Chili Lime Pecan Torte

There’s a reason why I never buy cake mixes by box anymore and this would be a perfect example of why. Sure, there’s the joy in making something from scratch, knowing that it’s fresh and made with luuurve, but the most important thing for me will always be the taste, the smell, even the mouth-feel. The whole sensory shebang.

This is one of those times.

For an upcoming shindig, I cobbled together something pecanny, something chocolatey, something moussey, and then amped it up a little with the weird addition of hot chili spice, lime zest and salt.

Yes, there’s chili powder in that cake. Not a hell of a lot, mind you, just a bit.

It’s a classic madiera butter cake but 1/2 the flour has been replaced with finely ground, toasted pecans. Add some lime zest and chili powder to that. The filling is a classic chocolate mousse, nothing so fancy there, but it’s that topping that has me fighting with all the willpower I have to stay out of the kitchen. The top is a sweet chocolate, crusted with sweet chili lime roasted pecans.

The wet mix is a splash of olive oil, the juice and zest of one lime, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of chili powder and two tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix it up and dump in 2 cups of pecans or so and toast the whole thing, in a single layer, at 450F. Stir once it’s out until the pecans soak up the rest of the wet mix, then toss the lot with some salt and white sugar. Set it into the chocolate top before the chocolate sets and wow.

The cake was yummy (I got to taste the trimmed ends *drool*) but it’s those damned pecans I can’t stay out of.

This would probably work well as a classic round cake as well but I wanted slices this time around. Maybe next time I’ll leave the thing whole and see how that turns out.