History of the

Butter Kuchen:

German villagers would gather once a week to

collectively make their bread for the community.

The demand for a sweeter and lighter dessert

cake or "kuchen" (German for cake) was at the

top of the list for the villagers. In Germany they

adapted a sugar/egg/butter topping for their

traditional breads. This, eventually gave way to

a more cake-like dough with the filling similar to

a chess pie filling.

In America, "Kuchen" was made in primarily

German neighborhoods, with a variety of fruit,

strussel or cheese filling. In Louisville, around 1890-1910 what we now know of as "Butter Kuchen" was formulated in various master-bake shops. In our lineage, Jacob Heitzman passed his formulation down to his sons, Joe and Charles. Over the ensuing decades the dough was softened and the filling evolved into a "runny" or "gooey" delight. This was done at the ever greater demand by our customers for: "Give me the runniest one!"

Today, we in Louisville, enjoy the end product of hundreds of years of baking evolution – The Butter Kuchen! The actual recipe will remain a secret, its runny, gooey deliciousness will not!

Our thanks go out to our German ancestors that endured the early variations!