This week’s project is an Austrian cake called “Sachertorte.” Sachertorte was created by Franz Sacher in Vienna Austria, and I’m pretty sure is only made according to the original recipe at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. From what I’ve read, I gather that this cake is pretty famous, and is traditionally made as a chocolate sponge cake with apricot glaze and chocolate on the outside. The cake is then to be served with whipping cream.
When deciding which recipe to use for this cake, I had two options, and both suggested an alternative kind of fruit to use for the glaze, if you didn’t want to use apricot. I understand that this cake is fairly specific, however, and apricot glaze is considered “The only right way” to make this cake. So, apricot it was! The other two suggestions I came across were to use either raspberry or red current preserves… Which both sounded good to me, but I decided to stick with the real deal.
The other toss-up with making this cake was to make this shiny glaze for the outside, or a ganache (made with chocolate and heavy cream). Ganache is delicious, and I would guess, is probably the “Right” topping to use on this cake… But from some finicky past experiences with ganache as a glaze, I opted to go for the other one. I liked that this is shiny when it sets too; whereas ganache would have set with a dull finish.
The only other thing that I think I did a little out of the ordinary is that I did not write “Sacher” on the outside in chocolate. There is one major reason for this: I was bringing this cake to a picnic, and well, I ran out of time. 😀 Eh-he. Silly excuse, I know. But there it is!
I’m not going to post a recipe today, but I’ll walk you through how I made it… With pictures! This project was available to be sponsored until April 28th for $18. Since I didn’t get any orders for this particular project, I decided to pack it up and take it on a picnic– with a hot thermos of tea along as well. It was wonderful; and the whole experience was so delightful, I think I might just have to make this cake a couple more times in the future (at least). 🙂
Step 1 – Chocolate. When working with cakes, I have learned, it always best to go for quality ingredients if you want a quality result. Some cakes are less fussy than others, but since this cake is so *very* particular about its special-ness, I wanted to do my best to make it just that. 🙂 I love desserts with history to them… And this one is quite interesting.
Anyway, I chose to use Baker’s dark chocolate, since it is a pretty good quality chocolate, and is also readily available.
Now, don’t get tired of the pictures… I couldn’t resist. Chocolate can just be so picturesque.. And I didn’t want to leave any of these out. 😛 So I hope you like chocolate photo shoots…
Step 2 – Butter, sugar and eggs. Bring on the butter! Butter is always better than margarine. Always. One thing I thought interesting about this recipe is that it called for confectioner’s sugar instead of granulated sugar… I wonder why? I’d be curious to know. Anyway, you beat the butter until it’s all nice and fluffy, then add the sugar, and next, eggs yolks. The whites are reserved, then beaten separately and folded in to lighten the cake later on.
Here I am (looking good, too :-P), adding chocolate to the butter, sugar and egg mixture…
And then in go the egg whites! This cake requires no leavening at all– the egg whites are what bring the air into this cake, making it lighter. Like most sponge cakes, at this point you want to leave some visible whisps of white to make sure you don’t over-beat it and make the cake too dense.
Step 3 – Flour. The flour is sifted over top, in a couple of additions. It is folded into the batter gently, till all the ingredients are combined.
Step 4 – Bake it! Once the flour is incorporated, you scrape the batter into a pan lined with wax paper and floured on the sides to keep it from sticking. Like-a-so:
The pan is lined, greased, and then flour is shaken over the sides to coat it. Any excess flour, as shown in this picture, is shaken out.
I spread the batter to be higher on the sides of the pan, since I wanted the cake to rise evenly, and most cakes tend to rise most in the middle.
Once the cake has been baked, it sits in the pan for about 15 minutes (like most cakes) before it is turned out of the pan to cool. Then the cake is leveled, split into two layers, and apricot glaze is spread between the layers and over the outside of the cake. Once that has set, the chocolate glaze is made and poured (warm) over the cake, and once again, left to set. Then the cake is transferred to a serving plate, and chilled until you are ready to serve it.
Here are couple of miscellaneous pictures, and then I’ve made a string of photos to show that process from start to finish.
Here goes…
So pretty! Like I said before, this cake came with me on a picnic… So here it is, minus the first slice. This cake is just lovely; wonderful chocolate, but not too rich at all… It is just rich enough to satisfy that craving, but just light enough to easily enjoy after a meal.
Someday, I would like to try the REAL Sachertorte. Perhaps someday I will. 🙂
Thanks for reading! Until next week,
–Naomi
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A work of art in both appearance and taste! 🙂
Beautiful pictures Naomi 🙂
~Jessica
This cake was amazing to look at and to eat. I felt so special eating, what I consider to be, a designer cake….Naomi created it, I'm sure, up to expectations! Delicious!
Looks simply delicious! I hope one day you get to go to the Hotel Sacher yourself!
~ Kirsten
Honestly, this was one of the best, most yummiest tasting things I have ever had. Just the pictures are making me hungry again 🙂
~ Hannah