Making a Mothers’ Day Sachertorte

I’m just going to start by saying this: I love cake.

Cake and I get on fairly well with each other, and consequently I make it fairly often. This one was a little different though. I’ve been all talk for the last six months or so, but I’ve never quite got around to the actual baking. When I was on holiday in Vienna last year I - shockingly enough - indulged in one or two quite a few slices of cake, the ultimate of which was the Viennese classic - Sachertorte.

Yup, shockingly enough my chocolate loving being was rather taken by this unthinkably indulgent chocolate-fest and it was definitely discussed (at length) several times after I returned home. And then it showed up in the Great British Bake Off (as a technical challenge, if memory serves me correctly), so it was discussed some more. I still didn’t quite get round to doing it.

To draw a (potentially) War-and-Peace-length story to a swift conclusion, my mum passed a Sunday paper supplement on to me a few weeks back which had a selection of recipes from Delia’s new cake book in it; and low and behold the Sachertorte was amongst the pages. Since many of the conversations about the Sachertorte were with my mum I decided that Mothers’ Day would be the perfect excuse to roll up my sleeves and give the chocolate industry an unexpected boost.

It was actually much easier than I was expecting - to the extent that I managed to watch some (abysmal) rugby whilst mixing the various ingredients together - and I’m not altogether sure why it took me so long to make it. It was also absolutely delicious and followed on surprisingly well from our pheasant and venison pie; making Mothers’ Day a lot more fun than going out to a restaurant and being served a sub-standard set menu whilst lots of appallingly behaved kids rush around your ankles. It’s now definitely on the ever-growing ‘make it again’ list - although perhaps next time I’ll make the jam layer a little thicker, as I feel it didn’t quite pull its weight this time round.

The other great thing about using Delia’s recipe is that it enables me to enter it for this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge. This month the challenge - started on The Chocolate Log Blog and Chocolate Teapot - is being hosted over on The Kitchen Maid where Lucy has decided the theme is fame. Basically, whatever is made should be a famous recipe or made by someone famous. This is possibly slightly twisting the rules - as Delia isn’t famous for this Sachertorte - however, given that Sarchertorte is quite famous, and that Delia’s known to one or two, I am saying that this cake fits the bill!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I couldn’t find a proper cake board and my plates don’t fit in the cake box; hence my Blue Peter effort in the photos.

Delia’s Sachertorte

My Sachertorte was based on the one in Delia’s new book, Cakes. I did, however, change the ingredients slightly - which … ahem… had totally nothing to do with the fact that I didn’t have enough plain flour. I also upped the jam content, so the below recipe is not quite what you’d find in the book. Please note that for this recipe you may which to purchase your own chocolate company - there is 350g involved - and that if your audience don’t like rich cake, then this probably isn’t for you. It makes a 20cm cake.

Ingredients

for the sponge:
60g plain flour
50g ground almonds
110g butter
175g dark chocolate
1 tsp baking powder
110g golden caster sugar
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites

for the topping:
175g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
1 dsp glycerine
3 tbsp apricot jam

Directions

Preheat the oven to 150ºC and line a deep, loose-bottomed cake tine.

Melt the sponge’s chocolate in a bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. In a separate (large) bowl, sift in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and to this add the sugar, butter (making sure it is in a ‘spreadable’ state). Beat the egg yolks and add them to the other ingredients. Mix the ingredients together for a good 3 minutes - or less, if you’re using electricity over physical effort - until it is smooth and ‘creamy’. Once it has reached this constancy pour in the melted chocolate and mix again, until it is incorporated.

In (yet) another bowl, whisk the egg white until they form soft peaks. At this point fold them into the chocolate-y batter (using a metal spoon, so nothing reacts). It is easier to do this bit by bit, so it’s harder to knock all the air out of it.

Put the mixture into the cake tin and use a spoon to flatten the top. Bake in the centre of the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until it is risen and springy to the touch. Once out of the oven, cool in the tin for five-ten minutes, before transferring to a wire rack.

Once it’s thoroughly cool it can be decorated. To make the ‘icing’ melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (as above) and once melted remove from the heat and mix in the cream and glycerine. Heat up the jam and then brush it equally over the top and sides. Finally, pour the chocolate mix over the top - not all at once, that’ll just make a mess - and smooth over the top and sides with a palette knife, ensuring everywhere is covered. It will take 2-3 hours to cool.

It should be served in slices, with generous amounts of whipped cream.

Craig (54 Posts)

Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.