This column began two years ago, almost to the day, when I made a birthday cake for a friend. “I don’t mind,” was her reply when I first asked what sort of cake she would like. But then, a few minutes later, she said: “Hang on, I mean chocolate with glossy icing. Like the mini ones they make at Barberini.”
Barberini is a local bar and cake shop, and the mini cakes she was referring to are their sacher (inspired by sachertorte, of course) – chocolate sponge cakes with a heart of apricot jam and a glossy, chocolate glaze. At Barberini, each one is the size of a single draughts piece, but deep, so not quite two bites but slightly too big for one, unless you open your mouth very wide. “You mean sachertorte?” I said. “That would be great,” was her reply, before changing the subject to I can’t remember what. Walking home, I regretted asking.
According to the Sacher hotel website, its sachertorte (perhaps the world’s most famous cake) is still handmade using Franz Sacher’s original recipe. It also provides a recipe – a wonderful, quite complicated, anxiety-inducing recipe. It is also an approximate one, with a note in capital letters and highlighted red explaining that the original recipe must remain a tightly kept secret. I have never felt so relieved at not being given a recipe.
It also meant Barberini must be approximating, so I would, too. I would approximate by using my own faithful chocolate sponge recipe, which is inspired by Nigella Lawson’s faithful and tender sponge cake, filling it with my homemade peach jam and topping it with an enthusiastic attempt at the hotel’s approximate glaze recipe. I would make a not-sachertorte.
“Make sure he doesn’t disgrace me tonight,” is, according to legend, what Prince Metternich said on discovering it was apprentice pastry chef Franz Sacher who was charged with making the impressive cake. I certainly worried that my glaze would be a disgrace as I poured it over the surface of the cake, both two years ago and again twice this week. My anxiety was unfounded: while not nearly as smooth as Barbarini’s (let alone the Sacher hotel’s), the results were smooth enough.
The last bit of advice is from the Sacher hotel’s website, which notes that slices of sachertorte are best enjoyed with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. Slices of not-sachertorte are, too.
Chocolate cake with peach jam and chocolate glaze – a not sachertorte recipe
Serves 8-12
200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
40g cocoa powder
175g soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
150ml soured or single cream
150g-200g peach or apricot jam
200g caster sugar
150g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa), chopped
Unsweetened whipped cream, to serve
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 and grease and line two 20cm cake tins, ideally with removable bases.
Working in a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and cocoa. In another bowl, beat the butter, eggs, vanilla and cream, until combined and creamy, then add to the flour bowl, beating well until smooth. (This can also be done in reverse – that is, wet first, then dry – in a food processor.)
Divide the batter between the lined tins and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a stand of spaghetti inserted into the centre comes out clean. Once out of the oven, wait 15 minutes, then invert the cakes on to a cooling rack – don’t worry about any cracks; the icing will cover that. Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together using the jam.
Next, make the glaze. Working in a small pan, heat the sugar and 125ml water, boiling hard and stirring constantly, for four minutes, until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and leave cool for five minutes – this is really important – then gradually adding the chopped chocolate, stirring until it forms a thick, shiny glaze.
Once the glaze is lukewarm and thick but not stiff, pour it over the cake (still on the wire rack so the glaze can drip through) and use a flat knife dipped in warm water to smooth it. Leave the glaze to set completely, then carefully transfer the cake to a plate, cut and serve with whipped cream.
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