the great Viennese bake-off | chocolate tortes

Sacher Torte (below) and Imperial Torte (above)

Vienna is passionate about dessert, so passionate that there exists a friendly competition between hotels over their chocolate tortes. We stayed at Hotel Imperial where we had multiple opportunities to sample their Imperial Torte, and we had a site inspection at Hotel Sacher Wien where we were going to have an opportunity to sample their Sacher Torte. Both are pictured above, along with a puff of whipped cream with which (it is said) it is essential to eat the Sacher Torte.

So we decided to hold a blind taste test, thus the Great Viennese Bake-Off! Here are our impressions:

The Sacher Torte has dark chocolate icing covering layers of sweet chocolate cake with apricot jam in-between. The whipped cream is indeed necessary to cut the sweetness!

The Imperial Torte has milk chocolate icing over a cake consisting of marzipan and chocolate creme.

The verdict: both are good in limited portions, but I wouldn't make a regular diet of either torte! We are confirmed chocoholics, and it takes a lot for a chocolate dessert to impress us, even in Vienna!


chocolate torte (search here on Google)

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