The following is excerpted from The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (copyright 1954 Alice B. Toklas; Anchor; 1960. p 45-6).
Many times I held the thought to kill a stupid or obstinate cook, but as long as the thought was held murder was not committed. Then a gay and enchanting Austrian came to cook for me. He was a perfect cook. Quietly and expeditiously Frederich, as I shall call him, prepared the most intricate and complicated dishes for us, nothing was too much trouble for him to undertake. He would make us ice cream in individual moulds in the form of eggs on a nest of coloured spun sugar. He delighted in making cakes that represented objects appropriate to each person, a book for Gertrude Stein, a rose for Sir Francis Rose, a peacock for a very vain young lady and a little dog for me. He used to receive the visits of an extremely pretty young girl, Duscha, who looked as if she had stepped out of an Offenbach opera. Gertrude Stein and I were delighted with them. At Christmas we asked them to accept amongst their gifts a supper with champagne at the restaurant of their choice for the traditional reveillon. Gradually Frederich began to confide in me. Life was not as happy for him as it had been. In the beginning there was only his fiancée Duscha, his angel, but now there was a second, a devil, who wanted him to marry her and who was threatening to kill him if he didn't. And he told us that he and Hitler had been born in the same village and that anyone in the village was like all the others and that they were all a little strange. This was in 1936 and we already knew Hitler was very strange indeed. Frederich was perhaps not so much strange as weak, loving wine, women and song. But he continued to be a perfect cook. He had been for several years a cook at Frau Sacher's restaurant and frequently baked us the well known
Sacher Torte
Cream 1/2 cup butter, gradually add 1 cup sugar, the grated peel of 1 lemon, 4 ozs. melted chocolate, the yolks of 6 eggs, fold in the beaten whites of 6 eggs and 3 tablespoons flour. Butter and flour a flat cake pan and bake for 40 minutes in a 325 degree oven. Let cool in pan. When perfectly cold, cut in half and spread the following mixture between the two layers.
2 ozs. chocolate melted, to which add 1 teaspoon powdered coffee dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water. When perfectly smooth beat in 2 yolks of eggs. Beat 1 cup heavy cream sweetened with 3 tablespoons icing sugar. Add first mixture to the whipped cream.
Cover the cake with apricot jelly or strained apricot jam and ice with chocolate icing.