My entry into the Three Points Kitchen first birthday extravaganza was Gourmet’s Dobostorte, a multilayered fantasy that requires a Julia Child-worthy range of techniques for assembly and encompasses the divine combination of chocolate and raspberry, with sponge cake, candy and nuts to put it straight over the top.
Dobostorte is ridiculously, teeth-achingly, sweet and for that reason—as well as for the time it takes to pull all of the elements together—not for everyday desserting. But it is a hoot to make.
The sponge cake is simple to whip up. The trick is in the baking, which is done on the bottom (the outside, not the inside) of greased, 9-inch, round cake pans. The layers are thin and take only about 9 minutes to bake. The yield is seven layers (or more). As the batter is quite spongy, this is less physics-defying than it sounds. Soon you’ll be surrounded by many thin cakes, ready to be slathered with raspberry jam and chocolate-raspberry ganache and stacked.
As if that isn’t enough, the top layer is not frosted. It is cov
ered with a thin layer of caramel candy. Then the sides are covered with ground nuts. (The recipe calls for hazelnuts, but I have thing for pistachios.)
The result is a pretty, impressive bit of bakery—one worthy of a very special occasion (like the 3Ps birthday!). The next time I do this, however, I will eschew the blend of semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate and go for simply bittersweet. And a puree of raspberries instead of jam might help cut the sugar and may mitigate how many of my guests require extra insulin.
Three Points Kitchen 
And I doubted the technique.
Oh, man, I wish I was there.
There is some left — and it keeps amazingly well. This probably explains the ridiculously elaborate cakes in Eastern European bakeries, where they mete out tiny slices, one at a time. They probably don’t sell a whole cake in less than a week… so don’t have to put in the effort every day.