Sachertorte
Sachertorte is not a moist cake and was never meant to be. It is a dense, slightly dry chocolate cake that draws its moisture from two places: a thin layer of apricot jam and a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream on the plate. All the difficulty sits in the glaze — this is not a ganache but a chocolate icing built on sugar syrup, which sets to a mirror and cuts without cracking.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Chocolate batter 25 min
- Baking 45 min
- Cooling 90 min
- Apricot layer 15 min
- Glaze 20 min
- Setting 45 min
Step by step
0 / 12 doneMelt the chocolate and let it cool
Heat the oven to 170°C (top and bottom heat). Melt the 130 g of chocolate over a water bath and leave it until it is barely warm, around 30°C. This is not a step to rush: hot chocolate melts the butter in the batter and the whole thing separates instead of aerating.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
TipTest it with a finger — it should feel like body temperature, no warmer.
Cream the butter with icing sugar
Beat the soft butter with the icing sugar, vanilla and salt for a full 5 minutes, until pale and visibly increased in volume. There is no baking powder — the cake rises only on the air beaten into the butter now and into the meringue shortly.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
Add the yolks and the chocolate
Beat in the yolks one at a time, fully incorporating each, then pour in the cooled chocolate. Everything must be at a similar temperature — a cold yolk hitting soft butter gives a split, grainy batter.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
Whip the whites to soft peaks
Whip the whites, adding the sugar a spoonful at a time, only to soft peaks — the kind that flop over at the tip. Stiff meringue is too dry to fold in without knocking out the bubbles, and those bubbles are what lift the cake.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
A peak that flops at the tip — stop whipping there.Fold in meringue and flour alternately
Fold the meringue in three additions, sifting the flour between them and cutting through with a spatula from the bottom up. The first addition is there to loosen the batter and can go in briskly; the next two need a light hand.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
Bake for 45–50 minutes at 170°C
Transfer to a 24 cm springform lined on the base only — leave the sides ungreased so the batter has something to climb. Level the top and bake 45–50 minutes at 170°C, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean or with a few crumbs, but no raw batter. The centre will dip slightly, as it should.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
Cool completely, ideally overnight
Cool 10 minutes in the tin, run a thin knife around the edge, then turn out onto a rack for at least 1.5 hours. A warm cake dissolves the jam and tears the glaze. Baked a day ahead, it also slices far more cleanly.
Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate · 140 g butter · 110 g icing sugar · 6 pcs eggs · 110 g sugar · 140 g plain flour · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 pinch salt
Fill and coat with apricot jam
Warm the jam with the water and push it through a sieve — every piece of fruit has to go. Split the cake horizontally, spread the middle, close it, and coat the top and sides in a thin, even layer. This layer is a barrier: without it the glaze soaks into the crumb and turns dull.
Ingredients: 250 g apricot jam · 30 ml water
A thin, strained layer — the barrier under the glaze.Boil the syrup to 108°C
Bring the sugar and water to a boil and cook to 108°C. This is the single most important number here: below it the glaze never sets and runs off, above it the glaze turns brittle and cracks under the knife. Without a thermometer, boil for 5 minutes at a full rolling boil.
Ingredients: 200 g sugar · 130 ml water · 200 g dark chocolate
Stir in the chocolate and cool to 40°C
Off the heat, add the chopped chocolate and stir without whisking air in until smooth. Cool, stirring, to about 40°C — the glaze should fall off the spoon in a ribbon, not in drips. Too thin and it will run off and leave the sides bare.
Ingredients: 200 g sugar · 130 ml water · 200 g dark chocolate
Pour it in one go
Set the cake on a rack over a tray and pour all the glaze onto the centre in one continuous stream. Spread it with two or three strokes of a palette knife and stop. Every extra stroke leaves a mark that sets in plain sight.
Ingredients: 200 g sugar · 130 ml water · 200 g dark chocolate
All the glaze at once — touch-ups leave marks.Leave it at room temperature
Leave for 45 minutes at room temperature. Do not refrigerate: condensation dulls the mirror and the cocoa butter blooms grey. Serve with unsweetened whipped cream — the cake is sweet, the cream is the counterweight.
Ingredients: 250 ml whipping cream (30%)
Dense crumb, a thin apricot line, a mirror on top.
Before you start
Cut with a hot knife
Dip a long knife in boiling water and wipe it dry before every slice. A cold blade drags the glaze and leaves a ragged edge.
Keeping it
Under a dome at room temperature the cake keeps for up to a week — the glaze stops the crumb drying out. In the fridge it hardens and loses its shine.
The jam matters
Choose a jam with a high fruit content and real acidity. A sweet, fruit-light jam disappears under the chocolate, and it is the apricot's tartness that has to balance all that richness.
