Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Sachertorte
A dense chocolate sponge with a thin layer of apricot jam under a glossy dark chocolate glaze, Vienna's famous cake.
Austrian · advanced · serves 12
prep 40 min · cook 45 min
~348 cal · 5g protein · 48g carbs · 16g fat · 2g fiber · 35g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The Sachertorte was created in 1832 by the sixteen-year-old apprentice Franz Sacher for a Viennese prince, and it became perhaps the most famous cake in the world. A decades-long legal battle between Hotel Sacher and the Demel pastry shop over who could call theirs the original only added to its fame.
It is a deliberately dense, not-too-sweet chocolate sponge, brushed with apricot jam and enrobed in a smooth, glossy dark chocolate glaze. Traditionally served with a mound of unsweetened whipped cream, the tart jam and bitter chocolate keep it from ever being cloying. In Vienna it is inseparable from a cup of strong coffee.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
7 oz dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter, softened
6 eggs, separated
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup apricot jam
Instructions
1
Melt most of the chocolate and beat with the butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks, then fold in the flour.
2
Whip the egg whites to peaks and fold them in, then bake at 350F (180C) until set, about 40 minutes; cool.
3
Warm the apricot jam until smooth, then slice the cooled cake in half horizontally, spread jam over the cut face, and sandwich the halves back together. Brush a thin layer over the top and sides too.
✎ Chef’s note
The apricot layer is not optional. It goes both between the sponge halves and under the glaze, adding a tart lift and helping the glossy chocolate set smooth.
4
Make a glaze from the remaining chocolate and a little sugar syrup, and pour over for a mirror finish.
5
Let the glaze set and serve with unsweetened whipped cream.
Viennese coffee-house tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vienna. Pastry here is a trade with its own vocabulary. Strudel dough is stretched by hand until print can be read through it, the coffee list is a set of ratios rather than flavours, and the question of who could call their Sachertorte the original went through the Austrian courts for the best part of thirty years.
🗺️
Austria. Two Viennese facts worth having straight. The city's coffee house culture was inscribed by UNESCO in 2011, listing the newspapers, the marble tables and the waiter as much as the coffee. And Wiener Schnitzel is legally veal in Austria; a pork one has to be sold under a different name. The story that Radetzky brought the dish back from Milan is a twentieth-century invention.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Austria
Wiener SchnitzelVienna’s golden icon: a thin cutlet in a puffed, wavy breadcrumb crust, fried in butter and finished with lemon.
Wiener FrühstückA Viennese breakfast of a crusty Kaisersemmel, soft-boiled egg, butter, jam, and a milky Melange.
FrittatensuppeClear beef broth poured over ribbons of sliced savory pancake, a classic Viennese starter and light lunch.
Browse all Austria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Sachertorte?
A dense chocolate sponge with a thin layer of apricot jam under a glossy dark chocolate glaze, Vienna's famous cake.
Where does Sachertorte come from?
Sachertorte is a Austrian dish from Vienna, Austria.
Can Sachertorte be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sachertorte recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sachertorte safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sachertorte take to make?
About 85 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 12.
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