Around the World In 12 Dishes- Austria

So we are in Austria this month and flicking through some Austrian recipes it became pretty clear quite quickly that we would be making a SACHER-TORTE.

Because Lil Mermaid LOVES chocolate!

And of course she was very eager to help me with the blending and measuring out the ingredients,  cracking the eggs and mixing the dough…. and she was even more eager to eat some this time. Usually she just wants to taste it….

The story of this Torte is quite interesting.. In 1832, Prince Metternich ordered his chef to make a special dessert for some important guests. The head chef was ill, so the task ended up with his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Franz Sacher,then in his second year of training in Metternich’s kitchen. The Prince apparently declared, “Let there be no shame on me tonight!”  Although Metternichs guests loved the Torte, nothing more happened until after Sacher completed his training as a chef, finally settling down in his hometown of Vienna where he opened a specialty delicatessen and wine shop, and the Sachertorte was now for sale!

AND- did you know that December 5th is National Sachertorte Day!!

There are a number of slightly different variations of the recipe but we chose the one from here.

So what you need for the cake is:

135g dark chocolate or cooking chocolate

140g butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g icing sugar

6 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

100g caster sugar

140g flour

And for the glaze:

220g caster sugar

125ml water

160g chocolate, finely chopped

Additionally:

Apricot jam, passed through a sieve and heated

Cream

And this is what you do:

Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Grease and flour a 23cm cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stir well, remove from heat and set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter, vanilla and icing sugar with a  blender until fluffy. Gradually add the egg yolks to the mix. Stir in each yolk well before adding the next. Now stir in the melted chocolate.

 

In another bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Next, gradually add the 100g caster sugar. Carefully fold the beaten egg whites into the egg-sugar mixture. Finally, carefully fold the flour into the mixture. Pour into the cake tin and build up the edges a bit so that the cake rises evenly. Pre-bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, then adjust temperature to 170 C / Gas 3 and bake for about another 40 minutes.

 

When finished baking, allow the cake to cool in the tin upside-down on wire rack so the cake doesn’t fall in the middle.

 

For the glaze mix sugar and water in a heavy saucepan. Simmer on a medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate gradually. The finished glaze should be thick and smooth.

Invert the cooled cake again and remove from the tin.

Cover  the cake with apricot jam allowing  it to soak in for a few minutes.

Pour the warm glaze over the cake. Spread it with a cake knife quickly over the top and sides. Allow the cake glaze at least 3 hours to dry.

The Sachertorte tastes great with a portion of whipped cream.

 

 

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Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators’ Spin On It have come together to help you on your food journey and will each cook a dish with our children and post about it – to help inspire you to have a go! Then go out there, cook, blog, and join in the linky fun! Check out the other great posts as well!

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and now are arriving in Athens, capital of Greece!

• March 4 – First country was the UK
• April 1 – The second country was Sweden
• May 6 – The third country was Russia
• June 3 – The fourth country was India
• July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
• August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
• September 2 –The seventh country was French Polynesia
• October 7 – The eighth country was Mexico
• November 4 – The ninth country was Brazil
• December 2 – The tenth country was Morocco
• January 13 – The eleventh country was Greece
• February 3 – The twelfth country is Austria

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
• Cook a dish from Austria: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Apfelstrudel, Wiener Schnitzel, Tafelspitz, Kaiserschmarrn, Sachertorte
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish :)
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]

• Fun fact: The sewing machine was invented in 1818 by the Austrian Josef Madersperger.
• Share with us: Our Austrian challenge starts on February 3rd and will remain open for a year, so attach a link to your blog to enter the linky party or go to the comment section and post a photo together with what you did together with your child(ren).
• Pinterest: We will add your photos to a “Around the World in 12 Dishes” Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone :)
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our cute lil’ button to share it on your blog.

<a href=”http://www.glitteringmuffins.com&#8221; target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg&#8221; alt=”Around the world in 12 Dishes” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

Please check out our partner blogs and their Austria ideas: Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators’ Spin On It

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations :)

Please link up your Austrian dish and/or craft HERE, we would love to see it!