Vegan Sacher-torte/ Chocolate Cake

A few days ago my younger sister asked me if I would help her make a sacher-torte: a friend of hers had a birthday coming up and Elisa wanted to give her the cake as a present.

While I was searching for a recipe for Elisa’s cake, I thought it would be nice if I made one for me and Mattia for dessert; lately I’ve been trying to veganize most of my dessert recipes, or at least take out eggs and butter; the deserts then appear to be healthier…or at least that’s what I tell myself ;). Making a vegan version of a sacher seemed like quite a challenge: a sacher-torte, after all, is mainly made with eggs.

The chocolate cake that resulted was a bit different from an original sacher, but I think it came pretty close, all things considered.

Inspired by Chocolate cupcakes (OhSheGlows)

1 cup milk (almond, rice, soy, cow…whatever you have!)

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup oil

6.4 oz ( 180 g) dark chocolate

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups whole wheat flour (or whatever you have)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

In a mixing bowl, whisk together milk, sugar and oil.

Melt the chocolate and add it to the bowl along with the vanilla extract and stir well.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda, then add to the liquids.

Oil a baking pan (mine was aprox 23 cm in diameter) and cook in the oven at 350 F for 35 minutes circa. Once you take it out of the oven, allow it to cool for a while and then transfer upside-down on to a dish.

What you have right now is an excellent chocolate cake!

To turn it into a sacher, cut it in half and spread the desired amount of apricot jelly on the bottom. Quickly heat up the jelly to make it more easily spreadable.

Flip the top part of the cake back on.

As much as I love the cake in itself, I’m not entirely sold on the chocolate glaze I used: it was good, perhaps too sweet for my liking, but it didn’t really resemble the true icing of a sacher-torte. I’ll post the recipe anyhow, and in the future will try to come up with a better and truer version. Unfortunately I only have the recipe in grams.

Chocolate Glaze

100 ml

100 g sugar

100 g dark chocolate

In a sauce pan dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to a boil. Allow the mixture to boil for a few minutes, the add the chocolate, stirring. Allow the chocolate sauce to boil for 5 minutes stirring often, then lower the flame for some time and bring back to a boil for a few minutes, stirring all the time to avoid clumps. Turn off the heat and allow the sauce to cool off and reach the desired density.

The sauce should be dense enough for you to pour on the cake and not have it soak through it, but you should still be able to pour it on the cake and spread it just by tipping the dish. Otherwise you can use a knife and it should still come out smooth.

Refrigerate the cake for a few hours so the glaze can solidify.

After that….enjoy!!

I might not look happy in this picture, but the truth is I was caught in a moment of chocolate adoration…those can last quite a while!

 

 

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