Let’s Celebrate: Making Original Sachertorte

Let’s celebrate! It has been five years ago that I had a horrible bike accident including brain bleeding.  You can check the details here. As I didn’t have any permanent damage thankfully, I want to celebrate with chocolate and invite you guys, we will attempt original Sachertorte! In 2014 I was fortunate enough to eat real Sachertorte in the Café Sacher in Salzburg. The below picture is one of the first pictures I took with my Sony camera and I am still proud of the shot. I mean, considering that I knew very little of photography, I would say it is a great shot! Sachertorte is a chocolate sponge cake that contains butter. Traditionally you will glue together the two cake layers with apricot jam and cover everything with a chocolate glaze. The cake is served with unsweetened whipping cream on the side. Of course I already have a recipe for Sachertorte on the blog. However, recently I got inspired to try again and make a version as close as possible to the original. Once I watched the movie “Sachertorte” on Amazon (a nice little romantic comedy in my opinion), I was hooked. In said movie the main character eats Sachertorte every day in the Sacher Café in Vienna in the hopes of meeting his sweetheart that mentioned she would celebrate her birthday in the cafe at 4pm. So I did some research. Obviously the recipe from the Sacher hotel was a big help. But, and I quote, I have to say that even the hotel Sacher mentions that “This is only an approximation of the original recipe, which of course must remain a tightly-kept secret.”

On top of that, there are handwritten texts from Carla Sacher, the granddaugther of the inventor of this cake named Franz Sacher. If you have a look at it, you will see that she uses the measuring unit “dkg”, which translates as deka grams, one deka gram is 10 grams. Additionally, she mentions cooca powder, which is unheard of in the recipe from hotel Sacher. Okay, so now I had to decide which recipe to follow. My colleague added to the confusion, she showed me a recipe, which supposedly was from the son Eduard Sacher. So here I was, comparing all these different recipes, the one from the hotel, the one from the son, and the one from the graddaugther. The one from my colleague and from the hotel were almost the same, a few grams more here, a few less there, but overall pretty much the same. Since the one from my colleague had slightly less sugar listed, I went for that one. Also, I found the instructions of how to make the glaze easier to follow. So here it comes, my supposedly similar recipe to the original Sachertorte.

Sachertorte is super delicious if you are into chocolate. But on top of that it is one of the best cakes to make in advance and to even ship. I have mailed this cake for two different wedding successfully. As this cake will taste better on day 2 or 3, it is perfect if you want to make it in advance. The layer of apricot jam as well as the chocolate glaze will protect the cake from drying out. Hotel Sacher, which exports this cake worldwide, states that it keeps for two weeks. This is the timeframe to work with. In Germany cakes will usually make it much faster than that, so this is a perfect cake to surprise somebody. I can guarantee you, chocolate combined with tangy apricot is a divine combination. No wonder Austria is extremely proud of this cake. I felt it fit perfectly for my five-year anniversary.

Print Recipe

Original Sachertorte

Serves: One 22-24cm/8-9 inch ∅ springform

Prep Time: 45min – Cooking Time: 1hr – Total Time: 1 hr 45min

This recipe is trying to come as close as possible to the original Sachertorte.

Ingredients

• Chocolate Batter
• 130 grams of high-quality chocolate (55% of cocoa content or higher)
• 130 grams of butter at room temperature
• 100 grams of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 6 eggs, divided
• 100 grams of white sugar
• 140 grams of all-purpose flour
• 
  
• Glaze (this is pretty sweet, however, after a few days it will taste much better)
• 200 grams of apricot preserve
• 200 grams of regular sugar
• 125 grams of water
• 150 grams of chocolate

Instructions

1

In this video you can see how I make Sachertorte. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line the bottom of a 22-24cm/8-9 inches springform with parchment paper (mine was 23cm).

2

For the chocolate batter melt the chocolate on low heat or in the microwave, set aside.

3

Beat the soft butter for about five minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and beat for a few more minutes, then add the vanilla extract and each egg yolk separately and mix in each for about 30 seconds each. Add the cooled-off chocolate. Once all combined, sieve the flour on top. Now beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat on high until you get a glossy and stiff meringue. Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk mix and flour, add the second third. Once you fold in the last third of the meringue, be sure to do this gently, you don't want to deflate the batter. Only combine in a folding motion until homogeneous. Immediately pour into prepared cake pan and bake for about 60 minutes. If touching the surface with a finger, the cake should spring back. Let cool for about ten minutes, then release from the cake pan and cool the cake upside down. Cut in half once completely cool. Heat the apricot jam gently and spread about half on one of the cake layers. Place the second layer on top and brush the top and sides of the cake with the remaining apricot jam. Let dry.

4

For the glaze heat the water with the sugar for about five minutes, then let cool and start stiring in the chocolate. Once the chocolate is fully melted and the glaze has a somewhat thick consistenc, pour over cake and spread on the sides. Let cool. Sachertorte can be kept easily for a week and will taste better on the second and third day. Hence it is perfect to make a few days in advance.