But does a Sachertorte have one layer of apricot marmalade or two? When we left the story of Vienna's most famous cake, the Hotel Sacher -- founded by Eduard Sacher, son of Sachertorte creator Franz Sacher -- had come under new ownership and had begun in around 1938 to sell what it called the Original Sacher-Torte containing two coatings of apricot jam: one through the middle of the cake and another separating the cake and the chocolate glaze. Four years prior, the Hotel Sacher had gone bankrupt, and Eduard Sacher -- son of Eduard, grandson of Franz -- had gone to work in the kitchens of the rival patisserie Demel, taking the family's Sachertorte recipe with him. This Sachertorte -- which at the time Demel called the Eduard-Sacher-Torte -- contained only one layer of marmalade, however, between the cake and its icing. By 1938, then, Vienna had two bakers producing two Sachertorten both claiming to be the original. This rivalrous status quo between Demel and the Hotel Sacher couldn't hold for long.
In 1954, the Viennese writer Friedrich Torberg testified in court that in the time of Anna Sacher -- wife of Edmund Sacher père and the Hotel Sacher's real boss -- the Hotel Sacher's Sachertorte had only ever contained one layer of apricot marmalade. For the Hotel Sacher's double-layer model to call itself the 'original' Sacher-Torte, he later wrote, was an absurdity. The court, in the end, determined otherwise: that at some point during the 1920s, the Hotel Sacher's Sachertorte recipe had evolved from one to two layers of apricot jam, and therefore it was possible to have two 'original' Sachertorte recipes: the Sacher family recipe in the possession of Eduard; and, the Hotel Sacher's Original Sacher-Torte, born during the interwar period. The Hotel Sacher thus retained the right to use the name the "Original Sacher-Torte," and its twice-marmaladed cake has become the model for Sachertorten the world over. The version sold at Demel -- the true original, argues Torberg -- is today sold under the designation "Demels Sachertorte," recognisable by the triangular chocolate seal atop each slice -- and of course, the single spread of apricot marmalade.
