This winter, Kendall’s Dadeland Mall will become one of the few places in town where you can get a chimney cake. Chimney Cake & Co., a new local concept, is expected to open there this December, bringing with it this centuries-old Central European classic.
What is a chimney cake? It’s made with a very sweet pastry dough wrapped around a mold and baked in an oven while rotating. The result is a hollow cylinder—or, in a more recent Czech variation, a cone to be filled with ice cream.
“It’s a traditional Central European pastry, and all the countries of Central Europe claim to have invented it,” Max Goldstein, a principal at Chimney Cake & Co., told What Now on Friday morning.
Hungary’s claim to the cake, Goldstein said, comes from stories about a 12th-century war, in which the hollow cakes were made and proudly displayed in order to give a strategic appearance of abundance and plenty. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, dates the chimney cake back to the tenth century, when a princess escaped from a castle and swam to freedom while wearing the cakes on her arms as flotation devices.
In short, the cakes are the stuff of legend. And a recent development in Prague, in which the cakes are prepared on a conical mold and then filled with ice cream, has launched it back into popularity.
“It was always Grandma’s dessert after school: very traditional, never sold on every street corner,” Goldstein said. But after this new ice-cream-based development, it is now extremely popular in Prague, with shops offering it all over. Maybe the same is about to happen here in the U.S.?
Chimney Cake & Co. will offer both traditional chimney cakes and conical chimney cake with ice cream. The dough will come in varieties prepared with flavorings like cinnamon sugar, orange and lemon zest, and almonds, served with classic ice cream flavors (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry) plus seasonal ones. Traditional, cylindrical chimney cakes can also be prepared with Nutella or peanut butter spread inside and can be topped with M&M’s, sprinkles and more.
“It’s a real evolution of this kind of ancient dessert,” said Frances Alban, a PR representative for the brand. “With all the variations, there’s so much possibility. They’re Instagram worthy: pretty, colorful, appetizing.”
Get ready to check out check out Chimney Cake & Co. this winter at Dadeland, near the mall’s Apple flagship store.
