How To Make Hungarian Chimney Cake in Budapest

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Trying local snacks is a major part of my travel itinerary, no matter where I go. But making them myself? I don’t get to do that often enough. If you’ve in any way thought of visiting Budapest you will no doubt be familiar with the Hungarian Chimney Cake. What if I were to tell you that you could take a class to learn to make your own chimney cakes? Intrigued? Keep reading to learn more…

What is Hungarian Chimney Cake?

The French have the éclair, the Italians have cannoli, and Hungarians have the Chimney Cake. This sweet and simple conically shaped pastry is often dipped in sugar or nuts, or filled with cream, chocolate and many more imaginative items.

The pastry is cooked around a rotating spit in an oven, and when ready, looks like a cone or “chimney”, hence the name. Not only are they fun to make, they’re also fun to eat.

Where can I try Chimney Cake?

Dating back hundreds of years, the snack first became popular in the Hungarian-speaking areas of modern day Romania, namely Transylvania. Now, you’ll find it all over Hungary.

I understand you might not want to commit to a class if you haven’t tried the pastry before. But you’ll have plenty of opportunity to try Chimney Cake on your trip to Budapest.

In Hungary’s capital there are shops and food carts on many a corner selling this delicious pastry. It’s a very popular street food with locals and tourists alike. I’d definitely eaten my weight in them before I left Hungary – and that didn’t even include the ones I made myself.

How much is a Chimney Cake making class?

Before we go into the chimney cake making itself, I’m sure you want to know some of the basics of the class.

A typical Chimney Cake making class costs around $40 USD per person. It’s true you can buy a chimney cake on the street for around $5, however for me the fun was in the experience.

The Chimney Cake making class lasts about 1 hour. In that time you’ll learn some of the techniques of the perfect chimney cake from a master baker, as well as the chance to create your own with a variety of flavors. Typically you will make 3 chimney cakes.

*Note: You will receive the recipe afterwards, but in the interests of time, the dough is pre-made.

When I travel somewhere I like to take cooking classes. I like to learn a little about the country I’m visiting through its food – and classes are a great way to chat with locals.

In Budapest you can take a number of Hungarian cooking classes. What I particularly liked about this class, though, was that it was short enough that it didn’t take up too much of my day. It’s ideal for anyone on a shorter visit to Budapest.

Taking a Hungarian Chimney Cake class

Now you know what they are, and how to book the class, you’re one step closer to making your own sweet, sweet Hungarian Chimney Cakes.

If you’ve never taken a cooking class before, I’m sure you’ll have a blast – they’re super fun. The best thing? You get to eat your creations – take that painting classes!

But what is the Hungarian Chimney Cake class like? Here’s how my experience was at the class in Budapest.

The Chimney Cake school location

From the street, it was just another chimney cake shop right in the heart of the city on the Pest side of the river. A couple of minutes walk from St. Stephen’s Basilica I was easily able to find Kató Néni, a family run bakery.

I showed up at 10am to find the place closed. Don’t panic if this happens to you. The store itself opens at 11am, so the class takes plan in the hour before it officially opens.

Walking inside I noticed a few small tables dotted around a pretty tight space. I was wondering how we’d be cooking here when our host, Lili, led us behind the counter. A a door we hadn’t noticed led us down to the basement level workshop.

The classroom space

In the basement of this small shop is a wonderfully laid out Chimney Cake classroom. A huge table in the center will comfortably fit 8 people, and the work stations were already laid out for our visit. 8 is the max number per class, although typically it’s around 6 people.

Each work station had a bowl with the dough, the wooden cylinder to create the pastries, some oil and sugar as well as a pastry brush. The oven was to the edge of the room alongside all the fixings for rolling your completed pastries in, as well as a sink to wash your hands.

The class instructor

Lili started Kató Néni with her family. She uses her grandmother’s recipe and it is very much a family business. They now have multiple permanent locations as well as food carts, and operate at the Budapest Christmas market each year too.

Lili explained how the idea of Kató Néni came about, and talked with passion about this nostalgic traditional pastry, made for generations in her family. My class had 5 people, myself included, so it was a nice sized group. That meant we didn’t get lost in a huge class, which is important if you have no clue what you’re doing.

The Chimney Cake dough

As I mentioned earlier, in the interests of time the dough was pre-made. The family recipe is included at the end of the class, but since yeast is involved the dough needs more time to prove than the hour-long class would give. I found this a much better option that sitting for an extra hour watching dough rise.

Enough dough was provided to each person for three chimney cakes. Therefore the first task was dividing the dough into three equal parts. With that simple task complete, we then had to create our first Chimney Cake.

While it seems like it should be easy enough, the desire not to have the worst cake in the class brings a lot of pressure.

Lili patiently demonstrated the best techniques for rolling the dough. Too thick and it won’t be long enough to cover the wooden cylinder for a full size chimney cake. Too thin and you’ll run out of space on the cylinder and your chimney cake will have less stability. Oh, the pressure!

Crafting your Chimney Cakes

With a long (but not too long), thin (but not too thin) rolled out piece of dough, it’s time to get constructing. Structurally sound chimney cakes are an artform. Hopefully this wouldn’t be like pancakes where the first is always a throw-away.

The important thing to do first is apply a light brush of oil over the wooden cylinder. This helps in sliding it off once cooked. I definitely forgot this on one of my cakes and had to unwind the dough to start again. Rookie mistake!

Starting at one end of the cylinder, we learned to slowly and steadily wrap the dough, tucking the ends so it doesn’t unroll (very important). It was starting to look like a Chimney Cake now.

A quick and gentle roll on the counter top flattens the dough slightly. A light brushing of oil, and a roll in sugar and they’re ready for the oven.

We made the chimney cakes one at a time, with everyone able to put one in the oven before we started on the next. That way they’re starting to get ready as you continue creating your others.

Baking and flavoring your Chimney Cakes

Now comes the fun bit. And by that I mean the final steps before we get to start eating our finished product – however they turn out. As we finished our expert twisting and rolling exercises, we passed our creations to Lili who in turn inserted them into the special oven.

The oven rotates the chimney cakes as on a spit, making sure they evenly cook. At this point the room stats filling with the scent of sweet sugary pastries getting ever so closer to being ready to eat.

But how do you know which is your chimney cake? Kató Néni have thought of that and each person gets wooden cylinders with different colored handles. So the only thing you have to remember is which color you had – or hope everyone else does.

Once they are ready – and piping hot – it’s time to flavor them. We had three flavors available to us: vanilla sugar, cinnamon sugar and crushed walnuts. Simply roll your baked Chimney Cake in the plate of your desired topping, making sure to cover it completely.

Eating your finished Chimney Cakes

The last step before you eat your (hopefully) well made and delicious chimney cakes is to take them off the wooden spit. Use a wooden spatula to tease the pastry away from the wooden cyclinder at the top. Holding the bottom firmly on the counter, when you feel it move, lift it up and let it come off completely. Pushing too hard could break it so I was really nervous about this part.

If you’ve made an evenly formed chimney cake it should stand up by itself. This allows it to cool slightly before you eat it. One of mine fell over as my pastry was a bit uneven on one side – but the other two did stand up. I’m therefore calling this a success.

For anyone who hasn’t had Chimney Cake before, the eating them is what makes them a fun treat. You can almost “unravel” the pastry cone as you eat it.

Three chimney cakes is a lot of chimney cakes to eat in one sitting, so Kató Néni provide a bag to take the rest away. Lili also presented us with a certificate with the recipe on the back should I ever have the desire to make these again at home.

Should you take a Chimney Cake class?

It’s a short and sweet (literally) activity, but I found it a lot of fun. Sure, taking a class is more expensive than just buying a chimney cake, but I was happy to learn a new skill and do something a little different. What I loved about this city was how many very unique things to do in Budapest there were. This was the tastiest by far.

As a solo traveler the Chimney Cake making class was a great way to connect with other people. That isn’t always something you have the opportunity to do while traveling alone. I appreciated hearing about Lili’s family connection to the pastries made here, and it was a really engaging class.

What I really enjoyed was that this wasn’t an activity taking a big chunk of the limited time most people have on a city break. It doesn’t take half a day so you can have a fun experience without having to make a sacrifice for other things you might want to see and do.

I would highly recommend the class to anyone visiting Budapest. It’s fun, informative and results in many yummy traditional treats. What’s better than that?

If you’ve enjoyed this post please leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you ever taken a cooking class while traveling?