In 1891, Wilhelm Josef Sluka founded a patisserie with his partner, Josefine, in the shadow of Vienna's city hall. Within a very short period of time, it became one of the city's most well-known and recognisable confectioners. Located near parliament and opposite the Burgtheater, Sluka's hand-made creations quickly drew in the city's rich and famous. Its regulars included the Empress Elisabeth, better known as Sisi (Sluka obtained the coveted title of purveyor to the royal court in 1899), chancellors and presidents, city councillors and national parliamentarians, artists like Oskar Kokoschka, as well as actors and actresses from the Burg. In Thomas Bernhard's 1988 play Heldenplatz, the characters dine on a game pie, of all things, from Sluka. "When I was a kid, the game pie from Sluka was one of my favourite things to eat," one of the characters remarks. Today, it remains particularly popular with politicians from the centre-right Austrian People's Party -- whose national headquarters are based just around the corner from Sluka -- from Kurt Waldheim through to Wolfgang Schüssel. Both its location, clientele past and present, and hand-crafted pastries and confections all serve to give Sluka its exclusive reputation. (That, and its prices.)
Wilhelm Josef Sluka conceived of several original recipes including today's house speciality: a chocolate orange creation known, funnily enough, as Slukatorte. As opposed to being baked in a single form, the gateau is in fact constructed out of two different flavours of Biskuitmasse, a fatless sponge akin to genoise, which are baked in jelly roll pans. The first -- the thinner layers of the cake which go on the top and bottom of the finished article -- is chocolate-flavoured, cocoa powder having been added to the mixture. The second is plainer, hit with lemon zest and vanilla. That second layer, once cooled, is spread with orange marmalade and a chocolate buttercream and cut into long stripes about 3-3.5 cm in width. They are then rolled around one another, essentially, such that when you look down from above, you see a chocolate swirl, but when you cut into the finished cake, there are these lines and layers of vanilla sponge and chocolate buttercream. (Better to watch the video then have me explain it.) The various layers of the cake are brushed with a cointreau-scented sugar syrup and the whole thing, once built, is iced with the remaining buttercream before being finished with roasted, chopped hazelnuts.
