Mannheim Germany and German Vanilla Cream Cake

 


This week’s bake is a German Cream Cake from Gesund und Schnell  -   Useful and Quick  


It is a vanilla sponge cake filled with condensed milk, vanilla, butter and meringue and topped with a chocolate genache.

The cake recipe is from Germany, where my family comes from and so this week I am celebrating my German Heritage.  



My mother was born in Mannheim, Germany, a major city with more than 100,000 inhabitants.  Located on a wedge of land at the confluence of the Rhine and Neckar Rivers, Mannheim has enjoyed since its founding in 1607, a reputation as an inventive, ingenious city where creative ideas flow and intersect like its surrounding waterways.  Mannheim is an important industrial and commercial city, a university town, and a major transportation hub between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. 



Almost 205 years ago in Mannheim, nobleman Karl Freiherr von Drais invented the bicycle.  Blazing the world’s first bike route from Mannheim to Schwetzingen on June 12, 1817, von Drais journeyed round trip 8.6 miles on his two-wheeled Laufmaschine (“Running Machine” in German).


Constructed almost entirely of wood, the bicycle weighed 22 kg (48 pounds), had brass bushings within the wheel bearings, iron shod wheels, a rear-wheel brake and 152 mm (6 inches) of trail of the front-wheel for a self-centering caster effect. This design was welcomed by mechanically minded men daring to balance, and several thousand copies were built and used, primarily in Western Europe and in North America.



Major historic and cultural sites are all within a two-mile radius of the old city center and the 1889 Wasserturm (water tower) in Friedrichsplatz, a good central point for starting assorted city bike rides on the streets’ clearly designated bike lanes.


Here is the recipe for the German Vanilla Cream Cake:

German Vanilla Cream Cake

Gesund und schnell  -   Useful and quick  


Ingredients:

sponge cake:

4 egg yolks

powdered sugar 50 gr

butter 50 g

Flour 80 gr

baking powder 3 g

vanillin

Cream filling:

butter 100 g

condensed milk 150 g

egg white 4 pieces

100 g sugar

50ml of water

a tablespoon of lemon juice

Gelatin 15 g + 100 ml water

Ganache:

chocolate 90 g

cream 50 ml

Instructions:

Mix egg yolks, sugar butter and vanilla

Add sifted flour and baking powder and mix into batter

grease and line bottom of 7" spring form pan with parchment paper

add dough to pan and even out top with spatula

Bake at 355F for 20 minutes


Remove cake from pan and let cool

Place 7" ring around cake and add acetate around cake


Add gelatin to water and stir - set aside

Add butter and condensed milk to medium bowl and mix well

In a separate bowl add egg whites, 1tbs sugar and 1tbs of lemon juice together 

beat until soft peaks

heat sugar and water together until it reaches 235F

slowly pour into egg whites while beating and continue to beat until mixture is firm

add gelatin in slowly

fold in butter and condensed milk mixture

Add to top of cake and cool in fridge for at least 1 hour


Remove cake from ring and remove acetate

smooth out top edge of chilled cream with hot spoon


heat chocolate and cream together and let cool slighlty

pour ganache over top of cake and spread evenly 

let cool for at least 2 hours

Here are some pictures from the bake:





Have a great day !



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