The story of a beloved Hungarian cake – with creative recipes

Zserbó is an easy-to-make Hungarian delicacy. The legendary origin story says that famous confectioner Émile Gerbeaud himself invented it.

The French confectioner followed in his father’s footsteps in creating the tastiest cakes. He was born in 1854 in Switzerland. His hometown, Carouge, later became part of Geneva. In 1871, he started working at his father’s pastry shop. Then, he moved to England, Germany, France and opened his own place in Saint-Étienne. He moved to Hungary in 1884.

As for how he invented the famous Hungarian product, that is an interesting story. He simply took all the ingredients that can be found in every household and created the tasty zserbó. The facts, however, do not confirm that this story is true. There was no recipe found that was written by Gerbeaud, nor was the recipe ever found among his documents.

But even if the origin story was never confirmed, we have some amazing zserbó-inspired recipes. If someone likes baking, this is the moment to choose a recipe, run to the kitchen, check if all the ingredients are there, and start baking.

Zserbó recipe

Ingredients

• 15 g yeast
• 100 ml milk
• 500 g flour
• 300 g butter
• 150 g icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 5 g baking powder
• 2 g salt

Filling

• 730 g apricot jam
• 18 g Bacardi white rum
• 190 g ground walnuts
• 40 g icing sugar

Coating

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

Mix the yeast with a little bit of sugar in warm milk. Make sure the mixture is smooth. If this step is done, all the other ingredients have to be mixed together, then you have to knead. Divide the dough into four parts and let them rest covered with a kitchen towel for a good half hour. Then, stretch the dough to the size of a baking sheet and place it in a baking tray.

The jam and the rum should be mixed together. A third of it should be spread on the pastry. The icing sugar and the walnuts then need to be spread on the jam. Then, the next layer of pastry comes on top of the first, followed by the filling. After you place the fourth layer on top, prick holes in it with a fork. After another half hour of resting, it should be baked at 160 degrees Celsius for 50 minutes.

After it is baked, and you let it cool, take the zserbó out of the baking tray and turn it upside down. Put jam on the top. Melt the chocolate over some steam, and use a little bit of butter as well. The chocolate then needs to be poured on the cake.

Zserbó muffin recipe

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 80 g melted butter
• 80 g icing sugar
• 100 g flour
• 120 g ground walnuts
• 100 ml milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt

For the top

• 10 tsp apricot jam