How Sachertorte appeared at Muffin Taffin

In 1832 the head cook in Prince Metternich's Vienna kitchen was ill, so a sixteen-year-old apprentice finished the dessert. Franz Sacher baked a dense chocolate sponge, spread apricot jam through the middle, and covered it with a dark glaze. That plate was the first Sachertorte.

His son Eduard later kept the same three ideas at Hotel Sacher: cocoa crumb, a thin jam layer, and glaze poured while it was still warm. A rest of one day lets the crumb take in the jam without turning the glaze dull.

Sachertorte on the November table

At Muffin Taffin in Budva, Montenegro, the cake is cut only after the glaze has set. Clean slices go out with other cakes for sales and orders when November evenings turn cool.

The bakery does not invent a new filling. Apricot stays in the center, and the chocolate coat stays smooth, which is how guests recognize the cake beside other desserts.

A long argument between Hotel Sacher and the Demel shop never changed those two marks. Both houses kept jam and glaze, and that is the version served here.