Best left a day or two before cutting, the Sachertorte cake is best baked today or tomorrow for a lovely bite at the weekend. Mary Berry shared her go-to recipe for making the world-renowned Austrian chocolate cake with a lovely layer of apricot jam in the middle.
Additional must-have ingredients include delicious double cream and chocolate icing for a decadent finish. If you wish, you could drizzle the chocolate icing into the word “Sacher” to set on top of the cake. Taking around half an hour to prepare but up to an hour to bake in the oven, here’s how to recreate Mary Berry’s famous Sachertorte cake.
Sachertorte chocolate cake
Serves: 12 people
Ingredients
- 140g plain chocolate
- 140g unsalted butter, softened
- 115g caster sugar
- Half tsp vanilla extract
- Five eggs separated
- 85g ground almonds
- 55g plain flour, sieved
For the topping and the icing:
- Six tbsp apricot jam, sieved
- 140g plain chocolate
- 200ml double cream
- 25g milk chocolate
Method
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/gas mark four). Grease a deep nine-inch round cake tin with butter (at the bottom and edges), then line the base with greaseproof paper.
Break the chocolate into pieces and melt gently in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally (or put in a microwave for about 20 seconds), then let it cool.
Beat the butter in a bowl until soft, then beat in the sugar till the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate and vanilla extract, then beat again. Now add in the egg yolks (the yellow bit) and fold in the ground almonds and sieved flour.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then add a third of it into the other bowl (with the chocolate mixture) and “stir in vigorously”.
Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites, and pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.
Bake in the oven for about 45 to 50 minutes. Once baked, briefly leave the cake in the tin before turning it out and peeling off the greaseproof paper. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack while you make the topping.
Heat the apricot jam in a small saucepan for the topping, brushing it evenly over the sides of the cooled cake. Allow to set.
Now, move on to the icing. Heat the cream while breaking up the plain chocolate pieces. Once the cream is very hot, remove from the heat and add the chocolate pieces, then stir until melted.
Pour the cooled chocolate icing into the centre of the cake, spread it across the top and sides, and leave it to set.
For any writing you do on the top of the cake, you can break up some milk chocolate pieces, melt it gently in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, and spoon it into an icing bag to pipe across the top of the cake.
