site.btaThirty-Six Show Off Baking Skills at 3rd Garash Cake Festival in Ruse

A total of 36 amateur bakers took part in the 3rd Garash Cake Festival here, Ruse Deputy Mayor Zlatomira Stefanova said on Saturday, the last day of the festival. 

She recalled that the festival of the sweet masterpiece is organized in the Danube city for a reason. According to research, the Garash cake was created in Ruse, a town known as "The Little Vienna". The sweet temptation was born in the 1890s from the culinary skills of Austro-Hungarian Kosta Garash, who referred to the recipe for the Viennese Sacher cake (Sacher Torte).

"The Garash Cake Festival has become a tradition for our town. It is attracting more and more interest. There are two competitions this year: for a classic and for a non-traditional Garash cake. With the event, we also support local businesses, with 22 pastry shops presenting their products at separate stands," Stefanova said. 

Chef Rady Stambolov, who is part of the festival's organisers, told BTA that as people evolve, so does the Garash cake. 

"Even an iconic classic product undergoes its evolution. The classics should not be forgotten, but people should be brave and experiment. There are a lot of interesting solutions at the festival. A classic is walnuts, egg whites, powdered sugar, chocolate, cream, butter, and the cake should be sprinkled with pistachios. It must have five rows of plates and be four centimetres high," explained Chef Stambolov. 

The host of the event was actor Vladimir Zombori. "Like Kosta Garash, my great-grandfather also came from Austria-Hungary. He was [King] Ferdinand's court baker. He settled in Bulgaria and met my great-grandmother, who was Serbian. My great-grandfather also had all kinds of recipes. One of them is for Zombori cake," Vladimir Zombori told BTA. 

The programme of the Garash Cake Festival included competitions, culinary workshops and demonstrations for children and adults. Chef Radi Stambolov delighted the residents and guests of Ruse with his specially prepared "Garash truffles".