Sachertorte: a chocolate cake with restraint
Austria’s trademark dessert was the subject of a seven-year legal battle
By Josie Delap
Vienna’s coffee houses are places “where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill”. So reads the UNESCO description of these institutions. Time and space may satisfy a Viennese philosopher but for most, a wedge of cake complements caffeine far better, and none more so than sachertorte.
According to legend the cake dates back to 1832 when Prince von Metternich, Austria’s leading statesman, ordered dessert for an official dinner. The task fell to Franz Sacher, a 16-year-old Jewish apprentice. His solution was a chocolate cake – a flavour far less common then than now – and so the sachertorte was created.
More from 1843 magazine
1843 magazine | “It’s been a very long two weeks”: how the Gaza protests changed Columbia
The camp has been cleared. But the faculty of the Ivy League university remains deeply divided
1843 magazine | Rahul Gandhi is on the march. But where is he heading?
He wants to be the champion of Indian liberalism. First he needs to save his party from irrelevance
1843 magazine | It began as a rewilding experiment. Now a bear is on trial for murder
The death of a jogger in the Italian Alps has sparked a furious debate about the relationship between humans and nature