The Former Confectionary of Karol Hagenhuber
The Former Confectionary of Karol Hagenhuber
And there was the cake shop. After graduation we went for cream cake. We’d survived it all …, that cream cake after we’d passed the exam.
John Paul II
Wadowice, 16 June 1999
The building, erected in the first half of the nineteenth century, is located at John Paul II Square No. 15 at the corner of Adam Mickiewicz Street, formerly Wiedeńska Street.
In the early twentieth century, the house was purchased by Józef Lisko, an ancestor of Wadowice’s famous family of confectioners. The entrance to the confectionary was on the corner of the square under an arcade. Over time it gained a refined, elegant Wadowice clientele: officers of the 12th Infantry Regiment, teachers and officials.
After the death of Józef Lisko, his wife Władysława rented the premises in 1936 to a Viennese confectioner, a newcomer to Wadowice from Brzesko named Karol Hagenhuber. He brought with him a recipe for cream cake acquired from Vienna’s greatest pastry chefs.
Cream cake, Master Hagenhuber’s new delicacy, quickly gained recognition from local gourmets.
As of 1937, a new fashion prevailed among Wadowice high school students. After successfully passing their comprehensive exams, they would go to celebrate the event at the nearby cake shop. It seems that when students from the Pope’s year went for cream cake, they began to bet on who could eat the most. Young Karol remembered the fierce competition that ensued, and its echo returned in the memories of Pope John Paul II in the Wadowice market square on 16 June 1999.
And that famous smile on the Pope’s face!
Controversy raged among tourists. Some said that the cream cakes were probably made with alcohol, others even introduced a recipe for the liqueur to be added to the cream. This went on until the son of the confectioner Karol Hagenhuber appeared here in Wadowice. In an interview with cable TV, he stated that, while he did not remember the recipe, there was certainly no alcohol in it.
The Sisters of Nazareth taking care of the Family Home of Pope John Paul II conducted their own investigation. They arrived at the conclusion that it was the quality of the cream that made the natural pre-war cream cake, which can no longer be found today, what it was.
The confectionery was closed in 1945 and the cream cake mentioned by the Holy Father can be founf in all Wadowice confectioneries.
Date of introduction: March 22, 2016