Kugelhopf

Kugelhopf is a cake with a hole in the center and deep grooves carved around its outer edge. From Central Europe to Alsace, it is made in molds that share a common shape. The sweet kugelhopf of Alsace is made by adding raisins to a yeast dough containing milk, eggs and butter. Almonds placed in the grooves of the mold decorate the surface of the baked cake. The marbled kugelhopf of Austria, on the other hand, is made with beaten eggs and a leavening agent. Even when the outer shape is the same, there is more than one way to make the dough rise.

In Alsace, it is leavened with yeast

While the yeast is activated with warm milk and flour, more flour, eggs, the remaining milk, sugar and salt are kneaded together, and then soft butter and the fermented dough are added. Rather than simply folding the flour in lightly, this method builds an elastic dough that holds the gas produced during fermentation. Although it contains a lot of sugar and fat, it involves kneading and fermentation steps just like bread.

In recettes (recipes: the proportions of ingredients and the method) that soak the raisins in warm water, the raisins are drained and added after the first rise. This order makes it easier to keep the fruit intact than kneading them in at length from the start. Alsace also has methods that soak them in kirsch; whether water or spirits are used, and how much liquid the raisins take up, are also part of each individual recipe.

The mold is buttered, almonds are placed in the grooves, and the dough is put in for a second rise. Even as the dough rises higher, the almonds stay in the grooves at the bottom, and when the cake is baked and turned out upside down, they become the decoration on top. This is the reverse of attaching them afterwards. The central tube of the mold conducts heat into the dough from the inside as well, and the hole and grooves, the inversion, and the height gained through fermentation together create a shape reminiscent of a crown or a mountain.

Some Alsatian versions include savory ingredients, and not every recipe contains raisins and almonds.

Alsatian ceramic molds and the seasonal table

At the Kaffee Kranzel along the Rhine, a 4 p.m. gathering around coffee and cakes, kugelhopf is presented together with glazed earthenware molds from Soufflenheim. The mold is both a tool for baking and a piece of pottery that remains in the home. The Musée Alsacien in Strasbourg holds a large mold with a dark green glaze and spiral grooves, thought to date from the late 17th to early 18th century. An artisans’ guide describes kugelhopf as a cake eaten throughout the year, with production increasing during the Christmas season, and the elongated Langhopf is introduced under the same entry.

In Ribeauvillé, a local enthusiasts’ association also holds a competition for kugelhopf baked at home. Beyond kugelhopf as a cake sold in shops, a culture of bringing together each household’s own bake also continues.

Two colors of batter create the marble pattern

For the marbled kugelhopf eaten in cafés, as presented by the Austrian National Tourist Office, butter and egg yolks are beaten and sugar is added to make a creamy mixture. Separately whipped egg whites and flour containing a leavening agent are folded in alternately, and cocoa and rum are mixed into part of the batter. When the white and brown batters are lightly combined in the mold, the cross-section looks like marble.

Unlike versions that keep whole raisins, what is on display here is the two-colored batter itself. Instead of waiting for fermentation, beaten eggs and a leavening agent are used, and a cake with a different texture is baked in the same kind of mold, with a hole in the center and grooves around it.

Legends linked to the Three Magi and Marie Antoinette

In an origin story told in the Val de Villé in Alsace, the Three Magi, returning from Bethlehem, stop in Ribeauvillé and are hosted by a potter named Kügel. As the story goes, the special cake made in gratitude was the first kugelhopf. In another account the host becomes a baker, with the added explanation that the cake imitated the shape of the Magi’s turbans. Both stories tie the beginnings of kugelhopf to local craftsmen and baking molds.

The same tourist guide also includes the story that Marie Antoinette, who came from Austria, brought it to the French court in the 18th century. The Magi’s “creation” and the queen’s “introduction” are separate threads of origin.

Etymological theories linked to a hood or to the rising of the dough

The word appears in forms such as Gugelhupf in German-speaking regions and Gugelhopf in Switzerland. Duden links the second half to hüpfen, “to jump,” suggesting this may be because the surface rises upward. One interpretation connects the first half, Gugel, to a medieval hood covering the head and shoulders, and Austria’s register of traditional foods also points to the similar shapes of the hood and the mold. These conjectural etymologies, which explain the rising or a head covering, exist separately from the legend of the man named Kügel.

Methods recorded in old baking molds and cookbooks

Austria’s register documentation also mentions Roman-era molds from places such as Carnuntum, but states that it is unknown whether they held a yeast dough or a dough leavened with eggs. An earlier example in a 1686 cookbook from Graz was likewise a fermented dough baked in a cone shape, which was then cut, combined with butter and sugar, and baked again.

Regarding Alsace, a guide by a French bakers’ organization and a research institute states that the date of its appearance is difficult to pin down, and distinguishes 18th-century molds from the complete recipes of the 19th century onward. There is a gap between the period from which the tools survive and the period from which the methods can be read.

Methods passed on through cooks, and celebratory customs

In the “Kugelhopf in the German style” in Dumas’s culinary dictionary published in 1873, butter and eggs are mixed in little by little, and then flour and yeast are added. The cook Carême, who collected the recipe, expressed his thanks to Eugène Wolf, who served the diplomat Schwarzenberg, and praised the skill of Viennese craftsmen in warming the ingredients and vessels. Work attentive to temperature was passed on through cooks.

Austria’s register documentation also records how, in the 19th century, cakes for weddings and harvest celebrations spread to the tea tables of the Viennese bourgeoisie. At weddings in Styria, there was also a custom of dancing with a crown-shaped cake decorated with flowers and candles placed on the head, and then sharing it afterwards. As a slice at the tea table and as a wedding crown, cakes of similar shape have played different roles. The molds for baking the cake also remain in homes, and today potters and pastry shops offer handmade Soufflenheim molds as gifts.

Glossary