Jana Asherson with the Bratislava Coronation Dessert. (source: TASR)
Bratislava has 267 years of coronation history - 10 kings, one queen and seven royal spouses were crowned in what was then Pressburg.
Today, St. Martin’s Cathedral, the coronation road and, notably, the Bratislava Coronation Days event - which will this year be held between August 16 and 18 - are reminders of the city's royal history.
The event this year, for the first time, will include a presentation of the Bratislava Coronation Dessert.
“Our intention is to bring the strong tradition and the period associated with the coronations into the present,” Vladimír Grežo, chairman of the board of the Bratislava Tourist Board (BTB), told the TASR newswire. “For me, it is also a way to encourage tourism.”
Bratislava Coronation Dessert (source: Courtesy of BTB )
The dessert, a carrot cake made by Jana Asheri who runs the Asheri Patisserie on Záhradnícka Street 72, was chosen during a competition organised by BTB in cooperation with the Gurmán club last autumn.
The competition was open to any trained pastry chef, pastry shop owner or hobby baker. The dessert could be in the form of a cake (torte), a cake or a roulade. Out of 14 participants, the jury firstly shortlisted four desserts before choosing a winner.
“All the shortlisted desserts were excellent,” said Grežo.
The Bratislava Coronation dessert for this year’s Coronation Days consists of carrot sponge cake, mousse, carrot jelly, sugar syrup and caramelised walnut. The top is decorated with carrot chips, an orange and chocolate stamp of the town and a decorative Hungarian crown. Its base is a nod to the traditionally used gingerbread, with nuts or honey form part of the corpus, while the combination of carrots and tangerine adds an interesting flavour, noted Grežo.
The recipe is has been made available to the public and any restaurant or café operating in Bratislava is allowed to put it on their menu.
However, Asheri has been given official confirmation that the coronation dessert was first served at her patisserie where is it on sale for €5.90.
(source: Bratislava Tourist Board)
