Sacher Chocolate Cake

A decadent chocolate cake from Austria, Sachertorte is filled with apricot jam and covered in a thick chocolate coating.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Austrian

Keyword austrian chocolate cake, sacher torte, viennese cake

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Resting Time 1 hour

Total Time 2 hours

Servings people

Calories 889kcal

Author Eva | Electric Blue Food

Melt the chocolate and let cool to room temperature. If using the microwave, do 30-second intervals and stir in between.
Separate the yolks from egg whites and beat the whites until firm, then add about 1/4 of the sugar and keep mixing until dissolved.
In another bowl cream the butter and rest of the sugar. Always mixing, incorporate the yolks one at a time, followed by the melted chocolate. Set the mixer aside.
In a separate bowl combine almond meal, flour and baking powder. With a rubber spatula fold half of the egg whites into the butter mixture. Next, incorporate the flour mixture. Lastly, fold in the rest of the egg whites.
Divide cake batter among two 20-cm (8 inches) cake pans and bake them in the preheated oven at 175°C (350°F) for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

As the cakes bake, warm up the heavy cream and remove from the heat (or microwave) just before it reaches boiling temperature. Add the chocolate in pieces and stir until melted. Set aside and let cool - the ganache will thicken as it cools.

When the cakes have cooled down, slice a thin layer off from the top of both cakes to level them and remove the crunchier outer part. The top of the baked cakes might turn out a little crusty, brownie-like, and we want to expose the softer inside before spreading the apricot jam.
Spread some apricot jam over one of the cakes, then stack the next one on top. Spread apricot jam over the top layer as well as the sides. Keep adding more jam as it gets sucked into the sponge cake and use it all up. Let rest until the ganache has reached the right texture.
To try if the ganache is ready to use dip a spoon in it: it should coat the spoon quite thick but still be runny enough to pour so don't let it harden too much.
Place the cake over a rack and set over a large plate. Pour the ganache in one continuous stream over the cake, starting from the centre and moving outwards as it expands. Make sure to let the ganache drizzle down the sides to coat the whole cake evenly, and pour some more to make a properly thick coating everywhere until you have used it all up.
For the classic lettering finish, save a small quantity of the ganache in a piping bag and put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. When firm enough so that it does not drizzle out of the piping bag, cut a small circular opening in the piping bag and write the word Sacher across the top of the cake.

For best results I recommend a 55% cocoa chocolate in the cake batter and a darker bitter 70% chocolate in the ganache. If you don't have 2 different types of chocolate, use 55% for the whole cake.
The ganache recipe has a generous yield to allow for a good coating, so keep pouring more ganache until you have used it all up. You will have a lot of ganache leftovers, hence the need to place the cake over a rack over a large plate, rather than just on its serving plate.
If your apricot jam has fruit bits, pour it through a mesh sieve before use so you will be spreading a smooth jam without fruit bits onto the cake. If it's more jelly-like and quite solid, microwave a few seconds for easier spreading.

Please notice that the nutritional information is made by an online calculator and meant to be used as a guideline only.