Week 9 Sacher Torte

Finally, we are baking cakes. Today's menu is Sacher Torte, Raspberry Mousse Gateau and Shortbread.
Sacher Torte is a type of chocolate cake that was invented by Jewish Austrian Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna Austria. Franz Sacher was a 16 year old apprentice who was put in charged of creating a special dessert for a few important guests of the Prince because the head chef was ill. The cake delighted the guests but it didn't get famous until a long time after that. That's a little history of the cake for you. 

Anyway, I am not sure how much the recipe has changed since 1832 but this is how ours turned out. 

The cake had breadcrumbs in it which made it a little interesting in texture as well as taste. The chocolate flavour wasn't very strong though.

Just out from the oven.

A piece presented to the trainer for tasting.  

The cake was cut in half and a layer of redcurrant jelly was poured over it and then stacked back together. I think the original version had apricot jam. Then it is covered with chocolate ganache. 

We made 2 whole cakes for the Sacher Torte so my teammate and I each took one whole cake home. 

Close up of the cake.

 Can you see the bottom half of the cake looks denser? Well, that's because it soaked up the redcurrant jelly. The rough texture is the breadcrumbs. The silky smooth chocolate ganache is to die for and then the lovely filigree shapes were just so much fun to make. 

Some of the filigree shapes that I was playing with.

 The Raspberry Mousse Gateau was made up of a few components. The base layer is a sweet shortcrust pastry. Then there is the chocolate sponge cake which is sandwiched with raspberry mousse and the top layer is créme chantilly. 

Sweet shortcrust disc base.

This is the bottom layer of the cake. I have never seen a cake that has a shortcrust pastry as the bottom layer before. So it was quite interesting. I am happy with the sweet shortcrust pastry. It tuned out golden and the texture was crumbly when you bite into it.

Chocolate sponge cake.

 This is the first time I am making sponge cake. I am quite happy with the result. The cake rose up beautifully. It was airy and light. The cake was left to cool completely before I cut the cake into 3 equal discs. This was probably the most stressful part of the whole day. With some help from my teammate, I did it! The middle piece was a little thin though. 

Cut into 3 pieces.

Assembling the cake.

My raspberry mousse was a little soft, I think it was because I was meddling with it too much when I tried to spread the mousse onto the cake.

Managed to stack it all up.

Decorating the cake was the fun part. I piped the créme chantilly and then decorated with raspberries and chocolate filigree. The raspberries were not fresh ones, we got frozen berries. That's why you can see the raspberries bleeding onto the créme chantilly.

Topped with creme chantilly and raspberries.

Raspberry Mousse Gateau

 I am so happy with the chocolate filigree shapes. I wrote my name and my teammate's name but mine broke when we tried to lift it up, so ended up with only Susy's name on the cake. I did a maple leaf too. Does it look like a maple leaf to you?

Traditional Shortbread.

The shortbread tasted pretty good. Light and crumbly in texture. Pretty simple and easy to make. I will probably try baking this at home soon and have it dipped in chocolate. 

Overall a great day. Next week will be our exam week. Need to hit the books and prepare myself. After that it will be school holidays. Wow! These 9 weeks went by so quickly. The last couple of weeks had been great fun. Good trainer, good teammate and interesting menu.