“A rich cake of indulgent chocolate accented with the perfect amount of tart lemon curd.”
Final Fantasy XIV has delicious food and I wanted to challenge myself with something out of my comfort zone so I decided to make the lemon curd sachertorte. I was a bit skeptical about the lemon curd as a Sachertorte is typically filled with an apricot filling, but the lemon curd offers a tang that offsets the heaviness of the chocolate glaze. In order to get the same appearance as the game I used 3 dried apricots and placed some gold leaf over top which is not listed in the recipe but feel free to add them if desired.
Lemon Curd Sachertorte
Lemon curd filled Sachertorte
Servings 8
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 lemons zested and juiced (about ½ c juice)
- ½ c granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp butter cubed
For the cake
- 1 bar of dark chocolate (90 grams)
- ½ bar of semi-sweet chocolate (56 grams)
- 8 tbsp butter
- 6 eggs separated
- ¾ c granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 c all purpose flour sifted
Chocolate glaze
- 1 c granulated sugar
- ½ c water
- 1 bar dark chocolate (90 grams)
- ½ bar semi-sweet chocolate (56 grams)
Instructions
To make the lemon curd
- In a pot over low-medium heat, combine the egg, egg yolk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar.
- Whisk constantly over heat until it begins to have a dull sheen.
- Remove from heat and pass the curd through a sieve into another bowl to remove the lemon zest. Add butter and mix until butter is melted and completely combined.
- Press plastic wrap against top of curd to prevent skin from forming and allow to chill in refrigerator.
To make the cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 inch round pan, set aside.
- In a bowl, melt the dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and butter.
- In a large bowl whisk together the separated egg yolks and add the melted chocolate and butter mixture.
- In another bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks begin to form. While continuing to beat, slowly add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Add ¼ of the beaten egg whites to the egg yolk and chocolate mixture. Fold egg whites in until just combined.
- Add another ¼ of the beaten egg whites to the egg yolk and chocolate mixture to lighten the mixture.
- Place the remaining ½ of the egg whites on the egg yolk and chocolate mixture.
- Sift the flour onto the egg whites and fold into the egg yolk and chocolate mixture until just combined and no egg white streaks are seen.
- Pour batter into the prepared 9 inch pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is done and the top looks dry. Remove cake from pan and allow to completely cool on a wire rack.
- One cake is cooled, carefully cut into 2 even layers with a serrated knife. Evenly spread the lemon curd over the bottom layer. Place the top cake half on top of the lemon curd.
- Place the cake on a wire rack over a baking sheet to catch excess glaze. Pour the warm glaze over cake and allow to cool. Serve once glaze has set.
To make the glaze
- Finely chop the dark and semi-sweet chocolate, set aside.
- In a small pot over medium heat, combine sugar and water.
- Bring the syrup to a boil and allow to boil for 5 minutes.
- Remove syrup from stove and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until chocolate is completely combined and then immediately use to glaze the cake.