A old acquaintance had asked me to bake this cake for such a long time. Last weekend I had some spare time on my hands and so I got to work. Beforehand I had checked out the net to find out what exactly a “classic German buttercream cake” is. The cake is a sponge and German buttercream is butter mixed with pudding (I made vanilla). And if we’re talking “classic” then the cake has to have a short crust pastry base, too.

I made the sponge, the pastry base and the buttercream the day before.

Perfectly baked sponge – I am pleased!

Great idea from blogger Monika (Tortentante). Roll out pastry base a little larger; bake; then cut into size required whilst pastry is still warm. As you can see the left overs disappear quickly.

Next time I wouldn’t make the pudding with egg yolks because what do you do with the remaining egg whites? Yes, you can freeze them but experience shows that I often just forget them in the freezer! This time I spontaneously decided to make some rainbow-coloured meringues to decorate the cake with. Besides the colour, the egg yolk is supposed to prevent curdling and help the butter and milk combine better. I can’t confirm this. When I made the buttercream everything was fine. When I whipped it up the next day it curdled big time. If this happens to you: Stand the bowl with your buttercream over a bowl filled with warm water and start stirring with a whisk. When the mixture starts coming together take off the water basing and stir until the mixture is smooth.

I baked at 20 cm round cake and made 500 ml pudding for the buttercream which was quite tight at the end. If you like buttercream then I would recommend to make 750 ml of pudding. Alternatively you can buy a good custard powder to make up your pudding.

Oops! This is getting tight!

Just about going to make it around the cake.

Delivering the cake on such a hot day – 30°C! – can be quite a challenge. But I put the cake into a box with thermal packs and put on the air con in the car. When I arrived the table was already laid and later on I got a message that the cake had hardly survived the 20 minutes I needed to drive back home. I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the cake that much. And yes, next time more buttercream! 🙂

Recipes (check my “Links”

Butter cream: Sallys Blog

Biskuit cake: e.g. Monika – Tortentante