A Bollenhut (German: [ˈbɔlənˌhuːt], literally "ball-hat") is a formal headdress with distinctive woolen pompoms worn since c.1750 by Protestant women as part of their folk costume or Tracht in the three adjoining Black Forest villages of Gutach, Kirnbach and Hornberg-Reichenbach. The picturesque-looking red Bollenhut has become a symbol of the Black Forest as a whole, despite its rather local origins. The red pom-poms and white brim of the Bollenhut also is said to have inspired the top layer of the Black Forest Cake.