TheHotel Sacher andDemel pastry shop in Vienna serve the cake, while it is also popular in other parts of Austria and in other German-speaking countries. In the 20th century, they battled over the cake's ownership, trademark, and whether the original cake had one or two layers of sponge. Both of their cakes were made with butter, chocolate, eggs, flour, and sugar, but their exact recipes were kept secret. Hotel Sacher serves the cake with whipped cream.
Franz Sacher invented the cake in the 19th century.
The Sachertorte was invented byFranz Sacher.[1] He worked as a chef in Vienna andPressburg (modern-day Bratislava, Slovakia) forPrince Metternich of the Austrian Empire.[2] He was trained under Metternich's chef Chambellier.[3] It is unclear, however, exactly when he did so. One story says he made the cake in 1832 for Metternich and his friends. However, according to an interview Sacher gave in 1906, he created the cake in the 1840s at his restaurant in Pressburg.[2] Several food writers have indicated that the cake was created in 1832,[4] with his son, Eduard, also claiming in 1888 that Sacher created the cake for Metternich.[5] Eduard claimed that Metternich liked the cake.[6]
Regardless of the exact origin, after Eduard openedHotel Sacher in 1876,[7][8] the cake made its way to the hotel's menu.[2] It became widely popular in Vienna, surpassing the popularity ofLinzer torte.[9] It also became popular in other cities in Europe, such as Paris, Berlin, and London, and was even shipped over the ocean, such as to the United States, India, and Japan.[6] Spelling variations include Sacher-Torte and Sacher Torte,[1]torte being a German word for a multi-layered cake with a filling.[10] The cake was introduced to theAustrian food codex (Latin:Codex Alimentarius Austriacus) in 1894.[11] It appeared in the English vocabulary in the early 20th century.[12]
The cookbook writerKatharina Prato was one of the first to promote the cake, having published it inDie Süddeutsche Kirche (1858), calling it "A Chocolate Cake. A La Sacher".[13] She helped popularise the cake in her other books.[14] Writers, such as Louise Seleskowitz, Klara Fuchs, Anna Bauer, and Anna Fink, also featured the cake in their books.[13] By the 1930s, the cake had become globally known and there were many versions of it.[14]
In the 1930s, Hotel Sacher entered a legal battle with the pastry shopDemel over the cake's ownership and trademark. The shop introduced the cake as "Eduard Sacher-Torte" in 1934, while the hotel had the cake under the name "Original Sacher-Torte".[2] Demel's argument was based on the fact that they had obtained the right to produce the cake from Eduard, while Hotel Sacher based their argument on the family connection.[15] Hans Gürtler, one of the hotel's investors, took the shop to court and won in 1938.[2] AfterWorld War II, the dispute resurfaced in the Austrian Supreme Court. This time, there was also a dispute on whether the original cake had one layer of sponge, preferred by Demel, or two layers, preferred by the hotel.[2] The dispute over the ownership remained complicated as Eduard had connections to both Hotel Sacher and Demel.[16] The case ended in 1963,[8] with the court siding with Hotel Sacher on the ownership and Demel on the number of layers.[2]Deutsche Welle, however, reported that it was an out-of-court agreement.[8] Since then, Hotel Sacher and Demel have retained their duopoly over the cake, though Hotel Sacher outsells Demel by five to one.[16] Other pastry shops and restaurants have tried to replicate the original Sachertorte.[11]
In July 2025, a café inŽeliezovce, Slovakia, where Franz Sacher once worked, was renovated and began selling Sachertorte.[17]
The cake is modelled after a chocolate biscuit.[18] TheAustrian food codex (Latin:Codex Alimentarius Austriacus) describes the cake's ingredients and preparation in detail. Sachertorte has to be a chocolatesponge cake and covered withapricot jam,chocolate glaze, and sugar. The primary ingredients must be butter, chocolate, eggs, flour, and sugar. The recipe calls for whipping the butter and melting the chocolate. The chocolate and sugar are then combined and mixed. The mixture is then thickened with egg yolks and flour before being folded with egg whites. Thebatter should be baked for an hour. After baking, apricot jam is placed on top of the cake, which is then coated with chocolate glaze.[19] Nuts can be added if the name of the cake reflects their inclusion.[2] The butter content is unusually high for a cake, raising the temperature at which the chocolate-content melts. This has made the Sachertorte a rare cake that bakeries can hold without refrigeration.[20]
Demel's version has one layer, and puts the apricot jam below the chocolate glaze, while Hotel Sacher puts the jam in the middle of two layers.[21][22] Both keep their exact recipes secret.[23][24] Hotel Sacher serves the cake with whipped cream,[19] which is also popular in other places in Vienna.[25] According toElisabeth Gürtler, the director of Hotel Sacher, the cake pairs well with champagne.[26]
Sachertorte served at the cafe at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria in 2023.
Sachertorte is a popular dish in Vienna and other regions of Austria,[27] as well as other German-speaking countries, particularly during festive periods.[28] In Japan,McDonald's offered the cake for¥360 from 2015[29] to at least until 2021.[30] The food writer Michael Krondl described it as "easily [the] city's most storied confection". Hotel Sacher ships its cakes worldwide.[2]
According to Krondl, Sachertorte is "almost the personification of the sweet".[2] Roland Mischek ofDie Welt described the cake as "sweet, delicate, and with a flawless surface" (German:süß, delikat und mit makelloser Oberfläche).[27] On the other hand, Cloake noted that others complained about the cake being "dry and boring".[31] Writing for theBBC News, Bethany Bell complained that the Sachertorte almost always "looks better than it tastes", unless "homemade with extra chocolate".[26] The cake is well-acclaimed. Author Franz Maier-Bruck wrote that the cake's taste is "delicate and mild" (zart und mild) and that it is not too soft, sweet, dry, and gritty. He added that the success of Sachertote lies in the balance of its ingredients, the baking process, and the smoothness of the glaze.[11]
Wohlmuth, Edward G (2017). "Recipes". In Beckett, Stephen T.; Fowler, Mark S.; Ziegler, Gregory R. (eds.).Beckett's Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use (5th ed.). Wiley. p. 502.ISBN978-1-118-78014-5.For many years, only chocolate flavoured coatings were used for cake products due to the warm atmosphere in bakeries, the exception being the Sacher Torte of Vienna with its very high butter oil content, which makes it cuttable at room temperatures, and the half and fully enrobed biscuits and chocolate chip cookies, which came via the United States to Europe.
Doehnert, Rodica (2016).Das Sacher: Die Geschichte einer Verführung [The Sacher: The Story of a Seduction] (in German). Europa Verlag.ISBN978-3958901230.
Gürtler, Alexandra; Wagner, Christoph (2005).Das neue Sacher-Kochbuch die zeitgemässe österreichische Küche [The New Sacher Cookbook: Contemporary Austrian Cuisine] (in German). Pichler Verlag.ISBN9783854313502.
Haslinger, Ingrid (2018).Die Wiener Küche. Kulturgeschichte und Rezepte [Viennese Cuisine: Cultural History and Recipes] (in German). Mandelbaum.ISBN978-3-85476-558-5.
Maier-Bruck, Franz (2003).Klassische österreichische Küche [Classic Austrian Cuisine] (in German). Seehamer.ISBN9783932131981.
Stolzer, Dominik; Klein, Michael; Fertl, Krista (2016).Das Original Sacher-Backbuch [The Original Sacher Baking Book] (in German). Gräfe und Unzer.ISBN9783833858543.
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