The Whole Sacher Cake Thing

This past Friday, my sister and I stepped into Gruenebaum's Bakery on 181st Street in Washington Heights.  We were going home for shabbat and wanted to bring home a nice parve cake.  As I parked the car, my sister went in to peruse the cakes.  By the time I got in my sister was laughing hysterically. You see, she asked the woman behind the counter about a cake in the case, and the answer made her laugh so hard that she had to leave the store.

"What kind of cake is that?"
"A sacher cake."
"A sacher cake?"
"Yes, sacher cake!"
"What's a sacher cake?"
"You are Jewish?"
"Yes, of course I'm Jewish!"
"You don't know what is sacher cake?"
"No, what is a sacher cake?"
"Look on the cake, you see what it says?"
"It says 'sacher.'"
"So this is sacher cake."
"What does it taste like?"
"It tastes like sacher cake."

Now, unfortunately, we did not get the sacher cake since we could barely keep ourselves composed.  But we then asked every Hebrew we met about sacher cake.  Most  people were as clueless as we were about it.  My friend's mother said, "I've heard of a sacher torte..."  So I've decided to do a bit of research of my own and here are my findings:

This famous cake was at the heart of a controversy in Austria for six years. It seems some Austrians took their baking so seriously that an argument over what constituted a true Sacher Torte erupted and had to be decided in court. In the early 1800's, the Congress of Vienna ruled on the matter. It decided that the true Sacher Torte was made of two chocolate cake layers separated by apricot jam with a chocolate glaze over the top and sides of the cake. Justice was served!!

The Sacher Hotel in Vienna is apparently the sacher epicenter.  Here is what they say:  

A Look at the Story of the Original Sacher-Torte
A "Sweet Secret"

 Our hotel is over one hundred years old. But its sweetest child, the world-famous cake, goes back more than 150 years.

 

It is 1832. "Europe's Coachman," Wenzel Clemens, Prince Metternich, still wielding almighty power, one day gives the order to create an especially delicious dessert for his spoiled, noble guests. And this just at the moment when his head chef is ill in bed! The order is passed on and ends up with Franz Sacher, the 16-year-old in his second year of apprenticeship. It is impossible to know the details of what now transpires, although there are any number of legends surrounding the known facts.

What is certain is that the specialty finally presented to the lofty guests was extraordinarily delicious: a tender, fluffy chocolate cake with apricot marmalade under the icing. It wasn't long before the Sacher Torte began to conquer the whole world; throughout Europe, but also as far away as America! About 270,000 Sacher Tortes are produced annually, and in the same way as they were over 160 years ago: the marmalade is added and the cake iced and packaged by hand.

By the way: the recipe for this delight has remained a "sweet secret" to the present day.

(You can order their sacher cake from their website, which they will send, from Vienna, to the USA, for about 559 Austrian Schillings, which is about $40.02 .)

Another place in Vienna offers international delivery of sacher cake.  But you don't need to look as far as Vienna.  You can order a sacher cake from Chicago, Or you can make your own: here's a recipe.

December 5 is National Sacher Torte Day! 

Make sure you celebrate it this year!