Gluten Free Bee Sting Cake

Bee sting cake is a traditional and popular German cake, which was also very popular in Latvia under the name of Tea Bun (Tejas maizite). I always wanted to recreate this delicate pastry in gluten free version, and have made it several times, using the variety of gluten free flours and different types of cream as a filling. The best airy and well supported texture of the sponge is produced when Crusty bread mix (by Well and Good) is used as a flour mix for the dough.

For those who prefer to use only wholegrain flour mixes, without any additional ingredients and gums, I have a version of the dough based on buckwheat and rice flour mix.

Traditional recipe is based on a rich yeast dough, brioche type, which is baked with a layer of caramel and sliced almonds on top, with a rich and thick butter cream filling in the middle. Though I could have used any of my versions of brioche type gluten free yeast dough, I went for completely another approach to create a stable, airy, sponge type structure for the cake. This sponge had to be rich and not too light, with a substance to it, airy, but also chewy at the same time. The batter I made was, however, not thick enough to keep almonds and caramel on top of the cake during baking. I nearly ruined the first cake, when all the top almond layer sank, and ended up at the bottom of the cake.

As the result almond layer was not as thick as intended, but the cake still worked as intended, with almond caramel crust. That first attempt gave me an idea to bake this cake as an upside down cake, to avoid any problems with almond caramel layer. This cake can be baked as a large rectangle bake, and cut later into individual pieces.

Note:  The cake below is baked from a batter, made using bread flour mix not available in Australia, and supplied to me by manufacturer for testing.

It can also be baked as a smaller round cake. In both cakes the most difficult part is to cut this cake in nice and neat pieces to avoid mess by ruining the hard almond crust or squeezing the soft cream out. I never use excessively rich and sweet butter cream, so my choice of cream was the mix of thick vanilla pastry cream and whipping cream.

I decided to present all options for the cake, suitable for different tastes. Quantities of ingredients in cream recipe are enough for a large rectangle cake (20cm x 30cm baking tray, based on 3 eggs batter recipe) or 2 smaller, round 20-22cm cakes.

Step by step photos were made when making round cake with buckwheat and rice flour version of the batter. That is why the colour of the sponge is a touch darker.

Ingredients:

batter

Well and Good Crusty Bread mix batter

20cm x 30cm cake

• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 140 pure apple puree, room temperature (I used both SPC and Aldi brand)
• 140g sugar
• 10g vanilla sugar
• 190g Crusty Bread Mix by Well and Good
• 2 tea spoons of grated lemon zest
• 2 tea spoons gluten free baking powder

22cm round cake

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 100 pure apple puree, room temperature (I used both SPC and Aldi brand)
• 90g sugar
• 10g vanilla sugar
• 130g Crusty Bread Mix by Well and Good
• 1 tea spoons of grated lemon zest
• 1 tea spoon gluten free baking powder

buckwheat and rice flour mix batter

22cm round cake

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 100 pure apple puree, room temperature (I used both SPC and Aldi brand)
• 90g sugar
• 10g vanilla sugar
• 70g buckwheat flour
• 40g rice flour (I used McKenzie’s brand)
• 1 tea spoons of grated lemon zest
• 1 tea spoon gluten free baking powder

almond and caramel topping

20cm x 30cm cake

• 100g sliced almonds
• 50g unsalted butter
• 60g honey
• 40g sugar
• 2 table spoons milk

20cm-22cm round cake

• 50g sliced almonds
• 30g unsalted butter
• 50g honey
• 30g sugar
• 1 table spoon milk

cream

enough for 20cm x 30cm cake or 2 round cakes 20-22cm size

• 250ml milk
• 2 eggs (or 2 egg yolks and 1 egg)
• 1 tea spoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 30g corn starch (corn flour in Australia)
• 90g-100g sugar (depending on how sweet you like your cream)

separately

• 300ml whipping cream (the best variety to use is with gelatine as a thickener in the list of ingredients)

Preparation:

• prepare thick pastry cream, according to the list of ingredients (pastry cream preparation can be found here), put it aside to cool, cover with glad wrap to avoid forming skin on the surface
• grease baking pan/dish with butter
• cut the sheet of baking paper to exact size of the baking pan bottom
• place baking paper on the bottom of the baking pan, make sure it sticks
• dust the sides of the baking pan/dish with sugar, remove the excess
• spread sliced almonds evenly on the bottom

• place butter, honey, sugar and milk in a small sauce pan
• cook stirring until boiling point and another minute
• carefully pour caramel over almonds

• beat apple puree, sugar, vanilla sugar with eggs for 8-10 min on high, using benchtop or hand mixer, the mixture will become pale white and triple in size
• sift flour (flour mix) and baking powder into a wide bowl, mix well with a whisk
• add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, add grated lemon zest
• mix thoroughly with a whisk until fully combined without any lumps
• pour the batter into a baking pan/dish
• tap the pan on the surface to let air bubbles out
• bake in preheated to 170C fan forced oven for 40 min (large rectangular cake or 30 min for round 20cm cake)
• baked cake will be firm to touch and a toothpick will come out clean
• let the cake rest in a tin for 5 min
• turn the cake over to a wire rack lined with baking paper

• let the cake completely cool down
• cut the cake in 2 pieces, equal in thickness

• beat whipping cream until firm peaks
• add vanilla extract/paste
• add 1 table spoon of whipped cream to loosened pastry cream, mix it in
• add another 2 spoons and mix them in
• combine the rest of pastry cream and whipped cream together
• spread mixed cream on a bottom layer of the cake, be generous with a cream layer

• cover with a top sponge layer

• let the cake rest for several hours and the cream to set
• use sharp serrated bread knife to cut the cake

Different types of cream can be used to fill this cake. If you want to have the cake sooner, without waiting for the cream to set, use whipped cream alone, adding some sugar and vanilla extract to cream when whipping.  Regular pastry cream, as well as butter cream, combined with pastry cream, can be used for this cake as well. The choice depends on preferred sugar and fat content in the cream, determining how light or heavy the cream will be.

Crusty bread mix gives an amazing texture to the cake, even with a soft cream, the cake keeps its shape and does not go soggy.

Almond caramel layer is wonderfully crunchy. The mixture of this crunchy top, soft and airy body of the cake, with delicate and light vanilla cream in the middle, give this cake everything this dessert needs. Try it and you will not be disappointed!