[2] In late Medieval Austria, a Gugelhupf was served at major community events such as weddings, and was decorated with flowers, leaves, candles, and seasonal fruits.

The name persisted through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, eventually becoming standardized in Viennese cookbooks as a refined, rich cake, flavored with rosewater and almond.

The Brothers Grimm wrote that the hupf may be a reference to the "jumping" of the dough caused by the yeast, but no firm etymological evidence exists for this.

It is spelled kuglóf in Hungarian, kuglof (Cyrillic: куглоф) in Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian, Kugelhopf in Alsatian, kouglof in French and guguluf in Romanian.

Gugelhupf is made with a soft yeast dough, baked in a high, creased, toroidal pan.