Rigó Jancsi is one of Hungary's best-known cakes: two layers of chocolate sponge, a tall layer of chocolate cream between them and a glossy chocolate glaze on top. Behind it lies a story the newspapers of the late 19th century couldn't tear themselves away from.

The year is 1896, the Paris restaurant Paillard. Hungarian violinist Rigó Jancsi is playing for high society, and in the audience sits Clara Ward - an American heiress and wife of the Prince de Chimay. She is captivated by the passion with which he plays. The flirtation turns into a romance that scandalises the world of the day: the two leave their spouses and later marry. Newspapers follow them across Europe, and the story even reaches America. According to the most often told legend - which, it should be said, isn't fully documented - during a stay in Hungary the violinist commissioned a dessert from a pastry chef to surprise his beloved. The pastry chef cashed in on the couple's fame and sold the cake under the violinist's name. It was an instant hit.

The love didn't last. In 1908, after almost a decade together, the couple split. The cake stayed - and you can still find it today in classic Hungarian patisseries and historic coffee houses, sometimes in modern versions too. In a region where the pastry shop is an institution, it's easy to see why the recipe outlived everything else.

Rigó Jancsi recipe (about 10 slices)

For the chocolate sponge:

• 5 large eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 120 g plain wheat flour
• 25 g pure unsweetened cocoa powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp neutral vegetable oil

For the chocolate cream:

• 400 ml whipping cream (at least 35% fat), very cold
• 100 g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa)
• 50 g icing sugar
• 15 g pure cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp dark rum (optional, but it gives the traditional flavour)
• 4 g powdered gelatine (or 2 gelatine sheets)

For the apricot layer (optional): 80 g apricot jam and 1 tbsp water.

For the glaze: 150 g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa) and 30 g unsalted butter.

The sponge. Preheat the oven to 180°C, top and bottom heat. Line the base of a square tin of about 20 x 20 cm with baking paper and lightly grease the sides. Separate the whites from the yolks. Whisk the whites with the salt, and when they start to foam, gradually add 75 g of the sugar until you have a stiff meringue. Beat the yolks with the remaining 75 g of sugar for 3-4 minutes until pale, then add the oil. Sift the flour with the 25 g of cocoa and fold it into the yolks, alternating with the whites, using a spatula and gentle bottom-to-top movements so you don't knock out the air. Pour into the tin and bake for 15-18 minutes. Leave to cool completely, remove from the tin and slice horizontally into two layers of equal thickness - a base and a top.

The cream. If using gelatine sheets, soak them in cold water for 5 minutes; if using powder, mix it with 2 tbsp cold water and leave it to bloom. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or in the microwave in 30-second bursts. Heat 100 ml of the cream without letting it boil, take it off the heat and dissolve the squeezed-out gelatine in it. Pour it over the chocolate, then add the icing sugar, the 15 g of cocoa, the vanilla and the rum. Mix well and leave to cool to room temperature. Whip the remaining 300 ml of cold cream to firm peaks. Stir one spoonful of whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then gently fold in the rest.

Assembly. Place the base in the paper-lined tin, pour in all the cream and level it with a spatula. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight, so the cream sets. Keep the top layer separately, wrapped in cling film, at room temperature.

The top and the glaze. Warm the jam with the water for a few seconds and brush a very thin layer over the top layer. Melt the chocolate with the butter into a glossy cream, let it temper for 3-5 minutes, pour it over the top layer and spread it quickly with a spatula.

The cutting - the step that makes the cake. Leave the glaze at room temperature for about 10 minutes, until it loses its shine but before it sets rock hard. Dip a long knife in hot water, wipe it dry and cut the top layer into 9 or 10 squares. Take the tin with the base and cream out of the fridge and lay the squares one by one on top of the cream. Warm the knife again and cut down through the cream and base along the lines of the squares, wiping and warming the knife before every cut. This is exactly the step most people skip: the top is cut before the glaze has hardened, separately from the cream, so every slice comes out with clean edges, just like from a patisserie.