Confectioneries

Confectioneries are awesome in Hungary. I think it's because people are very picky about their sweets, so most places use mostly natural ingredients, real butter, real cream, sugar, fruits and so on. Unlike in the US, or at least what I see in Madison, confectioneries are as important as coffee houses in Hungary, you'd invite your friends there for a meeting. Buying cake in a store is being cheap, and it's usually also of low quality. A piece of cake usually costs about a dollar or two, and it's simply delicious. I always save up my calories over the year so when I go home I can stuff myself silly with cake.

Dobos cake

Eszterházy cake

Two cake types allegedly invented by Hungarians are Dobos, which is essentially a chocolate cake with a burned-sugar piece on the top, and Eszterházy, which is a walnut/chestnut-cake. Other kinds worth mentioning are Rigó Jancsi, képviselőfánk (literally representative doughnut - wherever did that name come from???), bejgli - typical Hungarian Christmas pastry now served all year around, comes in walnut and poppy seed versions. Á propos poppy seed, we use poppy seed as a cake filling or on pasta, which is fairly unique - I know people from other countries freak out because they think that much poppy seed will give you hallucinations... It's definitely worth trying pastries with poppy seed filling. Just keep your toothbrush at hand, because you'll look like you have an ant farm on your teeth :).

Boggle with walnut or poppy seed filling

Confectioneries also mean ice cream. Portions are much much smaller than in the US and comparatively more expensive - just be aware. One scoop is about four grams, five if you are lucky. I love that you can get whipped cream on it, and it's the real thing, heavy and sweet.