Spiced Chocolate Torte Wrapped in Chocolate Ribbons from Bon Appetit

On Christmas Eve Cami and I were invited to one of my dearest friend's house for dinner. I was in charge of bringing dessert and I thought about making a hazelnut and chocolate tart.Little did I know that my friend had another idea, she emailed me a link for a recipe that she thought would be a great dessert for the holiday dinner. Before reading the ingredients and instructions, I went straight to the reviews which were really good but also warned me about how time consuming this dessert was going to be. I panic; 1- because I do not have a pasta machine, required in the instructions; 2- because I have never worked with modeling chocolate.
My friend told me that if the "cake" was too challenging I was free to make something else. That's went I thought that I had to make it, you know, just to be sure that I haven't gone to pastry school for nothing. Then I saw the cover of the Bon Appetit magazine... the torte in the cover!

The day before the party I started making the torte around 1 pm and finished about 11 pm, why did it take me so long? because I like to take my time and because working with modeling chocolate is harder than I thought. I was able to make the ribbons with the white chocolate ( I used a rolling pin to roll the chocolate and I cut the loops with a pastry wheel), but I couldn't work with the dark one ( too soft, too sticky).This torte was a challenge and very time consuming, but I was very happy about the results and everyone loved it. The torte was delicious! and I had a very happy friend! If you have time and patience... go for it. Your guest will be impress at your New Years party celebration.

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How was your Christmas? I hope you had a wonderful time with your family. Around here we had a lot of snow, a lot of cold and way too many hours of rest and movies.

I couldn't help myself and these are some pics from our holiday