Soft but firm, delicately chocolatey, luscious with apricot jam – a ‘grown-up chocolate cake’ that gets better with age
Myth swirls around this understated chocolate cake like damp autumn mist on the Danube – it’s claimed that it was created by a teenage apprentice for a state banquet, to have been Sigmund Freud’s favourite, to be impossible to make at home … But what is sadly indisputable is that, when they finally tuck into a slice, many people are underwhelmed.
In the course of my research, I received many complaints that Sachertorte is dry and boring; as Nigel Slater has noted, many people find the “elegant simplicity” of “the world’s most famous, grown-up chocolate cake” a bit of a disappointment. It shouldn’t be. Done well, the Sachertorte is soft but firm, delicately chocolatey and luscious with apricot jam, but never squidgy or gooey. As Rick Rodgers writes in his book Kaffeehaus, “for this reason, Sachertorte is always served with a big dollop of lightly whipped, gently sweetened, heavy cream. You are actually supposed to dip each bite of cake into the cream to moisten it before eating. So, don’t be shy!”
