The best recipes for German cakes

Catholic Christmas is at hand, and that means it's time for fragrant baking. The champion in a variety of simple and delicious recipes ahead of the holidays is Germany. Christmas markets open all over Europe, but it was German sweets that became a symbol of a festive mood and a special indescribable atmosphere of magic. Crispy pletschen, majestic stollen, painted gingerbread, cinnamon stars, marzipan sweets, German cake tree - all these masterpieces are worth trying once and falling in love forever.

Land of a Thousand Pies

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

Cakes in our traditional sense, as several layers of cake layered with cream, are not widely spread in Germany. The most famous among German cakes is the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). However, this country is extremely rich in various types of pies: from berries, fruits, cottage cheese, various dough, with and without shtrezel.

Tree cake

A German cake called Baumkuchen is usually prepared before Christmas. It really lives up to its name: layers of dough are superimposed on each other, creating a pattern similar to tree rings.

There are a lot of variations of the German cake recipe. We can say that each mistress has her own little secret how to cook Baumkuchen. Traditionally, the pie is made on special round forms in the grill, somewhat reminiscent of devices for making shawarma. But even in the absence of such an oven, you should not be upset: the pie 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 Maria-Sophie Schelhammer's culinary book 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 of Kronsberg, which he liked so much that it became one of the main dessert dishes of the count's table.

Baumkuchen: the main recipe

Ingredients:

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

Cooking:

1. In the oven, turn on the heating of only the upper grill. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Put baking paper on the bottom of the mold, grease the edges with oil and sprinkle with flour.
2. Separate the yolks from the proteins. Beat the whites with salt until stable peaks, without stopping whipping, add sugar. Rub the marzipan mass with butter, icing sugar and vanilla. White yolks to grind. 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 possible level. Get the shape. Put another 2 tablespoons of dough on top of the baked cake and send it back to the oven for 4 minutes. Continue until the dough is over. The result should be 10-12 layers.
4. Cool on a wire rack. Heat the jam and wipe through a sieve. Add liquor. Coat the resulting syrup with Baumkuchen from above and around the edges. Leave to soak.
5. Break the chocolate into large pieces and put it in a saucepan with coconut oil. Melt in a water bath and cover the finished pie

The secret of homemade tree pie

In the photo, the German Baumkuchen cakes look like real trees: the layers in them are arranged not horizontally, but vertically.

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

This is a rather time-consuming process, but the result is worth it.

Tenderness and sweetness

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

Ingredients:

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

Cooking:

1. Set the ring diameter to 20 cm. Wrap the baking paper around the bottom, forming a circle. Prepare 10 such substrates. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.
2. Beat condensed milk and eggs with a mixer, add flour and baking powder. Mix.
3. Distribute two tablespoons of the dough into a paper circle. Bake 5-8 minutes until creamy. So 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. Beat cream, curd cheese, sugar, vanillin and citrus juice until a thick, stable cream is formed.
6. Coat 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 does not look much like the legendary Three Chocolates, it turns out to be very rich and will decorate any festive table.

You will need:

• Detachable shape with a diameter of 20 cm.
• Butter and flour for a "French shirt."

For white ganache:

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

For a light ganache:

• 100 g of milk chocolate without additives.
• 50 g of cream (fat content of at least 33%).

For the dark ganache:

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

For the test:

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

For glaze:

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

Cooking:

1. Break the white chocolate into small pieces. Bring the cream to a boil and pour in pieces of chocolate. Stir until completely dissolved. Put the resulting ganache in the refrigerator.
2. Using the same principle, prepare light and dark ganache.
3. Grease the mold with butter and sprinkle with flour. Heat the oven to 180 gadus.
4. Break the chocolate into pieces. Heat the milk in a saucepan, turn off the heat, add chocolate and leave to melt.
5. At this time, beat the butter with a mixer, add sugar, vanillin and salt to it. Bring to a homogeneous state. Without stopping beating, introduce eggs one at a time.
6. Add flour and cocoa to the dough in small portions.
7. The last to pour sour cream and milk-chocolate mixture.
8. Divide the resulting dough into 4 portions and bake each cake separately. Check readiness with a dry wooden stick. Baking each cake will take about 30-40 minutes.
9. Cool the cakes on the wire rack.

Cake assembly:

1. Remove the white and light ganache from the refrigerator 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 the third cake, cover it with a dark ganache. Add the last biscuit. Cover the edges and top of the cake with a thick layer of the remaining dark cream.
4. Put in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
5. For glaze, add sugar and water to the saucepan and cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the stove and add chocolate. Stir with a wooden spatula until completely dissolved.
6. Pour the icing in the middle of the cake and gently spread with a knife so that the excess drains along the edges of the cake.
7. Leave the cake in the refrigerator overnight.

Caramel Puff

A German shihtorte cake with caramel is prepared quickly, and the result cannot but please any sweet tooth.

To prepare, take:

Cooking:

1. Bring 650 ml of milk to a boil, remove from the stove, add 60 g of sugar to the pudding. While stirring, boil over low heat for 1 minute. Pour the pudding into a bowl, contact with plastic wrap and leave to cool for 1 hour.
2. Separate the yolks from the proteins. 4 protein mixed with 3 tbsp. l cold water, add 100 g of sugar and beat until stable peaks.
3. Grind the yolks white with the remaining sugar. Add flour, starch and baking powder to them. Gently mix with protein mass.
4. Grease the mold with butter and sprinkle with flour. Put 1/6 of the dough into it.
5. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Bake the cake for 5 minutes. Separate from the mold immediately and lay on the wire rack.
6. Bake 5 more cakes in the same way.
7. Put almond petals on a baking sheet and fry 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. Coat the cakes with cream and collect the cake. Put almond petals on top.
9. Leave in the refrigerator to soak for 1 hour.

Storage and transportation

We decided to eat the 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 is worth noting that it is nevertheless unfrozen products to decorate and glaze.

In Germany, in almost any store you can buy frozen German cake, defrost and make it a hero of the occasion. Neither cream nor decoration, if properly thawed (in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours), will leak and spoil its appearance.