Sacher Torte
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 40 minutes plus 1 hour resting
Cooking time: 60 minutes
- 200g/7ozs dark couverture chocolate, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon coffee powder (fine, not the freeze dried stuff)
- 180g/6ozs soft butter
- 110g/3.9ozs brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 6 eggs, room temperature, separated
- 110g/3.9ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 100g/3.5ozs cake flour*
- 40g/1.4ozs almond flour/ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
For Rum Punsch
- 75g/2.7ozs apricot nectar or orange juice (or water)
- 75g/2.7ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons rum
For Filling
- 150g/5ozs apricot jam
For Chocolate Glaze
- 250g/8.8ozs dark couverture chocolate
- 113g/1stick butter, softened
Cake flour can be bought at the supermarket. You can also make it at home. To make 1 cup/150g/5.2ozs of cake flour replace 2 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with cornflour/fine cornstarch and whisk well. I usually mix up a big batch of this and keep it in a container ready for baking cakes as it produces a softer texture.
Step 1 - Line a 20cm/8inch springform tin on the base and sides. Preheat oven to 140C/284F fan forced and arrange rack to be in the centre of the oven. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a double boiler until smooth and liquid and stir in the coffee powder. Whisk the egg whites on high speed until foamy. Slowly pour in the caster sugar and whip until you get soft, not stiff peaks. Scoop out and set aside.
Step 2 -Whisk the butter and brown sugar together for 4 minutes or until pale. Add the vanilla bean paste and egg yolks one at a time until combined. Then add the chocolate - it should have a soft, chocolate frosting texture. Sift in the flour, ground almonds and cocoa powder and use a folding motion to combine. Then add a quarter of the egg white mixture to the chocolate batter and fold in. Add the egg whites in another 2-3 lots and keep folding gently to combine. It should be a light and fluffy mixture. Bake for 50 minutes in the centre of the oven or until the centre springs back when gently pressed. Cool in the tin and cover. I like to make this the day before so that it has time to firm up. It shouldn't be domed so you shouldn't have to trim in.
Step 3 -Heat the apricot nectar and sugar and stir to melt the sugar. Stir in the rum.
Step 4 -Cut the cake in half horizontally and gently flip it upside down so that the flat bottom is on top. Brush generously with the rum mixture. If you jam has a lot of pectin in it warm it briefly in the microwave. Spread with apricot jam. Brush the cut side of the other cake half and then place it brushed side down. Then brush the top of the cake with more rum mixture (by this point you should have used all of the rum punsch). Spread the top and sides with apricot jam and allow to set for 1 hour.
Step 5 - Melt the chocolate until liquid and add the butter. Stir the butter into the chocolate and ensure that the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of butter. Place the cake on a square of parchment just a bit larger than the cake. Place this on a cake rack and then place the cake rack over a cling film lined tray - the cling film will catch all of the chocolate drips. Have an angled spatula ready. Pour the melted chocolate (reserving one tablespoon of chocolate) and butter over the cake top and then take the angled spatula and coax some chocolate over the edge. It should blanket the cake quite nicely down the sides too. Allow to set at room temperature. I also add a tablespoon of the melted chocolate into a small piping bag and write Sacher on top.