To prepare the Sachertorte, start with the chocolate: place 125 g of dark chocolate on a cutting board, cut them into rather small pieces and then transfer them into a bowl, which you will place inside a pan full of boiling water. Melt the chocolate completely until you obtain a smooth, glazed cream.

Separate the yolks from the whites by placing them in two different bowls. Pour the egg whites into the bowl of the mixer, add the sugar and whisk everything until the mixture forms stiff peaks, a sort of very shiny and soft meringue. It will take about 5 minutes.

In a second bowl, cream the icing sugar with the butter, using an electric mixer set to maximum speed. You should obtain a very soft cream.

Incorporate the egg yolks twice, making sure they mix perfectly with the rest of the mixture.

Transfer the mixture of egg yolks, sugar and butter into the melted and now cold chocolate, mixing everything well with an electric whisk at medium-high speed.

Add the meringue of egg whites and sugar to the mixture, incorporating it with a spatula from bottom to top, so as not to dismantle the egg whites.

Finally add the flour, sifting it directly into the bowl. Always mix with the spatula, making movements from bottom to top.

Turn on the oven in static mode at 180°C. Butter and flour a 22 cm baking pan, preferably with a hinged one, and pour the mixture inside, leveling it with the spatula so that it is even. When the oven is at temperature, bake the base.

Leave the base to cook in the oven for 35 minutes. Before taking it out of the oven, always do the toothpick test, inserting a long toothpick into the center of the base and checking if, by pulling it out, it is dry or still too moist. If it is dry you can take your base out of the oven and let it cool completely before removing it from the mould.

As soon as the base is completely cold you can start filling the cake. Cut a few millimeters of the surface to eliminate the crust that will have formed on the outside. Level with the knife to form a flat surface, then divide the base into two discs.

Place one of the discs on a wire rack and cover the entire surface with about half a dose of apricot jam.

Cover the layer of jam with the second base disc. Also cover this disc with a thin layer of jam, spreading it well along all the edges. Place the cake in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.

In the meantime, prepare the icing: pour the cream into a saucepan, turn on the heat and bring it to the boil. Add the remaining 250 grams of dark chocolate.

Mix well with a whisk to completely melt the chocolate. As soon as it has melted, let the mixture cool. In the meantime, once the resting time has passed, take the cake from the fridge, place it on a wire rack or on a plate covered with baking paper, which you will need to collect the fallen icing, and pour half the icing over it.

Run a long spatula over the surface of the cake to cover it completely, then pour in the remaining amount of icing. Collect the icing that has fallen onto the baking paper and reuse it: fill a piping bag or a cake syringe with a smooth round nozzle of approximately 0.3 cm and write the word “Sacher” on the surface of the cake. Place in the fridge until ready to serve.