Chocolate crunch Torte with Mixed nuts and cranberries is nothing but a no bake chocolate cake !
Personally I have always done my best with left overs of ingredients and come up with winning dishes.

A torte is a rich, usually multi layered, cake that is filled with whipped cream, butter creams, mousses, jams, or fruits.Ordinarily, the cooled torte is glazed and garnished. A torte may be made with little to no flour, but instead with ground nuts or breadcrumbs, as well as sugar, and flavorings.

Some of the recipes that I have been sharing are just some delicious left overs put to good use. By left over here I do not mean already cooked left overs , but of dry ingredients sitting idle in the pantry threatening to expire.

Like any baker , I am in my element when I hit the baking ,cakes, and desserts aisle, randomly throwing stuff into the trolley hoping to make good use and then it just sits waiting to be used. A big slab of dark chocolate was waiting to be used and I wasn't feeling too energetic to browse for specific recipes.Some cranberries and nuts waiting for their turn and a tin of digestive biscuits that no one touched, some left over fresh cream butter, and I knew I had to use them all in a no bake chocolate Torte which I chanced upon while searching for quick Christmas recipe in BBC good Food.

The outcome was stunning, gorgeous, silky and so tasty .It looked like I had spent hours toiling in the kitchen ! But it is totally no bake, no cook in fact, just hours of cooling in the fridge to set the cake.

The totally melt in the mouth, velvety creaminess has all the gorgeousness of a silky chocolate and the fine dense cake like texture too.

Ingredients:

225 grams dark chocolate broken into pieces.

110 gms unsalted pistachio nuts roughly chopped.

50 grams of slivered almonds.

50 grams cranberries

50 grams raisins

50 grams butter

150 ml double cream lightly whipped.

225 grams sweet oats biscuits, or digestive biscuits powdered.

You will also need an 8 inch (20cm) round loose-based cake tin, greased, with a non-stick base liner. I used a loaf pan as I wanted to cut squares.

Method:

To make the torte, or the no bake chocolate cake , keep the broken-up chocolate bits and butter in a large heatproof bowl, which should be sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water.

Then, keeping the heat at its lowest, allow the chocolate to melt completely till it becomes smooth and glossy. It will appear thick and molten ready to harden when cooled rapidly.

Now remove the bowl from the pan, give the thick hot melted chocolate a good stir.

Next, fold in the whipped cream, followed by the the pistachios, almonds, cranberries, raisins and powdered biscuits, and give it all a good mix.

Finally, spoon it into the cake tin or the loaf pan as evenly as possible, cover with clingfilm and chill for a minimum of 4 hours to 6 hours.

To serve, dust the surface with a little cocoa powder or sprinkle fine coconut powder. Cut the torte into wedges.You can also serve this as slices with crème fraîche, whipped cream or pouring cream.

This is a great treat to be given away as small gifts for Christmas.