Danube River Cruise #29: Vienna's 5 Amazing Pastries, and 2 places we missed

Star Wars movie "Death Star" cake

In today's blog, we continue to walk you through some of the sights of Vienna, Austria - from our May cruise on the Danube River. In this blog, we stopped into the Sloka Vienna Coffeehouse. We learned of 5 famous Viennese pastries and found 2 amazing cakes on display. You'll also see 2 places Rob missed on the rainy visit.

Cake of St.Stephen's Church

2 AMAZING CAKES- There are a lot of bakeries in Vienna. Unfortunately, because it was pouring rain, they were all packed and we couldn't get waited on to enjoy any treats... so we took pictures of famous cakes made for a competition. One was of the local St. Stephen's church, and another of the Star Wars movie "Death Star." How they made a round cake, we have no idea. 
  The pastries for sale, however, were made from recipes, many of which date back to the Austro-Hungarian empire.

BEST APPLE STRUDEL - We DID get to enjoy Vienna's famous and highly recommended Apple Strudel later that day when we visited the Schonbrunn Palace. The Strudel was awesome!!
ABOUT THE "APFELSTRUDEL" - The apple strudel is a classic and probably the best known Viennese pastry outside of Austria. The word strudel derives from the German word meaning ‘whirlpool’ referring to the super thin layers of flaky pastry – similar to filo – which is rolled up encasing the filling. Strudel is traditionally served in thin slices revealing the swirl pattern of pastry and apple. The filling itself is made of tart cooking apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and breadcrumbs. The final result is a wonderful contrast between the flaky outer layers of pastry and the slightly stodgy interior, the sticky-sweet filling and the fresh bite of the thinly sliced apples. It is simple, unpretentious and delicious. (Description courtesy of the Culturetrip.com)

SOME OTHER FAMOUS LOCAL PASTRIES: 

Apple Strudel

1) Sachertorte - The cake consists of two layers of dense chocolate sponge with a thin layer of apricot jam between them, all covered in a thick layer of shiny chocolate ganache.
2) Mohnzelten - a sweet poppy seed paste encased in a potato pastry forming small domes that are then baked. The slightly salty pastry, with a texture similar to shortcrust, offsets the sweetness of the filling. Other fillings include strawberries or nuts, however, the poppy seed version is the original.

Dunkin Donuts, Vienna

3) Kardinalschnitte - This pastry consists of wrapping layers of soft meringue and genoise sponge around a thick cylinder of cream. The resulting oblong-shaped sausages are then sliced up into their final schnitten (slices). The alternating yellow of the sponge and white of the meringue are supposed to resemble the pope’s robe (hence the name: ‘Cardinal’s slice’). The cream can be flavoured with coffee, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry
4) Punschkrapfen - also known as 'punch-cake’, has a hot-pink icing and glacée cherry or fancy chocolate piping. The small squares are made up of layers of cake crumbs, nougat, chocolate and apricot jam. The whole beautiful thing is soaked in rum!


TWO PLACES WE MISSED - Rob found Dunkin' Donuts and a comic book store on our mad dash for the tour bus, so we couldn't enjoy either one.. and we didn't see any others throughout the entire trip. But it's good to know they exist there!

A Comic Book Shop we didn't have time to visit

NEXT: Schonbrunn Palace