Sachertorte

Recipe sourced: Mary Berry's Simple Cakes ~ simple yummy and delicious cake
Ingredients:
265g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
6 eggs, 5 of them separated
215g caster sugar ~ i used 160g
150g ground almonds

For the topping and icing:
4 tbsp apricot jam ~ i omitted
150g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
150ml double cream ~ i used cooking cream
25g white chocolate

Method:

Lightly grease the cake tin and line hte base with a circle of non-stick baking parchment.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Put the chocolate into a bowl placed over a pan of hot water.

The water in the pan must not touch the bowl or the chocolate may overheat.

Place the plan over a low heat until the chocolate has melted, stirring occasionally.

Allow to cool a little.

Whisk the 5 egg whites into a large mixing bowl until stiff but not dry.

In a separate hand-held electric mixer's whisk together the 5 eggs yolks, whole egg and sugar until thick and pale.

The mixture should be thick enough to leave a trail on the surface, when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.

Whisk the ground almonds, melted chocolate and 1 tablespoon of the whisked egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.

Carefully fold the remaining egg whites using a large metal spoon or a straight edged plastic spatula.

Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and gently tilt the tin to level the surface.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until the crust that forms on the top is firm and the cake has begun to shrink away from the side of the tin.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before loosening it around the edge with a small palette knife.  Turn the cake upside down on to a wire rack covered with a tea towel, remove the lining paper and leave to cool completely.

For the icing:

Put the chocolate into a bowl with the double cream (cooking cream) and melt slowly over a pan of hot water.

Stir occasionally until smooth and glossy.

Allow the icing to cool and thicken slightly, then pour it into the centre of the cake.

Spread it gently over the top and down the sides with a palette knife and leave to set.

To finish, melt the white chocolate slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water.

Spoon into a small paper icing bag or polythene bag and snip off the corner.

Pipe "Sacher" across the cake and leave to set.