Sacher Torte or Anna Torte? Delicacies for the palate and the stories of two female entrepreneurs in charge.
- Caterina Castelli
- Oct 7
- 7 min read
The story of two life stories, two cakes, two different recipes, two women, and the same shared entrepreneurial passion that lives on in the streets of Vienna and around the world, even today.
I want to tell you the story and the similarities between Anna Sacher and Anna Demel .
I think, I try to imagine and I wonder: how difficult it must have been in their time to manage two such important commercial businesses, which continue to shine with their prestige even today, in 2025 and so many years after their deaths, despite the fact that they were two women from poor families.
How did these two women deal with life, work, relationships, and even the loss of a loved one and grief?
Is a woman entrepreneur born or made?
In terms of mental health, has the way you embrace and process pain, depression, loss, or apparent defeat changed in any way over the years?
Anna Demel
Anna was the daughter of First Lieutenant Anton Siding. After marrying into the Demel family, she and her husband Christoph initially attempted to open a Demel branch in Berlin. However, the venture failed, and the marriage ended in divorce. Anna Demel returned to Vienna; her divorced husband died prematurely in Paris in 1918. Already in 1917, after the death of his former brother-in-law, Karl Demel Jr. took over the management of the Demel confectionery in Vienna. He also brought his two sisters, Hermine ("Mina") and Flora Siding, with him. While Hermine worked at Demel, Flora pursued a career as an actress. Klara, Flora's daughter from her relationship with a Hungarian tycoon, was adopted by Anna Demel because she hoped this would ensure the business would remain in the family.
To save the Hotel Sacher from financial ruin after Anna Sacher's death, Anna Demel purchased the Sachertorte recipe from Eduard Sacher after the First World War, which later led to a long legal dispute over the designation "original Sachertorte." Demel also purchased the templates for the equally popular gingerbread figures from the collection of Count Wilczek at Kreuzenstein Castle.
Anna Demel also introduced confectionery boxes in the style of the Wiener Werkstätte. Josef Hoffmann introduced the artist Federico Berzeviczy-Pallavicini, who designed the packaging materials and display cases for the confectionery. In 1936, Berzeviczy-Pallavicini married Anna Demel's adopted daughter, Klara.
Anna Demel managed the confectionery during the interwar period and World War II. On March 18, 1952, she became the first woman to receive the title of "Kommerzialrat" after the war. She continued to work at the company until she was very old. It recently had around 60 employees. In her honor, Demel still serves the "Anna-Torte," a chocolate cake with Parisian cream.
After Anna Demel's death, Klara Berzeviczy-Pallavicini took over the management of the company.
Anna Sacher
She went down in history as a cigar-smoking sergeant unafraid to rebuke the rebellious archdukes; a brash cult figure at the turn of the century, admired by the scions of the nobility and the sons of the upper classes who longed for practicality. But in reality, she was a modern career woman with little time for her children and grandchildren, the head of a complex company, and a public figure constantly under scrutiny. But what exactly did her entrepreneurial talent consist of?
Anna Maria Sacher was born on January 2, 1859, in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of butcher Johann Fuchs and his wife Franziska, née Reitter. She grew up in Vienna's 2nd district, where she attended school and helped in her father's butcher shop. She had five brothers and a half-sister.
On February 21, 1880, she married hotelier Eduard Sacher in St. Stephen's Cathedral. Their marriage produced children, Eduard Jr., Franziska, and Anna. After their marriage, she immediately joined her husband's business. In 1876, she opened the Hotel de l'Opera, later the Hotel Sacher, on Philharmonikerstrasse, and within a few years had created a hotel with an excellent reputation both at home and abroad, appreciated for its elegance, exclusivity, and haute cuisine.
They themselves invented the Sacher Torte , which became famous throughout the world and was later produced in the pastry shop of the Hotel Sacher.
After her husband's premature death in 1892, Anna Sacher took over sole management of the hotel. Under her leadership, the Hotel Sacher and the Sachergarten in the Prater became a meeting place for the highest social circles. The hotel was frequented by members of the court and the high nobility, but politicians and artists from around the world also came and went. Anna Sacher was a gastronome and contributed to the hotel's international fame even before the First World War. She practiced content marketing even before the term was invented and ultimately condensed the narrative into a simple sentence: "Sacher is me and no one else." Such an ingenious fusion of product and company cannot fail to arouse the jealousy of today's communication and brand strategists. She consistently received awards at culinary arts exhibitions and, like her husband before her, was appointed purveyor to the Imperial and Royal Court. She also took part in the founding of the Vienna Restaurant Culinary School and served as president of the school's board of directors.
Her immense popularity is also due to her original style. Anna Sacher's image was shaped in particular by her predilection for cigars and French bulldogs (the so-called " Sacher-Bullys "), which she also bred herself under the name of her kennel " Dernier cri ." She often appeared with them in public.
Thanks to her presence, her culinary skills, and her dedication to the business, she made the Hotel Sacher famous throughout the world, transforming it into an Austrian institution that hosted illustrious guests. Her famous tablecloth was well-known; illustrious guests immortalized themselves on it, and she personally embroidered their names. The tablecloth can still be seen in the Sacher today.
However, with the outbreak of the First World War, the Hotel Sacher's golden age came to an end. Anna Sacher was never able to recapture the glories of the monarchy, and they soon found themselves in financial difficulty. In 1929, she voluntarily declared herself incompetent and retired from managing the hotel. She died in 1930 in a room in her hotel. Anna Sacher was buried in the Dornbach Cemetery in Vienna.
In 1932, the bankruptcy proceedings were finally initiated, and in 1934, bankruptcy was declared. Lawyer Hans Gürtler, his wife Poldi, and the couple Josef and Anna Siller then took over the management of the hotel. Today, the hotel is privately owned by the Gürtler family.
Anna Sacher received numerous awards throughout her life. She received the "Golden Decoration of Merit of the State of Vienna with Crown" and was the first woman to receive the "Golden Decoration of Honor of the Republic of Austria." Her life has been the subject of numerous film adaptations and biographies. Most recently, in 2016, her life was adapted into a two-part television film, starring Ursula Strauß as Anna Sacher.
Sacher Torte
The cake consists of two layers of light chocolate sponge cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the center. The entire cake is covered with a layer of dark chocolate glaze. The original recipe called for 18 egg whites and 14 egg yolks.
Sachertorte is served at a temperature of 16-18 degrees Celsius, traditionally accompanied by plain whipped cream and a cup of coffee or tea (many Viennese, in fact, consider Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten without it). There are two official recipes; thus, a lawsuit has twice arisen between Viennese Sachertorte shops and Demel to determine which of the two is allowed to sell the "original" Sachertorte.
Even today, the secrets of the Sacher Torte are jealously guarded by the pastry shop at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, which handcrafts over 270,000 pieces a year.
Anna Cake
Founded in 1888, Demel was the pastry shop of the Austrian Court. Some say there was a legendary secret passage that led directly from the laboratory to the Hofburg Palace, so that the Royals could discreetly enjoy the delights prepared by Demel's pastry chef.
The shop is a feast for both the eyes and the palate. All the sweets displayed in the windows are enchanting and leave you spoiled for choice. The luxurious furnishings, beautifully preserved since 1888, create a unique atmosphere.
It's a chocolate or truffle cake made of three spongy layers, with a dark crème parisienne (chocolate buttercream) in the middle, orange liqueur, and a nougat topping. The nougat is chilled on a cold marble slab until it forms a thin layer, which is then arranged in a circle, creating large waves, to decorate the cake.
Two women who experienced countless ups and downs in their lives, pillars of their families and respective businesses. Each managed to build and maintain a name that will have a story to tell in the years to come. Anna Sacher is said to have had a wealthy lover after her husband's death, and that he himself lent her a significant sum of money to help her with her hotel. Little is known about Anna Demel; perhaps her former brother-in-law, a tycoon, provided financial support after the First World War, or perhaps not. But financial matters aside, these two women lived through a truly difficult period in history, the war, and tried everything they could to keep their businesses afloat.
Who knows how much anxiety they were pervaded by and how many sleepless nights, but what I believe is the fact that they never considered giving up, throwing in the towel, perhaps because the responsibilities of their families and employees, as well as the image the company had towards them, could have made the idea really difficult to put into practice, or rather, decide to quit.
I hope this story I've just told can inspire reflection, to realize that hard and challenging times have always existed and always will, that there will never be a time when it will be easy to manage a business, a marriage, an illness, or even feel judged as mothers or parents for prioritizing work and projects that seemingly distance us from our families.
Which of the two cakes do you prefer and what do you think of the story of the two Annas?
A hug,
Catherine :)
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