Thanks for the encouragement and the great comments on the Charlotte Russe.  I’ll try to learn how to add buttons.  I also can’t comment on my own bleeding blog so I thought I would “talk” to you at the beginning of this post instead. 🙂 

Don’t worry-tomorrow’s post will be something much lighter, it would be nice to still fit into some clothes next week.

My father-in law turned 89 on Tuesday and even though we’re having a larger celebration this weekend I wanted to do something special on the day.  He broadly hinted that he hadn’t had Sacher torte in a really long time.  When you are 89 “a really long time” takes on a whole new meaning.  How could I say no?

This is another great recipe from the “Green and Black’s”  cookbook-I don’t think my Mother-in-law knew what she was doing to all of us when she sent this book one Christmas.

Sacher torte

Separate five eggs and whip the egg whites until firm.
Melt 7 oz of dark chocolate in a double boiler.

Take the egg yolks plus 1 whole egg and beat with 1 1/2 cups of sugar until fluffy and pale.  Add 1 2/3 cup ground almonds, 1 1/2 tsp ground coffee and the chocolate.

Fold in the egg whites but be gentle, effort went into making those bad boys fluffy and you don’t want to beat them down.

Take a springform pan and coat it with butter then dust with ground almonds.  Add the batter and bake at 350 until firm (about an hour NOTE: you might need to cover the cake with foil to avoid burning).

Heat 3 T. of apricot jam and pour over the cake to allow it to soak in.

Ummm…yeah.  I was in a rush and didn’t take a lot of care unmolding the cake BUT that’s ok because look at what happens next!

Melt 3 T. of butter and 3 1/2 oz of dark chocolate and pour over the cake.  You see-all is well.  When something untoward happens, cover it with melted chocolate (that should perhaps be my family motto).

Get your stretchy pants on-you’ll need them.  We ate this while watching the finals of “Dancing with the Stars”-it was a bit of an odd combination but somehow it worked.  You might also want a little glass of bubbly to wash everything down (maybe THAT should be my family motto).

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