Sacher Torte

The legend tells us “one day in 1832 the all-mighty "Coachman of Europe" Wenzel Clemens Prince Metternich orders the creation of a particularly palatable dessert for high-ranking guests, "but don’t make me look a fool tonight!” he said, however that very day the chef was sick in bed, so the order is transferred to a 16 year old apprentice Franz Sacher who was in his second year apprentice. It is certain this specialty was presented to the guests and was to their greatest delight, “this soft and fluffy chocolate cake with the tasty apricot jam beyond the icing”

In 1876, Franz's son, Eduard Sacher, opened a grand hotel called “Hotel Sacher” and his wife, Anna turned it into one of Europe's greatest hostelries where the aristocracy would meet. Franz Sacher Jr., a son of Eduard, sold his original recipe to Demel's, a fancy coffee café on the Kohlmarkt, which allowed them to produce a Sacher torte. Both the Hotel Sacher and the Demel Patisserie claimed to produce the "original" Sachertorte, so these two institutions engaged in a lawsuit which lasted for years. The judgment in 1965 went in favor of Sacher, giving them the right to the “Original Sacher Torte” while Dehmel had to be satisfied with the “Original Eduard Sacher Torte”. The main difference between the two recipes is that in Sacher's case, the layer of jam is between two layers of the chocolate sponge, while in Demel's version the jam is on top of the sponge but under the chocolate covering”.

Ingredients

500 g dark chocolate

100 ml milk
240 g ground almond
250 g caster sugar
12 eggs, separated

Method

Place chocolate and milk in a bowl and melt. Add almond meal, caster sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and mix together. Whisk egg whites to a soft peak and fold gradually in the chocolate mix. Place the mix into a greased 30 cm cake tins and bake in a 145º C fan forced preheated oven for approx. 75 minutes. Allow cooling before turning upside down. Cover with food wrap and store in the fridge. Cut the cake in three layers and sandwich together with apricot jam. Cover with ganaché and divide into 16 slices and write Sacher on each slice. Pipe some ganaché at the bottom of the cake and store in fridge until ready to serve.

Note: This is a brilliant chocolate and almond cake with endless variations.