The Last Word on Tortes (or Not)

April 29, 2019

In starting out this blog I held the idea of a torte as a multi-layered, cream filled cake, that used nut rather than wheat flour, and that was quite moist, maybe from addition of some sort of liqueur. I was quite firm in this, and thought that the chore was to track down the best one like this. I felt sure that that quest would find success in Vienna, which I took to be the capital of tortes.

Right off the bat, my cherished idea took a hit when the staff in the Montreal Polish bakery not only laid claim (for Poland) to the whole concept of torte, but claimed that only layers and cream were the defining factors. The Polish put forward this as their ideal:

Would need to slice and taste this to really see. Anybody have a spare $24?

At the Polish, I would have voted for this one, the "Opera"

As the trip progressed the torte tent seemed to expand, with "any fancy cake" being put forward in some quarters, and even a two layer "birthday cake" seemingly able to qualify.

Then, of course, there were the oddball candidates, like Linzer Torte, that lacks either real layers or any cream:

Not that there was any lack of other candidates. But look at these. Topfen is cheese - so that's a cheesecake on the left. And "mousse" is mousse, so can it be called torte? And truffel? Truffel is ganache. Is ganache torte?

So many candidates, such a small calorie budget, and anyway could these really be tortes?

Beyond Linz, we reached Vienna. And in Vienna the grand daddy of pastry shops, Demel. And what did Demel say? They acknowledged flourless as a sub-category of "tortes" and had three varieties on offer, but they refused to limit "torte" to flourless.

Here are Demel's three flourless candidates:

Now these could be real tortes. (Yes, that's $Can 8.25 per slice!)

We got the mandeltorte, since mandel is almond and that would double reinforce the nut theme. We slunk away with it, and ate it on the steps of the Spanish Riding School. And, it was good. But was it the best? At least I would have to go back and sample the Mozarttorte and the Esterhazytorte wouldn't you say?

Is that where the story and the quest ends? Well not quite, because we will be back. But also, even stuck here now in Canada there is still some research possible. Saturday was my birthday and I used this as an excuse to go to Walmart (yes Walmart) to check out their torte selection. Actually, not bad!

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Keith ClassenHappy Birthday Steve!!! Looks like you are celebrating in style. Hope you used that knife and shared with everyone. All the best!
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4 years ago

Michel FleuranceHappy birthday Steve, where is the other half of the cake ?
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4 years ago

Marilyn DennisonHappy Birthday, Steve. I enjoy your journals. As for your birthday torte, it looks like the Italian tiramisu, which is delicious in its own way. Now it is time for me to have some mango key lime pie for my dessert with slivered almonds. Maybe having some nuts qualifies it as a torte. I guess not. All is well still down here in warm FL. We are plodding alone, 77 and 81, both fortunate to manage and not be in much pain. We are so fortunate to have hosted you even though your journey through FL was quite unfortunate with its outcome. Be well, both of you. Say hello to Dodie from Ed and me.

Marilyn Dennison
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4 years ago