Any talk of Sachertorte must begin with the story of the cake's origin. I have given three below: choose your favourite.
i) The original cake was invented by a teenager who was filling in for the Austrian prince's head chef, who'd called in sick under the pressure of having to create a cake for the prince and his guests.
ii) The cake's origins are a bit fuzzy, but it's thought to have originated from Austrian villagers, who made the cake every Autumn as part of their offering for the Harvest festival.
iii) It was created by badgers, who acquired a taste for chocolate cake when some fell out of a passing traveller's knapsack onto the forest floor. Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to mill flour, what with badgers not having opposable thumbs, so they set about making a cake with ground almonds instead.
The most difficult things about making this cake are knowing which of the various recipes to use and how to write its' name, given the variations as shown in the headline. I am going with Sachertorte and a recipe found in the Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes book (which I got as a present last Christmas and I am using a lot recently).
The most famous recipe is the closely guarded one from Hotel Sacher in Vienna. Coincidentally, a friend went to Vienna for her work's Christmas party (I know: most of us get a catered turkey dinner and a tenner for the bar) and reported that the famous cake actually Wasn't Much Cop.
The most famous recipe is the closely guarded one from Hotel Sacher in Vienna. Coincidentally, a friend went to Vienna for her work's Christmas party (I know: most of us get a catered turkey dinner and a tenner for the bar) and reported that the famous cake actually Wasn't Much Cop.
Sachertorte is one of the classic cakes. It is very rich, very dense and equals much more than the sum of its' parts. I made this as a Christmas present for one of my friends, who is under strict instruction to keep it for eating on Boxing Day, by which time it will have had a week to mesh and meld and squidgify.
I also made it as my submission for December's Monthly Mingle, as hosted by Ria's Collection. The challenge was to create a Chocolate Extravaganza and I thought that a Sachertorte would fit the bill nicely. I'm very pleased to have heard about this blogging event and hope that this submission will be the first of many to come.
I'm not sure that the cake turned out how it was meant to. For a start, I think I left the cake in the oven for 4 minutes longer than needed. Also, something must have gone wrong for the cake to pull away from the icing, as seen above (anyone know what?). But the recipient liked it, so that's what counts, I suppose (unless you are a perfectionist badger).
Lorna Wing's Sachertorte
Serves 12
Ingredients for Torte
Melted butter for greasing
200g best dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
6 eggs
310g granulated sugar
150g ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground coffee
6 tablespoons good quality apricot jam
Ingredients for Icing
100g best dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
40g unsalted butter
Equipment
9 inch springform tin
Greaseproof paper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the tin with melted butter, then line it with greaseproof paper.
To make the torte, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Separate 5 of the eggs, then whisk the egg yolks, the whole egg and the sugar until the mixture is thick and creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add the ground almonds, coffee and melted chocolate to the egg yolk mixture and stir well. Gently fold in the egg whites and pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 1 hour, loosely covering the cake with foil or paper after 40 minutes to prevent the top from burning. Check that a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and remove the cake form the oven. Release the springform ring and leave the cake on the tin base to cool on a wire rack.
Melt the apricot jam over a low heat, strain and then brush it over the cooled cake.
To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Add the butter and stir until the mixture has the consistency of thick pouring cream. Pour the icing evenly over the cake, smoothing it over the top and sides using the back of a teaspoon.
Make a pattern of rings on the top and sides of the cake using the back of a teaspoon, then leave to set.
Pipe 'Sachertorte' in the traditional style on top of the cake. Serve the traditional way, with a scoop of unsweetened whipped cream and a cup of coffee.
Lorna Wing's Sachertorte
Serves 12
Ingredients for Torte
Melted butter for greasing
200g best dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
6 eggs
310g granulated sugar
150g ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground coffee
6 tablespoons good quality apricot jam
Ingredients for Icing
100g best dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
40g unsalted butter
Equipment
9 inch springform tin
Greaseproof paper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the tin with melted butter, then line it with greaseproof paper.
To make the torte, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Separate 5 of the eggs, then whisk the egg yolks, the whole egg and the sugar until the mixture is thick and creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add the ground almonds, coffee and melted chocolate to the egg yolk mixture and stir well. Gently fold in the egg whites and pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 1 hour, loosely covering the cake with foil or paper after 40 minutes to prevent the top from burning. Check that a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and remove the cake form the oven. Release the springform ring and leave the cake on the tin base to cool on a wire rack.
Melt the apricot jam over a low heat, strain and then brush it over the cooled cake.
To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Add the butter and stir until the mixture has the consistency of thick pouring cream. Pour the icing evenly over the cake, smoothing it over the top and sides using the back of a teaspoon.
Make a pattern of rings on the top and sides of the cake using the back of a teaspoon, then leave to set.
Pipe 'Sachertorte' in the traditional style on top of the cake. Serve the traditional way, with a scoop of unsweetened whipped cream and a cup of coffee.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The last time I had a good one was, yes in Vienna. Your sacher torte looks beautiful.
ReplyDelete@Lora Thanks! I don't think my friend has cut ino the sachertorte she brought back from Vienna; I'll try my luck at snaffling a slice when she does...
ReplyDeletelooks like a delicious cake! yummm
ReplyDeleteseen on Riya's chocolate roundup!
This looks good, much better than the one I had in Vienna which was really quite dry and not rich enough! I much preferred the one I made using the same G&B recipe. Let's have the one I brought back for your b'day!
ReplyDelete@Tamanna Thank you! I shall be perusing the other Monthly Mingle submissions this PM...
ReplyDelete@Lucy Thanks. I would quite like to have another try at this recipe at some point, although probably a few months from now when I've recovered from Christmas.