A Valentine's Day Sachertorte

So, I had my second order! A Sachertorte--which I had only heard of but never baked (let alone tasted.)

Let's just say that the smell that wafted off of my cake was to die for.

Apparently the torte originated at the Hotel Sacher in Austria. It's a chocolate torte with apricot preserves and rum, and it's utterly decadent. Unfortunately, the original recipe is a jealously guarded secret, and no one but the hotel can make it.

So I used an approximate recipe that I found while searching the internet, comparing various ingredients and measurements, until I found the best one. Even then I had a little difficulty with the glaze, so I made a ganache using my own recipe.

I wasn't so excited with the simple ganache, so I decided to do a little personalizing. I added flakes of semi-sweet chocolate on top of a chocolate butter cream icing. I am very happy with the result:



I also made a batch of banana walnut muffins because I had some very ripe bananas and a bulk bag of walnuts. And, of course, I miss baking them for my stepdad and watching him fight off the hordes of my siblings and their friends as they attempt to raid the muffin jar...




Anywho, I'm off to do some serious writing, rewriting, and reading...

Kay