CHOCOLATE CAKE BY LANDER

This recipie is from Austria.

Austria is a small country in central Europe.

                                                          SACHERTORTE

This famous chocolate cake is very rich. Known as Sacher's cake it was first made by a cook called Franz Sacher, who baked it for an Austrian prince.

                                                                      

                                                           INGREDIENTS

For the cake

6 eggs

145g. softened butter

145g. caster sugar

225g. plain chocolate 

115g. plain flour

For the icing

2 tablespoons butter

225g. icing sugar

145g.apricot jam

30g. cocoa powder

Apart

Two 20cm sandwich cake tins, greased and lined with a circlee of graseproof paper.

Oven temperature: 170ºc / gas mark 3.

                                                                 METHOD

First open the eggs. Put the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Beat the yolks until smooth.

Next beat the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until creamy. Stir in the egg yolks gradually.

Later break half the chocolate into pieces in a small heat-proof bowl. Heat a saucepon of water over a low heat.

After that stand the bowl over the pan and stir the chocolate until it has melted. Stir it into the creamy mixture.

Then put the egg whites into a large bowl. Whisk them until they are firm and form soft peaks when you lift the whisk.

After mix the flour into the cake mixture, then fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon. Fold in one spoonful at a time.

Later pour the mixture into the cake tins. Smooth the topwhit the back of a spoon. Bake the cakes for 35 minutes.

Next run a knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen them. Turn them out onto a wire rack and leave them to cool.

After that to make a thick icing melt the rest of the chocolate in a bowl. Mix in a tablespoon of icing sugar and the butter.

Then use a knife to spread the chocolate paste onto one half of the cake. Then, put the other cake on top.

Later melt the jam in a pan over a low heat. Spread it over the top and sides of the cake with a blunt knife.

Finally sift the cocoa powder and the rest of the icing sugar into a bowl. Add water a bit at a time. Spread it all over the cake.