Sweets for a Broader Public

Once domestic sugar refined from beets came onto the Austrian market in the mid-nineteenth century, sweets became less expensive and more accessible to a broader public. Thus, more confectioners were able to set up their own businesses. Among them were Ludwig Heiner, who opened his shop on Wollzeile in 1840; Louis Lehmann, whose establishment on Singerstrasse was well known for stewed and sugar-coated fruit (Lehmann’s shop moved to Graben after 1945 and closed in 2008); Anton Gerstner, whose shop at Stock-im-Eisen (now Kärntner Strasse) opened in 1847 and became famous for ice cream and Christmas decorations; and Joseph Sluka in Rathausstrasse. All of these confectioners—including Demel—became purveyors to the imperial and royal court. The list of their sweet inventions was almost endless: strudels, cakes, biscuit-rolls filled with jam, doughnuts, sweet slices, Marmorkuchen (a cake made to look like marble by combining dark and light batters), and many others. See doughnuts and strudel.