Bienenstich Kuchen; A Traditional German Bee Sting Cake
I am not too sure why this cake is called Bee Sting Cake. It might be perhaps the topping of this cake is made with almonds caramelized with sugar, butter, and honey. Another mention of this cake’s name may be when bakers would throw beehives at raiders from other villages. When the raid on their village was unsuccessful, the entire village would celebrate by making these cakes. I hope that the story is correct because I find it a great story.
But either way, this cake has made its way from the 15th century to the 21st century. It is a delicious and unique cake that will definitely wow your family and friends. Unfortunately, out of all the cakes that can be baked though this one is a bit temperamental and takes much longer to make and put together. There are more components to this cake, including the caramelized topping and the sweet pastry cream. With my German heritage and one of my goals to make and bake as many German ancestral recipes as possible, I had to make a bee sting cake and write up this post.
Cost to make this recipe.
I have calculated this recipe costs about $14.23 to make this entire cake or about $1.78 per serving slice. You can reduce the cost if you cut the slices smaller. But I have found this is a bit difficult to do with a dense cake with soft pastry cream in between.
Finally, the almonds make up a large portion of the cost. If you can grow your, then the price can be reduced by almost $7.00 for the entire cake.
We would love to hear from you, so comment and rate the recipe down below. Also, check out more of our perfect German recipe posts.
This recipe was adapted from an unknown source. All images and text are all my own and original to One Acre Vintage Homestead – Pumpkin Patch Mountain Homestead.
Bienstein Kuchen: German Bee Sting Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 1 stick butter, softened…[$1.00]
- 1 cup white granulated sugar, …[$0.29]
- 2 large eggs, …[$0.46]
- 1¼ cup milk, …[$0.29]
- 2 tsp. baking powder, …[$0.08]
- 3½ cups all purpose flour, …[$0.81]
Caking Topping
- 1 stick butter, …[$1.00]
- 1 cup white granulated sugar, …[$0.29]
- 2 tbsp honey, …[$0.48]
- 2 cups (6 oz) slivered almonds, …[$6.98]
Pastry Cream
- 2 cups milk, …[$0.46]
- 2 pods vanilla beans, …[$0.50]
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar, …[$0.10]
- 4 tbsp cornstarch, …[$0.11]
- 6 large egg yolks, …[$1.38]
Instructions
Cake and Topping
- Cream butter and sugar together and add eggs one at a time. Then add in all the milk until mixture is smooth.
- Beat in baking powder and flour. Batter should be a thick sticky mixture.
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. and grease a 8 or 9-inch springform pan. Pour cake batter into greased pan and set aside.
- In a medium sauce pan, melt butter, sugar, and honey to make the cake topping. Fold in all the slivered almonds into hot melted sugar butter mixture. Pour topping over unbaked cake batter evenly.
- Bake cake for about 40 minutes or until topping is lightly brown and toothpick comes out clean from interior part of cake. Tip: place some aluminum foil on bottom of oven to help with possible spillage of cake topping when baking.
Pastry Cream
- Heat milk and vanilla together. Heat milk to make it warm to the touch but not scolding or boiling.
- In a separate bowl whisk together egg yolks, white sugar, and cornstarch. Slowly add warm milk to egg mixture constantly whisking and slowly warming the eggs without cooking and making scrambled eggs.
- Heat entire mixture in a saucepan over medium heat. Continue whisking constantly. Heat until cream thickens.
- Remove from heat, pour cream into shallow bowl and bring it to room temperature. Then store in the refrigerator for a few hours.
- Cut the cake in half and spread the pastry cream then top with the rest of the cake.