Aaaaaand… I’m back.
After a year so bad 2020 seemed a walk in a fairy garden.
Luckly enough I think that bad moment ended and I am ready to cook once again.
I’m back from a summer holiday in Austria and Germany, chasing breweries, and I also bought a nice jar of homemade marillenmarmelade, the apricot jam they use to make the Sacher cake, one of the most iconic chocolate desserts in the world, known worldwide.
I’ve eaten it many times at Hotel Sacher in Wien and Innsbruck ( I think in Innsbruck there’s only the cafè, not the hotel).
It’s a very fancy place to have a piece of cake, expensive but not exagerate and you can call it an experience, with porcelain plates and silver forks.
Let’s jump to the recipe: if you can’t put your hand on a marillenmarmelade jar you can use a standard apricot jam.
The first has a tart taste that pairs perfectly the chocolate sweetness the standard jam doesn’t have ( I dont’ know if it depends on the fruit or on the recipe).
The recipe is perfect for a 10 inches round tin, you will be able to cut it in three layers.
Measurements are in grams as they are far more precise and that’s important for baking!
Sacher chocolate cake
Ingredients
- 130 gr good quality dark chocolate
- 1 vanilla pod
- 150 gr soften butter
- 100 gr icing sugar
- 100 gr caster sugar
- 140 gr plain wheat flour
- 6 eggs
- 400 gr apricot jam
For icing
- 270 gr good quality dark chocolate
- 190 gr fresh milk cream
Instructions
- Preheat your oven at 360°F
- Separate yolks from whites, beat whites with caster sugar until you have a stiff meringue, set aside.
- Beat butter with icing sugar, add yolks one at time until you have a smooth cream.
- Melt the chocolate bain marie, set aside to cool off a little.
- When the chocolate is cool enough mix it with the yolk batter.Once done fold in the meringue and, at last, the sifted flour.
- Butter a 10 inches round tin and pour the dough, bake for 45-50 minutes or until done.
- Let the cake cool off before removing it from the mold, when done let it cool completely on a rack.
- When the cake is completely cool you can cut it in three layers using a cake wire or a sharp knife.
- Spread each layer with apricot jam, stack them to rebuild the cake, when done brush jam on top and sides too.
For icing:
- Bring the cream to a boil, turn the fire off and add the chopped chocolate.Mix well until it's shiny and you have no lumps left.Let it cool a little.Pour gently over the cake, covering sides too.
- If you let the glaze cool more you can write on the cake, with a a pastry bag, the word " Sacher" as it's on the original cake.
- You can serve it with a dollop of plain whipped cream ( no sugar).
