I’ve been wanting to feature a guest post from my friend and fellow Colorado food blogger Kirsten Hall for some time. She’s from Germany, and her baking skills are far superior to mine. She’s also a fun friend who is always generous with her time and ideas – she even helped me with some of the recipe testing and photography for my cookbook project. So while I continue sailing around the Windward Islands in the Caribbean, heeeeeere’s Kirsten!
Hello, helloooo! I’m Kirsten and I blog over at “My German Kitchen … in the Rockies”. Fabulous to meet you all. I can’t thank my local blogger friend Michele enough for letting me guest post for her today. She’s the best.
I would like to share a very traditional German Cake recipe with you – Donauwelle. Donauwelle would literally translate to Donau wave and maybe the cut cake could resemble waves. I don’t really see this and will leave it up to you. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any explanation regarding the origin of the cake’s name. Well, who cares anyway, the importance is the taste and let me tell you, it is outstanding, it’s especially a favorite with kids.
A Donauwelle is usually a sheet cake with several layers. The bottom layer is a black and white cake with cherries inserted. After the baking you spread the cake with a vanilla pudding butter layer and top it with chocolate. I even added some Nutella in my chocolate layer. Do I need to say anymore?
This recipe leads you through the steps to assemble it effortlessly in your own kitchen.
At any get-together where Germans bring cakes you are bound to find a Donauwelle. So, surprise your family with your new discovery, a German Donauwelle.
Enjoy!
- Pudding layer:
- 1 Pkg. Dr. Oetker Vanilla Pudding
- 1 cup + 1½ Tablespoons (250 g) butter, at room temp., cut into small pieces
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1¾ cup + 1½ Tablespoons (400 ml) milk
- Cake layer:
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons (175 g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (175 ml) vegetable oil
- ¾ cup (175 ml) milk
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- 3 cups (360 g) flour
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- 2 cups (400 g) cherries, I used these, without the liquid
- Chocolate topping:
- 7 ounces (200 g) chocolate, bitter sweet
- 2 Tablespoons Nutella
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- Prepare the pudding layer. Mix pudding powder with sugar and 2 Tablespoons of milk. Bring the rest of the milk to a boil. Take pot from the stove, stir in the pudding mixture, set back over the heat, stir and let the pudding cook until thickened. Immediately pour the pudding into a bowl and cover with plastic foil that you pressed directly onto the pudding. Make sure there are no air bubbles between the pudding and the foil. Set at side to cool to room temperature. Don't transfer the pudding into the fridge! Beat the butter creamy and mix in the pudding (now at room temp) spoon after spoon.
- Prepare the cake layer. Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C) and grease a 16 x 12 x 1 in baking sheet and cover with Parchment paper. Make sure the paper sticks very well to the baking sheet. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well and set aside. In a stand mixer combine the eggs and the sugar and beat on medium speed for about 4 minutes. Slowly add the oil and vanilla extract. Set your mixer on low speed and add ⅓ of the flour mixture and let it mix. Now add half of the milk. Continue to incorporate all the milk and flour, ending with flour mixture. Spread half off the dough evenly onto the prepared baking sheet. Add cocoa and milk into the other half of the dough and mix well. Spread evenly over the first dough layer. Distribute cherries on top of the dough. See picture. Bake in oven for about 25-30 minutes. (Mine was done in 17 minutes, since I set my oven on Convection for baking.)
- When cake layer is done, transfer the cake still attached to the parchment paper onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely. Once the cake is cooled spread the pudding evenly on top. Let cool, best in the fridge or other cold place until the pudding layer is a little firmer.
- Prepare the chocolate topping. Melt chocolate on a water bath or in the microwave until melted. Stir in Nutella and oil. Pour the melted chocolate mix evenly over the pudding layer. Spread it evenly and add some wave like design using a fork. Let the chocolate layer harden before serving.
Isn’t she great! Thanks for the delicious recipe Kirsten!