In 2010 someone made this hand-drawn cross-section of a Grillparzertorte at the Wiener Conditorei am Roseneck in Berlin, labeling every layer. I’ve been trying to find an actual recipe for months and have come up completely empty — in English and German.
Here’s what the diagram shows, top to bottom:
**•** Marzipan decoration
**•** Chocolate glaze (Schokoguss)
**•** A thin marzipan layer
**•** Cocoa buttercream (Kakaobuttercreme) coating the outside
**•** Thin chocolate cake layers (Schokoteig) — more layers than a normal torte
**•** Orange marzipan (Orangenmarzipan) filling layers
**•** Chocolate or nougat buttercream (Schoko- oder Nougatbuttercreme)
**•** Jam (Marmelade)
**•** A shortcrust pastry base (Mürbeteigboden)
**•** Brittle (Krokant) around the bottom edge
So I know the architecture. What I don’t have is any proportions.
What I’ve already ruled out:
**•** Not a Sachertorte, despite what most search results assume
**•** Nothing on German or English recipe sites; a German food-trade forum user asked this same question in 2016 and got no answer
**•** Not in Hess’s *Viennese Cooking*
**•** Nothing in ANNO (Austrian digitized newspaper/journal archive)
**•** A research librarian spent an hour on it and couldn’t find a hit
German confectionery sites describe it as a “Meistertorte” — a master-confectioner cake — which makes me think it may only exist in professional trade manuals or as shop knowledge passed between Konditoren, never in a home cookbook. Candidates I haven’t been able to check the indexes of:
**•** J. M. Erich Weber, *250 Konditorei-Spezialitäten* (Dresden, 1934)
**•** *Verfahrenslehre Konditoreiwaren* (Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, East German trade manual)
**•** Hans Skrach, *Die Wiener Konditorei* (1932/49)
**•** Karl Schuhmacher, *Wiener Süßspeisen*
What I’m hoping for: does anyone have one of these books and can check the index? Or did anyone train in a German or Austrian Konditorei and make this? A professional formula in bulk quantities is completely fine — I’ll do the math to scale it down. Even confirming it’s in a specific book on a specific page would be a huge help.
by Perfect-External-120
6 Comments
It seems to be a more refined version of this maybe? [Austrian Cake with Cocoa – Recipe | Bonapeti.com](https://bonapeti.com/recipes/r-17724-Austrian_Cake_with_Cocoa?)
Have you tried contacting the Konditorei directly?
Pastry chef here. So it’s entirely possible a standalone recipe was never written down, instead just following the chef who created and named it from place to place. It also might have been the specs for a cake they were planning to make either for a competition/assignment or as a new item to run.
In classical pastry, it was (and still is in some old school places) totally normal to just create a diagram. A pastry chef will already have recipes for all those elements, so it’s just a matter of combining them.
Well, you know what you need for the layers, I’d find good recipes for each layer and wing it.
Well, that’s quite an intriguing request. It really brought out my inner Sherlock Holmes.
Google actually doesn’t turn up anything. That surprises me. Usually recipes get copied, recreated, or published under a different name. But there’s nothing there. This cake is only available at the café and isn’t in any cookbook. The picture was just uploaded to Flickr and drawn by a café patron. I couldn’t find a baking book, and I’m pretty sure you’ll never get your hands on the original recipe, since traditional bakeries and pastry shops like that don’t usually share their recipes.
But.
To me, it’s like an evolution of the Sacher Torte – just with shortbread, layers of cream, and marzipan.
I did find another blog post that revealed a bit about the textures of the cream. That’s why I think it must be Parisian buttercream because of the ganache.
I’m from Germany, so I thought I’d find more Google results, but the whole thing is really an internet mystery.
I think you’ll have to figure this out on your own – just like any good baker.
I translated the recipe for the cake layers and the glaze from the Hotel Sacher website for you. Then I found my favorite shortcrust pastry recipe, and you’re actually almost done. All you have to do is flavor the marzipan, make some brittle, and that’s it.
I translated that for you into English. It’s a bit rough. When you need German, then write it under the comment. No guarantee on the quantities.
Recipe: Grillparzer Gateau
Ingredients
**1. Mürbteig**
* 125 g butter (softened)
* 100 g icing sugar
* 1 pinch of salt
* 250 g all-purpose flour
* 2 egg yolks
* 2 tbsp cold milk
**2. Marmelade**
* 200 g orange marmalade (finely strained)
**3. Chocolate Sponge Layers**
* 130 g dark chocolate couverture (min. 55% cocoa content)
* 1 vanilla pod (seeds scraped out)
* 150 g melted butter
* 100 g icing sugar
* 6 eggs (medium size)
* 100 g granulated sugar
* 140 g all-purpose flour
**4. Marzipan**
* 500 g marzipan paste (raw)
* 200 g icing sugar
* Zest of 2 organic oranges
* 1 tsp orange juice
**5. Schoko und Kakaobuttercreme (Parisian Buttercream)**
* 250 g dark chocolate couverture (chopped)
* 160 g heavy cream
* 500 g butter (must be at room temperature)
* 120 g icing sugar
* **For Bowl A :** 50 g hazelnut nougat (melted and cooled)
* For Bowl B: 2 heaping tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
**6. Schokoguss und Krokant**
* 200 g granulated sugar
* 125 ml water
* 150 g dark chocolate couverture (coarsely chopped)
* 100 g nut brittle (Krokant)
Instructions
Mürbteig:
1. Cream the softened butter with the icing sugar and salt until smooth.
2. Add the flour and egg yolks. Pour in the milk and knead quickly into a smooth dough.
3. Wrap in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Roll out the dough into a 24 cm circle, line the bottom of a springform pan, and bake for 12 minutes until golden. Allow to cool.
Schokoboden:
1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C. Line a 24 cm springform pan with baking paper, grease and flour the sides.
2. Melt 130 g of couverture over a hot water bath and allow it to cool slightly.
3. Beat the softened butter with 100 g of icing sugar and the vanilla seeds until fluffy.
4. Separate the eggs. Stir the egg yolks individually into the butter mixture, then add the melted couverture.
5. Whip the egg whites with 100 g of granulated sugar until stiff peaks form. Place it on the mixture, sift the flour over it, and fold everything together gently.
6. Pour into the pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
7. Allow to cool completely, then slice the cake horizontally into three thin layers.
Parisian Buttercream:
1. Make the Chocolate Base: Finely chop the 500 g of dark chocolate couverture and place it in a bowl. Bring 160 g of heavy cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir continuously until completely melted, smooth, and glossy. Cover the surface directly with cling film and let it sit at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours until it reaches a soft, spreadable consistency. Do not put it in the fridge.
2. Whip the Butter: In a separate large mixing bowl, beat 500 g of softened room-temperature butter and 120 g of sifted icing sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer on high speed for at least 5 minutes until the mixture becomes very pale, light and fluffy.
3. Combine the Cream: Gradually add the room-temperature chocolate-cream mixture to the whipped butter, one tablespoon at a time, mixing continuously on medium speed until a completely smooth and uniform chocolate buttercream forms.
4. Divide for the Layers: Split the finished buttercream into two equal portions:
* Bowl A (Chocolate / Nougat Buttercream): Leave this portion plain for a rich chocolate layer. If you prefer the nougat option gently fold 50 g of melted and cooled hazelnut nougat into this bowl.
* Bowl B (Cocoa Buttercream): Sift 2 heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder into the second portion and whip it briefly. This incorporates extra air, making it lighter in color and fluffier. Save a tiny spoonful of this cream for the top decoration of the cake.
Marzipan:
1. Knead the raw marzipan paste with 200 g of icing sugar. Divide into two equal parts.
2. **Part 1 (Orange Marzipan):** Knead in the orange zest and juice. Roll out between baking paper into a 24 cm circle.
3. **Part 2 (Plain Marzipan):** Roll out into a 24 cm circle. Save a tiny scrap for the top decoration.
Assembly
Place the shortcrust pastry base on a cake plate and fit a clean springform ring around it:
1. Spread the orange marmalade thinly over the shortcrust pastry base.
2. Spread the dark chocolate buttercream (Bowl A) directly onto the marmalade layer.
3. Place the 1st chocolate sponge layer on top.
4. Spread the light cocoa buttercream (Bowl B) smoothly over this first sponge layer.
5. Place the 2nd chocolate sponge layer on top.
6. Place the rolled-out orange marzipan circle directly on top of the second sponge.
7. Place the 3rd chocolate sponge layer directly on top of the orange marzipan.
8. Place the plain marzipan circle flat on top of the third sponge layer.
9. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 2 hours to stabilize, then remove the springform ring.
10. Coat the upper outside flank with the tiny remaining bit of cocoa buttercream.
Schokoglasur
1. Boil 200 g of granulated sugar with 125 ml of water for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in 150 g of chopped couverture until a thick glaze forms.
2. Pour the warm glaze over the top marzipan layer and let it run down the sides. Press the Krokant onto the lower outside edge while the glaze is wet. Decorate the top with marzipan pieces and buttercream dots.
You already know what you need to bake it. Given that the place where you got a piece of it from has relatively frequently changeing cakes, I would guess that it is their own creation.