TWD: 15 Minute Chocolate Amaretti Torte

It's rather simple, really: are you a frosting person or a cake person? When you were little, were you the kid at the birthday party who always wanted the corner piece of the birthday cake? You know, the one with all of the extra frosting? And if you missed out on that you could always shoot for part of the design with the extra frosting slathered on top. I know you -- you were probably my friend. Me? I'm a cake girl, I always have been. I was the kid who left the frosting on the side of the plate after I scraped it off, the weirdo. But that's ok because there was usually someone around who got to clean up on my extra frosting. The only frosting I thought was worthwhile was my mom's chocolate satin frosting (on yellow cake, thank you very much) and even too much of that wasn't a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't hate frosting, I just don't like it as much as I like cake. So, when recipes start calling for chocolate ganache on top of chocolate cake it's sometimes a little too much for me. Especially when I'm doing my own dishes. Especially when those extra calories are going directly to me: do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to the hips. So, for the second time in the past 3 days, I've left the chocolate ganache off of the chocolate cake.

I'll be honest, when I finished the Brooklyn (not-so) Brownout Cake last weekend I had no intention of making this torte. I just figured that with Easter and everything I wouldn't have time to get this together and besides, I don't like Amaretti. Well, you see, when I was younger, we had very close family friends who were Italian and we just loved them (they've since moved back to Italy). They used to give us amaretti from time to time and I remember not liking them at all in the way that a 7 year old doesn't like much besides good ole chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. Poor amaretti cookies have been getting a bad rap from me for years and it turns out they're not so bad. I love almonds and everything almond flavored; in fact, it was the almond whipped cream that sold me on this recipe.

I got my amaretti at Starbucks. One box was enough for the half recipe that I made. The half recipe made three mini tortes. And really, how could I not make the torte's this week? Dorie promises that if you have 15 minutes you can make this, and she's not too far off (the dishes add a little bit of extra time). Even my teensy tiny little food processor that attaches to my stick blender could handle this -- boo yah!

My little tortes rose almost like souffles in the oven and I wasn't expecting that at all. I filled the ramekins about 2/3 full so there was a lot of rising that happened in the 25 minutes in the oven. There isn't any chemical levening agent in the torte batter so it must be the rigorous processing of the eggs that allows for such terrific heights? I can't think of anything else. They did sink back down while I waited for them to cool.

I am so glad that I didn't skip out this week! This recipe is fantastic and I will most definitely make it again. The tortes were fudgy and delicious and the almond whipped cream on top was oh-so-good with some extra toasted almonds as well. I can see how these would be a fabulous base for an ice cream sundae and I can hardly wait to see what everyone else did. Oh, side note, it was delightful to make a chocolate dessert and be able to lick the spoon. I suppose I must have gotten a little over zealous in my excitment over the chocolate because I ended up with quite a bit of it on my face while I was making this, sheesh! It was a great post-Easter dessert and thanks to Holly of Phe/MOM/enon for this week's pick!