The Original Sacher Torte

I was introduced to Sacher Torte ten years ago when I visited Vienna in a rush. I was told the legendary chocolate cake was one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties, that had made generations of Austrians' hearts skip after savouring the heavenly made sweet. Invented in 1832, it was a desert that was created by Franz Sacher, then a 16 years old apprentice, for the spoiled high ranking demanding guests of Prince Metternich. As all fairy tale stories always end with a great success, the desert was presented to the masters and mistresses to their greatest delight. And since then the story was written down in the history and the recipe was passed down to the successors of Franz Sacher.

Today standing tall next to the Opera House of Vienna, the five star Hotel Sacher promises contemporary Viennese comfort and luxury with the charm and feel of the old Habsburg monarchy. The Sacher Eck which is right around the corner of the hotel, is a small bar where patrons can treat themselves to small Sacher snacks and large varieties of coffee and tea choices. During the warm summer days the terrace in the pedestrian zone of the Kärntner Strasse is open for a nice cuppa and people watching. The Sacher Confiserie next door allows visitors to purchase the Original Sacher Torte or have them delivered worldwide. All the Original Sacher Torte are packed in elegant wooden boxes, which are then sealed by red ribbons.

Ten years ago, my sister and I passed by the shining window of Sacher Hotel and took a glimpse of how the Sacher Torte looked like. As we were running low with our budget, we decided to give it a miss. However the memory of Sacher Torte was vividly engraved in our minds that we decided one day we should try the Original Sacher Torte on our own expenses.

I returned to the birthplace of Mozart recently with KH. We took the luxury Eurorail from Cesky Krumlov, Czech to Salzburg, Austria. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that even miles away from Vienna, the local cafes in Salzburg also offered Sacher Torte. I couldn't resist my eagerness to try this unforgettable piece of cake the moment we left our luggage in the hotel. We quickly found a nice and cosy cafe before we head down to the buzzling town centre and tried my first taste of this mouth watering Sacher Torte. The moment I tasted the first piece of the cake, I was utterly disappointed with the consistency of the cake as well as the huge amount of caramel that was poured over the cake. It wasn't a good experience as we took quite a bit of effort to finish up the cake. In fact, it left us with some after effect of hyperglycaemic nausea....cakes can have counterfeit too!

We arrived in Vienna the following day after a 3 hours train ride. The image of Sacher Torte was still bugging my mine as I refused to believe the taste that I had been longing for was such a disappointment. Of course the only way to solve my misery was to try the Original Sacher Torte from the Sacher Hotel. With all the anticipation of tasting the cake, we bought 2 mini sacher torte (Euro 2.70 each) and tasted them right outside the hotel. The cake was made of chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing coating the entire cake. It was fluffy on the inside and firm on the outside, with the flavour of dark chocolate and apricot jam bursting inside my mouth the moment I took a bite. I must admit, my heart skipped when I took the bite!It was a very modest cake with simple ingredient, but it was also unique in it's own way for it's flavoursome taste. I was glad that I had a chance to taste this cake after so many years. It really lives up to the standard of a legendary cake!