Sachertorte

Ingredients

• Dark chocolate — for the sponge130 g
• Butter150 g
• Icing sugar110 g
• Eggs6
• Sugar110 g
• Flour140 g
• Apricot jam250 g
• Chocolate for the glaze200 g
• Sugar for the glaze250 g
• Water150 ml
• Cream — to serve250 ml
• Vanilla1 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Melt the sponge chocolate over a water bath and cool it to lukewarm.

   10 min

2. 2

   Beat the butter with the icing sugar and vanilla until pale, add the yolks one by one, then the chocolate.

   12 min

3. 3

   Whip the whites with the sugar to firm peaks and fold them in with a spatula, alternating with the sifted flour.

   12 min

4. 4

   Bake at 170 °C for forty-five minutes, the first fifteen with the oven door propped open.

   50 min

5. 5

   Cool it completely, split the sponge in two and spread the warmed sieved jam between the layers and over the sides.

   20 min

6. 6

   Cook a syrup of sugar and water to 108 °C, take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth.

   15 min

7. 7

   Cool the glaze to the body of cream, pour it onto the centre and spread it by tilting the cake. Let it set two hours.

   20 min

About the dish

The glaze is cooked from sugar syrup with chocolate to the soft-ball stage, 108 °C. Merely melted chocolate gives a matt coating rather than the mirror a Sacher is known by.

The apricot jam is warmed and pushed through a sieve. Lumps show as bumps under the glaze and no flat surface is possible.

The glaze is poured in one movement onto the centre and spread by tilting the cake, never with a spatula. Every touch of a spatula leaves a mark that does not close up again.

Worth knowing

• — A thermometer is essential. An undercooked syrup gives a running glaze; an overcooked one turns matt and grainy with sugar.
• — The jam has to be warm and pourable. Cold, it will not spread evenly, and the glaze reproduces every ridge.
• — Cut a Sacher with a hot dry knife. A cold one drags the glaze along with it and the cut face comes out ragged.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

7 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Austria

• Wiener Schnitzel — Veal beaten to three millimetres, crumbed and fried in plenty of fat until the coating puffs away.
• Apfelstrudel — Apples with cinnamon and raisins in a dough stretched until it is transparent. It is pulled by hand, never rolled.
• Tafelspitz — Beef rump boiled in a clear broth, with apple horseradish and fried potatoes.