Eat Chimney Cakes at Devilishly Delicious Delights in Roseway

The Devilishly Delicious Delights trailer. — The food truck/trailer Devilishly Delicious Delights in Roseway.

Earlier this month I saw someone post on Facebook about a new food cart called Devilishly Delicious Delights. I didn’t know what to think at first, but I saw the words,”chimney cake,” holy business, I was totally stoked! I hadn’t had one in forever—last time was back in 2012 in Long Island City.

What’s Up With Chimney Cakes?

Years ago, I included that LIC chimney cake place—aptly called, “Chimney Cake”—in a listicle for the now defunct queensnyc.com (now it lives with broken images on Brokelyn). Here is how I described the chimney cake then:

“This bakery serves primarily the chimney cake (Kürtőskalács in Hungarian), a traditional baked good from Transylvania. It was originally a special pastry served during weddings, but here you can eat it every day! It’s made of a sweet yeasted egg dough that is rolled out in thin strips, wrapped around a wide tubular form and baked. Sometimes it is served as-is and sometime it is served coated with nuts or coconut.”

Devilishly Delicious Delights is not the first place ever in Portland to offer chimney cakes—the Delicious food cart, which served Transylvanian food, offered them back in 2013, according to The Oregonian.

Devilishly Delicious Delights in Roseway

I stopped by this past weekend to check out the chimney cakes. The owner, Rhett, has his operation in an old Airstream trailer in the Eden Cannabis parking lot on NE Sandy Blvd. Nearby is a bikini barista coffee shack and a Mexican food truck (which was making some seriously good smelling food). There are a few off-street parking spots available.

Rhett told me that he moved up to Portland from Orange County about three years ago and had other plans at the time than running a chimney cake cart. He said it was easy to take over this trailer for his business because it was already built out and essentially ready to go. He brought with him the rotisseries that cook the chimney cake, as well as his Italian ice cream makers.

He is not from Czechia or Hungary but is a big fan of the chimney cake. “You can find them all over Eastern Europe,” he remarked.

Good Reviews and Tasty Chimney Cakes

I had read some positive reviews about this place, like, “Amazing Transylvanian pastry + epic homemade ice cream and toppings = very satisfied Roseway family of three. Highly recommend.” and “I know it’s cold and rainy right now, but I totally recommend it if you want a churro like cone with homemade ice cream.”

That last part about a “churro-like cone”—I can see the comparison with cinnamon-sugar exterior. But, chimney cakes are baked, not fried, and are a slightly different shape. Here in Portland it is cooked on an electric rotisserie (traditionally they are baked over a charcoal fire).

Here’s a short video showing how the chimney cake slowly rotates.

As I mentioned earlier, my experience with chimney cakes was that they were served lightly adorned—cinnamon and sugar, and maybe nuts, coconut, and Nutella as options. Rhett’s chimney cakes are filled with homemade ice cream. He offers additional options like cream cheese frosting and peanut butter, along with various syrups and toppings.

You can also buy the ice cream by the scoop.

And—new concept for me—they offer savory options. Fillings include things like smoked bratwurst, chicken, steak, breakfast sausages, and more. Accompaniments include eggs, cheese, kraut, mayo, and beyond. You can see their full menu on their Instagram page or this image. Note: Vegan items will be coming soon.

What I Chose at Devilishly Delicious Delights

I was hoping to get The Finger: Butterfinger ice cream and fudge swirl. But they were out of the Butterfinger ice cream. So I chose Galactic Vanilla: vanilla ice cream with cosmic sprinkles in it. I had it topped with chocolate sauce, too.

The Galactic Vanilla chimney cake. — Galactic Vanilla chimney cake with chocolate sauce.

A very cool and smart trick: he puts the cooked chimney cake in a cup and fills the bottom opening with …. a marshmallow! Its the perfect size and keeps everything from leaking out. No ice cream in the savory options, so this isn’t so much of a worry as far as leakage.

The ice cream is put into a warm surrounding (the warm chimney cake) so it does melt around the edges. A spoon is a handy tool. And you can suck up all the melty ice cream before biting into the warm pastry—be careful, as it could squirt out.

As you can see on the current menu, prices are pretty reasonable; my chimney cake was five bucks. These are opening prices and will only be around for another week or so.

The chimney cake is a delicious and uncommon treat in Portland. Stop on by, get those low prices for the next week or so, and enjoy!

Devilishly Delicious Delights [opened November 2024]
7420 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
Instagram