Typical Austria: Sachertorte

Sachertorte from Austria

Here I say “typical Austria". Hotel Sacher is available in both Vienna and Salzburg Salzburg country. The Sachertorte is served in both. To make things complicated, there is also the Sachertorte in the kuk Hofzuckerbäckerei Demel. An exciting story of how it came about.
The Sacher cake is older than the two hotels. The impetus for this came from Prince Metternich. The latter gave his chef the order to create a “special dessert” for his guests. As the cook was sick on the day of the event, the 16-year-old apprentice Franz Sacher had to step in. He developed the basic recipe for the cake. Then she disappeared again. So there was no great excitement.

His son Eduard finally completed an apprenticeship with the court confectioner Demel in Vienna and completed the cake recipe there. In 1876 he opened the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. From then on the cake was sold both at Demel and at the Hotel Sacher. Edward died. After the hotel's bankruptcy in 1934, his son Eduard again granted the court confectioner the right to sell an Eduard Sacher cake. He was now working for Demel again. Four years later, however, the new owner of the Hotel Sacher sued. This had meanwhile registered the "Original Sacher cake" as a brand.

Although there is no fixed recipe for the Sachertorte, the dispute between the two parties went into detail. Were two layers of jam used in the original? One under the chocolate icing, the second in the middle of the cake? And was margarine or butter used to make it? In 1963 an agreement was finally reached. The “Original Sacher-Torte” is now only available in the Sacher Hotels in Vienna and Salzburg and in the Sacher cafés in Innsbruck and Graz. They are also available in the Sacher Shop in Bolzano, in the duty-free area of ​​Vienna Airport and in the Hotel Sacher's online shop. The "Eduard-Sacher-Torte" is available from Demel in Vienna. The "Original Sacher-Torte" has two layers of jam, Demels Sachertorte only one. Both use a cake seal as a decor. A round at the Hotel Sacher. A triangular one at Demel & Sons.

Somehow the story reminds me of the TV commercials around the Twix brothers. Since the recipe for the Sachertorte is not protected, anyone can change it to their liking. Here is the recipe version that tastes best:

Our favorite recipe for Sachertorte

Ingredients for the Sachertorte

120 g block chocolate (40% cocoa content)
120 g margarine
6 beaten egg yolk
100 g icing sugar
6 protein
80 g sugar
80 g flour
40 g cornstarch

For the filling of the Sachertorte:
Sour jam (eg apricots or redcurrant)
Rum

Dark couverture for the glaze

Preparation of the Sachertorte

Melt chocolate and margarine in a water bath. Then cool. In the meantime stir egg yolks and powdered sugar. Then stir in the chocolate margarine mixture.

Beat the egg whites and granulated sugar in a second container until frothy. Mix flour and starch. Lift together with the egg whites under the chocolate mass. Fill in a round baking pan.

Heat the oven to 180 °. After ten minutes, switch the temperature back to 140 °. Bake the cake for about 50 minutes.

Let cool down.

For the filling mix marmalade with rum. Cut the cake in the middle. Brush the lower half of the cake with the filling. Put the top half of the cake back on top. Brush with jam at the top. Then coat thick with couverture.

At special feasts we decorate the Sachertorte instead of with cake seal with punched out marzipan forms.

If you want to try the Original Sacher cake, you can do it in the Hotel Sacher in Vienna * and in the Hotel Sacher in Salzburg * do.

We participate with this article at the Blog Parade "Culinary around the world" from the lavender blog.

Source Sachertorte: own research

Text: © Copyright Monika Fuchs, TravelWorldOnline
Photos: © Copyright Monika Fuchs, TravelWorldOnline