Salzburg: Questionable Cupcakes in Mozart’s Hometown

Miranda SiegelMarch 23, 2007

Salzburg pastries
Photograph by Miranda Siegel

We don’t want to give Salzburg a bad rap, and we especially don’t want to give Salzburg’s incredible bakeries a bad rap, but we couldn’t help cringing after discovering the above-pictured cupcakes in a cafe display case in Mozart’s hometown.

The display case started out cute. Men in top hats formed with cones, soldiers and clowns comprised the majority of the cupcakes’ characters. While our first instinct when glancing at their smiling faces was “awwwww,” it wasn’t long before we felt pits in our stomachs.

We wonder if images like these are seen as overtly racist; it’s unclear whether this type of imagery is considered unhealthy or offensive in Austrian culture.

Still…Salzburg! The last place we want to see signs of potential racial ignorance is in our treasured baked goods.

About the author

Native New Yorker Miranda fondly recalls family trips to Europe, which featured formative events like spending a night on the roof of an overbooked Greek hotel and sampling the culinary wonders of horse meat. But it was while riding a pony through a patch of wild blueberries in Iceland that she realized she wanted to be an explorer. As an undergrad, Miranda bicycled across the US and lived for several months in Berlin. Nowadays she obsesses over Baltic countries and the plump cream-smothered dumplings to be found there. Fluent in German, she does freelance translation and writes educational material for children.

Posted in: Austria, Cheapos at work, Food, Local Customs, Local Objects, Salzburg