Cake Snob Reviews: Vienna Part 2
I’m back again, with Part 2 of my reviews of all the desserts I ate in Vienna. If you missed part 1, check it out below:
Cake Snob Reviews: Vienna
This is the first in a series of Cake Snob Reviews. When I travel, I’ll review the desserts I ate while there. But don’t expect these reviews to be of any practical value to you. I won’t write about the places people say you must try when traveling. BC and I try to avoid those tourist traps when we can. I’m not going to stand in line for hours to eat a…
Part 2
Halfway through my trip, Vienna wasn’t living up to expectations. Yes, there was cake everywhere, but the best cakes I’d tried so far were either not salted or dry—two unforgivable sins in my opinion, if they’re baked by professionals. But I kept trying. After all, even mediocre cake for lunch is still cake for lunch.
Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce at Café Landtmann
Microwaved mush.
I trust waiters. They know about good food, and they know the best places to get it. So of course I listened when the waiter at our first dinner recommended apple strudel. It’s what the city is known for, he said. The best one is just down the road at Café Landtmann, he said. You can’t leave without trying it, he said. But he really let me down. Maybe it was me—I don’t love apples and raisins. Or maybe it was because they reheated pastry in a microwave, which took the crispness—the very point of the thing—out of it. Or maybe it was the overcooked, mushy filling that turned me off. One thing I will give them: the vanilla sauce was good, custardy and thick. That earned them a second slice in the rating. But all in all, the strudel was far inferior to apple pie (a dessert low on my list to begin with) and it was way too expensive to boot.
Lemon Poppyseed Cake from The Cake Tree
Lemon at its finest.
The cakes at The Cake Tree aren’t the highly decorated, many-layered, fancy-looking cakes you find at most cafes in the city because the owner is Irish and her baking style is, too. There is something incredibly inviting about her desserts nonetheless, a homemade air that reminded me of my mom’s cakes, which she baked to taste delicious, not look impressive. My cake radar was putting out good vibes. I decided to take a gamble on the lemon cake. (Lemon desserts without any tartness are a pet peeve of mine. They should taste like actual LEMON.) The slice was generous, which I appreciated since it was my breakfast (I had a great time on this trip.) From the first bite, the cake was moist, pleasantly dense, and had a tart, punchy lemon flavor that paired beautifully with a soft, delicate frosting, maybe a lemon-zest whipped cream. I savored it, and that transcendently happy feeling I get when I eat something truly delicious started spreading from my chest. As I sat there, happily typing away, high on the sugar and the deliciousness of the cake, I heard the staff say the owner was retiring and closing up shop. In a week. My heart sank. Vienna residents were going to have only bad cake in their city at this rate.
Rainbow Vanilla Cake from The Cake Tree
Perfect.
I decided to drown my sorrows in another slice of cake. I’d certainly never get the chance again, so I opted for the vanilla slice as a test. You should judge a bakery by its vanilla cake. There’s nowhere to hide, no strong flavors to compensate for dryness or a tough crumb. This was vanilla cake done to absolute perfection, everything a butter cake should be and usually isn’t. Flavorful, moist, tender, delicious, not too sweet. The whipped cream in between the cake layers was delicious, probably owing to Europe’s high-quality dairy. It had a rounder, sweeter, smoother flavor than the ultra-pasteurized supermarket heavy creams back in the US. (I am inspired to source some better heavy cream for my baking going forward; stay tuned.) The frosting was an Italian meringue buttercream so flavorful and buttery I forgave it for not having much salt. Everything together: absolutely delicious.
Rhubarb-Strawberry Streusel Cake at Crème de la Crème
Perfection just missed.
Rhubarb gives off a lot of water when it cooks, and I was so impressed that Crème de la Crème managed to keep the cake moist without being soggy. The streusel topping was great—sweet and salty, crumbly, delicious, and it added a nice texture. But thing that kept this cake from full marks was that it wasn’t sweet enough. That’s something I thought I’d never say, but here you have it. Rhubarb is really sour, and that cake just wasn’t sweet enough to account for it. If not for that, I would have gladly given this one full marks.
Chocolate and Creamy Peanut Cake from Crème de la Crème
The best cake I ate in Vienna.
I don’t like chocolate and peanut butter together. In fact, I don’t like peanut butter at all. It’s just so heavy, and dense, and sweet, and it sticks your mouth together. Pair a heavy peanut butter frosting with a rich chocolate cake and I’m out. Chocolate needs something light or tart to contrast it. When this slice set my cake radar off, I wasn’t sure I could trust it. I’d overridden my gut so many times, opting for the fancy layered cakes instead of the tarts and mousse-y pastries that I’d truly wanted in every bakery we’d been to. (Except The Cake Tree. I wanted the cake there.) I had to learn from my mistakes and listen to my cake radar and not my brain this time. Oh boy, was my cake radar right. The peanut butter frosting was light, salty, and even leaned a little savory, a perfect complement to the rich chocolate and nothing like the peanut butter flavors back home that I hate. It didn’t even need the dollops of crunchy peanut butter, salted caramel, and candied peanuts on top, but they added something extra to an already perfect cake. And as a bonus, the cafe was adorable, full of plants and cozy lighting, located in the super cute and much less touristy neighborhood near the university. If you’re in Vienna, you must go here.
What should I review next?
If you want me to review a bakery or a particular dessert, comment below or email me at confessionsofacakesnob@substack.com.
Next up
In two weeks, I’ll have another recipe for you. And the story of how I baked a wedding cake during the hottest week of the summer—with broken AC.