We both love this German bee sting cake, including my partner. It has a crust that resembles bread, a crispy sugar-almond topping, and a vanilla pudding filling. A dessert you simply must taste!
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 16 |
Ingredients
- 1 ⅝ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ¾ cup lukewarm milk
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ⅝ cup sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon honey (Optional)
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ tablespoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- Combine flour, yeast, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt, 3/4 cup milk, and 3 tablespoons butter in a large bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 15 to 20 minutes. Place in a well-greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled.
- Punch down dough. Roll out to a 1/2-inch thickness. Spread into a greased 8-inch square baking pan. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Melt 3 tablespoons butter and confectioners’ sugar in a saucepan. Add almonds and 1 tablespoon milk. Remove from heat, and stir in honey. Spread evenly and carefully onto dough. Allow dough to rise for an additional 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust turns golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Dissolve cornstarch in a little milk. Combine 1 1/2 cups milk, cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon sugar in the top of a double boiler. Heat while stirring until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in beaten egg, and keep stirring for about 2 more minutes, or until thick. Remove from heat and stir in extract. Chill, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Beat whipping cream with cream of tartar until stiff. Fold into chilled pudding.
- Cut cooled almond bread into 1 1/4×2-inch rectangles; slice each one horizontally into halves. Fill with pudding mixture. Chill, and serve cold.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 226 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 20 g |
| Cholesterol | 46 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 56 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I will share it in my family for generations
I’m a fan! This would best be served at a fancy afternoon tea party or for breakfast, in my opinion, because it is not sweet enough for a dessert. Still, the presentation can’t be beat for the beauty and I really enjoyed the labor of love process. Not quick, but worth it! I got stung by a bee three times yesterday and so today decided to make this cake to “turn my lemons into lemonade,” as it were. Hope you enjoy it as much as my family did!
Excellent, light tasting, not overly sweet
To make the pudding with cornstarch is cumbersome , much better with vanilla pudding and whip cream and easier….
The cake is good I added some confectionery sugar to the pudding and whipped cream filling when combining them. Will make this again the kitchen smelled so wonderful when baking the cake.
I found this cake a quite bland and more of a bread cake but it all depends on what you like since my dad and grandparents found it quite good, I would definietly say that this cake takes a lot of time and work to make with long breaks inbetween steps so it’s more the kind of cake that should be made on occasions. I would not make this cake again because it requires a huge amount of work tho I might consider it if I added a lot more sugar and vanilla.
Fantastic,,,,,
I found this recipe and immediately knew it was German. I’m German at least 45% and I can speak it. My mom loves this cake so I decided to surprise her and bake it. It took me a while to make since I timed how long the dough should rise for. I’m only slightly over a beginner baker but I managed to complete this cake perfectingly. My mom loved it and she’s picky when it comes to American baking, no offense intended. I personally didn’t like it because of the cream of tartar, but there probably wouldn’t be any left if I wanted a second slice!
This was a recipe my mother used to make and I’d forgotten about it until seeing it on All Recipes. Turned out just as good as I’d remembered. Perhaps a little time-consuming, but certainly worth it.
I am in high school with little to no baking skills and I wanted to make this for a German food party and it took me three hours to do the dough alone and I started at nine and didn’t finish until midnight then I made the pudding and two to three minutes wasn’t enough so I tried to chill it and it didn’t solidify at all it was ninety nine percent liquid so I had to start again and missed my food party and the “pudding” is lumpy and the taste is bland and it was beyond difficult to make
I think this recipe is like a 1-star as written but with just a few edits is a 4-star… so I’m giving it 3. Cake: if you knead by hand you add a huge amount of flour while kneading. I’d guess 2 cups flour is closer to the final figure. If you’re trying to get your KitchenAid to knead it, you have to add put about 2 cups in while mixing. With that edit, the dough is fine. Not sweet but thats ok if the rest is sweeter. Topping, fine, but I will be doubling it in general and tripling the sugar. I put 1/4tsp almond extract in the topping too. Filling: I used 3 tablespoons sugar and 2tsp vanilla extract (and added two more yolks), but next time I’ll try 6 tablespoons sugar. I folded the pudding into the cream OK with the KitchenAid on low. My pudding didn’t come out like “tofu” as some others are saying. If it tasted like wallpaper paste, you didn’t cook the milk/starch enough. Once cooked its not pasty. Then, don’t add eggs until cooler than 80C and you’re fine. When I was assembling it seemed like WAAAAAAAAY too much filling, and too runny. But, it firmed up over night in the refrigerator, so either cornstarch continues to firm (I’ve seen that in other cooking) or the cake absorbs some of it. By the time I served it the filling wasn’t a problem at all. Final comment about sweetness: people are saying its “not American-level sweet” but I’ve been living abroad in Europe and Asia for 20 years. Its not even German-level sweet as written! 5-6x more sugar please!
The “Bienenstich” I remember from Germany had individual servings cut more like a “Napoleon”.
I love this recipe and have even made it adding chocolate and it is almost as good but I do like the vanilla slightly better!!
I followed the recipe exactly. My end result was disappointing. The pastry was gooey, the filling was too much, and it was too big for the 8 inch pan,which made it rise quite high. I might try it again in the future to see if I get different results with a bigger pan.
I was a little weary of this recipe given all the bad reviews, but it worked out perfectly. It turned out better than any expectation I could possibly have! Everybody loved it, and it definately was not too sweet, which was also one of my concerns. I did everything from scratch, and trying to use the ready-made pudim didnt work out, so I made th eone in this recipe. It was great, I think the people who havent been successful with it just lack time and patience. Just follow this to a t, and it will turn out perfect.
Cakes (2) came out fine and were well received. Made them for a German party. These are not sweet cakes and are more closely related to a fancy dessert bread. They are a lot of work and worth the effort for special occasions. I would not make these on a regular basis.
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.
i had a recipe for this cake from a german cousin, i did something wrong while making his and had to scratch it. so i combined this recipe with his and it turned out perfect! it ended up being the 3rd highest seller at my relay for life cake auction!
I have been baking since i was 5, and i followed the recipe to a “T” since it was the first time making it. I guess i am like some others expecting something different. the only thing i have ever tried that was harder than this was hard tack back in 3rd grade. the filling reminded me of a tiramisu filling. it was kind of bitter, and the almond extract just seemed very out of place. not sure why it tastes so different from almonds. lol. I am only rating this on my personal taste. I may try to revisit and tweak the recipe. but i was definitely expecting something light and fluffy. i couldn’t even cut it into layers to fill it. I had to top it with the filling.
This was ok – the cake didn’t raise all that much even though I gave it lots of time. Instead of making the filling, used the dream whip and vanilla pudding. It worked well. Got compliments and was told it was better than the German bakery where a friend first tasted this cake. Would make it again
I read the reviews but still wanted to give it a go. And because I prefer a sweeter treat I doubled all the sugar in each section. I’m also wondering if some of the measurements are off. My dough was gooey so I had to add extra flour. My custard was like hard tofu and wouldnt ‘fold’ even though I cut way back on the corn starch. During the final rise the top of the cake was really misshapen but I think it looked more ‘rustic’. The almond honey topping was amazingly good but the rest of it was disappointing for the effort. If I were to make it again I would not bother with the filling. I am glad I tried it, though.