Hungary Hosts a ‘Cake of the Yr’ Competitors—and I Traveled 5,000 Miles for a Slice

As a mushy night rain started to coat the cobblestone streets of Budapest’s Buda Citadel District, my husband and I ducked excitedly into Korona Kávéház, a family-run confectionery and cafe, with dessert on the thoughts. The candy we had been after had been fastidiously thought of and chosen for me lengthy earlier than we set foot within the Pearl of the Danube. We got here for a slice of Hungary’s 2024 Cake of the Yr.

Beaming with delight, our server delivered to the desk a towering piece of Mákvirág (Poppy Flower) cake. Created by Alfréd Kovács, proprietor and pastry chef of the Édes Vonal confectionery in Vác, the cake is nice but delicately tart and fruit-forward. It consists of alternating layers of spongy almond-flour poppy seed, crunchy black sesame, and black currant, and it is topped with dense white chocolate icing. We’d have voted for it twice.

Kovács shared what an honor this achievement was, particularly contemplating his pastry store had opened solely 5 months previous to profitable the competitors. “The instant surge in demand after profitable was overwhelming. We labored day and night time to serve all of our clients, nevertheless it was value it,” the chef instructed Journey + Leisure. “This competitors was a terrific alternative to revive and refresh outdated, conventional flavors. My cake shouldn’t be too candy or overly heavy, as poppy seed desserts in Hungarian delicacies will be.”

The nation’s reverence for cake is deeply ingrained in its historical past and tradition, with classics like Esterházy torte, characterised by its intricate spider-web icing, and the six-layer, chocolate cream-filled Stefánia cake, named after a princess, courting again to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Established in 2007, Hungary’s Cake of the Yr competitors is overseen by the Hungarian Confectioners’ Affiliation, with the winner introduced yearly on St. Stephen’s Day. On Aug. 20, the nationwide vacation, also referred to as Basis Day, commemorates the muse of the Hungarian state, and the Cake of the Yr is taken into account a birthday cake for the nation.

“Over time, Hungary’s cake has develop into an integral a part of the Aug. twentieth celebrations,” mentioned László Selmeczi, the managing director of the affiliation. “The profitable cake is unveiled every year at a press convention held within the Hunter’s Corridor of the Hungarian Parliament as a part of the official state celebrations.”

Certainly one of these celebrations contains the Avenue of Hungarian Flavors, which honors Hungary’s proud cultural historical past of gastronomy. Throughout the occasion, 30,000 to 40,000 slices of the newly topped Cake of the Yr are bought over the course of two days. Main as much as the nationwide vacation, many pastry outlets additionally put together desserts from earlier yr’s competitions.

When requested about a few of his favourite and most memorable desserts through the years, Selmeczi shared the 2016 Cake of the Yr—Őrség Zöld Aranya (Inexperienced Gold of Őrség)—has remained in style, and continues to be broadly accessible in most pastry outlets. “It is also my private favourite due to its use of pumpkin seed oil within the sponge cake and the glazing, which pairs fantastically with raspberries and white chocolate.”

The competitors gives pastry cooks the chance to additional the heritage of Hungarian desserts, whereas contributing their very own creations to that illustrious historical past. A brand new faculty of cooks like Kovács is dedicated to reinventing the classics of Hungarian pastry previous, taking a extra health-conscious, experimental strategy. There’s even a sugar-free division from which a separate winner is chosen. In 2024, that winner was Zöld Málna (Inexperienced Raspberry), a fruity, floral magnificence made with pistachio, raspberry jelly, and rosewater, and embellished with dried rose petals.

No matter your style preferences, Hungary’s storied pastry- and cake-making custom has a vibrant future. Cooks getting into the 2025 competitors will have fun the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of Hungary’s famed Dobos—a layered, sponge cake with chocolate buttercream and a caramel topping—that has been a staple of Hungarian desserts since József C. Dobos launched it on the Budapest Nationwide Common Exhibition in 1885. This yr’s competitors requires cooks to make use of the important thing elements attribute of the cake, together with different steered elements reminiscent of spices, native fruits, pálinka (a conventional Hungarian fruit brandy), or wines comprised of grape varieties indigenous to the Carpathian Basin.

Bookmark Aug. 20, 2025 in your calendar and put together to have fun one of many world’s sweetest traditions.