I’d always wanted to make a sachertorte (or ‘sasha taught’ as I used to pronounce it before making it!) an Austrian, fairly flat chocolate sponge delicately put together, wedged with apricot jam in between and coated in a cheeky chocolate ganache style topping. A slightly dry cake but one that is supported by the chocolate coating and the sweet jam running through it, proper wholesome, comforting food to try! Hope you give it a go, it did not last long!
How to make a sachertorte
First thing to say is you’ll need a springform tin to make this work, you can probably get away with not using one, but it’ll make it a lot easier!
Get the oven warmed to 150fan/170c or equivalent and line the base of the tin with baking parchment, grease the bottom of the tin to help the parchment but also grease the sides and flour it to, just a little dusting so the butter grabs the flour.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second blasts until melted, make sure you chop the chocolate into even sized pieces to speed it up and stir in between the 30 seconds.
Get a large mixing bowl and use an electric whisk to blend together the butter, icing sugar and seeds from the vanilla pod, beat it for a good 5 minutes until creamy. With the eggs, separate them and add the yolks into the butter mixture, whisk them all in and leave the egg whites to one side. With the yolks blended, add the chocolate which should have cooled a bit, whisk this through until it’s all mixed and consistent in colour.
Next whisk the egg whites with the sugar in a bowl using a clean electric whisk, once the whites are stiff, fold this mixture into the chocolate bowl with a spatula, also sift in the flour, lifting it all through until fully merged as you fold.
Pour this into your tin and level off slightly. Bake for 15mins with the door just slightly open, then keep the same temp oven, close the door and bake for 45 mins, if it cracks a bit and rises up, don’t worry, we will flatten it down later! Once it’s done it should be springy to the touch, let it cool in the tin for ten mins, then turn it out onto a wire rack with some baking parchment on it, put it so the baked side up (maybe with a crack or 2) is facing down as it cools, you’ll have the bottom of the cake as it baked facing up, with a really nice shape on it. When the cake cools, use a serrated knife to halve the cake.
To brush the cake with the jam put the jam into a microwave proof bowl or ramekin, warm in 20 second blasts until manouverable (careful it can be hot!), then brush on the top of the cake, the middle of the cake (the bit you exposed when slicing open, then lift the lid on top of the cut half once both covered in jam and brush the sides fully, it should look quite glossy, remove any lumps of jam if there are any.
Now for the glaze, you want everthing to be in place and have the sacher-torte propped up on a wire rack with a baking tray underneath to catch any spillage.
Put the sugar and 130ml of tap water in a saucepan, boil this gently over a medium low heat for 3-4 mins, once it’s bubbled for a few minutes, take it off the heat and add in the chocolate, again if it’s chopped or ideally in chocolate chips that would help massively. Add the chocolate and stir carefully, the heat will make it melt to a lovely ganache style chocolate syrup, it should be thick, but pourable in consistency.
Pour this over the cake drenching the sides and letting it settle, use a spatula if you need to help push it around for coverage. Let it set in the fridge for an hour or so, then slice and serve with whipped cream! Amazing!