How to accidentally (easily) bake an Austrian delicacy

When I visited Salzburg last summer, I just had to try Austria’s famous Sachertorte. It is a dense chocolate cake, topped with apricot jam and completed with a generous coating of dark chocolate icing. The original recipe is, unfortunately, a carefully-guarded secret that only some dessert chefs are privy to. As such, you would understand my surprise when I bit into my disappointingly flat cake and was immediately brought back to the summer of 2019 where I was idly strolling the streets of Salzburg, eating Austrian cakes and listening to the sound of music.

This accidental but happy event started when I discovered a chocolate cake recipe my old chemistry teacher gave me. Her recipe required self-raising flour, and after a thorough investigation of all my cupboards, all I could find was regular flour. In trying to self-isolate and remain a good citizen, I had the simple idea of adding baking power to the flour in order to get the rise I wanted. (Top tip: 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of regular flour).

Although I did not get the traditional cake-y rise, I instead got a dense-like texture that perfectly complemented the cake’s rich chocolatey taste. If you are already starting to feel claustrophobic from staying at home, hopefully this recipe will transport you straight to the Austrian Alps.

Ellen x

Ingredients

Cake:

• 125g butter, softened

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 275g caster sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 1/3 cup (200g) flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 50g cocoa power

• 160ml water
  

Chocolate icing:

• 90g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

• 30g butter, softened

• 160g icing sugar

• 2 tablespoons of hot water

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 160 C fan-assisted. Line a cake tin with baking parchment or grease. (I used a 21cm round cake tin).

2. Beat butter, extract, sugar, eggs, sifted flour and cocoa, and the water in large bowl until ingredients are combined and the mixture is smooth and pale in colour. If using an electric mixer (which I did), mix on low speed until ingredients are combined and then increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

3. Spread mixture into the tin (filling it up half way) and bake for about 40 minutes or check with toothpick. Stand cake in tin for 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto write rack to cool.

4. To make the chocolate icing, melt the chocolate and butter in small heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water (don’t allow the water to touch the base of the bowl). Gradually stir in sifted icing sugar and water, stirring until the icing becomes spreadable.

5. Spread the icing over the cold cake.

6. If you have extra batter, make cupcakes (I did)!