'Queen of Paczki' Ready To Roll The Dough On Fat Tuesday

OAK LAWN, IL — You don’t have to go far for authentic paczki on Fat Tuesday. Anna Kaliszak, owner of the Velvet Cake Bakery and the unofficial "Queen of Paczki" in Oak Lawn has been rolling out the decadent Polish treat since last week.

So far, Anna and her staff have made 20,000 of the deep-fried, doughy pillows of love, and she was in the middle of making 10,000 more when we visited the bakery on Fat Tuesday eve. Most flew out the door for Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday, when Poles traditionally eat paczki.

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The paczki tradition goes back to the Middle Ages, when Poles made paczki to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house before fasting during the Lenten season. "Paczki Day" has since been embraced and celebrated in the heavily Polish-American Midwest on "Fat Tuesday," the last blowout before Ash Wednesday.

"We sold 1,000 in two hours today," Anna said.

She estimates that the bakery will go through 200 dozen eggs (15 per box); about 2,500 pounds of flour (that's a ton-and-a-quarter), and 100 pounds of yeast. The secret to good paczki is the dough, with just a squirt of filling (custard, cream cheese, strawberry, plum, apricot or pineapple), otherwise it's just a doughnut.

Only a few people besides Anna know the Velvet Cake Bakery's secret paczki recipe, including her mother-in-law Regina, the mistress of the deep fryer, Anna's husband, her dog and her fish, Bubbles.

The Velvet Cake Bakery, 5168 W. 95th St., Oak Lawn (95th Streeet and 52nd Avenue, on the north side of the street) makes pazcki year-round, as well as wedding and birthday cakes, cakes for all occasions, cookies and other Polish desserts. The bakery will be open from 4 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Fat Tuesday (Feb. 25), or until the paczki run out.

Patch visits Anna Kaliszak, Oak Lawn's "Queen of Paczki."