Classic German "Bee Sting Cake" Made Vegan
(*ad: in cooperation with pandoo)
Did you know that the 20th May is also known as “World Bee Day”? Well, I learned of this fun fact when I was working on new recipes for the Pandoo blog last year, and it’s basically a specific day to raise awareness and honor the impact of bees and their important role in fields such as agriculture and biodiversity!
So to celebrate our little insect-friends, I baked a traditional german cake called “bee sting cake”, which is basically a fluffy yeast-dough-layer-cake filled with rich vanilla pudding cream and a crunchy almond-sugar-topping. Also: all vegan of course! I think the bees themselves would approve!
and here comes the recipe for this:
German ‘Bee Sting Cake’
(aka a fluffy almond layer cake with vanilla cream filling)
Ingredients (for an 18cm cake pan):
for the yeast dough cake base:
250g all-purpose flour or cake flour
30g sugar
1 tsp dry active yeast
pinch of salt
130ml plantmilk*
40ml rapeseed oil*
for the vanilla cream filling:
200ml vanilla soy milk*
15g instant vanilla pudding mix or cornstarch
30g sugar
150g vegan whipping cream*
1 sachet cream stiffener (about 6-8g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g vegan butter
for the almond-sugar-topping:
25g vegan butter
15g sugar
2 tbsp vegan honey or agave*
25ml vegan cooking cream*
100g sliced almonds
Instructions:
(Please note that it’s best to start the preparations for this cake the day prior to the event you’re making it for!)
For the yeast dough cake base start by slightly heating up your plant milk until lukewarm. Then stir in dry active yeast and let the mix sit for a few minutes.
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a big bowl and add the yeast-plant milk mixture, as well as the oil, and combine everything until it forms a soft dough.
Knead the dough by hand for about 5-10mins until soft but not sticky. Then place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean, wet kitchen towel. Place the bowl in a warm space and let the dough rise for at least 45mins until noticeably increased in size.
While the dough is rising, prepare the vanilla pudding for the cream filling. For that heat up plant milk, sugar and the vanilla pudding mix (or cornstarch) until bubbly, while constantly stirring and then removing from the heat as soon as a thick pudding consistency is forming. Let the pudding cool completely afterwards.
In a separate bowl whip up vegan whipping cream, cream stiffener, and vanilla extract until it forms soft peaks. Then place it in the fridge until further use. Also remove the vegan butter from the fridge, so it can warm up to room temperature.
Lightly grease or line cake tin with parchment paper, carefully knead the risen yeast dough once again and then press it into the cake tin. Place back to the warm space while preparing the almond-sugar-topping.
7. To make the almond-sugar-topping heat up the vegan butter, sugar and vegan honey (or agave) in a small sauce pan and let boil for about 1-2mins while stirring in between.
8. Take the mix from the heat and stir in the vegan cooking cream and sliced almonds. Spread this almond-sugar-mixture evenly onto the prepared yeast dough and preheat the oven to 180°C.
9. As soon as the oven is ready, bake the cake for about 20-30mins and let it cool completely. (I would advise you to test the cake after about 20mins with a toothpick to see if it needs the extra 10mins to bake or if it’s ready to be taken out of the oven already. Also, if you notice that your almond-sugar layer is getting too dark, you can cover the cake with aluminium foil.)
10. Now take the 50g of room temperature butter, which you took out of the fridge earlier and whip it up until fluffy. Add the cooled vanilla pudding, whip again and lastly carefully fold in your vegan whipped cream. Then place the mix into the fridge once again.
(At this point I would advise you to let everything rest overnight and proceed the next day. Like this, the vanilla cream filling will have enough time to fully set and the cake can cool off overnight as well!)
11. Once the cake has cooled down completely, split it into two layers and optionally cut the top layer into 8 cake slices already to make cutting the cake easier when it’ll have the cream filling later on.
12. Place the bottom layer back into the cake tin or a special cake ring, if you have one, and evenly spread the vanilla cream filling onto it. Then carefully add your top layer, or top layer pieces and place the whole cake into the fridge for another hour until serving.
Done! Almost as diligent as the little bees themselves!
*Notes:
I used vanilla soy milk in both the dough and the vanilla cream filling. If you can’t find any vanilla soy milk you should be able to use any other plant milk as well but especially with the pudding I noticed the best results using soy. Also if you’re not using a vanilla flavored plant milk, you should maybe add some additional vanilla extract to enhance the flavors!
I like to use a particular organic rapeseed oil with a hint of butter aroma when making this recipe but if you can’t find anything like that or don’t want to use rapeseed oil at all, you can also replace it with another kind of neutral vegetable oil!
Sometimes it not that easy to find vegan whipping cream but for this recipe it is crucial that you use one that is actually for whipping and not simply for cooking as the filling will not be able to set and stiffen up otherwise! If you have access to german brands or live in Germany: I got the best results using either the brand ‘Schlagfix’ or ‘Soyatoo’.
When referring to ‘vegan cooking cream’ I am talking about the plant based heavy cream substitutes that are used for cooking and / or are liquid. So while making the almond-sugar layer you can use the cooking ones, which do not need to be whipped up.
Did you make this recipe?
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