Bee Sting Cake (Bienenstich)

This cake is a classic German cake, traditionally prepared on a baking sheet, but it can as well be made in a springform for a fancier look. It is a yeast dough covered with an almond-honey mixture that caramelizes during the baking process. After baking, the cake is horizontally sliced and filled with a vanilla custard or buttercreme.
The origin of its name is unknown. In one legend the baker of this cake got stung by a bee that had been attracted by its sweet smell of honey, in another legend two baker's apprentices who had thrown bee hives at raiders attacking their city celebrated their victory with this cake.

Ingredients:
a baking sheet (or with the amounts listed I would use a springform of 26-28 cm or 10-11 inch
some grease

Yeast dough:
200 ml milk
50 g butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
375 g wheat flour
1 package dried yeast
50 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma
1 dash of salt
1 egg (optional)

Topping:
200 g butter (2 sticks)
100 g sugar
1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons whipping cream
200 g sliced almonds

Filling:
750 ml milk
2 packages vanilla pudding

Preparation:
1. For the yeast dough: Heat up milk in small stove top pot or microwave, melt butter or margarine in milk. Let cool down until lukewarm.
2. Mix wheat flour and yeast in a bowl. Add all other ingedients and milk-fat-mixture. Using the knead hooks of an electric hand mixer, use the lowest speed to form a dough (about 5 min). Let dough sit in a warm (not too hot) space until is visibly expanded.
3. For the topping: Melt butter slowly in a stove top pot. Add sugar, vanilla sugar or vanilla aroma, honey and cream. Briefly bring to a bubbling boil, then stir in almonds. Let mixture cool, and occasionally stir.
4. In the meantime, grease baking sheet and preheat oven to 200°C (375 F).
5. Cover yeast dough with some flour, briefly knead dough, then roll the dough out on the greased baking sheet using a rolling pin. Evenly spread the topping on the yeast dough. Let yeast sit until dough has visibly risen (about 3 cm high!).
6. Bake cake for 15 min, remove cake from oven and let cool on a rack.
7. Prepare the custard filling: Using 1/3-1/2 less milk than suggested follow the instructions to prepare the custard. If the custard is cooked, let the custard cool down a little.8. Assembly of the cake: Cut baked cake into quarters. Horizontally cut each quarter. Apply custard to each bottom quarter, put top half of the quarter on top. Refrigerate cake for about 1h before serving.

Comments:
1. The yeast dough: It is absolutely essential that the yeast dough is at least 3 cm high on the baking sheet before baking the dough. Although my dough has risen nicely, it was not that high, so I could not horizontally cut my cake after baking. To "rescue" this cake I prepared a second batch of yeast dough that I then baked without the topping to have a bottom to my cake. For this reason my top layer had a harder baked and darker bottom rather than the soft middle as bottom as it is supposed to. I don't think that insufficient rising of the yeast caused the problem presented here. Rather, the amount was too small for the baking sheet. I suggest to either use the amounts described above for a 26 cm or 28 cm (10 inch or 11 inch) springform or to prepare more yeast dough. A second recipe I found uses more milk and more flour for a baking sheet : 250 ml milk, 60 g butter or margarine, 500 g flour, 1 package dried yeast, 50 g sugar, 1 pinch of salt.
The egg is optional (I had left it out), and the fat in the yeast dough makes the dough a little easier to work with, but can also be cut into half without any problem.
2. Based on the original recipe I had prepared the custard ahead of time to give it time to cool down entirely. However, the custard separates a little upon cooling and becomes clumpy. So I would really prepare the custard while the cake is baking. The time the cake needs to cool down will be enough for the custard to cool down as well. The shorter the cooling time for the custard the less likely it will form clumps and the easier it will be to spread the custard on the cake bottom. Also, it might be better to use only 1/2 of the milk as instructed to prepare a more solid custard (might not be as thick on the cake then), or alternatively, use three packages of vanilla pudding for 750 ml of milk, rather than two.
3. Cutting the cake: The filling is fairly soft, the topping is not sticking very well to the yeast dough, and a yeast dough is tougher to cut. Thus, I strongly suggest to cut the top layer while separated from the custard-covered bottom, then assemble the top layer on the custard-covered bottom, and use the cuts made on the top layer as guides how to cut the bottom. If you follow this advice, the custard won't squeeze out of the sides, and the almonds on the top will not fall off as easily.