FOOD FRIDAY - SACHERTORTE

“Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good.” - Mariska Hargitay

For Food Friday today, the Viennese Sachertorte. I first tasted this marvellous confection when I was a high school student. I had a friend who was the son of the Italian consul in Melbourne and once, while at their house for afternoon tea, the cook brought in amongst other goodies a magnificent Sachertorte. I was enslaved forever! The cook was European and was rather proud of her training, which included trips to France and Austria for special courses.

The next time I sampled this cake was in Vienna in the Viennese café attached to the famous Hotel of the same name (see: http://www.sacher.com/), and it was delightful having it with hot, strong coffee and lashings of whipped cream. The cake is rich, dark, aromatic, its texture firm but yielding and smooth, the chocolate flavour refined and yet overwhelming. I have been given a recipe for it, which is reproduced here:

Sachertorte
Ingredients - Cake
130 grams (4.6 oz) butter
130 grams (4.6 ounces) dark chocolate
100 grams (3.5 ounces) powdered sugar
6 eggs
90 grams (3.2 ounces) white sugar
130 grams (4.6 ounces) sifted flour
Apricot jam, diluted with half its volume of water
Ingredients - Icing:
150 grams (5.3 ounces) chocolate
75 grams (2.7 ounces) coconut shortening

Method - Cake
Preheat the oven to 180-200°C.
Melt chocolate and butter in a Bain Marie, (“im Wasserbad” – double boiler). Remove from heat and let the mixture cool.

Add the sugar and the egg yolks little by little while carefully stirring.
Beat the egg whites and add the powdered sugar. Mix into the
batter and gently fold in the sifted flour gradually while constantly stirring.
Pour batter into a greased spring-form pan. Bake at 165°C for 50 to 60 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from pan and before icing.
Once cool remove the cake from pan and slice horizontally.
Mix the jam with the water and heat for 2 minutes in a microwave oven. Pour filling of hot jam between the layers of the cake, spreading it evenly and allowing it soak into the cake.
Method – Icing
Melt the chocolate and coconut shortening in a Bain Marie and cover the top and sides of the cake with the warm icing.

More versions of the Sachertorte abound and the variations are almost infinite. It should be noted that the genuine Sachertorte as served in Vienna is a closely guarded secret and these are all approximations that have been created by the gustatory cognoscenti.

Duramecho’s version
RecipeZaar’sversion
CacaoWeb’sChocolate Torte!
Epicurious site

Sachertorte was the invention of Herr Franz Sacher (1816-1907) in 1832 for Prince Clemens Lothar Wensel Metternich (1773-1859) of Austria, the Austrian State Chancellor. See the history here.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.