Nothing But a Royal Chocolate Torta for Easter!

copyright 2010, Maria Liberati
Apologies for not getting this out sooner, but I think that you still have time to make this for your Easter dinner. I have been scouring my recipes and looking for just the right one for our community of  ‘foodies’, not too difficult-some of the Italian Spring Holiday breads can be so time consuming and something well a little unique. So for a little bit of inspiration and no Easter egg shaped something, I decided to go with one of my favorite cakes… a recipe I learned in Austria, the cake is named after a famous Austrian-Italian Prince-Prince Eugenio of the Royal Family of Savoia.
Although he doesn’t have anything to do with Easter, the cake is really a special one; it is made with lots of chocolate , which always reminds me of Easter, and not too ordinary-as a Holiday dessert should be- and great to have with a glass of bubbly Brachetto d’Acqui or with some dessert coffee or alone. And to make it even more interesting here is some info on Prince Eugenio
Buon Appetito and Buona Pasqua! Please write and let us know how your torta turns out!
Prince Eugenio’s Cake
(This cake was created in Austria and named after Prince Eugenio who was born in France to royalty related to the Royal Savoia Family. His mother was Italian. He became a high-ranking soldier in the Austrian army and protected Italy from some of their military rivals in the early  1700’s. He was an aficionado of art and this ‘torta’ or cake was created many years ago in homage to this Prince.)
16 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate (containing at least 60% cocoa)
1 1/2 cups crushed almonds
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 tablespoons butter
6 eggs
1 tablespoon rum
1 tablespoon brandy
butter for pan
Topping:
2 cups raspberries
1 tablespoon sugar
6 ounces milk chocolate
½ cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
Beat softened butter, sugar and egg yolks until creamy. Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Add the chocolate into the egg yolk mixture, then add in ground almonds, brandy and rum.
Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Fold into the egg yolk mixture gently till well blended. Butter and flour a low cake pan and bake for 35 minutes in oven at 350 degrees.
Remove from oven. Leaving a 1 /12 “ border around cake, cut out the interior cake, to make about ¼ cup of crumbs. Place crumbs in oven on cookie sheet for to dry and become crisp, set aside to use as crumble on topping.
Cook raspberries and sugar over low heat for 2 minutes let sugar melt. Let cool. Place whipping cream and vanilla, sugar in bowl. Whip cream till peaks form, add in grated chocolate. Place cooled raspberry mixture in cavity of cake made from digging out crumbs. Top with whipped cream mixture in center of raspberries. Sprinkle with cake crumbs and top with whipped cream and serve.
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