I will admit my subscription for FFXIV is still not active but the food in this game always attracts me. This week we will be taking a look at the Sacher torte. FFXIV was one of the first places I was introduced to this kind of cake. After that I noticed a café near me sold this style of cake, I decided to try it. At first I was a bit confused what was going on. The main thing that makes this cake different from a normal chocolate cake is the use of the apricot filling. I knew I had to figure out how to make this cake on my own. Lots of research and testing went into this recipe until I was truly happy with the end result. This cake requires a bit of care because you do not want to over mix your batter. You want the cake to be nice and fluffy while still tasting of delicious, rich dark chocolate.
Required Equipment: spring-form pan, bowls, stand mixer (or hand mixer), sauce pan, brush, wire rack
Ingredients:
Cake
– 10 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled
– ¾ cup butter
– ¾ cup sugar
– 5 egg yolks
– 6 egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– ½ tsp baking powder
– 1 cup flour
Chocolate Ganache
– 8 oz bittersweet chocolate
– 1/3 cup heavy cream
– 1 tbsp butter
– apricot preserves
Preheat your oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla extract.
Take the cooled chocolate and combine in the bowl. At this point I stopped using a hand mixer and started folding ingredients in. In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In two batches fold in the flour but do not over mix it.
Finally take you egg whites (which should be stiff peaks) and gently fold them into the chocolate mixture.
Place the cake batter into a spring-form pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Allow the cake to completely cool.
As the cake is cooling take about a ¾ cup of apricot preserves and place in a saucepan over medium heat. Warming up the preserves will make it easier to spread as the filling. Do not bring it to a boil. You just want to warm it up. Cut the cake in half to prepare for the filling. Place the filling inside and place the top back on.
The final piece of the sacher torte is the ganache topping. In a sauce pan warm the heavy cream and butter. Bring it to a low simmer and add the chocolate. Mix together until the chocolate has completely melted.
This last part is probably the messiest part of the whole process. Take a small amount of apricot preserves and brush it on the top of the cake. I’d recommend doing this last part with the cake on top of a wire rack. Pour the ganache over the cake and coat completely. Allow the cake to rest for at least a half hour before cutting into it and serving.
Note: This is an unofficial recipe and not approved by Square Enix.