Rüeblitorte
A cake made with carrots and almonds or hazelnuts, often topped with a sugar icing and decorated with little marzipan carrots. Aargau, nicknamed “carrot country”, has made it its own.
One Wednesday in early November, the old town of Aarau fills with stalls around the Graben. At the Rüeblimärt, the carrot comes in every colour, as soup, sausage or pasta, and the Aargau carrot cake has its place there.
Origin
It is eaten throughout Switzerland, especially in the German-speaking part, but it is said to have originated in Aargau. According to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, the canton’s playful nickname, “Rüebliland”, probably dates from the decades after 1850 and may derive from “Rübenland”, the land of beets, since German names both roots with the same word. One of the oldest printed recipes appeared in 1892 in a collection from the domestic science school in Kaiseraugst. This “Gelbrüblitorte” calls for half a kilo of sugar, the same amount of carrots and of ground nuts, almonds or hazelnuts, eight eggs and only 100 g of flour. A classic Swiss German household manual refers in 1904 to “Aargau cake”, then in 1917 to “Aargauer- oder Rüblitorte”. Bakers only took it up in the 1940s and 1950s.
Making
The yolks are whisked with the sugar and some lemon zest, then come the grated carrot and the ground almonds or hazelnuts, a little flour, sometimes spiced with cinnamon. The whites, beaten separately, lighten the mixture. After about an hour of baking, a baker interviewed by Culinary Heritage of Switzerland brushes the still-warm cake with apricot jam: it seals the surface and holds the icing, made of icing sugar mixed with egg white or lemon juice. Others make do with sifted sugar and flaked almonds around the edge. Marzipan carrots crown it all.
At the table
Its place is at coffee time in the afternoon, but also in school bags. Where custom has pupils bring a cake for their class on their birthday, this dense, not very sweet cake makes an ideal candidate.
Today
In Aargau, most bakeries have it all the time, and some send it by post. Aarau’s market also sells a white carrot with an earthy flavour: the Küttigen carrot, an old variety that the farm women of the village have been saving since 1978 by producing their own seed.
Sources: Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, entries “Aargauer Rüeblitorte” and “Küttiger Rüebli”; Aarau Rüeblimärt association, presentation page (2026).