Episode 53
June 4, 2011
Sachertorte
I think it’s about time for another viewer request episode – don’t you? This torte was actually requested when I released the German Chocolate cake so it’s been a long time coming! Now when I was in school, we learned about the sachertorte but we didn’t actually make it. Now that I’ve made it, it’s a shame that we didn’t! It’s actually pretty easy to make and tastes amazing!
The torte itself is it’s own recipe so it’s not just the devil’s food chocolate cake coated in chocolate ganache. The torte is a deceptively moist cake. At the end of my video I emphasize that the cake has no added moisture, like simple syrup, and needs whipped cream but after eating it I feel that this isn’t necessarily the case. The cake, while dry, almost melts in your mouth – like cotton candy but richer. It’s hard to describe but I know that I instantly fell in love with this cake recipe. It’s super easy to make too so I strongly recommend trying this recipe!
Before I go any further let me briefly go over what a sachertorte is. From what I remember from school (plus wikipedia!) the sachertorte was invented by a hotel in Vienna, Austria. One story is that the cake was supposedly created to help drum up business for the hotel. Another story is that the cake was created by a 16 year old apprentice (Franz Sacher) when the head chef fell ill so that the hotel could entertain some pretty important guests. Either way, it is actually supposed to be very rare to see this torte served outside of Vienna. Why I don’t know considering it’s easy to make and super delicious!
So the traditional sachertorte is filled with apricot marmalade but the recipe I found 
suggested making it into a melba-sauce like glaze. The apricot glaze recipe is extremely easy to make and helps add in a little moisture into the cake so I would recommend this method as well. The apricot glaze calls for 1 ounce of liquor or water. In the video I used Grand Marnier but a traditional liquor is Stroh which is an Austrian Rum popular in pastry. I couldn’t find Stroh but Grand Marnier didn’t disappoint. Feel free to use your favorite liquor to give your sachertorte a unique personal touch. By the way, apricot glazes can be used on fruits and fruit tarts to make them shiny and keep them fresh and moist.
Once the cake is coated in the apricot glaze you need to let it refrigerate to set up so the warm chocolate ganache glaze doesn’t just wash it off. The ganache glaze is different from your standard chocolate glaze. A chocolate glaze is usually nothing more than chocolate and shortening. While this makes a super shiny easy-to-handle product the mouthfeel is a little unpleasant. I prefer using ganache whenever possible because of its rich flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture. Ganache can be little more finicky that chocolate glaze but it’s worth the risk. Ganache is easy to make – take heavy cream, bring it to a boil, and pour it in chocolate chips and stir until it comes together. After this you can add butter or flavoring (like liquor!). Ganache has a wide variety of uses including making truffles, dipping various pastries and fruits, and for filling and decorating cakes. Depending on how much heavy cream you add, you can control how stiff the ganache becomes. Double the heavy cream (2:1 ratio) then you get soft ganache good for dipping fruit or as a dessert sauce. Cut the heavy cream in half and you get firm ganache which can be handled and turned into truffles and cut out decorations. The 1:1 standard ganache ratio is used for glazing tortes and dipping pastries (like eclairs). Regardless of the ratio, refrigerating the ganache should harden it up. The firmer the ganache, the harder it will become.
I remember in school how nerve-wracking it was to glaze a torte. Icing a cake was difficult
When glazing use a wire rack and sheet pan. The wire rack will allow the glaze to drip down while the sheet pan will catch extra glaze and you can reuse it again.
enough but now we had to be graded on some obscure technique!? In reality, it’s not as difficult as one would think it is. Warm your 1:1 chocolate ganache glaze to about 104 degrees F and using a ladle start pouring your glaze onto the middle of your cake. As it spreads out pay attention to what areas on the side are being neglected and pour your next ladle of ganache accordingly. After you are finished with your glaze physically pick up your cake and swirl it around to help even out your ganache and fill and missed spots. You can use offset spatulas to even out the ganache or patch up spots but I don’t recommend it. Ganache is very impressionable (does that word work here? Semantics…) so the more your work it with your tools the more messed up it will get. You may leave nicks, tracks, and marks in what was once a perfectly smooth surface. It may be tempting to try and repair what looks like a fault but sometimes it’s better to just leave well enough alone.
Now keep in mind that you may not be able to get a perfectly smooth coating. Since this cake is traditionally not iced with buttercream you are at the mercy of the cake’s natural surface and the apricot glaze. One way to get your cake smoother is to use the bottom of the cake as the top (as I do in the video). Another method is to take cake crumbs and mix it with apricot jam or the apricot glaze and make a cake-ball-like mixture (cake spackle if you will) and patch any holes up. You should do this prior to applying the apricot glaze if you are going this route. In addition, the ganache will create a particularly thin layer on the sides because of gravity, so it’s going to be pretty bumpy on the edges. Don’t feel bad because a quick google image search of sachertortes reveal that many chefs have ridged sides after glazing. If you are hellbent on getting smooth sides you could go a variety of routes. You could 1) ice your cake with apricot jam (chill before glazing) 2) ganache glaze your cake more than once (chill between glazings) or 3) use a stiffer ganache and ice your cake with it then chill your cake then glaze your cake with the 1:1 ganache. The best way to get smooth sides on a cake is to use buttercream of course but then you would be adding something that isn’t in the classic recipe.
Anyway that’s pretty much it. Let your cake set up at room temperature (so you don’t create drips in your fridge) and then refrigerate it for a good hour so it’s nice and firm. The cake tastes best at room temperature. Supposedly, the cake should be okay to store at room temperature because ganache is supposed to be shelf-stable but I don’t know about that. Something with that much heavy cream in really should be refrigerated. However, I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving the torte out at room temperature for a few hours at like a party, but if I store it overnight, it’s going in the fridge.
Anyway, here’s the recipe for the sachertorte which includes the apricot glaze recipe and chocolate ganache glaze recipe. If you prefer to download the glaze recipes separately just click their names. Also I mentioned in the video that I would give you a recipe for chantilly cream (sweetened whipped cream) so here’s that. Normally you just want to eyeball powdered sugar and vanilla extract but sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s a good amount especially when you’re just starting out (or trying to cost out recipes).
Before I forget! I got the sachertorte recipe from Epicurious and the apricot glaze recipe from joyofbaking.com. The ganache recipe I got from one of my formulas from school. And now they are all together in one easy to follow file.
Below is the video! Enjoy and thank you for watching! P.S. How are you liking the chapter list in the beginning of the video?
