Bread maker Bee Sting Cake (Bienenstich)

This week I made bee sting cake, the German name is Bienenstich. Traditionally this is a labour intensive bake, but this recipe is simple and flop proof. The bread machine takes a lot of stress out of it. I’ve made up my own recipe, combining 2 which I found online and changing them a bit. I converted this one for the dough and topping to be done in a bread maker, and this one for the filling, although I did increase the amount of filling in her recipe by 50% as my first attempt felt too dry, this ratio is now spot on. I played between the two because I feel strongly that this should be a yeasted cake and I used the other for filling because I couldn’t be bothered to make a special trip to the shops for cream.

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

• 45 grams soft butter
• ¾ cup milk
• pinch of salt
• 30 ml white sugar
• 1  ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs (15 ml) instant dried yeast

ALMOND TOPPING

• 60 grams butter
• 2 Tbs (30 ml) sugar
• 1 Tbs (15 ml) milk
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 2 Tbs honey

CUSTARD

• 500 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 110 ml sugar
• 60 ml cornstarch
• 30 ml custard powder (or cornstarch)
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order listed. Run on dough setting. Press the dough evenly into your baking tin lined with baking paper, I used a square tin 21cm x 21 cm.

Make the topping. Melt butter or margarine in microwave until just melted. Add sugar, almonds milk and honey. Spread evenly and carefully onto the dough. Leave this loosely covered with a damp cloth for about an hour or until doubled in volume.

Bake at 200° C for 20 – 25 min. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Make the custard filling by putting all ingredients in a saucepan, simmer at medium heat whisking all the while. You CANNOT leave this for a moment it thickens very suddenly. When it is nice and thick remove from the heat and stand covered until partially cooled.

Slice the cake in half horizontally and spread the filling on the lower half, then top with the almond topped half.

Ideally this cake should be eaten the day that it is made, if there is cake remaining at the end of the day, refrigerate but the cake texture is then compromised and is almost a bit like stale bread