Hungarian Experiment in All-American Baking Gets C for Cupcake, A for Effort

Cupcakes might be all the rage in other places around the world, in Hungary, as readers craving these teacup-sized cakes smothered in frosting have discovered, they’re harder to come by than fine-dining Budapest restaurants that aren’t Tom-George clones.

Not impossible, though. As I found out when I met Rachel Raj, a fashion designer turned baker who runs online cake company torta.hu with her parents and husband, Miklós Maloschik. After thumbing through a few cookbooks at Bulldog Café (one of the two café’s her family owns) Rachel and I discussed the fundamental differences between muffins and cupcakes (muffins are sweet breads made from carrot cake or bran and aren’t frosted, whereas cupcakes are made from a lighter batter and always topped with frosting and sometimes even sprinkles) and she said she was ready to give it a whirl.

Three days later, I picked up a pan of this all-American specialty. The colorful little cakes, which cost Ft 200 a piece, were pure eye-candy. Raj blended a vanilla cake and lemon torte for the batter and topped the cakes with multicolored frosting using a recipe she made up. The plate looked just as sweet as she was.

Unfortunately, however, the cupcakes were a bit of a disappointment. The cake was dry and strangely spongy, the lemon inside had an awkward tang, and the frosting was so sugary I could feel it burning cavities in my molars. But hey, Rachel has not only never made cupcakes before, she’s never even tried one: Torta.hu specializes in Hungarian, Jewish and diabetic desserts.

While I personally think cupcakes are great, perhaps the lack of them in Budapest is a little victory for the multitude of süti offerings available. When it comes to sweets, local traditions reign, and there are no evil coffee chains to put the rétes, flódni or Rigó Jancsi out of business. (The family’s second shop, Café Noé serves flódni, pictured above with Maloschik in the background).

In the meantime, both Bulldog Café and Café Noé are just two of hundreds of cukrászdák supplying Budapest’s sweet tooth.

But if you’re still craving cupcakes, my best advice is to make ‘em yourself. Okay cupcake?