A spit cake is a European-styled cake made with layers of dough or batter deposited, one at a time, onto a tapered cylindrical rotating spit. The dough is baked by an open fire or a special oven, rotisserie-style. Generally, spit cakes are associated with celebrations such as weddings and Christmas. The spit can be dipped in a thin dough, or the dough can be poured or rolled on the spit.
This cake group may have originated in the classical era, around 400 BC, when similar large cakes were prepared on spits for Dionysiac feasts.[1][2] In the Deipnosophistae, the Ancient Greek writer Athenaeus (c. 170 – c. 230) describes some of the bread, cakes, and pastries available in classical times.[3] Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom-shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit.
- ^ "The Kürtőskalács - Similar cakes". kurtos.eu. Archived from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- ^ "The Kürtőskalács - History". Archived from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- ^ Chrysippus of Tyana gives a list of thirty kinds, without commentary (Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 202).