Hungarian bundt cake with raisins

by | Apr 15, 2015 | Breads, buns & biscuits

There is no room for doubt that bundt cake entered the history of gastronomy as a status symbol of the kitchens of the middle class at the turn of the 19th – 20th century. Archaeological findings attest that in the area of the former Pannonia the Roman legionnaires already used a dish, which resembled to today’s bundt cake pans. However, the first real bundt cake recipe has come down to us from the 17th century. Its days of glory were in the era of Biedermeier in the 19th century, when it was very popular in the upper midddle class.

Bundt cake is an emblematic dessert primarily in the German and French speaking areas, and nothing can prove it better than the birth of this cake has become part of the legendry. French believe that the Three Kings on their way to Betlehem stayed in Alsace and as a token of their gratitude they gifted a turban-shaped cake to their hosts, which was nothing else than a bundt cake. Conversly, Austrians insist on that it was Marie-Antoinette, the French queen consort, who took the recipe of Gugelhupf from Vienna to Versailles.

In Hungary the name of bundt cake is kuglóf, which comes from the German Gugelhupf. According to the original recipe Gugelhupf consists of a sweet yeast dough, which contains raisins, almonds and cherry brandy, baked in a special fluted pan with a central tube. Kuglóf was originally made only with yeast dough, but in our days dough with baking powder is also often baked in a bundt cake pan. This is the reason why bundt cakes do not generally conform to any single recipe; when you hear the word bundt cake, you associate it with its shape, which is its characterizing feature.

Hungarian bundt cake
Hungarian bundt cake – photo: zserbo.com
Bundt cake with raisins
Bundt cake with raisins – photo: zserbo.com
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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Wish list

If you are looking for a Hungarian recipe that hasn't been published on this website yet, let me know, and I'll do my best to post it.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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