A 175th birthday for famed cake

It was enough to make other desserts turn green with envy.

Austria's famous chocolate cake _ the "Original Sacher-Torte" _ celebrated its 175th birthday Thursday with a rooftop party and a serenade by opera star Montserrat Caballe.

The bash was organized by Vienna's Hotel Sacher, which produces the cake _ distinguished by its chocolate seal and sold in a wooden box complete with golden corners _ from its own secret recipe.

"There is only one original," said Elisabeth Guertler, who runs the hotel.

Over the years, the hotel has fought competitors, arguing that only it has the right to call its cake the "original."

The hotel claims the cake came about by chance in 1832 when Franz Sacher, an apprentice at the court of Prince Metternich, had to devise a dessert while filling in for his sick boss.

Guertler said only natural products are included in the hotel's secret recipe, including eggs, flour, butter, jam and sugar. Not to be forgotten is the chocolate coating.

Over the years, the cake, which is traditionally eaten with a glob of unsweetened whipped cream, gained global recognition. These days, about a third of the roughly 360,000 "Original Sacher-Torte" cakes produced each year are exported.

Caballe seemed eager to get a taste after she briefly serenaded an oversized version of the cake.

"We're celebrating our birthday together," said the singer, who was born in Spain in 1933, as she savored her bites.

Caballe said the cake brought her luck years ago when she first came to Vienna for a performance. "Calories don't exist!" she said with a laugh.

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On the Net:

http://www.sacher.com/sacher/SacherTorte/index_en.jsp