Sacher Torte

On Friday we had an international potluck at work. I had said I would make a Sacher Torte and then instantly regretted it. With Claire and Elie in town, we went out to dinner Thursday night and by the time we got home I was in no mood to make a cake. Luckily for me, Claire and my mom both helped and we were a power team. So much quicker to make a cake when you have several sets of hands..

The potluck ended up being a big success and a lot of fun. They gave us all flags from the origin of our food. You'll see here the Austrian wartime flag rather then the current day one.



Origin: SacherTorte is a chocolate cake invented by chance by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties.

This is my grandmother's recipe!

Cake Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

1 cup sugar 

3/4 cup butter

5 squares semi sweet baking chocolate, melted

1 juice glass of coffee with milk

2 cups flour

1 level tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cocoa

3 egg whites beaten until stiff, not dry

Other ingredients:

jam (see below),

3 squares semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons butter

Directions

1.  Beat egg whites.  (Steal 1 tablespoon of sugar from measured amount.) Set aside.

2.  Beat egg yolks with sugar and butter

-Add melted chocolate, cocoa, flour, baking powder, alternating with coffee.

--Fold in egg whites.  Pour into a greased, cocoaed springform pan.

3.  Cook at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour.

4.  Remove from oven, cool.

5.  Cut cake into two halves, horizontally.  On bottom half, spread on a thin layer of raspberry or apricot jam that you've heated to spreading texture.  (I used apricot.  If you use raspberry put it through a sieve to remove seeds.)

6.  Glaze with: 3 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted with 3 Tablespoons butter.  Once melted, take off heat, whisk or beat with a fork until cool and glossy. 

Serve with whip cream!

There were so many delicious foods at the potluck.. Here are a few photos of dishes my colleagues made. I bought the cookbook of recipes from the potluck so once I get that maybe I can try out some of these recipes.

Bob- Spanikopia



Teodora- Eggplant Dip

Chahreddine- Tagine Tunisienne

Meringues