Sacher What?

I recently joined an online cooking club and though I've tried to keep up, I'm just not good at cooking by force. I like to cook and bake whenever I feel like it and not when I have to. Don't get me wrong, I cook dinner for the family everyday except on Fridays or Saturdays when we might order in or go out to dinner and I bake a lot to say the least. And not all my baking gets documented on the blog. Sometimes I just don't feel like it. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, now I remember, I joined a baking club (oh stop!) and we had to pick a dessert from a country out of a hat and make that country's dessert. I ended up with VIENNA!!  Come on, that is a gift from Goddess herself. Vienna is famous for its pastries, its cakes and its art. And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Sound of Music also filmed in Vienna? I don't remember. Anyway I settled on and baked a Sachertorte. Sachertorte is a Viennese chocolate cake, very rich with a thin layer of apricot preserves and a coat of chocolate ganache! It looks and sounds fancy and taste delicious and it takes only 8 hours to make..Just kidding!! 


Sachertorte
Yields 8-12 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 tbsp butter, at room temp.
1 1/4 cups sugar
9 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and tepid
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, separated and at room temp
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup apricot preserves

For the chocolate glaze:
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
7 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9in round cake pan with wax paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy and light. Beat in the chocolate and vanilla. One at a time, beat in the egg yolks. Add the flour.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stir 1/4 of the whites into the batter, then fold in the remainder. Spread evenly in the pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake let it cool for 15 mins on a wire rack. Invert your cake and unmold, remove the wax paper. Let it cool completely for about 30 mins.

For the glaze:
Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over med. heat. Remove from heat and add the chocolate and vanilla. Let stand until the chocolate softens, then stir until smooth. Let it cool, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly.

Melt the apricot preserves in a small pan over low heat. Strain through a sieve. Slice the cake into 1/3 horizontally. Spread the lower layer with some of the apricot mixture, replace the second layer, spread the preserves over that layer and then replace the final layer on top. Spread the glaze all over your cake using a metal spatula to smooth the glaze evenly. Refrigerate for about 10 mins or until the glaze is set.