 |
| Photo: Wikipedia (duh!) |
I love baking, especially when I'm bored in the weekend and Sacher is one of my favourite cakes to make. It's sweet and at the same time very slightly bitter and sour and not too complicated to make. I base my recipe, with slight changes, on one from a Russian website, which I'll translate here for those who don't speak Russian.
Ingredients:
250 gr. dark chocolate (I use 75% cocoa)
125 gr. unsalted butter, softened
125 gr. sugar (I use white - regular or caster)
75 gr. plain flour
4 eggs, whites and yolk separated
2 tbs cocoa powder
1 tbs rum/cognac
1 pack baking powder (16 gr)
Apricot jam (I buy a 450-gram jar and it's enough).
These quantities fit nicely into an 18-cm springform pan and can serve eight people. If you want more or have a bigger pan - adjust the quantities.
Instructions:
Melt 125 grams of the dark chocolate using water bath (or, if like me you don't know how to do it - using the microwave at low) and set aside.
Beat the soft butter together with the sugar until fluffy, then add the melted chocolate and the four yolks and stir. Add the cocoa, rum, baking powder and flour and stir.
Beat the egg whites to a foam and combine with the chocolate mix.
Grease the pan and cover the bottom and sides with baking paper. Pour the batter in the form and bake 45-50 minutes at 180 degrees. To make sure it's ready - insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean - the cake is ready. Leave to cool.
When the cake has cooled, cut it horizontally through the middle with a long knife or a thread and spread the apricot jam over the bottom layer, then place the top layer. Melt the remaining 125 gr of dark chocolate and spread evenly on the top and sides. Enjoy!
And here is my, not so fancy, result
This post is not about prostitution, sexuality or even love, which some claim is oh-oooh-oh, the sweetest thing. It's about literally a very sweet thing - the perfect cake frosting/crème that you can put on or between anything.
I love baking cakes - maybe even slightly more than eating them. And a few months ago I finally found the perfect frosting to put on top or in the middle of my cakes to make them sweeter, moister, fatter and tastier.
So there it goes - you'll need one pack unsalted butter (125 gr.), one pack cream cheese (I use full-fat Philadelphia of 185 gr.), around 250 gr. thick yoghurt (I use "Greek style") and one cup powder sugar. You can adjust the proportions slightly to your taste - more yoghurt makes it lighter, less sugar - less sweet, less butter - less fat.. Beat the cream cheese with the softened butter, then add the yoghurt and afterwards the sugar, mix well and voilà - the sweetest thing in five minutes or less. It's very sweet but at the same time not heavy.
You can also pimp this up in every way you want to fit your taste - add vanilla or caramel, fruit, jam, coconut flakes, other nuts, cocoa, melted white chocolate... You can put it on top or in the middle of any cake, I've tried it, for example, in the middle of this Sacher cake instead of the apricot jam (the recipe is in Russian) but of course, then it's not Sacher anymore... If I'm too lazy to bake, I just put a layer of biscuits or lady fingers (I dip them first in coffee, milk or fruit juice), a layer of the crème and then repeat, possibly with cocoa or fruit in the middle and on top.
Enjoy!
