National Coconut Torte Day is celebrated every year on March 13. It’s a day to celebrate a rich and creamy dessert that has people smacking their lips all over the world.
A torte is basically a form of cake without flour. It is a dense, multi-layered cake made with breadcrumb or groundnut base and layered with a heavy helping of cream, jam, buttercream, ganache, or fruit.
- 100 AD – Coconuts have been around longer than people would think, originally being traded by Arab traders carrying coconuts from India to East Africa almost 2,000 years ago.
- 13th Century – These traders introduced the coconut to Europeans on the Asian Silk Roads, one of the more famous being Marco Polo, who called the coconut “The Pharaoh’s Nut” in the 13th century.
- 1400s – An edition of Dioscorides’ ‘Tractatus De Herbis,’ an illustrated document of medicinal plants, alludes to the existence and value of coconuts.
- 1600s – Claiming its fame from Linz, Austria, it’s known as the oldest known cake in the world, originally believed to have begun during the 1600s from Vienna Stadt und Landesbibliothek.
- 1718 – Recipes similar to that of the Sacher torte appeared as early as the eighteenth century, one instance being in the 1718 cookbook of Conrad Hagger.
- 19th Century – Until now many used the coconut as decorations and food, believing it had magical healing powers,
- 1800s – Coconuts become available in America.
- 1832 – Sacher Torte, a chocolate cake filled with apricot jam and covered with chocolate icing. It was created in Vienna in 1832 by a 16-year-old apprentice baker named Franz Sacher for Prince Metternich.
- 1920s – The idea of a coconut cake came to the surface in the 1920s and was served at ladies’ gatherings, from there, people began to experiment with coconut, and thus eventually created the coconut torte.
- 2011 – A study by the National Geographic Society reveals the Southeast Asian and Indian origin of the coconut tree.
- The word torte is German and means cake.
- All tortes are cakes, but not all cakes are tortes
- Torte refers to both a multi-layered cake filled with buttercream, jam, or cream and to a rich, moist and dense single-layered cake. A torte may be made with little to no flour, but instead with ground nuts or breadcrumbs, as well as sugar, eggs, and flavorings.
- The word ‘coconut’ is derived from the Iberian word ‘El coco,’ which refers to a mythical, hairy monster, which must have been a nod to the coarse hairs outside a coconut.
- A coconut tree can grow up to ninety feet.
- Coconut is rich in fiber, Vitamin B6, iron, and minerals like magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc.
- The oil from coconut moisturizes our skin and also helps keep our skin clear and hair silky, too.
- Tortes are commonly baked in a spring form pan.
- All tortes are cakes, but not all cakes are tortes.
- Cakes are usually made with the main ingredient of flour, tortes usually don’t contain flour.
- Tortes are much shorter than cakes because they have much thinner layers.
- The most well-known of the typical tortes include the Austrian Sacher torte.
- Coconuts are Not Nuts. “Coconuts are drupes, which is a fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing the seed,” says Len Monheit, executive director of the Coconut Coalition of the Americas
- Coconuts contain a high amount of dietary fiber, as well as protein and many essential minerals, such as manganese, copper, iron and selenium, making them a beneficial health food you can feel good about feeding your family.
- Coconuts are used in oils, flour, water, non-dairy milk, snacks and more
- After drying, the meat of the coconut, is called “copra.”
- There are 280 calories per cup of coconut.
- Makapuno, which is cultivated in the Philippines, is the costliest coconut.
- Smashing a coconut in Hindu mythology symbolizes getting rid of ego.
- The three holes or eyes on coconuts are pores for germination. This is the point from where seedlings emerge.
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