Bienenstich Kuchen (German Bee Sting Cake) | We Knead To Bake

This
month marks 12 months of baking breads together in the We Knead To Bake Group and given that’s it’s also a
season when there’s a lot of festive baking done in parts of the country and
the world, Aparna, the founder of this Baking group, thought we could also bake something special this month.

The choice for this month is the Bienenstich Kuchen or what’s also known as the
German Bee Sting Cake! Bienenstich is not really a bread but a traditional
German sweet yeasted cake that has a baked on topping of crunchy almond toffee-like
layer and filled with a vanilla pastry cream.

Bienenstich is traditionally
eaten as dessert and also served with tea or coffee,

Bienenstich
means “bee sting” in German and probably got its name from the honey flavoured
topping that it typical of this yeasted cake. There are however some
interesting stories connected to it. One story is that the German baker who was
creating this recipe came across a bee (possibly attracted by the honey) and
was stung by it and decided to name the cake after the incident!

Another
story is that a group of German bakers stopped invaders from entering a neighbouring
village, sometime in the 15th century, 
by throwing beehives at them. IN order to celebrate their victory, they
created the original version of the Bienenstich.

The
Bienenstich is made with enriched brioche-like dough that’s typical for yeasted
cakes which means that it contains a lot of butter, some milk and eggs.I have left out the egg and added 1/4 cup of milk to knead the dough.

You
may also like to use buttercream, Bavarian Cream or Diplomat Cream for the filling. The cake is a bit heavy so the filling should not be runny or too soft or it
will not be able to carry the weight of the upper cake layer. You can also add
fruit (strawberry, kiwi, mango, etc) to your “cream” layer even though this is
not traditional.

One
of the problems of this yeasted cake is making sure the filling is strong
enough to take the weight of the upper layer. The other problem is cutting the
Bienenstich into slices or squares without the filling squishing out ad making
a mess of everything.

The
first problem can be taken care of by using a filling that will hold up and not
using too much filling. The whipped cream can be stabilized with cornstarch (or
agar or gelatin if you use it). You can always thing the remaining fillng and
serve it with the Bienestich as a sauce.

The
second problem can be taken care of by placing the lower layer of the cake on
the serving plate and then making e a collar around it with a double layer of
parchment paper that should be a little taller than the height of your finished
Bienenstich.  Now spread the filling over
the lower layer evenly.

Then
pre-cut your upper almond toffee layer into slices or squares depending on the
shape of your Bienenstich. Now place the slices/ squares on top of the filling
so it looks like the top layer is whole. Refrigerate this for at least a couple
of hours before serving. When ready to serve, remove the parchment collar, and
use the slices/ squares as a guide and cut through the filling right to the
bottom.

Bienenstich
Kuchen (German Bee Sting Cake)

Recipe Source : My Diverse Kitchen

Ingredients:

For the Pastry
Cream Filling:

250ml milk 

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp vanilla flavoured custard powder

200ml cream 

1 tbsp corn-starch

For the Dough:

1/2 cup milk 

100gm butter, at room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp instant yeast

For the Honey-Almond
Topping:

50 gm butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup almonds

Make the custard
for the filling first. 

This can be made the previous day and refrigerated till required.

Keep aside 1/4 cup of milk, and put the
remaining milk and the sugar in pan. Over medium heat, bring this to a boil
while stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. In the meanwhile, dissolve the
custard powder in the 1/4 cup of milk. Add this in a stream, to the boiling
milk and keep whisking so that no lumps are formed.

Keep whisking until the custard becomes
very thick. Take the pan off the heat and let the custard cool to room
temperature. Whisk it on and off so it stays smooth. If it does become lumpy
after cooling, use a hand blender to make it smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover
and refrigerate.

Once you are ready to fill the Bienenstich, whip 200ml of cream till soft peaks form. Then add the corn-starch and whip till it forms stiff peaks. Whisk the custard to make sure it is smooth. Gently fold the cream into the custard. If you feel it is too soft, refrigerate for a couple of hours and then use.

For the Dough…

Heat the 1/4 cup of milk until it is quite hot but not boiling. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the milk, stirring it until the better melts completely. Let it cool a little.

• Put the almonds into boiling water[should be off the stove and should not be cooked/ boiled].After 5 minutes, drain and
  rinse once in cold water. Strain well. The skins of the almonds should feel a
  little loose and look wrinkled now. Pinch each almond at the broad end with
  thumb and forefinger and the skin should slip off easily. 
• Let
  the almonds dry out on a kitchen towel in an airy place for about half an hour.
  Then lay each almond down on its flat side and, using a sharp knife, slice as
  thinly as you can and keep aside.
• Melt the butter, sugar, honey and vanilla in a small pan,
  over medium heat. 
• Keep stirring frequently and it will start bubbling up. 
• Let
  it cook for about 3 minutes or so until it turns to a light beige colour.
• Add
  the sliced almonds, and stir well till the almonds are well coated. 
• Take the
  pan off the heat and let it cool a bit. The mixture will become quite thick.

• After the first rise,deflate the dough, and shape again to a
  smooth ball. 
• Place it in a 8” cake tin lined with parchment. It is
  important to do this otherwise the topping will make the bread/ cake sticky and
  difficult to unmould. 
• Flatten the dough a little, pressing down lightly so that
  the dough fits the cake tin.
•  It doesn’t matter if its not touching the sides
  like batter does. 
• Let it rise for about 30 to 45 minutes. It will not rise very
  much and look a little puffy.
• Once the dough has risen, use a spoon
  take bits if the topping (it will be quite thick, like a sticky fudge) and
  distribute it uniformly over the surface. If there are small gaps they will get
  covered once the bread/ cake is baking.