Doberge cake (often pronounced "doh-bear-ge") is a layered dessert originating in
, Louisiana, U.S., adapted by local baker
Beulah Ledner from the
Hungarian Dobos torte. Still popular in the area, the cake is made of multiple thin layers of
cake alternating with
dessert pudding. Very often the cakes are made with half chocolate pudding and half lemon pudding. They are covered in a thin layer of
butter cream and a fondant shell or, alternatively, a poured glaze on the outside. They are normally made with six or more layers. Traditional flavors are chocolate, lemon or caramel.
History
Beulah Levy Ledner, born into a Jewish family in
St. Rose, Louisiana, opened a bakery in New Orleans in 1933. She became very successful after creating her "Doberge cake" adapted from the Hungarian/Austrian
Dobos Cake, a cake made of nine
génoise cake
A génoise (, , ; usually spelled genoise in English), also known as Genoese cake or Genovese cake, is an Italian sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and associated with Italian cuisine, Italian and French cuisine, French cuisine. Instead ...
layers filled with
buttercream
Buttercream, also referred to as butter icing or frosting, is used for either filling, coating or decorating cakes. The main ingredients are butter and some type of sugar.
Buttercream is commonly flavored with vanilla. Other common flavors a ...
and topped with a hard
caramel glaze.
[
] The doberge cake is based on a recipe originating in
Alsace-Lorraine. Ledner replaced the buttercream filling of the Dobos Cake with a custard filling and iced the cakes with buttercream and a thin layer of
fondant
Fondant is a mixture of sugar and water used as a confection, filling, or icing. Sometimes gelatin and glycerine are used as softeners or stabilizers.
There are numerous varieties of fondant, with the most basic being poured fondant. Others in ...
.
Beulah Ledner's recipe is available in the cookbook, ''Let's bake with Beulah Ledner: A legendary New Orleans Lady'' by Maxine Wolchansky.
In 1946 Joe Gambino bought the name, recipe and retail shop, including her recipe for doberge cake and a promise that she would not reopen in New Orleans for five years. After a couple of years of illness, she reopened in a new location on Metairie Road in the New Orleans suburb of
Metairie under the name "Beulah Ledner, Inc." As her business and popularity grew, her son, Albert, designed and built a new building and a new machine to mass-produce sheet cakes using his mother's recipes. She opened her new bakery on May 21, 1970; she ran it until she retired in 1981 at the age of 87, when she sold the shop and doberge recipe to Maurice's French Pastries,
which was still in the business of baking and selling doberge cakes in Metairie as of early 2022.
See also
*
List of cakes
The following is a list of types of dessert cakes by country of origin and distinctive ingredients. The majority of the cakes contain some kind of flour, egg, and sugar. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions such as we ...
References
{{Cakes
Cuisine of New Orleans
Jewish cuisine
Layer cakes
