National Sacher Torte Day and a sweet memory
Delectable, decadent cake and cozy mysteries layered with an amazing experience. Celebrate National Sacher Torte Day on Dec. 5.
Gentle reader, this writer finds it remarkable that she ever wandered around Europe and Asia with nothing but a friend, a copy of Let’s Go Europe and Asia, and an orange backpack. But she did. And here’s the delicious tale that goes with my adventure.
My friend and I arrived in Vienna and hatched a plan. We would subsidize our trip expenses by finding jobs! Thus, completely innocent of the phrase “work without authorization,” I wandered the halls of the University of Vienna’s medical school (late employer of one Sigmund Freud) with experience as a lab tech to offer to a bevy of English-speaking science professors.
One of the good doctors ushered me to an office where I spoke to a kindly old gentleman — let’s call him Herr Professor Doktor Strauss. He’d interviewed for a job at my alma mater, and after we had compared enough notes to establish common acquaintances, he found me a paid six-week position as a medical lab technician.
Flash forward some weeks. There was going to be a birthday party! The honoree would be the head of the department and another position he held; I couldn’t follow it all with my feeble grasp of German. However, after knocking back a few glasses of wine at the fête, I found my German remarkably improved, which allowed me to comprehend the following:
The cake I was eating, chocolate with apricot filling, was real, 100% genuine Sacher Torte from the Hotel Sacher itself.
The kindly old gentleman who had given me my job was the head of the department and the president of the University of Vienna. The president of the University. Fancy that.
I want only to add that Herr Professor Doktor Strauss was surely familiar with the concept of work authorization, and that’s why I was paid in cash.
Sacher Torte and cozy mysteries
Though I get anxious even at the thought of finding parking these days, there are some connections between that insouciant traveler and my present-day life as a library patron. (Though, to be fair, I never had to find parking in Vienna.) Cruising the cozy mystery section for example, one comes across the fictional bakery Torte, featured in the Bakeshop Mystery Series by Ellie Alexander. Alas, there is no Sacher on the Torte’s premises, but you can find the recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Torte in the pages of Meet Your Baker, the first book in the series.
And you can find the book and others in the series (with groan-worthy titles such as “Donut Disturb” and “Muffin but the Truth”) in most branches of the Chicago Public Library. Search the catalogue for location details on the Bakeshop Mysteries (18 and counting).
Where to find Sacher Torte in Chicago?
Wait, wait, you’re still asking about the actual Sacher Torte? The recipe for the genuine item tasted by me at the university president’s birthday party is proprietary. But you can order some from the Hotel Sacher, and it offers this recipe “approximation” for those who may not want to spend 50 Euros plus shipping having pastries sent from Vienna.
Courtesy Cafe Selmarie website
If you hurry, you can savor a Sacher Torte without preparing it yourself at Lincoln Square’s Café Selmarie, 4729 N. Lincoln Ave., slated to close after 40 years in “early 2024” — well after National Sacher Torte Day on Dec. 5. And if you don’t hurry, Sacher Torte is always on offer at Lutz Bakery, 2458 W. Montrose Ave. Yum!
Post by Lee Price
Communications Committee
Friends of the Edgewater Library
Editor’s Note
Chicago Public Library has other cozy mysteries with a baking theme. Check out our resource list for them, as well as some dessert cookbooks.
