Sachertorte Recipe

How to make it

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• Preheat oven to 180c.
• Butter and line a 9" Springform Tin.
• Gently melt the 200g chocolate in a double boiler.
• In a large bowl, whisk the 5 egg yolks and remaining whole egg with the sugar until pale and fluffy, like homemade mayonnaise.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiffly peaking.
• Add the almonds, molten chocolate and ground coffee to the egg yolk mix and combine well.
• Gently but firmly fold in the whipped egg whites until throughly combined.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for about an hour (it may be done sooner). Halfway through cooking or when the top has set, cover with some foil. This cake burns easily because of the egg whites.
• When cooked, remove from the oven (the top may crack or sink, again due to the high egg content). Don't worry because you can always do as I did - turn it upside down!
• Leave to cool on a rack.
• Once cool you can begin the icing. Melt the Apricot Jam in a small saucepan over a gentle heat.
• Unmould the cake, and decide which side up you are going to ice it. Brush over the now liquid Apricot Jam thickly over the top and sides. This is not merely going to help the icing stick but will be an important and surprising layer of the cake.
• In a double boiler, melt the 100g chocolate. Once liquified, add the butter and stir until melted. It might look as if it's going to seize up but keep stirring over the gently heat and it will become runny, like double cream.
• Pour over the cake, spreading fairly quickly over the top and sides until it is coated all over. With the back of a spoon, make a circular pattern. You can pipe the familiar Sacher moniker on the cake with a little melted chocolate if required. I didn't bother. Leave for a week or a day until you cut it!