Chimney Cakes, which are a sweet pastry from Transylvania Romania, will be offered up at this summer’s Ft. Wayne’s Farmers Market.
Family brings the sweet taste of Transylvania to Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne, Indiana (May 25, 2021) — Chimney cakes are the traditional pastry of the historic Transylvania region of Romania, dating back to the 15th century. These sweet treats are now being freshly made and sold at the Ft. Wayne’s Farmers Market each Saturday, thanks to local entrepreneur Timea Csibi and her family, who wanted to bring a taste of authentic Transylvania to Indiana.
The pastries are called chimney cakes because their cylindrical shape resembles a chimney pipe. Each cake’s fresh dough is individually hand rolled onto a wooden cylinder and then covered with sugar and baked in a special oven. “As the wooden rollers turn around slowly, the sugar is caramelized on the surface and forms a shiny, crispy crust,” according to Csibi. “When the cake is fully baked and still hot, it is rolled into different toppings of your choice, such as cinnamon, almond, cocoa, walnut or coconut.”
The chimney cakes have been described as sweet, crispy and crunchy on the outside, with light and fluffy dough on the hollow inside. They produce a sweet scent while baking, which often draws people to the Chimney Cakes booth, and their mouth-watering taste keeps bringing customers back for more, according to Csibi.
With a Hungarian-Transylvanian heritage and a 15-year career in human resources, Csibi decided to launch Chimney Cakes, LLC to bring a taste of her heritage to Fort Wayne. “I was excited to switch from corporate HR to stay-at-home mom and now small business owner,” she said. While the chimney cakes currently are being produced onsite at her farmer’s market booth, Csibi hopes to transition to a food truck or trailer and eventually expand her business to a brick-and-mortar bakery.
Csibi is a client of the Northeast Indiana Small Business Development Center, where she received start-up guidance and marketing assistance. For more information, email chimneycakesbakery@gmail.com, call 260-385-8088, or visit the Chimney Cakes Bakery pages on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about the small-business services of the NEI-SBDC, visit www.isbdc.org or call 260-481-0500.