This rich low carb torte is deceptively light and airy and worthy of any celebration. Chocolate and espresso are simply made for each other and the sugar-free chocolate curls are the icing on the cake!
But sometimes you also need complicated recipes, the sort that have multiple stages and steps and a long ingredient list. Because if you love cooking and baking like I do, you just enjoy the process, that feeling of being in the kitchen for hours to create a masterpieces. Better yet, you enjoy the outcome, knowing that it was a labor of love. And if you are looking to impress your friends and family, you need something that takes a little more effort than the usual work-a-day recipe. You want them to KNOW you worked hard at this.
That’s what this low carb torte is and that’s exactly how I felt about it. It was a labor of love for my husband’s birthday and I wanted him to know I put a little elbow grease into it. My husband often gets the short end of the stick, being a late December baby. Everyone is just done with all the cooking, baking and eating for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are still looming. He’s old enough now not to feel the sting of having his birthday take a backseat to the rest of the holidays, but I still like to try and come up with something nice for him. And food is one of the ways I show my affections. Taking the extra time to make chocolate curls to top a birthday cake means “I love you” in foodese, don’t you know?
I had a lot of fun coming up with this one. I had multiple ideas for his cake and they all kind of came together to form the final product. I wanted light, wafer-like chocolate layers rather than heavy, cakey layers. And I wanted it to be filled with whipped cream instead of frosting. And then I just had to coat the whole cake in rich chocolate ganache. Oh and those pretty chocolate curls to say “I love you”. It honestly came together better than I expected. It’s a somewhat deceptive cake because the texture is so light and airy but it’s also intensely rich. You don’t need more than a sliver for a serving.
Chocolate Espresso Torte
Ingredients
Cake Layers:
- ¾ cup almond flour
- ⅓ cup confectioner's Swerve Sweetener
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 6 large egg whites room temperature
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon granulated Swerve Sweetener
Espresso Cream:
- 1 ½ cups whipping cream
- ¼ cup confectioner's Swerve Sweetener
- 1 ½ teaspoon instant espresso powder or 1 ½ Starbucks Via packets
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1 cup whipping cream
- ⅓ cup confectioner's Swerve Sweetener
- 3 oz unsweetened chocolate finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Curls (optional):
- ½ tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ cup sugar-free chocolate chips such as Lily's
Instructions
Cake Layers:
- Preheat oven to 300F and line an 11x17 rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly grease paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, confectioner's sweetener, and cocoa powder, breaking up clumps as much as possible.
- Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and salt until frothy. Slowly add granulated Swerve and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Mixture should be glossy and not dry.
- Gently fold almond flour mixture into egg whites until just combined. Spread evenly onto prepared pan into a 10x15 inch rectangle.
- Bake 20 minutes, until just firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on pan. Cake will shrink, this is okay. When cool, cut into 3 rectangles, 5 inches wide each.
Espresso Cream:
- In a large bowl, beat whipping cream with confectioner's Swerve, espresso powder, and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form.
- Lay one cake layer on a platter and spread with half of the espresso cream. Top with another cake layer and spread with remaining espresso cream. Top with final cake layer.
- Place cake in freezer until firm, about 1 hour.
Chocolate Ganache:
- Whisk together whipping cream and powdered sweetener in a medium pot over medium heat. Bring to just a simmer. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Let sit 5 min and whisk to combine, then whisk in vanilla extract. Let sit 10 minutes to thicken.
- Remove cake from freezer and pour ganache over the top of the cake, spreading to the edges. Spread carefully over sides of cake (this will become easier as ganache continues to thicken up). Alternatively, you can simply pour over the top and allow the ganache to drip down the sides of the cake.
Chocolate Curls:
- Combine coconut oil and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Whisk until melted and smooth.
- Pour the chocolate over the underside of a clean cookie sheet and use a knife or offset spatula to spread it into a very thin layer.
- Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for a few minutes until chocolate firms up. It should not be tacky when you touch it but you should be able to leave a fingerprint.
- Use a sharp knife to scrape the chocolate from the pan - if it's the right temperature, it will curl up. If it's too cold, it will break so let it sit out a few minutes. If it's too warm, it will come away from the pan without curling, so return it to the fridge for a few minutes.
- Place finished curls on a plate and place them in the freezer until firm.
- Place chocolate curls on finished cake and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. To serve, run a sharp knife under hot water to make nice clean slices.
Céline says
Hi Carolyn,
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe, it was just a bit too sweet for me, next time i’ll adjust, but other than that perfect !
I ordered your baking book, can’t wait to test other recipes !
I wanted to know if this cake freezes well ? Did someone already try ?
Makana Alvarado says
Hi Carolyn!
I’m making this for my boyfriends birthday tomorrow 😉
Do you think it’s best to make it the day of? Or to make it tonight and put it on the freezer/fridge overnight?
Thank you!
Carolyn says
Don’t freeze it. But the day before and refrigerated should be fine.
Carolyn S. says
Hi Carolyn
Can I replace the swerve both powdered and granular with Bocha Sweet?
Carolyn says
Nope, not in the meringue part unless you want your cake layers to be soft. Meringue will not firm up with Bocha sweet at all.
Karin says
Delicious! I put the cake together in a loaf pan (lined with parchment paper) froze it for an hour, then removed the cake and frosted it. It waited for the ganache to be spreadable rather than pourable, (it took about 1/2 hour). I made the chocolate curls, but only out of 1/4 cup of chips rather than 1/2 and there were PLENTY. It was SO yummy, and very pretty to look at! FANTASTIC recipe!
Diana says
I wanted to make something special for my daughter’s birthday, and this was really perfect. All our guests just raved over this cake, including the diabetes educator among us, who wanted the recipe (and Carolyn’s website) to take to her next diabetes group class. I hope nobody is intimidated by the number of steps–it was actually quite easy to make!
Darla says
I want to make this in the next few days so I was carefully reading the instructions and am a little confused….Are there 2 different pan sizes intentionally (Steps 1 & 4)? If not, which one should I use?
Darla says
I think I got it… its the 11X17 pan but you spread the batter only to 10×15 ?
Carolyn says
Yes, because if you spread all the way to the edges, it sticks to them.
Darla says
Thanks for confirming, Carolyn! And thank you for all your fantabulous recipes!!!
Kelly says
I made this for my boyfriend but he dislikes espresso so I swapped out the espresso powder for peanut butter. My lord it turned out delicious!
Heidi says
I love making Operas. This will be very close to that. I could probably modify a bit to get it a bit more exact. Thank you! Can’t wait to give this a try.
Carolyn says
I love Opera cake too! Thanks for the reminder, I may have to try my hand at one.
Vicki says
I really hate to be negative but, the ingredients for this torte are a fortune. It was $50.00. It better be good!
Carolyn says
Surely you did not use the entire contents of each ingredient. Thus the investment will pay off in other recipes. And yes, it’s that good.
Ruth says
i made this today. Do you think if it’s refrigerated overnight it will be still okay for tomorrow?
Carolyn says
Yes, it should be fine.
Ania Wegrzyn says
Hi,
I made your cake yesterday for my boyfriend’s birthday… it tastes really great and it wasn’t as much work as I expected. What I would like to know is if you keep it in the freezer and only put it in the fridge an hour before it is to be eaten or you just keep it in the fridge… I am afraid that it will start melting in the fridge if left there for too long.. Any thoughts? Thanks 🙂
Carolyn says
It will be just fine in the fridge. Mine was in there for about 5 days. The outside does begin to dry out, thought.
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
What a decadent torte! You definitely can cut me a slice right now.
Chris F says
I whipped this up today while making lunch. It is one of the BEST dessert recipes ever!
janet says
Oooooo…. Yum!!!
Joshua Hampton says
I so agree that chocolate and espresso go together. This torte is too gorgeous for words.
Emily @ Life on Food says
This torte is gorgeous!!
Helena Angelina says
Oh my gawd! Enough said – get thee to the kitchen!
Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom says
Carolyn, oh my gawd, this is stunning!!! and it’s low carb!!! Damn!!! Winner winner!!! I want this, like now!
diana says
I would like to make this for our big family celebration this coming weekend. Can it be made ahead of time? If so, how long will it keep?
Carolyn says
Hi Diana…did you see my comment in the low carb keto recipe club? 🙂
Diana says
I didn’t–I’ll hop over right now to look. Meanwhile, I made it for my daughter’s birthday and it was astoundingly good! A day in advance I made the cake, put the mocha cream ingredients in my cream whipper, made the chocolate curls, and measured out the ingredients for the ganache. So on the day, I assembled and froze the torte for an hour and made and poured over the ganache just before serving–easy and quick.
Pam says
Beautiful recipe, Caroline! I’ve been looking for something like this that’s low carb for a long time. And although there are several steps to this recipe, you’ve set it up so it’s easy to follow. Looking forward to trying it!