Sachertorte or Sacher cake
( Torta Sacher )

Sachertorte recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Let butter soften at room temperature.
• - Meanwhile you have to toast your almonds lightly in oven.
• - Then reduce almonds to powder in a mixer adding also icing sugar gradually.
• - Beat 100g (3 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into little pieces, in a bowl with a wooden spoon for a long time or until it becomes creamy and foamy.
• - At this time stir in your powdered mixture of almonds and icing sugar.
• - Separate yolk from white of every egg.
• - Remember to pour egg whites into a different bowl.
• - Stir in yolks too, one by one.
• - Pour in white flour together with yeast.
  Help yourself with a colander and stir.
• - Your dough must be soft.
  If it isn't soft, you can add a little of brandy.
• - Melt 100g (3 1/2ounces) pure chocolate in a bain-marie over very low heat.
• - Let it cool lightly.
• - Then pour melted chocolate into your dough, stirring with a wooden spoon very well.
• - Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• - Butter a 25cm (10in) non-stick round cake pan, loose bottom, with remaining butter.
• - At this point whisk egg whites adding a pinch of salt to stabilize them.
  I suggest to whisk whites with a large balloon whisk or an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks when the whisk or beaters are lifted from the bowl.
• - Fold beaten whites to your dough with slow circular movements from the bottom upwards, using a wooden spoon, until all ingredients are well mixed.
• - Pour your dough into buttered pan.
• - Bake until your cake is well leavened, its surface is lightly cracked and a cake tester (simply a toothpick) inserted in its center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
• - Open your oven a bit and let your cake cool inside.
• - Then remove your cake from its pan and cut into two layers crossways.
• - Prepare a syrup with water, sugar and brandy.
  Let it simmer on a very low heat, few minutes.
  Quantity of sugar and brandy depends on your personal taste.
• - Let your syrup cool.
• - Soak every layer with this syrup but remember to put aside a bit.
• - Then place a first layer on a serving dish.
  Spoon a great quantity of jam on it and cover this layer with the second one.
• - Melt remaining chocolate in a bain-marie over very low heat.
  Stir in remaining syrup too.
• - Spread it on cake surface uniformly (help yourself with a spatula).

Just before serving

• - Sacher cake (Sachertorte) is ready.
• - If you decorate your Sacher cake with a little fantasy serve it whole and cut it into slices in front of your guests.

Note

Tips

• - Sacher torte recipe is long and laborious as you have seen. Sachertorte should be prepared the day before, moreover it becomes tastier.
• - If desired, you can decorate your Sacher cake with chocolate biscuits or whatever your imagination suggests.
• - You can also serve Sachertorte with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. It's a very tasty dessert in late spring and summer when strawberries are in season.
• - You can store Sachertorte in a cool place, a couple of days.

Menu planning

• - You can serve Sacher torte in the afternoon to accompany Italian coffee or tea. It's perfect for tea time, according to me.
• - Sacher torte is a great cake to close a full menu. Look at some menu ideas of mine below.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here are two menus of mine with Sacher torte as dessert: Italian colored Easter menu and Woman Day Italian menu.

Healthy eating

• - Sachertorte is a very tasty cake but it's a fat recipe, full of calories. In fact among its ingredients there are butter, almonds, chocolate and jam as you have seen. In spite of these considerations, I suggest to prepare it for a special occasion because it's impossible to give up the pleasure of tasting it. Once in a while we can eat such a gorgeous food as long as we choose the ingredients well and do physical activities.
• - A curiosity. There were 18 egg whites and 14 yolks in the original recipe for Sachertorte
• - Look at nutrition facts. As you can see in the list ingredients there isn't the precise amount of sugar and liqueur for syrup and the amount of apricot jam. Generally I use 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of liqueur to prepare the syrup to soak the cake and then 200g (3 1/2 ounces) of apricot jam. But everyone use sugar, liqueur and apricot jam according to his own taste. So I calculated calories, fat and sugar with my personal doses.
• - The Sachertorte is delicious as all cakes. There are very few people who say no to a dessert after lunch or dinner, especially when people are out. But keep in mind that many sweets are the opposite of healthy eating.
  So how do you? As usual, the equilibrium point is the salvation of each one of us.
  In the daily menu, as guidelines for healthy eating recommend us, we have to prefer dry and baked cakes paying attention to the amount of sugar.
  But if there is a special event (birthday party at home, ceremony, dinner with friends ...) let's enjoy our special cake. Once in a while, especially if you do exercise, the body can metabolize the calories, fats and sugars in excess.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Sachertorte or Sacher cake "?

My husband and I like to match Sachertorte to Sagrantino Rosso (a dessert red wine from Umbria - Italy). I remember you how difficult it is to pair a good dessert wine to chocolate.

Sachertorte history

Sachertorte was invented by the pastry chefs of the hotel Sacher in Vienna and widespread since the mid-nineteenth century everywhere. However, keep in mind that its name is protected by a trademark. Another case in which the trademark is used by all ... so it is not just a problem of our times ...

Anyway the authentic recipe is top secret ;)))