A Pleasant Surprise In Germany

It was the best piece of cake I have ever eaten.
But I knew it would be, simply because of the extravagance of the window when I walked in.
A case filled to the brim of every dessert I could ever hope to eat in my lifetime: coffee flavoured cakes, fruit tarts, chocolate cake, biscuits, profiteroles, apple strudel-the gang was all here and I had arrived ready to eat!
I thought it would be expensive. These desserts looked 5 star in comparison to the 2 star effort of my own baking skills.
Yet, it wasn’t.
Less than 4 Euros for a slice of cake, and even less for smaller desserts. The chocolate Gods were surely playing the Devil’s role in deciding that!
Every dessert looked mouth-watering. It was so hard to choose one when I finally needed to make my selection, so we could go upstairs to eat it in the classiest dining room I’d ever seen. Did I want a raspberry topped cake? A small dessert? An Apple Strudel warmed up with ice cream?
I couldn’t decide. I wanted them all.
For a country where bratwurst, beer and schnitzel was the national delicacy, I didn’t expect the dessert to be so good in Germany. Let alone in a small university town, smack bang in the middle of the country called Göttingen. I hadn’t prepared my stomach for this.
Yet, here I was, visiting Australian friends who lived here, falling in love with this paradise called ‘Cron & Lanz’ just like they had. It should be called dessert heaven.
This was the first time in our friendship that I felt hatred towards them. Hate at never being able to go back from this moment. To a time where I was innocent of the power that was a ‘Cron and Lanz’ creation. I would forever have to return to Göttingen, just to come back here…and see them too!
As I looked through the case, I finally found it.
It looked so pretty and organised. Its name was ‘Herren’. It was a solid white cake, but it had lines through it just like a tree has rings, because of how it is made. There was a thin layer of marzipan underneath the additional layer of chocolate icing, and it had a chocolate ball like a Ferrero Rocher on the end of it.
This was the end of me.
But it tasted so good.
I ate every last bite until there was nothing left.
I had finally found my bliss.
This moment could not have been better if I had written it myself...and I am a writer.
I looked outside, and saw snow begin to slowly fall past the window, as we sat in the dining room enjoying the ambiance.
I love snow. I love cake. I love Göttingen.
I would never forget this moment.