Fancy Cakes

Appears in

Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague

Published 2002

About

An Austro-Hungarian Torte is the edible equivalent of a Mozart symphony combined with the frivolity of a Strauss waltz. Just as the finest conductors find levels of sophistication in the simplest tunes, master bakers create masterpieces of flavor and beauty from Torten. For it is not enough for a Torte to just taste good — it must be impressively gorgeous as well. Some of these classics became legends.

In common American usage, a torte means a cake that is made from crumbs or ground nuts instead of flour. In the Austro-Hungarian kitchen, many Torten still use these ingredients, but they aren’t a requirement, and even a cake with flour can be called a Torte. The word Torte comes from the Italian torta, which means “fine cake” and first appeared in print in 1418. (Torta could have derived from the Latin tortum, which can mean “bread” or to “twist.”) The first Torten were savory, and filled with meat, fish, herbs, or vegetables. To this day, a French tourte is always made from meat—and is usually a covered pastry—and even though there are savory tartes, most are sweet.