Chimney cakes. Trdelník. You know the one, the tube of sugar-covered dough everyone seems to be walking across the Charles Bridge with. There’s a store for them on every corner, or almost — there are more than 15 within the 1 km radius of Old Town Square. You’ve probably seen a Czech pigeon enjoying one.
Trdelník is an old Czech tradition, or at least that’s what the storefronts of these numerous shops tell you. But last December, a person in a trdelník costume, emblazoned with “I AM NOT A CZECH TRADITION” written across it took to the streets of Prague, much to the delight of many Czechs. A fed-up trdelník shop owner even stopped them for a picture. More recently, the new U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic went under fire for posting a picture of an ice cream-filled chimney cake, seemingly under the impression this was a Czech delicacy much to the Czech peoples’ outrage.
But if they aren’t a Czech tradition, what are they? And why are they everywhere? The answer: It’s complicated.
The first written records of cakes made by rotating a spit over fire date back to the 1450s in a manuscript found in Heidelberg, part of modern-day Germany. The future of these early spit cakes then split in three directions: one branch made from a liquid batter, another made from one continuous strip of dough placed on the spit, and the final made from a piece of dough wound around the spit, the technique of modern-day chimney cakes sold in Prague.
The first recipe close to what we now consider chimney cakes appeared in a 1784 cookbook by Countess Maria Mikes in a Hungarian-speaking region of Transylvania, today part of Romania. Known there as kürtöskalács, the treat is hailed as Hungary’s oldest pastry.
The dessert made its way towards Prague in the 18th century, first arriving in the town of Skalica, part of present-day Slovakia, from the chef of a Hungarian general. The first written record of trdelník appeared in Slovakia in 1911, but later that century, references to the cake seemed to disappear almost entirely.
So, the idea of a cake baked over a spit is Germanic in origin, and the recipe that Prague’s trdelník is based on is Hungarian. But before the spit cakes’ seeming death in the early 20th century, trdelník was recognized as being Slovak or Moravian, never Bohemian. So what caused its resurrection in Prague?
For kürtöskalács in Hungary, the fall of communism in 1989 helped revive the tradition. Made only in small villages during the communist regime, the treat proved popular among the rising number of tourists. Also serving as a beacon of nationalism, by the mid-1990s the dessert was popular in most major cities.
Trdelníks emergence in Prague was likely inspired by its Hungarian counterpart’s success in the tourism industry. The rise of chimney cakes began in the early 2000s, and it should be noted this is the first time there has been a mass spread of the treat in Bohemia.
All toppings you can add to your trdelník — ice cream, fruits, whipped cream — are a Czech addition. Chimney cake recipes didn’t even include a sugar glaze until 1876, and other, more traditional toppings like chopped nuts or cinnamon didn’t gain popularity until the end of the 20th century.
So the most popular dessert in Old Town isn’t even Czech, but there’s no denying that trdelník is delicious. I’ve had a number of them myself, and there’s no escaping their grip on Old Town at this point. So, tasty? Yes. Traditional Czech delicacy? No, just a tourist trap.