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EMESE & ZOLTÁN · Chimney cake
In this article, we will follow the smell of the traditional Transylvania cake, Chimney cake, more known here as Kürtőskalács.
The popularity of the cake dipped during the communism years, when there wasn’t a large variety of food and when to use same ingredients in many different ways was every day challenge.
Nowadays Chimney cake is baked around Transylvania and other Hungarian influence regions outside of Romania. The dough rolled around a tapered wooden cylindrical spit is roasted on a charcoal open fire. Turning slowly, the cake is baked until it turns brown with a caramelized look.
Originally outside covered with a mixture of 1% milk and 99% sugar, now you can find a long variety that goes from nuts covering, coconut or fruit, through cinnamon flavour and always open to new creations.
During the celebratory days of Székelykeresztúr, Deé Emese and his husband Deé Zoltán told us about their small business built around kürtöskalács, which introduced a new product, the fruity kürtöskalács, which, with follows the same baking method but smuggling cherries, sour cherries, bananas or other fruits into the dough, produces a totally new world of taste.
It’s smells spreads along street markets and celebrations, popular in weddings or after a long day of autumn harvest. Everybody has found their own reason to love the taste, bake it with passion or share memories while pinching a piece of it.
