The best German cake recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Catholic Christmas is just around the corner, which means it's time for some fragrant baking. Germany is the champion in the variety of simple and delicious recipes on the eve of the holidays. Christmas markets are opening all over Europe, but it is German sweets that have become a symbol of a festive mood and a special indescribable atmosphere of magic. Crispy pletzkin, majestic stollen, painted gingerbread, cinnamon stars, marzipan sweets, German tree cake - all these masterpieces are worth trying once and falling in love forever.

Land of a thousand pies

People love Germany not only for its excellent cars, but also for its simple and delicious cuisine, where everyone can find something to their liking: juicy sausages, beer, pretzels, potato salad, thousands of types of pies, puffs, buns and cookies. There are 1,600 varieties of different breads alone.

Cakes in our traditional sense, as a few cakes layered with cream, did not receive inGermany of special distribution. The most famous German cake is the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). However, this country is extremely rich in various types of pies: from berries, fruits, cottage cheese, various doughs, with and without streusel.

Tree Pie

A German cake called Baumkuchen is usually made around Christmas. It truly lives up to its name: layers of pastry are stacked on top of each other, creating a pattern similar to the rings of a tree.

There are a lot of variations of the German cake recipe. We can say that every housewife has her own little secret on how to cook baumkuchen. Traditionally, the pie is made on special round molds in the grill, somewhat reminiscent of shawarma machines. But even in the absence of such an oven, you should not be upset: the cake can be prepared in the usual form, and it will turn out no worse than a round fellow.

History of Baumkuchen

It is not known for certain where this cake came from: the first written evidence of baumkuchen dates back to 1692, when the cookbook of Marie-Sophie Schellhammer was published. People quickly picked up the idea, and the cake instantly became popular not only in Germany, but also far beyond its borders.

According to legend, in 1745, Count Otto Hans tasted baumkuchen in a small tavern in Kronsberg, which he liked so much that it became one of the main dessert dishes of the count's table.

Baumkuchen: Basic Recipe

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs.
• 1 pinchs alt.
• 120g sugar.
• 150g marzipan mass.
• 120g powdered sugar.
• 250g soft butter.
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar.
• 120g premium flour.
• 100g apricot jam.
• 1 sachet of vanilla.
• 2 tbsp. l. liqueur "Cointreau".
• 200 g chocolate 80% cocoa.
• 1 tbsp l. coconut oil.
• butter and French shirt flour, baking paper.

Cooking:

1. In the oven, turn on the heating of the upper grill only. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Put baking paper on the bottom of the mold, grease the edges with butter and sprinkle with flour.
2. Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites with s alt until stable peaks, without stopping beating, add sugar. Grind the marzipan mass with butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Grind the yolks until white. Combine all ingredients, add flour and beat with a mixer.
3. Spread two full tablespoons of dough on the bottom of the mold. Bake for 4 minutes at the highest level possible. Get the form. Put 2 more tablespoons of dough on top of the baked cake and send it back to the oven for 4 minutes. Continue until the dough runs out. You should end up with 10-12 layers.
4. Cool on wire rack. Heat the jam and rub through a sieve. Add liquor. Coat the baumkuchen on top and around the edges with the resulting syrup. Leave to soak.
5. Chocolate into large pieces and put together with coconut oil in a saucepan. Melt in a water bath and cover the finishedpie

The Secret of Homemade Tree Pie

In the photo, German Baumkuchen cakes look like real trees: the layers in them are not horizontal, but vertical.

Such pies are cooked in special grill ovens. It is difficult to reproduce such conditions at home, but there is a little trick that will allow you to recreate this culinary masterpiece. The dough for the German cake should be poured in a thin layer on a baking sheet, and immediately after baking, wrap it on a rolling pin wrapped in cling film. Bake the next layer and repeat the procedure.

This is a rather laborious process, but the result is worth it.

Tenderness and sweetness

The second most popular layered German cake - "Milk Girl". It is quite simple to prepare. The finished cake is very tender and moderately sweet. The thinner the cakes, the tastier.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of condensed milk.
• 200g premium flour.
• 3 eggs.
• 1 tsp baking powder.
• 500 ml cream with a minimum fat content of 33%.
• 250 g curd cheese.
• 1 tsp vanilla.
• 1 tsp lemon or lime juice.
• 5 tbsp. l. granulated sugar.
• Separable form.
• 10 sheets of baking paper.

Cooking:

1. Set the diameter of the ring to 20 cm. Wrap baking paper around the bottom to form a circle. Prepare 10 such substrates. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Beat condensed milk and eggs with a mixer, add flour andbaking powder. Shuffle.
3. Spread two tablespoons of the resulting dough over a paper circle. Bake 5-8 minutes until creamy. Thus, use all the dough. After baking, cool the cakes on a wire rack, separating from baking paper.
4. Finished cakes should be laid with paper, otherwise they may stick together.
5. Cream, cream cheese, sugar, vanillin and citrus juice, beat until a thick stable cream forms.
6. Spread the cakes with butter cream. Leave the cake to soak in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours.

Triple chocolate

Despite the fact that the three-color German chocolate cake bears little resemblance to the legendary "Three Chocolates", it turns out to be very rich and will decorate any holiday table.

You will need:

• Split mold with a diameter of 20 cm.
• French shirt butter and flour.

For white ganache:

• 150 g white chocolate.
• 70g cream (at least 33% fat).

For light ganache:

• 100g plain milk chocolate.
• 50g cream (at least 33% fat).

For dark ganache:

• 200 g chocolate 80% cocoa.
• 200 g cream (at least 33% fat).

For the test:

• 150g dark chocolate.
• 100 ml milk.
• 250g softened butter or margarine.
• 220g granulated sugar.
• 2 sachets of vanilla.
• 7 eggs.
• 350 g flour.
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder.
• 50g cocoa.
• 300 g full-fat yogurt or non-acidic sour cream.

For frosting:

• 100 g chocolate 80% cocoa.
• 30g granulated sugar.
• 6 art. l. warm water.

Cooking:

1. Break white chocolate into small pieces. Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate chips. Mix until completely dissolved. Put the resulting ganache in the refrigerator.
2. Prepare light and dark ganache in the same way.
3. Grease the form with butter and sprinkle with flour. Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
4. Chocolate break into pieces. Heat the milk in a saucepan, turn off the heat, add chocolate and leave to melt.
5. Meanwhile, beat the butter with a mixer, add sugar, vanillin and s alt to it. Bring to a homogeneous state. Whisking continuously, add the eggs one at a time.
6. Add flour and cocoa in small portions to the dough.
7. Last add sour cream and milk chocolate mixture.
8. Divide the resulting dough into 4 servings and bake each cake separately. Check readiness with a dry wooden stick. Each cake will take about 30-40 minutes to bake.
9. Cool the cakes on a wire rack.

Cake assembly:

1. Take the white and light ganache out of the fridge and beat at medium speed.
2. Cover the bottom cake with a thick layer of white ganache. Lay the second biscuit on top, coat with light ganache.
3. Add a third cake, cover it with dark ganache. Add the last biscuit. Cover the edges and top of the cake with a thick layerremaining dark cream.
4. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
5. For glaze, add sugar and water to a saucepan and cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from stove and add chocolate. Stir with a wooden spatula until completely dissolved.
6. Pour the icing into the center of the cake and carefully spread with a knife so that the excess runs off the edges of the cake.
7. Leave the cake overnight in the refrigerator.

Caramel puff

German caramel schikhtorte is quick to make and the result is sure to please any sweet tooth.

For cooking take:

• 650 ml + 8 tbsp. l. milk.
• 1, 5 packs of caramel pudding.
• 260 g sugar.
• 8 eggs.
• 125g flour.
• 75g corn starch.
• 1 sachet of baking powder.
• 120g flaked almonds.
• 200g softened butter.
• 50 g soft caramel.
• 1 tbsp l. cream 33-35%.
• Oil for lubricating the mold.
• Food wrap.
• Baking paper.

Cooking:

1. 650 ml of milk bring to a boil, remove from the stove, add 60 g of sugar to the pudding. Stirring, boil over low heat for 1 minute. Pour the pudding into a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to cool for 1 hour.
2. Separate the yolks from the whites. 4 proteins mixed with 3 tbsp. l. cold water, add 100 g sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
3. Yolks grind until white with the remaining sugar. Add flour, starch andbaking powder. Gently mix into protein mass.
4. Grease the form with butter and sprinkle with flour. Put 1/6 of the dough into it.
5. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Immediately remove from the mold and place on a wire rack.
6. Bake 5 more cakes in the same way.
7. Put the almond petals on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 3-5 minutes at a temperature of 250 degrees.
8. Beat the butter with a mixer until soft air mass. Add pudding to it. Mix at low speeds. Lubricate the cakes with cream and assemble the cake. Put almond petals on top.
9. Leave in the refrigerator to soak for 1 hour.

Storage and transport

It is customary for us to have a cooked cake almost immediately. The exception is those products that require a certain time for impregnation. Few people know that cakes are perfectly stored in the freezer for up to 3-4 months and do not lose their shape and taste after defrosting. Any German cake can be wrapped in cling film and put in the freezer. In fairness, it should be noted that defrosted products are still worth decorating and icing.

In Germany, in almost any store you can buy a frozen German cake, defrost it and make it the hero of the celebration. Neither cream nor decorations, when properly defrosted (in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours), will flow and spoil its appearance.