“My little Sachertorte” is a term of endearment that I could’ve sworn Count von Count used for The Countess, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence to support such a claim. A Sachertorte is also a cake that originated in Austria in the 1800s, when Prince Wenzel von Metternich ordered a special dessert. Metternich’s chef was ill, though, and so a young apprentice named Franz Sacher took on the task and lo, the Sachertorte was born. It was a two-layer chocolate cake with a layer of apricot in the center and a coating of chocolate glaze, which sounds so delicious and yet didn’t really make any waves at Metternich’s dinner party.

Metternich, however, made lots of waves in his time,[ref]”The Diplomacy of Metternich“[/ref] as my in-laws informed me when I told them the story of the Sachertorte. I’ve been aware for some time that my in-laws are the type of people who know about the exploits of a 19th-century Austrian prince, but it’s still amusing when they bring such things up in conversation.

Anyway, Young Sacher eventually became Old Sacher. His eldest son opened a hotel, and that’s where the Sachertorte began to gain fame. People loved it then, and they love it now, and you can buy a 4.5-inch Sachertorte for only 21,90 €, which Google tells me is about $28. Or you could make your own, which is what I did last month when the Daring Bakers issued the challenge.

I used Lidia Bastinich’s Sachertorte recipe, but I didn’t follow the instructions very carefully. Rather than putting the cake in the refrigerator to set after putting the apricot glaze on, I charged straight onward into applying the chocolate glaze. And so the cake slowly absorbed the chocolate glaze, so that when I revisited it awhile later it looked like I hadn’t glazed it at all. Naturally, I blamed Lidia Bastinich’s glaze rather than user error, so I made a batch of chocolate glaze from Kitchen Lane and reapplied it. That one set up nicely, and the double-glazing led to a pretty great taste and texture.

I don’t know enough about Metternich’s diplomatic efforts to form an opinion on them, but I do know that his chef’s apprentice created a rather tasty dessert.