Food Network/Cookbook Week: Nancy again

(Dear Nancy, how much do I love you for writing twice? lots.)

"As long as we still are on the subject of food and recipes and tv, I wanted to add another goodie to your "do this someday" list. Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of Wolfgang Puck. He's not really even on the FoodNetwork anymore. BUT, he is from Vienna, and Vienna does one amazing thing better than anyone else in the world. Pastries. Paritcularly chocolate pastries. This is the very first foodnetwork recipe I ever tried, years and years ago, and I love it. I'm not usually a big fan of chocolate with fruit either. I like the occasional chocolate covered strawberry (zupas, anyone?) and chocolate pear is a to-die-for combo thtat I can only take in small doses, but this one is one I never would have put together, but was the biggest hit when I tried it. Seriously, don't judge it til you've tried it.

Wolfgang's Sachertorte

Ingredients

Cake:

• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
• 3 ounces butter
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 ounce sugar, plus 3 ounces
• 5 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup flour, sifted

Apricot Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups apricot preserves
• 1 tablespoon apricot brandy

Glaze:

• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
• 1 ounce butter
• 2 ounces heavy cream
• Schlagobers, or whipped cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 by 2-inch cake pan.

In a bowl, combine the chocolate and butter and melt over a double boiler. Set aside to cool. In a mixer, using a wire whisk, whip the egg yolks with 1 ounce sugar until light and ribbony. Beat in the chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining 3 ounces of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks. Fold in the flour and then fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Fold in the remaining egg whites, gently but thoroughly. Pour into prepared cake pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until done. To check for doneness, insert a paring knife in center of cake. It should come out dry. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

To make the apricot filling: puree the apricot preserves. Stir in brandy.

Slice the cake into 3 equal layers. Spread half of the apricot filling on the bottom layer. Top with a second layer of cake. Spread the remaining apricot filling and top with the last layer of cake. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

To make the glaze: in a bowl, combine the chocolate and butter. Melt over a double-boiler. Bring the cream to a boil. Stir into the melted chocolate. Cool until it reaches glazing consistency. Spread over and around the cake. Chill for another 30 minutes before serving. Serve a slice with Schlagobers or whipped cream.

Now- Before you get too scared of it, heres a simple way to dumb it down a little: (this is what I did the second time I made it) don't make a filling, just use apricot jam/preserves of some type. and for an even more basic approach, make your favorite chocolate cake recipe (don't tell me if it's from a box, I'm no priest, confess your sins elsewhere) and fill it with the preserves and cover it with the ganache and decorate it with homemade chocolate dipped dried apricots. This cake recipe is actually easier than it looks, but if it scares you don't let that stop you from trying out the whole chocolate apricot thing."