Sacher Torte Recipe

Sacher Torte is a decadent chocolate cake with a touch of apricot jam coated in pure chocolate from the capital of desserts. It’s The Chocolate Cake.

Life is full of amazing things, hiding in plain sight without people ever notice them. When someone accidentally picks it up on a sunny Sunday afternoon and starts to charge a fee, suddenly everyone gets crazy about it, desiring to have a piece.

This is how we end up in situations where a humble chocolate cake with a bit of jam can command a 7 Euro price without even a slurp of coffee. Well, if we are used to Starbucks on the daily basis, this priceless bite in a posh lunge won’t throw us off the fence, anyway. At least as long as we have Mastercard…

Sacher torte was first made by Austrian Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Wenzel von Metternich’s dinner guests in Vienna, Austria. It was a lovely cake to finish off the dinner but it wasn’t an immediate hit that throw Franz into culinary stardom.

In fact, the cake didn’t even make it out from his recipe book as he opened a deli and wine shop in Vienna and lived happily ever after. After all, selling delicious behind a counter isn’t as stressing as running a kitchen full of chefs.

Luckily for us, though Franz didn’t bring the recipe to his grave. He had an admiring son who felt, he needed to follow his dad footsteps and carry on his legacy. Eduard Sacher trained in Vienna with the Royal and Imperial Pastry Chef at the Demel bakery and chocolatier.

Demel was a perfect place to hone his skills and promote his father’s since perfected Sacher torte for the hungry public. This wasn’t enough to reach the stars though, but the great cake-through was close.

In 1876 Eduard started to sell Sacher Torte in his newly established Hotel Sacher that levitated the cake to a level where it has a national Sacher Torte Day in the US on the 5th of December. Not many desserts can achieve that.

Of course, when a cake is getting bigger, more and more people would like to have a piece from it without sharing it. Following the death of Eduard Sacher his son, also Eduard Sacher carried on his late father legacy into bankrupt in 1934.

Following his dad’s footsteps young Eduard went to work for Demel and brought the sole distribution rights of Eduard-Sacher-Torte to the bakery. In terms of cakes a pretty boring time followed as World War II. Pretty much thwarted any innovation that didn’t include someone else’s death.

At the end of the war when Europe started to recover and lawyers were in abundance, the new owners of Hotel Sacher thought to trademark the term “The Original Sacher Torte” and sued Demel who also was selling the original ones.
After seven years of legal battle, in 1963 both parties settled out of court with Hotel Sacher walking away with “The Original Sacher Torte” prize and Demel getting “Eduard Sacher Torte” phrase.

It may do not even worth mentioning that the recipes are carefully guarded secrets even though the ingredients are well known. The secret of The Original Sacher Torte dwells not in the pastry though, rather in the chocolate that is custom made by three different factories for this sole purpose only.

Quite a hassle for a piece of cake that can be done in the coziness of our home too. It isn’t a huge challenge to prepare and we can substitute the sugar with whatever sweetener we like, in this case it’s honey.

The making of this cake worth every second slaved in the kitchen for those who love chocolate and cakes. It’s not a fruity firework like we can get from a black forest cake or a fun summer dessert like the light lemon cream pie. It is a full-bodied chocolate cake wrapped into strong chartered dark chocolate that is bond together with the sweet but faintly tangy apricot jam. A real dessert for a real coffee.

Ingredients:

Base:

• 1¼ cup / 140g Flour
• 1 tablespoon Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging)
• 5oz / 140g Chocolate
• 6 Eggs (separated)
• 10 tablespoon / 140g Butter
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon Honey or sweetener of choice
• 7 oz / 200g Apricot jam (See how to make Low Sugar Apricot Jam at the Low Carb Condiments)

Frosting:

• 5 oz / 140g Chocolate
• ½ cup / 100ml Heavy Cream
• 2 tablespoon / 25g Butter
• 1 teaspoon Rum aroma

Kitchen equipment:

• Ø6.5″ / 16.5cm Baking form

 

How to make Sacher torte:

Base:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C .
2. Measure flour and mix baking powder with it.
3. Melt chocolate in a small bowl, placing it onto a slightly bigger bowl of steaming water. Stir it gradually. When it’s melted take it off the heat and let it cool a bit before mixing it with the other ingredients.
4. Separate eggs.
5. Beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. Beat butter in a different mixing bowl until soft then put honey and vanilla extract into it. Keep beating until the mixture gets light and fluffy.
7. Beat egg yolks until fluffy and yellow.
8. Add the beaten egg yolks to the butter alternating between the flour and melted chocolate (Make sure to use slightly cooled down melted chocolate as if it’s too hot it would melt the butter).
9. Finally carefully fold in the egg whites.
10. Pour batter into the cake tray and stick it to the preheated oven for 40 minutes to bake.
11. Check it with a toothpick if it is baked properly.
12. Place cake base onto a rack and leave it there to cool down.
13. Whilst the cake is cooling, place the jam into a saucepan to warm it up to get a slightly runny consistency so when it is spread on the cake it’s easier to work with.
14. Cut off the top of the cake to make it level and shape it to circle if necessary.
15. Cut the base into half horizontally.
16. Spread half of the apricot jam on the bottom half and place the other half of the cake on top.
17. Spread the rest of the jam on the top half.

 

Frosting:

1. Melt the chocolate, cocoa and the piece of butter.
2. Pour whipped cream into the saucepan with the chocolate bits.
3. Stir occasionally until melted chocolate is completely incorporated with the butter and whipped cream.
4. Pour chocolate icing on top of the cake.
5. Spread it evenly on top and the side.
6. Place it in a cool place until the chocolate hardens.

Serve it with whipped cream on the side. Enjoy!

 

There are few more gracious than the Sacher torte but there are some:

• Black Forest Cake
• Halloween Cake with Mascarpone & Chocolate
• Dobos Torte Recipe
• Chocolate Orange Cake

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