Viennese Desserts: Six Cakes and Sweet Dishes

A slice of Sachertorte and a plate of torn pancake answer quite different cravings in Vienna. The first suits a coffee break, while the second can take the place of a meal. Choose by appetite and time of day, then decide whether you want to sit at a café table or pick up something from a bakery.

Choosing a sweet at a Viennese café

Sweet	What you get	When to have it	Typical price
Gugelhupf	Fluted ring-cake slice	Breakfast or coffee	€4–7
Sachertorte	Chocolate and apricot cake slice	Coffee or dessert	€6–10
Punschkrapfen	Pink-iced punch cake	Coffee break	€4–7
Apfelstrudel	Apple-filled pastry slice	Afternoon or dessert	€5–9
Kaiserschmarrn	Torn pancake plate	Sweet main or dessert	€10–18
Buchteln	Jam-filled buns, often with sauce	Afternoon or evening	€6–11

These are rough prices per portion, not fixed café tariffs. Coffee costs extra, while cream or vanilla sauce may be included or add around €1–3. At a staffed café table, a drink can make the bill a few euros more than a bakery takeaway. A cover or service charge applies only where a particular venue lists one, not across Vienna’s cafés.

At a café, choose a slice from the display and tell the server which you want, or order a warm sweet from the menu. For a quick sweet without table service, try a bakery takeaway. To linger over coffee, sit down and order there instead. A cake slice suits a break after lunch, while a full plate of pancake may be lunch itself.

Gugelhupf

Gugelhupf is a fluted, yeast-raised ring cake, traditionally enriched with butter, eggs, sugar and raisins. The central hole and ridged outer edge make a cut slice recognisable even in a crowded bakery display. Inside, look for a soft, even crumb rather than a filling or layers of icing: this is cake for a cup of coffee, not a warm pudding plated with sauce.

If the slice has pale and dark streaks, it is the marble version: cocoa is swirled through part of the plain batter. Ask for Marmorgugelhupf if you want the cocoa-swirled slice, while a plain Gugelhupf gives you more of the buttery, raisin-studded cake. The distinction is visible at the cut face, so you can decide before ordering.

Once a festive cake, Gugelhupf became part of Vienna’s nineteenth-century pastry culture, and Emperor Franz Joseph was especially fond of it. Today a bakery slice makes sense at breakfast, while a café slice fits an afternoon coffee or tea. It is easy to share a larger ring cake at home, but when travelling you can simply order one slice.

Sachertorte

Sachertorte is Vienna’s best-known chocolate cake, created by apprentice chef Franz Sacher for Prince Metternich in 1832. Its dense chocolate sponge is traditionally split around a thin layer of apricot jam, then coated with dark chocolate glaze. Look at the cut face for the fine seam of jam beneath the smooth coating. Unsweetened whipped cream alongside tempers the richness. A slice works with coffee or as dessert after a meal.

The name Sachertorte describes a kind of cake, not a single supplier. Original Sacher-Torte is Hotel Sacher’s protected brand name for its own version, while other Viennese bakeries and cafés make Sachertorte too. Franz’s son Eduard founded the hotel that made the cake its signature. If you want the historical hotel version, that distinction matters, but if you want to try the combination of chocolate and apricot, it need not determine where you sit.

Café Sacher, beside the Vienna State Opera, is a historical reference for ordering the hotel’s cake by the slice. It opens daily. Sitting down there is a different choice from taking a slice away from a bakery. You can also order Sachertorte elsewhere in Vienna without treating the branded version as a requirement.

Punschkrapfen

Punschkrapfen is a small, pink-iced sponge cake with a punch-flavoured centre. Sponge, sometimes made from leftover cake, is mixed with apricot jam and rum or punch beneath a coat of pink fondant, and a chocolate dot sometimes finishes the top. The pink coating lets you spot this individual cake in a confectioner’s display before you ask for it.

The name means punch cake, and the filling can contain alcohol. If you avoid alcohol, choose another sweet unless the shop confirms its version is suitable. The icing gives a sweeter first bite than a plain sponge slice, while the jam and punch flavour come through in the centre. It is sized for a coffee break rather than a meal, whether you eat it at a café table or take it away from a confectioner.

This is a continuing Viennese confectionery speciality, not a cake tied to one historic café. Order it by its name at the counter when you want something compact and richly flavoured. There is no need to add sauce or cream to make it a complete serving.

Apfelstrudel

Apfelstrudel is apple filling rolled inside thin, hand-stretched pastry. A cut slice shows layers of pastry around tart apples with sugar and cinnamon, often with raisins. Look for distinct folds and pieces of apple at the cut face. It is commonly served warm with icing sugar. Cream or vanilla sauce may be offered alongside, so say which you want when ordering.

Its history extends across Central Europe, but apple strudel has a particular place in Vienna’s coffeehouses and bakeries, as well as domestic baking. Have a slice for an afternoon pause or after a meal, rather than expecting the full plate of a warm sweet main course. Order Apfelstrudel if you want fruit and pastry instead of chocolate cake, and ask about raisins if you would rather avoid them.

Café Korb on Brandstätte is one place associated with apple strudel, not the only place to try it. It is closed on Sundays, but on public holidays it opens from 10:00 to 23:00, with the kitchen closing at 22:00. For strudel on a Sunday, choose another bakery or café rather than building your afternoon around Korb.

Kaiserschmarrn

Kaiserschmarrn is a fluffy pancake torn into pieces and served on a plate, not a cake sold by the slice. Eggs, flour, milk and sugar form the batter, and the cooked pieces arrive dusted with icing sugar, usually with plum compote, known as Zwetschkenröster. Apple sauce sometimes accompanies it instead. The irregular, browned pieces are what distinguish it from a neat stack of pancakes.

Raisins, often soaked in rum, are traditional but not inevitable. If you do not want raisins, ask whether the kitchen can make yours without them when ordering, rather than assuming every serving is the same. A menu may present the dish as a sweet main course as well as a dessert. In a restaurant or café, choose it instead of a conventional main when you have a substantial appetite. After a large meal, a full serving can be more than you want for dessert.

Plum compote adds tart fruit to the sweet, warm pancake, while apple sauce changes the fruit flavour. Decide between them if the kitchen offers a choice. Because the dish is cooked and plated, expect a different sort of pause from picking a ready-cut cake out of the display.

Buchteln

Buchteln are soft yeast buns baked side by side, usually with plum or apricot jam inside. They come apart as individual buns rather than cutting into cake slices, and served warm, they often arrive with vanilla sauce. If you see them together in a baking tray, the joined sides and soft dough are a useful cue before you order. A serving can make an afternoon sweet or a more filling end to the evening.

Their Bohemian origins are part of the story of Viennese baking: the historical ties between Vienna and Bohemia brought the yeast pastry into local coffeehouses and homes. The jam is contained inside the bun, while the vanilla sauce, where served, surrounds it. Ask whether sauce comes with the serving if you want to know what will be on your plate and bill.

Café Hawelka on Dorotheergasse is a historical coffeehouse associated with freshly baked Buchteln. Its traditional serving is a late-evening treat, from around 22:00, so the café being open does not mean buns are available all day. On Sundays the published café opening window is 09:00–22:00, ending around the usual time for that evening service. For Buchteln earlier on a Sunday, choose another café or bakery. Hawelka is not the only place in Vienna to serve the sweet.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: opening hours and key figures.

• Café Hawelka — opening hours
• The treasures of Viennese pastry culture
• Café Korb — opening hours
• Viennese coffee houses in 1010 Vienna