I'd passed from accepting and appreciative youth to inquisitive adult, she said the hard caramel hurt her teeth and that grandpa didn't have teeth so she eliminated it from her mother's recipe plus made a few adaptations based on the traditions she'd come in contact with as a first generation Canadian.
The request; to replicate my grandmothers torte as closely as possible.
The notes; grandmas torte could be described as a 5-7 layer sponge cake (egg, flour and sugar...very heavy on the egg. Almost crepe-ish) with a butter based chocolate cream filling separating each layer. She also added enough instant coffee to give it a distinct mocha flavour. Between layers she would sprinkle crushed walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans based on what she could either get free or cheapest (when I was a kid we lived in eastern Canada and had walnut trees on our land).
I've tried Capella's Cake Batter and FW's Cake Batter Dip and Yellow Cake. The Yellow Cake is close but no cigar. It's missing the egg-yness.
I've utterly failed to come within a country mile of the mocha chocolate icing. I've tried every Capella and TFA chocolate/mocha/butter and none of them have the smooth buttery flavour I'm after. The coffee note can be added and balanced IF the base chocolate flavour was found (I'm thinking FA Tiramisu or Espresso (which I haven't tried yet)). The real world recipe is simple; Fry's cocoa, icing sugar, butter and vanilla. The flavour is buttery with sweetness but not so much sweetness that the bitter notes of the cocoa disappear. The nuts meld with the cocoa and the coffee to remove any harshness they may bring to the table.
Any suggestions?
I have a special request that's very near and dear to my heart and if you'll bare with me I'll give the explanation then get on with the request. This may be TL;DR for some and if that's the case then by all means please skip to the request itself and see if you could help this 50 year old man-child capture some of his youth in a bottle to be vaped on quiet nights with eyes closed while reminiscing of good times gone by and those yet to come.
The background; I grew up in a very tight knit family and like many of you, my memories are heavily spiced with the flavours of my childhood. My ancestry is mainly Slavic with German (Maternal side), Hungarian and French Canadian (Paternal side) foods forming the basis of those memories. Sunday dinners with family were always and still are a prominent part of my week. It's rare that my and my brothers family don't share a meal on a weekend and these meals are always open to aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and in-laws to join. Over the years our family has grown to include many new flavours as we're a pretty multicultural bunch with East Indian, Pakistani, African and southern US genealogies rooting our familial tree firmly to the ground.
I love the new flavours that have become a part of my family experience and it's not unusual for a family meal to include traditional tourtiere, perogy, paprikash, lecso, beans with rice and curries depending on who shows up and who brings what. I quiver in anticipation of holidays where we're all under the same roof at the same time. Fusions of all these traditions are not uncommon as we have a family filled with great cooks who all appreciate what our familial capillaries bring to the heart of our shared tables. Among these cooks are giants. The rest of us plant our feet on their shoulders to pass down what we've been taught to our children, some of whom will become the giants of their generations.
The most influential of these giants, to me personally, was my paternal grandmother (Hungarian). During my college years I spent a lot of time on weekends driving from Calgary to my grandparents house in a little town called Nanton about an hour south to help them do the things their aging bodies no longer allowed them to do. My rewards were the knowledge I was being a good grandson and the bumper of my 1982 Celica hatchback dragging on the ground on the way home due to all the homemade food grandma had packed into my car while I was doing her bidding elsewhere.
Among these foods there's one thing that stands out as a homing beacon for my brother and I to always find our way back to our childhoods and our family tree. It was typically only prepared for Christmas and if either my brother or I were confronted in a game of word association with the word "Christmas" our first retort (pun intended) would inevitably be "Torte Cake". I've tried many Hungarian dobos tortes and grandmas is still the best. Her torte did not have the caramel top and when I asked her about it once I'd passed from accepting and appreciative youth to inquisitive adult, she said the hard caramel hurt her teeth and that grandpa didn't have teeth so she eliminated it from her mother's recipe plus made a few adaptations based on the traditions she'd come in contact with as a first generation Canadian.
The request; to replicate my grandmothers torte as closely as possible.
The notes; grandmas torte could be described as a 5-7 layer sponge cake (egg, flour and sugar...very heavy on the egg. Almost crepe-ish) with a butter based chocolate cream filling separating each layer. She also added enough instant coffee to give it a distinct mocha flavour. Between layers she would sprinkle crushed walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans based on what she could either get free or cheapest (when I was a kid we lived in eastern Canada and had walnut trees on our land).
I've tried Capella's Cake Batter and FW's Cake Batter Dip and Yellow Cake. The Yellow Cake is close but no cigar. It's missing the egg-yness.
I've utterly failed to come within a country mile of the mocha chocolate icing. I've tried every Capella and TFA chocolate/mocha/butter and none of them have the smooth buttery flavour I'm after. The coffee note can be added and balanced IF the base chocolate flavour was found (I'm thinking FA Tiramisu or Espresso (which I haven't tried yet)). The real world recipe is simple; Fry's cocoa, icing sugar, butter and vanilla. The flavour is buttery with sweetness but not so much sweetness that the bitter notes of the cocoa disappear. The nuts meld with the cocoa and the coffee to remove any harshness they may bring to the table.
Any suggestions?
