Sacher Torte

I fully intended to get up early yesterday morning and bake this so that we could have it after lunch but for some strange reason I couldn’t seem to move until about 2pm. This had absolutely nothing to do with the several glasses of wine/pints of cider I consumed Friday night, I’m sure…My hangover improved when I saw my mum had sneakily ordered Paul Hollywood’s new book off my dad’s Amazon account. Excitingly for me, because I am a loser, Mr Hollywood himself actually tweeted me ‘thank you’ after embarrassingly referring to his book as ‘baking porn’ on Twitter. It really is though; the pictures leave you wanting to actually lick the pages. Watch this space for a manic spree of bread baking in the coming weeks.

Anyway, after listening to my dad screaming up the stairs “where’s my torte?” I finally got on with it. It’s obviously not quite the same as eating it in sunny Vienna with a cup of coffee but I’d happily have a slice of this whilst watching Superstar any day.

Ingredients

150g plain chocolate (39% solids)

150g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

5 large eggs, separated

75g ground almonds

40g plain flour

For the icing

6 tbsp apricot jam

150g plain chocolate (39% solids)

200ml double cream

25g milk chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180⁰/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 9 inch deep round cake tin and line the base with parchment.

Break the chocolate into small chunks and melt gently in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir it occasionally and then leave it to the side to cool once it’s completely melted.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter until it’s light and fluffy. Beat the sugar into the butter in small batches until lovely and light.

Pour in the cooled chocolate and vanilla extract and beat everything together.

Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating as you go.

Gently fold in the ground almonds and flour.

In a different bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add around a third of the stiff egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir quickly. Fold in the rest of the egg whites gently.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for around 45-50 minutes or until the cake is well risen and springy. Leave it to cool for a few minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

When the cake is completely cooled, heat the apricot jam and brush all over the cake. Leave this to set. Melt the plain chocolate as before adding the double cream. Leave it to cool and thicken for a couple of minutes before pouring all over the cake. While the icing is setting melt the milk chocolate and using a small icing bag pipe the word ‘Sacher’ across the cake.

This cake is super rich so serve it in small slithers and if you want to go mad add a dollop of fresh cream.