From the Oven to the Guinness Record

Have you ever thought about a chocolate cake with all rights reserved? Well, Austria owns one, the Sacher-Torte. The famous cake is protected by copyright and as its resale is prohibited world-wide if you want to taste the original one, there is no another way than going to Austria. Pretty nice excuse to indulge yourself with a foodie trip to the Alpine country. It does not matter if you take your room at any of the hotels in Vienna or if you prefer to book an Innsbruck hotel, wherever you go in Austria the Sacher Torte is omnipresent. You can choose any Austrian city to taste the national dessert.

The story of the chocolate masterpiece started in 1832, when Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich ordered the creation of an outstanding sweet dish to finish the dinner satisfing the most discerning palates. That evening he was receiving an elite of high guests that was really hard to please so that he warned the court: ""Take care of not making me look a fool tonight"". However, as the chef was unavailable managing the rest of the banquet the commission was reassigned to a 16-year-old apprentice that was called Franz Sacher.

He presented a soft and fluffy chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam under the icing that was an undisputed success. During his 2 years of apprenticeship at the royal kitchen in Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, Sacher never forgot about his invention. He went back to the great recipe when he began working on his own and start selling the hit cake under his surname. The unstoppable career of the Original Sacher Torte was born.

To avoid copies and fake versions that can damage the genuine flavour, the mythical dessert is protected by law as no one else than the Sacher company can use the registered trademark. You can also find official guidelines on how to identify the Original Sacher-Torte such as checking out the inscriptions on the chocolate round seal or paying attention to the Bordeaux red wrapping paper and the four golden corners on the wooden box. The torte even entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest cake on Earth when in 1998 the Vienna Sacher Café made a 2.5 meters diameter one.

The chocolate cake has spread around Austria to the point that it became a national tradition, and its recipe a state secret. Fair enough...It is said that great chefs should never reveal the tips of their star dishes.