The cake contains five layers altogether. On the bottom is a white cake layer, which is topped off with a cocoa-containing layer. The batters used for those two layers are very similar to the batter used in marble bread. Sour cherries (I love using them for baking) are layered on top, and all three layers are baked together. Because the cherries sink into the batters during the baking process, the two layers of batter are disturbed forming the characteristic waves in the cake's interior.
Once the cake has cooled off a buttercream is added, and the cake is topped off with a thin layer of chocolate, in which waves are drawn with a fork.
Because of the waves in the cake's interior and on top, this cake is widely known as "Danube waves". However, this is not its only name; some people know this cake as Snow-White-Cake (Schneewittchenkuchen) referring to the famous quote from the fairy tale: "white as snow, as red as blood, and with hair as black as ebony".
Ingredients:
one baking sheet (deep)
some grease
Aluminum foil
For the cake batter:
250 g butter or margarine (2 sticks)
200 g sugar (180 g)
1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma
1 pinch of salt
5 eggs
375 g all-purpose flour (350 g)
3 leveled teaspoons baking powder
20 g cocoa powder
1 tablespoon milk
2 jars of sour cherries (Trader Joe's sells them in glass jars, they are called "dark Morello cherries)
For the buttercream:
1 package Vanilla pudding powder (e.g. Dr. Oetker or cook-and-serve JELL-O brand)
100 g sugar
500 ml milk (2 cups)
250 g soft butter (2 sticks)
For the topping:
200 g semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (e.g. sunflower seed or coconut)
1. Grease baking sheet. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).
2. Drain cherries well using a strainer.
3. For the batter beat butter or margarine with an electric hand mixer until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla sugar or aroma, and salt. Beat in eggs, one at a time for about 1/2 min per egg.
3. In a bowl mix flour and baking powder, add to batter in two portions and mix at medium speed until batter is smooth. Take 2/3 of batter and evenly spread on baking sheet. Sift cocoa powder and add with milk to remaining 1/3 of cake batter. Spread dark batter evenly on top of white batter.
4. Take well-drained cherries and spread on dark batter. Push cherries a little into the cake batter with a spoon.
5. Bake cake in lower third if oven for about 40 min (until toothpick comes out clean). Let cake cool on baking sheet.
6. Prepare pudding as directed (add more or less sugar depending on personal taste and pudding ingredients). Let pudding cool, stirring it once in a while (don't refrigerate!).
7. For the buttercream make sure butter and pudding have the same temperature or the buttercream will curdle! Beat soft butter with an electric hand mixer until creamy. To remove any pudding clumps, press pudding through a mesh. Blend pudding with butter adding a tablespoon of pudding at a time. Spread buttercream on top of cake and chill for at least 1h in the refrigerator.
8. Melt chocolate and oil in microwave on low heat. Alternatively, one can bring heat water in a small saucepan, then melt the chocolate and oil in a heat-resistant bowl over the warm water. Stir frequently.
9. Spread chocolate on top of buttercream. Using a fork or a knife, gently draw wavy patterns in the chocolate.
10. Let chocolate cool and serve cake.
Comments:
1. If no deep baking sheet is available, one can build a higher edge around the entire baking sheet with aluminum foil. This will prevent the cake from rising too much and spilling in the oven.
2. To prevent the pudding from forming a milk skin put clear plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding. Frequent stirring is not necessary in this case.
3. If the buttercream curdles during preparation try the following:
Heat water in a large bowl. Put bowl with buttercream into warm water and stir until it becomes smooth again. If that fails melt some coconut oil in the microwave. Make sure the coconut oil is not too hot, otherwise the rescue attempt will fail. Using an electric hand mixer slowly add the coconut oil to the buttercream until it is smooth again. If this attempt fails there is one more possibility that can be tried: Confectioner's sugar is sifted and mixed in equal parts with potato starch. 1 tablespoon of this mixture is added to the buttercream and blended with electric mixer. If necessary a second tablespoon can be added without greatly altering the texture and taste if the buttercream.
4. I prepared this cake with buttercream, but after tasting it I find it quite heavy. I don't remember it being that heavy, and after searching the internet for a bit I found German recipes that use "Paradiescreme" by Dr. Oetker instead of a buttercream. I am wondering if I ever had this cake with real buttercream. "Paradiescreme" is a cold stirred custard similar to regular Vanilla JELL-O. If it turns out that spreading the chocolate topping is difficult because the custard cream doesn't solidify well, one can sift a thin layer of cocoa powder on top and draw the waves into the cocoa powder.
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