This recipe is a good base however the instructions are not very good for beginning bakers. And keep in mind you are making a pastry and all good pastries require time and technique. A yeast cake and a homemade custard should be attempted by a medium to expert level baker. After reading some of the reviews (watery custard sticky dough no raising) those mistakes are not due to the recipe but the baker. As far as the filling look up a pastry cream and the technique to make it if you are new to custards and fold in a soft peaked whipped cream. (Keep in the cream of tartar even if it's not in the recipe. It helps keep the peeks stiff). Or just look up a recipe for bavarian cream- which is what the filling is. If you do like sweeter desserts this is the place to add sugar to your taste whip it into the whipped cream and add a vanilla bean or vanilla extract. You can even add 1/2 tsp almond and 1/2 tsp vanilla. I would double the topping and use 3 tbsp of honey to give the cake the authentic bee sting taste. You can skip the confectioners' sugar and just use regular to add a bit more sweetness. Lastly it is best to proof your yeast (look it up) or my personal preference is instant yeast (look up conversion for active vs. instant). And if you are new to dough look up the 'window pane test' which will indicate whether or not your dough is kneaded well enough.
Great idea. I made this for my son's "Oktoberfest" for German class in high school. The bread and topping part were great. The filling was problematic. 1/3 c cornstarch to 1 1/2 c milk makes a very stiff wallpaper paste rather than "pudding". It wouldn't fold into the cream and just was lumpy. I would make this again but would substitute a package of vanilla pudding with 1/4 teaspooon almond extract in it mixed with the whipped cream for the filling. Other than that it was yummy!
This is a special holiday cake to all of my German family members. We all loved it! When I make it again I will use vanilla extract instead of almond.
It was good I just thought it could be a little sweeter. Also to save time I used my bread machine on it's dough cycle.
This recipe was a long involved process. I had never made a yeast cake before and wanted to surprise some of my German friends. Aside from taking so long to prepare the pudding called for too much whipping cream. I whipped the whole cup of whipping cream and added it to the milk and cornstarch mixture and it was too thin to use as a filling so I used it as a sauce instead. Also as a sauce it wasn't sweet enough. I was hoping that the pudding filling would be sweeter. I might make again but would change the recipe to only half cup cream and 4tbs white sugar in the pudding. Also I would make 50% more almond topping for extra sweetness and crunch.
I have been craving this cake for years. Even though my results weren't as good as the German bakery version I was still well impressed. The almond topping was a big hit. Next time I will skip the almond extract. To save time and extra pans I used a can of Ambrosia Devon Cream custard whipped with the heavy cream. Fantastic!
MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........
I made this for an "Essenstag" for my german class... my teacher was thrilled and said it was one of the best she ever had!:
My over-sugared American tastes found this to be a bit bland and I'm not sure I'd make it again considering all the effort involved. I somehow ended up with a very gluey dough at the beginning and had to add more flour than called for to make it workable. The amounts given also yieled tons more filling than I was able to use in the cake so now I have to figure out what on earth to do with all the extra. I think I've about decided I'm not a huge fan of almond and I'm wondering why the description says that this has a vanilla pudding filling...? It's almond flavor. There's no vanilla anywhere in the thing. Wonder where the name came from-- the honey flavor isn't too prominent just a subtle sweetness. Doesn't make me think of bees very much:) Probably a good cake for some just not something I'd want to make again.
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