Harold Figge, left, and Joe Kren prepare B&Z pastries in 1979. (Courtesy State Journal-Register)
Neither Viktor Benesch nor Dan Zeigler stayed in Springfield all that long. But their wedding cakes, cookies, pastries and whipped-cream cakes were local fixtures for 50-plus years.
Benesch and Zeigler donated their initials to the B&Z Pastry Shop. More importantly, they also contributed their recipes, which originated in eastern Europe – Benesch (1899-1990) was born in Czechoslovakia, and Zeigler (1903-?) in Hungary. Passed on to a series of later owners, none of whom changed the B&Z name, those recipes made B&Z a Springfield bakery legend.
Relatively little is known about either of B&Z’s founders, especially Zeigler (whose last name may also have been spelled Ziegler or Zigler). The Illinois State Journal doled out some basic information when B&Z opened in November 1935.
Owned and operated by two men who have had years of successful experience in the field, it is expected that this bakery will rapidly gain in favor with the local public.
Viktor Benesch, formerly associated with the well-known Benesch restaurants of St. Louis, and Dan Ziegler, who was in charge of bakery specials for one of Chicago’s leading confectionaries, will operate the new pastry shop.
Zeigler didn’t live in Springfield long enough for his name to appear in a Springfield city directory, although the 1940 U.S. Census determined he was a resident here in April 1935. But when that census took place, Zeigler was once again working as a baker in Chicago.
B&Z’s sign on Adams Street, 1930s (SJ-R)
Benesch stayed longer, operating B&Z until 1945. He oversaw the bakery’s move in 1943 from its original home at 414 E. Adams St. to larger quarters at 420 E. Adams, where it would stay for almost 50 years more. In the process, Benesch installed “streamlined glass cases and counters” in the new store and modernized the bakery’s work areas.
Benesch apparently moved back to the St. Louis area after selling the shop to Roeder (1902-69) and Irene Tietze (1901-66). In addition to his ownership of B&Z, Roeder Tietze was an accountant and had served as Springfield city treasurer.
B&Z’s best-known owners, however, were Harold (1926-2010) and Anita Figge (1926-2019), who took over the shop in 1958 (their silent partners were Harold Figge’s sister Edna and husband Carl Hilbert). The Figges were the face of B&Z for the next 30 years.
They split up the workload, according to a 1974 newspaper profile.
Sixteen years ago, when Harold Figge was thinking about going into business for himself, he asked his wife, Anita, if she would help out.
She said yes and that’s how they started their involvement with the B and Z Bakery. Both of the Figges say the business is a “24 hour a day proposition.”
Mrs. Figge handles the bills, payroll and manages the store, while her husband concerns himself with the actual production of the baked goods. Because of the separate unions involved, one never interferes with the other’s bailiwick. …
All this togetherness might get some couples down, but the Figges are still as devoted to each other as newlyweds.
Anita and Harold Figge at B&Z, 1974 (SJ-R)
B&Z prospered under the Figges. Aside from the shop’s retail trade in baked goodies, B&Z supplied cakes, pies and pastries to Springfield’s Kroger stores.
The bakery even survived a fire in December 1982 that demolished The Platter record store, which shared a wall with the pastry shop. B&Z lost “200 pounds of cookie flour, 34 pounds of fudge (and) countless trays filled with soggy green and red sugar that will never top a Christmas cookie,” but was closed only a single day. And B&Z customers were understanding.
“I called one woman and told her we had to throw her cake away,” Anita Figge told the State Journal-Register, “and she said, ‘That’s OK, we’ll postpone the celebration – could you make the cake for Friday?’”
Another family group, the Rixners, bought B&Z Pastry Shop when the Figges retired in 1988. B&Z moved to East Cook Street when its Adams Street lease expired in 1990, but the bakery apparently closed shortly afterwards.
B&Z’s recipes
The SJ-R for a time published a feature, “The Trading Post,” for local cooks to exchange recipes. Many Trading Post readers asked for various B&Z recipes, almost always with no luck. There were, however, a couple exceptions.
From the March 1, 2000, Trading Post (written at the time by Kathryn Rem):
“Nothing has generated as many Trading Post requests over the years as the products from the B&Z Bakery, which operated close to 60 years in downtown Springfield. Readers repeatedly have asked for recipes from the well-loved bakery, but the recipes have been elusive … until now.”
Rem wrote that former B&Z baker Joe Ramirez responded to a reader request for a recipe for the shop’s giant chocolate chip/coconut cookies. “You can make them any size, but ours were always at least three inches,” Ramirez told Rem.
“The recipe he supplied makes enough to feed a small army, so we’ve pared it down and altered it slightly for home bakers,” Rem added.
Here is The Trading Post’s recipe for B&Z Chocolate Chip Cookies:
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp salt
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
Dash of yellow food coloring
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups coconut
12 ounces chocolate chips
Mix sugar and salt. In separate bowl, cream shortening and butter. Add sugar mixture to shortening mixture along with vanilla, almond extract and yellow coloring. Add eggs and mix again.
Slowly add flour and coconut. Mix well. Add chocolate chips and gently stire until they are evenly distributed. Chill 15 minutes.
Roll dough into walnut-sized balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets and flatten slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 2 dozen.
A week later, The Trading Post featured more from baker Ramirez – outlines of how B&Z created its strawberry, lemon and chocolate Bavarian cakes. But they were outlines only, not full recipes.
“The bad news,” Rem wrote, “is an exact recipe is not available. The Figge family, which owned the bakery, has never divulged the ingredients and instructions used to make the popular whipped cream cakes.”
The bakery used sponge cake for the strawberry and lemon versions and devil’s food for the chocolate Bavarian cake, Ramirez said. The cakes were baked in 8-inch-square pans and then split horizontally to make two layers.
Here is Ramirez’s reconstruction of the rest of a Strawberry Bavarian Cake (the other two versions were similar).
Between the sponge cake layers was a layer of whipped cream mixed with strawberry pie filling. The sides were iced with whipped cream, into which red and white sprinkles were pressed. Strawberry pie filling was spread over the top of the cake; the top ediges were piped with a decorative whipped cream border.
Hat tip: Cathy Schwartz, for the suggestion.
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