Chimney cake (or kürtőskalács in Hungarian) is a popular pastry specific to the Hungarian-speaking regions, mainly to Szekler Land (East Transylvania). You can get it at festivals, funfairs, at the beach, and even from carts on the street. The first known recipe of chimney cake originates from Transylvania, published in the cookbook of Countess Mária Mikes of Zabola in 1784. It makes no mention of sweetening of any kind in the preparation. The current, most frequently baked variant of chimney cake evolved in Szekler Land in the first half of 20th century.

Chimney cake is made from sweet, raised dough, strips spun and wrapped around truncated cone–shaped wooden spits, rolled in granulated sugar and roasted over charcoal fire. The surface of the chimney cake can be coated with different toppings like ground walnut, almond, cinnamon powder or vanilla sugar made from natural vanilla powder. Chimney cake can be baked in the oven, too, even if you don’t have any wooden roll. You only need some paper towel rolls.