Happy Sacher Torte Day!

Well, who knew? According to louderbacks.com, today, apparently, is Sacher Torte Day. (That'll teach you to rely on the internet for all of your information!) I know that the squares on my calendar are pretty small, but how could this treasure of a holiday have been left off? Turns out, Sacher Torte Day is really only big in Vienna. Had I consulted my Austrian calendar, I'm sure it would have been on there. You live, you learn.

So, what exactly do you do on Sacher Torte Day? Is there a costume you have to wear? Special song to sing? Hallmark card to send? Nope. Franz Sacher was a baker who invented an especially yummy kind of chocolate cake that he dubbed 'the Sacher Torte.' He has gone down in history as a national hero. This cake was so good that it's still made today - over 150 years after the first one came out of the oven - and can only be purchased in three or four bakeries around the world. There were literally lawsuits over this delicacy - fortunes made and fortunes lost. Wow - all for a cake.

I may not exactly be Franz Sacher, but I do have a few recipes up my sleeve that I'm kind of proud of. They may not make me rich or famous, but they do make my family smile. In the long run, that's worth far more than fame or fortune anyway. So, I'm choosing to celebrate Sacher Torte day by making my crowd-pleasing chili and a boxed chocolate cake. Is that sacrilegious? Maybe, but we've all got to find our niches in the world, and in the kitchen. Happy Franz Sacher Day, and happy eating. :)

Want to try to make your own Franz Sacher Torte? Check out this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/wolfgangs-sachertorte-recipe/index.html

For those of you who aren't exactly up to making a Franz Sacher Torte, you might like this one instead:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,176,150187-236194,00.html