Baked Pastries

Pastries constitute the most recent layer in the meals of the Hungarian peasantry and are generally associated with some occasion or holiday. Baking small cakes with baking powder and baker’s ammonia started only in this century. At first, these were baked for weddings, later for other holidays, especially for Easter.

Wedding cakes with icing have spread during the last half century to such an extent that today 50 to 100 pieces are brought for large weddings. Specialists in cake making are generally known in each village.

Not only are cakes made in different shapes (cock, house, church, horse, etc.) but are also richly decorated with different kinds of motifs. Cakes can have a ritual role in wedding proceedings in most places. Thus, for instance, in Boldog (Pest County) the groom used to redeem his bride from the dance with a red apple, but today he has to give a cake, shaped like a pair of doves. This also indicates that in certain areas the development of edibles is influenced by fashion as well as by tradition and economic endowments.

154. Making strudel
Buzsák, Somogy County