International Eats-Germany

Cory and Michelle, Kevin’s brother and sister-in-law, both served missions in Germany. As such, German food turns up from time to time at family gatherings. A few years ago, when their daughter, Sharlee, was preparing to leave on her mission to Germany, they shared one of their family’s favorite German desserts: Bienenstich, or Bee Sting Cake. The cake was nice and light, not too sweet, and filled with a lovely cream. But the thing that made this cake special was the crunchy topping. Of course, Matthew and Malia were unable to taste the cake, but I did a bit of research to see if making a safe version for them would be possible. To my delight, I discovered that what makes this cake special is almonds and honey, both of which are safe for my kiddos. With a few substitutions in the cake and the pastry cream filling, an allergen free version was completely doable. 

When Malia told me she wanted to try some food from Germany, the bee sting cake immediately came to mind. I want to try some other recipes as well, but the cake was first up. Traditionally, this is a yeast raised cake. As I was looking at recipes, there were quite a few that took a shortcut and used a baking powder cake batter instead. While that definitely makes the cake much faster to create, I wanted to be as authentic as possible, so I selected a yeast raised version. 

Ironically, my nod to authenticity was what ended up shooting us in the foot. The cake looked spectacular, but most of us were a bit off put by the strong, yeasty taste of the cake. Don't get me wrong. We love bread and the wonderful flavor that yeast brings. But it was so strong that it overpowered the rest of the flavors. The vegan pastry cream turned out well, if a bit heavier than a standard one, the texture of the cake was nice and light, and the honeyed almonds on the top were a delight, but Kev, Matthew and I would have preferred the flavor of a standard cake. Malia, on the other hand, loved it as is. If I decide to try it again, which I might because I really wanted to love this cake, I will try a standard cake mixture. I have a feeling the bakery produced version we ate at Cory’s house used a standard cake recipe as well based on the flavor of the cake.

So did we love this cake? Nope. Did we like it? Sort of, some more than others. Would we try it again with some alterations? Probably. Did it look spectacular? Absolutely. 

Bee Sting Cake Rating: 3 forks