Daring Bakers 01-14: Baumkuchen

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I’m back with another Daring Bakers challenge! We kicked off the year with a European delicacy: baumkuchen, otherwise known as tree cake. It’s so called because the multiple layers resemble the rings of a tree, especially on the original cylindrical cake, which is baked on a spit and is then cut into rings.

This version is called schichttorte, has horizontal layers and can be easily made at home. It may seem complicated, but I can assure you, pronouncing the name of this cake is more complicated than making it :P

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The cake is flavored, you guessed it, almond. The batter is some sort of marzipan-based sponge cake (kind of like Pierre’s :P). Then you take a bit of the batter, smear it on your mold and bake it on the broiler for a couple minutes (the broiler is better because it keeps the bottom from burning, but you can bake it normally if you don’t have one). Do this 10+ times and you’ll end up with a beautiful cake reminiscent of a warm stack of pancakes :)

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I used 1/3 cup of batter on every layer, and got 11 layers. The first layer was a little hard to distribute because the batter is thick, but after that, the batter will somewhat melt from the heat of the cake, and will be much easier to spread.

Once the cake is done, you should cover it with a layer of jam. Unfortunately, I forgot about that, and went straight to the chocolate. There was a chocolate glaze recipe provided, but it called for coconut oil, which I don’t have. So I just used chocolate candy coating, and some shredded coconut for decoration.

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As you can see, the finished result is very impressive! Cutting into the cake to reveal the layer was so exciting. And the cake was so good as well, everyone loved it! (even on day one, since it’s supposed to get better on the next day). I used some cheap marzipan I got which I think had more almond flavoring than real almond, but it was better for me because I’m not much of an almond fan.

So the cake tasted great (kinda like amaretto liqueur), and I loved the texture too. Here‘s the recipe if you want to make it!

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Blog-checking lines: The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij”. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).


18 thoughts on “Daring Bakers 01-14: Baumkuchen

  1. Te quedó fantástico. Las capas muy bien hechas y la cobertura de chocolate se ve riquísima :)
    Fue un buen reto, verdad???
    Un saludo

  2. The cake looks perfect. Yes the excitement of cutting the cake and seeing those layers is unbelievable! The chocolate and coconut works for me.

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