With April fast approaching it is once again time to look into the Easter baking files.

The kugelhopf, gugelhupf or gugelhopf is a southern German, Austrian, Swiss and Alsatian term for a marble or Bundt cake.

It is firmly set in Christian tradition and is traditionally baked for Christmas and Easter.

It consists of a soft yeast dough to which raisins, various nuts, Kirschwasser, cherry brandy and candied fruits have been added depending on taste.

The gugelhupf is a big cake with a distinctive ring shape, due to the special circular pan with an inner central tube, (originally made of enamelled pottery) in which it is baked and is usually eaten with coffee.

In Hungary the spelling is kuglóf, in Croatia and Serbia kuglof, in France kouglof and in Romania it’s called guguluf.

Rainbow Bundt Cake

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is called bábovka, and in Poland babka.

The Czech version (below) is two coloured due to the usage of cacao and to its eternal credit the gugelhupf was the sweet chosen to represent Austria in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006.

Bábovka Dvoubarevná

Other Easter bread and cake ideas can be found here and here!