Mini Sacher Torte

September’s Have the Cake challenge was to make a Sacher Torte. I’d never heard of this cake but it looked good. The most common version is two layers of dense chocolate cake with a layer of fruit jam and covered with a chocolate ganache. As I started to search for a recipe online, I noticed that each one used anywhere from 4 to 8 eggs per cake. This didn’t appeal to me very much as I’m really baking for one, so I decided to use a recipe for chocolate cake that I’ve made before. I also wanted to make a mini version to stop myself from devouring an entire cake. I had a few mini loaf pans around so I used those. Baking didn’t take very long since they were very flat cakes.

I’m not at all a fan of fruit and chocolate so I decided to make the filling a layer of chocolate flavored with hazelnut rum that my friend brought me a few months ago. I once put the rum into a glass of coke thinking it would be tasty and it wasn’t. That rum definitely belongs in coffee or hot chocolate.

Check out my funky 70’s double boiler! I love that thing and I’m so excited I got to use it again. The ganache I made was not scientific. I just added heavy cream to melted chocolate until it got to a pourable consistency.

As you can see, the layers aren’t exactly even but they are close enough.

As an ode to the original version of the torte, I added a spoonful of raspberry jam to the whipped cream. The cake was mighty delicious and rich. Thanks Dorrie for the challenge this month!

Scroll down for the recipe I used.

Easy Chocolate Cake

recipe adapted to make 2 mini flat cakes

1/4 cup cocoa
milk (read below)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 egg yolk
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a 1/2 cup measure, put cocoa powder; add a small amount of hot water and stir until cocoa dissolves. Fill remainder of measuring cup with milk to bring the measurement up to 1/2 cup total.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda, mixing well. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar, add egg yolk, beating for one minute. Stir in vanilla and remaining ingredients.

Mix for one minute. Turn batter into 2 buttered mini loaf pans.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until cake tests done.