This nutty and crumbly cake, which is a tart, sweet, and world-famous showstopper, is one of the oldest around. It remains one of the best-known Viennese pastries. It’s a sort of buttery shortcake. Usually, it is loaded with hazelnuts, brown or white dough spiced with cinnamon and cloves, filled with, in Vienna, red currant fruit preserves—but in a pinch, you can use San Francisco pastry chef Michelle Polzine’s faux red currant jam below (aka cranberry-pomegranate jam) or even raspberry jam which is much easier to source. But one thing is for sure, the more the preserve, the better. And, since the jam or preserve is one of the cake’s main ingredients, the higher the quality, the better the taste of the final result!
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