Today we have a recipe of Chocolate Sacher Cake. It is very delicious, moist and tender, extremely chocolaty and with a fresh note of apricot jam. This is not a classical recipe, it has been modified, because without experiments there is no place for development 🙂
Classic recipe usually contains powdered toasted almonds, layers are moistened with kirsch syrup and the cake is glazed with Chocolate Glacage (melted chocolate with butter and cream or water, it is not shiny when set).
We are going to exclude toasted almonds (to make our sponge more soft and moist), for the layers we will prepare rum-sugar syrup, also we are going to add some spice to the apricot jam filling. As a design modification we will glaze it with shiny cocoa mirror glaze and coat the sides with sponge crumbs. You can add some other decorations up to your taste of course.
Also here I would like to make a small note about glazing. Normally when we use a mirror glaze we have to pour it on a frozen surface of a cake (ganache, mousse etc.) otherwise it won’t be perfectly smooth and flat, so we need to freeze the cake first. But defrosted sponge cakes lose their tenderness. So, to avoid this, I skipped the step with the ganache coating and freezing, I turned the cake upside down after demolding to have its flat bottom on the top, smoothed it out with some syrup and poured the glaze right to the cake. To do so you might need to make a bit more thick glaze (take 125 ml of water) and be ready that some imperfections may appear on the surface.
If you prefer to be sure that your cake will have a perfect mirror glaze, than perform all the steps and pour some chocolate ganache first, than freeze it and glaze the frozen surface.
Ingredients for the chocolate Sacher sponge:
- 60 g white sugar
- 80 g sifted cake flour
- 15 g cocoa powder (optional)
- 80 g softened butter
- 80 g dark chocolate (melted)
- 70 g sifted sugar powder
- 3 Large egg yolks at room temperature (appx. 60 g)
- 4 Large egg whites at room temperature (appx. 120 g)
Directions for the Sacher cake batter:
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C (356°F).
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in a double boiler or in microwave (but with caution)
- Combine the softened butter and sugar powder, with a wire whip beat the butter until creamy and smooth.
- Slightly beat the egg yolks in advance, and then add them a little at a time, mix well to blend the yolks completely into the batter before adding some more.
- Add the melted chocolate (warm, not hot!), mix well until fully incorporated. The batter should be smooth, homogeneous and shiny.
- Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt and several drops of lemon juice. Add the sugar and whip to soft peaks.
- Fold the egg whites gently into the batter.
- Fold the sifted flour in 3-4 stages, being careful not to deflate the foam. It is much better to do it by hand. Fold gently until all the flour is blended in, but no longer or the cake will be tough.
Baking Sacher Cake:
Prepare a square mold, in this case I used a 19 cm x 19 cm mold and 5 cm high. Grease the sides with butter and line it with parchment paper.
Fill the mold with the batter, smooth the surface with a curved metal spatula, and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
When baked, let the cake cool a bit, than unmold it carefully and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Sugar Rum Syrup Ingredients
- 100 g water
- 70 g sugar
- 15 ml rum
Syrop Directions
- Boil the sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove from heat, let it stand for 10 minutes.
- Add the rum (quantity may vary, it is up to your taste).
For the Filling
For the filling we will need around 150 g of apricot jam.
If you wish to add some speciality to the filling, you can add 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of rum to the jam and mix all well.
For the Chocolate Ganache Cream:
- 40 g chopped dark chocolate
- 60 ml heavy cream
- 1 tsp of rum
Directions for the Dark Chocolate Ganache:
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place it in a bowl.
- Bring the heavy cream just to a boil, stirring it continuously to prevent scorching. It is better to use very fresh cream as it is less likely to curdle when boiled.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt, stir well until the chocolate is completely melted and blended, the ganache should have a smooth texture.
- The ganache is ready to be used as an icing or glaze. Apply it by pouring it over the cake.
For the Chocolate-Cocoa Mirror Glaze:
- 145 ml water
- 120 ml heavy cream (35% fat)
- 180 g white sugar
- 60 g cocoa powder
- 3 sheets of gelatin
Directions
- Put the gelatin sheets one by one in a cold water, let them soften for appx. 10 minutes.
- Combine the heavy cream, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add the cocoa powder and heat until 103º C (217.4°F). It is important to use a thermometer, as we have to respect the temperatures.
- Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool to 60º C (140°F).
- Drain well the gelatin and add it to the mixture, stir until it dissolves completely.
- Let the glaze cool to 30º C (86°F). We use it at this temperature, if you have prepared it upfront and stored in a fridge, It can be reheated in microwave.
Assembling Sacher Cake
- Trim the cake to form perfect sides, blend the trimmed slices of sponge in a food processor, crumbs may be used for decoration.
- Cut the cake into 2 layers.
- Moisten both layers with rum sugar syrup.
- Sandwich the layers together with a layer of apricot jam in the middle.
- Place the cake on a wire rack or on a tray. Pour warm chocolate ganache over it. Run a palette knife over the top to smooth the icing.
- Neaten the bottom edge with a knife, remove it from the rack and send the cake to freezer for 2 hours.
- When the ganache icing is frozen, place the cake on a wire rack and pour chocolate mirror glaze over it. You can run a palette knife over the top to smooth the surface.
- Neaten the bottom edge with a knife. Coat the sides with cake crumbs.
- If the cake was frozen, let is defrost in a fridge for couple of hours.
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