Every August, Hungary chooses the best Hungarian cake of the year, timed to St. Stephen’s Day on August 20. This year, 60 entries competed, which is a record. That number forced organizers to run four rounds of judging before a winner emerged.
The Best Hungarian Cake of 2026
The winning cake is called Bíborfehér, which translates to “Purple-White.” It comes from Kézműves Confectionery in the city of Gyula, made by pastry chefs László Balogh, Roland Kis and Zoltán Balogh. The combination they built: forest berries, toasted almonds, sour-cream mousse and rögös túró, a traditional Hungarian curd cheese. Fruity, creamy and nutty in one slice.
Winning chefs from Gyula
This was also the second consecutive win for the Gyula team. They won the best Hungarian cake title in 2025, too.
Every entry this year had to include two specifically Hungarian ingredients, rögös túró and sour cream. That requirement pushed bakers to get creative within a defined constraint, which likely explains the quality and range across 60 submissions.
The Best Hungarian Sugar-Free Cake of 2026
The sugar-free category also produced a strong winner. Alena Puchovszki, Jenő Vadócz and Gábor Pethő from Promenád Café in Balatongyörök created Szilvafácska (“Little Plum Tree”), layering plum, walnut, milk chocolate and cinnamon mousse with green tea. The sugar-free award has now been given out 15 times, run in partnership between the Egy Csepp Figyelem Foundation and the Hungarian Confectioners’ Guild.
The best sugar-free cake of 2026
On the bread side, 26 bakeries submitted 80 loaves for the St. Stephen’s Day Bread competition. The winner was Pilisi Pityókás, a potato and sourdough bread from HEL Pékség Kft. The name nods to the old Hungarian word for potato and the Pilis region north of Budapest.
The innovative bread prize went to Magvető (“Sower”) by Sütőmix Kft., a long-fermented sourdough from Kossuth 1 Bakery.
Pilisi Pityókás, the winner of the St. Stephen’s Day Bread competition
One more worth noting: the On-the-Go Pastry of the Year is Citrom virág (“Lemon Flower”) from Pedró Bakery. It uses laminated pastry fermented for 16 hours, filled with homemade lemon cream. Sixteen hours of fermentation for a grab-and-go pastry says a lot about the attention going into these competitions. The best Hungarian cake of the year title in every category means a lot, no doubt.
