I have just bought this cute book written in the '50.s by an American woman married to a Viennese. And in it is the famous, authentic recipe for 'Sachertorte', the best chocolate cake in the world. Which I will now write down if only for myself. Apparently the Cafe Sacher and the Cafe Demel are still locked in vicious battle over whose version of the cake is the best - you will see how different they are.

SACHERTORTE.

2/3 cup butter. 3/4 cup sugar. 8 egg yolks. 6 ozs. semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled. 10 egg whites. 1 cup sifted flour. apricot jam. CHOCOLATE ICING.

Cream butter and half the sugar until very fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one by one. Gradually and thoroughly beat in chocolate. Beat egg whites and remaining sugar until very stiff. Gradually and lightly fold into chocolate mixture, alternately with dusted-in flour. Pour into buttered, floured 8-inch spring-form pan. Bake in pre-heated moderate oven (350 deg.) about 1 1/4 hrs. or until cake is done and shrinks from sides of pan. Cool. Remove from pan. Invert.

When cake is completely cold, spread it with heated apricot jam - DEMEL'S VERSION. Or ......
in addition, slice cake through middle and spread with extra layer of apricot jam - SACHER VERSION. Hmmm. How can I possibly decide which is best? Obviously - the Sacher version, two layers of jam is always better. How could there ever have been a contest?

Cover with CHOCOLATE ICING and a 'puff' of whipped cream on each plate.

CHOCOLATE ICING. (Schokoladenglasur).

3/4 cup granulated sugar. 3/8 cup water. 3 ozs. semi-sweet chocolate. 1 teaspoon butter.

Boil sugar and water in aluminium saucepan about 15 minutes, or until syrup spins a fine thread when dripped from a silver spoon. (This seems a touch anal but it was the 50's). While sugar is boiling, melt chocolate and stir in butter. Pour sugar syrup, a little at a time, into melted chocolate, stirring continually until icing is smooth. Use immediately. For one 8-inch cake.


To show an aspect of my coolness. I have eaten this cake in the Cafe Demel in Vienna. (Obviously if I had realised that Cafe Sacher had the nicer one I would have gone in there).

I spent a few days in Vienna, years ago, under slightly odd circumstances. I was unrequitedly in love with someone who had just written a travel article about spending a long weekend there. By coincidence, someone who was unrequitedly in love with me had to be in Vienna on business for a long weekend and asked me to go with him. I took the article with me and retraced the loved one's movements exactly, while never letting on to the unloved one and doing it all in the form of ' suggestions'. Ah ... to be young and obsessive.


While in Viennese mode. When my son was about 8 we had a very long, dull wet Spring with nothing to do in London at weekends. Out of desperation I was struck with the idea of having country-themed days where we pretended that we were somewhere else. One of these was based on Vienna and he really loved it and still remembers. I bought a guide-book with masses of pictures, (this is when computers were still made of wood and we didn't have one), and made Viennese food like cinnamon toast with hot chocolate and whipped cream and Weinerschnitzel (?) with very thin fries. Which we ate while listening to Strauss waltzes and watching a video of 'The Third Man' (Still one of my favourite films in the world).


- posted by Iris @ 11/03/2003 12:32:00 PM comment