Budapest Festival to Treat Visitors to Sweet Hungarian Delicacies

Hungary Today 2024.10.10.

The Kürtőskalács Festival (Chimney Cake Festival) will take place in Budapest between October 11-13. With an even larger area than last year, 13 chimney cake stands will be awaiting visitors in the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, Csodálatos Magyarország reports.

In addition to the traditional chimney cakes by the Szekler Lehel Kürtősház from Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely), visitors will be able to get acquainted with the Lithuanian Sakotis. The tree-shaped cake is built layer by layer on a rotating spit. The kinship between the two cakes lies in two aspects: they are made of dough and are baked by turning them on a wooden cylinder over a fire.

Preparation of the Lithuanian Sakotis. Photo: Wikipedia

In addition to the traditional chimney cakes, this year’s menu will include a variety of dessert specialties, and gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan chimney cakes will also be available.

A new feature will be the opening of the Chimney Cake Fondue booth. Here, visitors will be able to dip their chimney cakes into their favorite toppings themselves.

Hungarian chimney cakes. Photo: Pexels

The inner courtyard of the Holnemvolt Castle will once again be the focus of children’s activities, with storytellers, crafts, face painting and exciting games.

The event is open to all with a zoo ticket. Tickets are available here.

Fact

One of the first known recipes for chimney cake comes from a Transylvanian cookbook of Count Mária Mikes of Zabolai in 1784. By the end of the 18th century, the cake had spread throughout the Hungarian-speaking lands and became a dominant element of folk cuisine. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the recipe was included in many popular Hungarian cookbooks, and in the early 20th century, the cake was usually flavored with granulated sugar and walnuts. Since then, a wide variety of toppings have become widespread, from cinnamon to sprinkles. The cake has been a registered Hungarikum since 2015.

Hungarikum is a collective term indicating a value worthy of distinction and highlighting within a unified system of qualification, classification, and registry and which represents the high performance of Hungarian people thanks to its typically Hungarian attribute, uniqueness, specialty, and quality.

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Via Csodálatos Magyarország, Featured image: Wikipedia