 Slice revealing the layers of a Doberge cake | |
| Type | Layer cake |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | New Orleans,Louisiana |
| Created by | Beulah Ledner |
| Main ingredients | Cake,dessert pudding,butter cream |
Doberge cake (often pronounced "doh-bash")[1] is a layered dessert originating inNew Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., adapted by local bakerBeulah Ledner from theHungarianDobos torte. Still popular in the area, the cake is made of multiple thin layers ofcake alternating withdessert pudding. Very often the cakes are made with half chocolate pudding and half lemon pudding. They are covered in a thin layer ofbutter 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.
Beulah Levy Ledner, born into a Jewish family inSt. Rose, Louisiana, opened a bakery in New Orleans in 1933. She became very successful after creating her "Doberge cake" adapted from the Hungarian/AustrianDobos Cake, a cake made of ninegénoise cake layers filled withbuttercream and topped with a hardcaramelglaze.[2] The doberge cake is based on a recipe originating inAlsace-Lorraine. Ledner replaced the buttercream filling of the Dobos Cake with a custard filling and iced the cakes with buttercream and a thin layer offondant.[2]
Beulah Ledner's recipe is available in the cookbook,Let's bake with Beulah Ledner: A legendary New Orleans Lady by Maxine Wolchansky.[3]
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 ofMetairie 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,[4][5] when she sold the shop and doberge recipe to Maurice's French Pastries,[6] which was still in the business of baking and selling doberge cakes in Metairie as of early 2022.[citation needed][7]
Albin bought the bakery 26 years ago from Maurice Ravet, who purchased the bakery and Doberge cake recipe from Beulah Ledner, this time in the early 1980s, when she retired at age 87 after 50 years in baking and catering.
