To this day, the famous Bergmann francia krémes (French Napoleon) is prepared in line with the technique used by the grandfather. The family has amassed a plethora of cake recipes in the family recipe collection over three generations. The favourites of the Füred customers include Gellért roll, Captain Morgan’s cake, mimosa and Irish coffee cake. Most people drop by the two Bergmann confectioneries for tried and tested flavours.
We have already published our round-up of the best confectioneries in Balatonfüred, but we had to revisit the Bergmanns due to their colourful family history. Imre Bergmann opened his first confectionery in Győr in 1939, the year of the outbreak of World War II. His shop survived the war years, and eventually both his sons were trained in the trade of confectionery. One of them went on to manage the shop in Győr, while the other one first became head pastry chef at Hotel Marina in Füred, and subsequently opened the first Bergmann Confectionery of Balatonfüred in 1989. The branch of the family that settled in Balatonfüred has been selling delicious creations in two shops since 1999.
Those who are after a genuine bourgeois vibe should visit the shop on Zsigmond Street, which is decked out in old and tarnished furniture. The shop on Petőfi Sándor Street is smaller, but it has a more spacious terrace.
The francia krémes is without a doubt the most well-known speciality of the Bergmann Confectionery. This tasty treat is made from crispy layers of puff pastry, filled with vanilla custard and whipped cream and glazed with caramel fondant on top.
Hugely popular with the customers, mimosa cake is constructed from sponge cake layers soaked in strawberry sauce and cooked vanilla cream, and in Italy it is traditionally prepared for spring festivals.
Sometimes chance plays a hand in the invention of new cake recipes. For example, Captain Morgan’s cake was created by pouring rum on sponge cake which had not been fully baked due to a power outage. Not wanting to discard the half-baked cake, the pastry chefs soaked the sponge in the distillate named after the infamous pirate captain, drenched it in chocolate, and put vanilla cream between the layers.
Ernő Bergmann learned how to make Gellért rolls, containing a thick Parisian chocolate cream, brittle, sour cherry in rum and sponge cake soaked in sour cherry juice, during the years of his apprenticeship in Hotel Gellért.
New recipes are first tested in the family, and only after getting the seal of approval from expert family members do they end up in the glass cake display counter. This summer’s hits are poppy seed cake with lemon-flavoured cream and fruit sauce from mixed berries, lavender-almond cream cake and the cherry caramel slice. This last one is a true heavyweight with a Linzer cake base, chocolate sponge, sour cherry filling and caramel cream.
