Sucker for Sachertorte

I resisted the temptation to title this post ‘Suckertorte’, because, well, that would have been unkind……

The story goes that, in 1832, the Austrian minister for foreign affairs ordered his chef to create a dessert for a special dinner. The chef fell ill, however, leaving the task of devising a suitable dessert to Franz Sacher, then a second year apprentice in the kitchens. The result was the now-famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam, covered in chocolate icing. Franz Sacher’s son, Eduard Sacher, founded Vienna’s Hotel Sacher and registered the trademark for the “Original Sachertorte”, which is still made to this day from a secret recipe and served daily to hordes of tourists (us included).

The rights to the “Original Sachertorte” have been the subject of a legal dispute between Hotel Sacher and Demels, which claimed to have acquired the recipe from Sacher. The Hotel Sacher won the exclusive right to serve the “Original Sachertorte” based on the family connection. Demels still sell their version of “Ur-Sachertorte”, the main difference being that their apricot jam is layered underneath the icing instead of in the middle of the cake.

All this pre-amble aside, the Hotel Sacher is a nice place for a mid-afternoon pit stop if you feel like getting out of the Viennese rain and indulging in a piece of culinary history accompanied by a frothy cup of mélange (a Viennese cappuccino, usually served with whipped cream). In my opinion, the cake itself is over-rated. Apparently, the reason why it’s usually served with whipped cream is because most Austrians find it too dry to eat on its own, which makes one wonder why they don’t just make the cake more moist. It’s also not very chocolate-y. Oh, and Austrian coffee, while nice, is over-frothy, although the Viennese don’t seem to care too much about the size of bubbles in their cappuccino froth (no latte art here….). If you’re ambivalent about the Sachertorte, you can try their apple or cheese Strudel, both very good. And there is a bewildering range of other Sacher-related drinks and confectionery, all involving some or other combination of chocolate and apricot liqueur.

Original Sachertorte

Viennese mélange