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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Budapest
Layered sponge cake with thin layers of sponge alternated with chocolate buttercream and topped with a sheet of caramel. It was created by pastry chef József C. Dobos, owner of a delicatessen in Budapest, and presented at the 1885 National General Exhibition.
Traditional sweet from Budapest, Budapest
Also known as: Dobos torta, Dobos-torta, Dobos torte
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Dobostorta — Budapest, Hungary
The Dobostorta is named after its creator, József C. Dobos (1847–1924), a cook and pastry chef who ran a delicatessen in Budapest. He presented the cake in 1885 in a pavilion of his own at the National General Exhibition in the City Park. According to the official Hungarikum record, Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth were among the first to taste it.
The innovation was in the filling. At the time, cakes typically used cooked creams or whipped cream, which spoiled quickly. Dobos used a chocolate buttercream, which was more stable, and covered the top layer with caramel, which protected the cake and formed a hard, shiny lid. The cake traveled well, and he began sending it to other European cities in wooden boxes made for it.
In 1906, near the end of his career, Dobos donated the recipe to the guild of pastry chefs and gingerbread makers of Budapest, and the cake became freely made. It was registered in the Collection of Hungarikumok, the official list of Hungary’s national values.
Today the Dobostorta appears in pastry shop windows across the country, either round or in rectangular slices. Many shops keep the classic form; others create new versions with different creams and decorations.
Budapest , Budapest
The cake was created in Budapest by pastry chef József C. Dobos and presented at the 1885 National General Exhibition in the City Park.
Sponge cake made from eggs, sugar, and flour, baked in thin layers; chocolate buttercream; sugar caramel covering the top layer. Some versions have chopped walnuts or almonds on the sides.
In slices, at room temperature, served in a pastry shop or at home, usually accompanied by coffee. The caramel lid is often already cut into triangles on each slice.
An everyday pastry sweet that is also present at birthdays and family celebrations.
Your questions
The pastry chef József C. Dobos, who owned a delicatessen in Budapest. He presented the cake at the 1885 National General Exhibition.
Thin layers of sponge cake alternated with chocolate buttercream, with a caramel lid on top.
The caramel forms a hard layer that protects the cake. Together with the buttercream, which was more stable than the cooked creams of the time, this allowed it to be sent long distances without spoiling.
Flavors of Hungary
Wine mixed with sparkling water (szóda), in proportions that have their own names, such as kisfröccs, hosszúlépés and házmester. White, rosé or red, it is the summer drink of Hungary’s bars, cellars and terraces.
Beef soup with plenty of broth, onion, paprika, diced potato and csipetke, a pinched noodle that cooks in the pot. It is made without thickening with flour. The name comes from the gulyás, the herdsmen of the Great Plain.
Sweet yeast dough rolled into a strip on a wooden spindle, baked while turned over embers and coated with caramelized sugar. It comes off the spindle in the shape of a hollow cylinder. It originated in the Land of the Székely in Transylvania and is sold at fairs and Christmas markets throughout Hungary.
Yeast dough hand-opened and fried until golden, crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The classic topping is sour cream, grated cheese and, if you like, garlic. A street food found at fairs, markets and beaches across the country.
Fruit brandy distilled in Hungary from plum, apricot, pear, apple, cherry and many others. By law the fruit must be grown in Hungary, and all stages from fermentation to bottling must take place in the country. It is a protected geographical indication of the European Union.
Christmas bonbon, usually a fondant candy covered in chocolate, wrapped in shiny colored foil and hung on the branches of the Christmas tree. The most common fillings are fruit jelly, marzipan, coconut and caramel.
Baja fish soup from the banks of the Danube, made with carp, onion and ground paprika cooked together in a cauldron, without straining the broth. It’s served over a thin noodle, gyufatészta, with the fish on the side and hot pepper.
Crepe folded and filled with walnuts, raisins and candied orange peel, flavored with rum and topped with chocolate sauce. It is named after the Gundel restaurant in Budapest’s City Park, which put it on the menu; the recipe is attributed to Ilona Matzner, wife of the writer Sándor Márai.
Bitter herbal liqueur, dark, produced by the Zwack family in Budapest with a secret recipe of more than 40 herbs and spices, aged in oak casks. The round bottle with a cross on the label is recognised throughout the country.
Szeged river fish soup, red from paprika, made with a thick broth of several fish, carp heads and bones, and onion, passed through a sieve. Carp pieces cook in that broth, and the soup is served with bread and hot pepper on the side.
Sweet wine from the Tokaj wine region in northeastern Hungary, made from grapes affected by noble rot and harvested berry by berry. The aszú berries are crushed and macerated in must or wine, and the wine ages in oak barrels in underground cellars.
White wine from the kéknyelű grape, grown almost exclusively in the Badacsony wine region on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. The grape’s name means “blue stem.” The wines are usually dry with marked acidity, and there are also sparkling and sweet versions.
