So here we have it…my very first blog post!  I couldn’t think of a better start to blogging then writing down my experience with making a Schichttorte.  A Schichttorte is a German cake with twenty layers.  You can read more about its origins by clicking on the link in the previous sentence.

I first learned about this type of cake from watching season 1 of  The Great British Baking Show last year on Netflix.  I am obsessed with cooking shows, especially when desserts are involved,  and don’t know why it took me so long to find out about TGBBS.  I was like a little girl opening presents on Christmas day and plowed through the whole season in a couple of days.

Anywho…I was inspired by almost every recipe on the show but was particularly drawn to the Schichttorte because of my German background and also because it looked so challenging to make!

First things first.  Here is the recipe I used:  Schichttorte Recipe.  If you have basic cooking skills, I think it is pretty easy to follow.  A couple of notes though.  Some terms in the recipe might be confusing because it obviously uses some British terminology.  For example, when it refers to a grill it really just meals a broiler to us American folks.  Golden syrup can be substituted with corn syrup and corn flower is really just corn starch. One last thing…vanilla bean paste is just that…vanilla bean paste.  However, it was not something I was able to find in my local grocery stores.  I live in a fairly small town, so that’s not surprising.  I was able to order some from Amazon and now I use it for any recipe calling for vanilla extract.  I love it!

The beginning steps are really just dedicated to getting your batter ready.  I am embarrassed to say I totally forgot to take some pictures of those steps but I think you all can figure that part out without any visual aids.

Here comes the fun part.  I went ahead and fired up the broiler in my oven on high and began preparing my spring form tin with parchment paper and oil to grease the sides.  The moment of truth was upon me and I ladled a small amount of batter into the base of the tin and made sure it spread as evenly as possible across the bottom.  I placed it under the broiler for three minutes (per the recipe) and quickly found out that was way too long! SIDE NOTE:  One of the trademarks of a Schichttorte is that the layers have alternating color from light golden-brown to dark-golden brown.  My first layer was a little more on the side of dark-dark golden-brown, but that was ok.  It wasn’t burnt so I went ahead with the next layer and carefully hawk-eyed over it like watching a child playing alone in a pool. In doing so, I had the perfect, light, golden-brown layer.  I suggest wearing light weight, loose clothing because you will break a little sweat making this bad boy.  Turns out my perfect cooking time for the light layers was 30-45 seconds and one minute for the darker layers.

Like I stated previously, this cake traditionally is supposed to have 20 layers.  Well, I ended up with 17 which really burst my baking bubble.  Hell, it was my first time making this type of cake though so I quickly got over it and gave myself a good pat on the back.  I didn’t burn any layers and my layers were fairly even after figuring out the perfect amount to ladle in the tin…that’s a win in my book!

The chocolate and vanilla glaze was very standard and easy to make.  Once I was done making them I got to work on glazing my cooled down cake.  That was super fun as you can see in the pictures down below!

My family and I had this cake for a special occasion and everyone enjoyed it.  I will warn you.  It is not like a traditional crumb cake.  This cake is dense and very eggy (I mean duh, you use 10 eggs).  It’s not overly sweet even with the glazes.  The only thing I can kind of compare it to is eating a stack of dense crepes with bitter/unsweetened chocolate. Hope that makes sense.

Nielsen-Massey Pure Vanilla Bean Paste

Finished and cooling.

Release the Schichttorte!

Chopping up some chocolate.

Chocolate glaze in the works.

Let the glazing begin!

Still glazing…

Vanilla glaze time.

Isn’t she lovely?

Sliced open!

Look at those layers! Need to work on not having any bubble pockets next time.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, I appreciate it!  I’m new to this whole blogging thing and hope I didn’t ramble on too much.  I do want to end with a cool, short story.  After taking the first bite of her slice of Schichttorte, my mother gasped and proceeded to tell me that this cake brought her back in time.  She stated that my great-grandmother (who I was very close to) would make a cake just like this (without the chocolate) every time my mother gave birth.  She thinks that it was an old German tradition to do so because of all of the eggs used in the recipe.  It was a good way to provide a lot of protein to a new, nursing mom.  That’s her theory at least.  Mom said she never asked, she just ate it because grandma said so and we all know it’s important to do what grandmas tell you to do.

Hope my Schichttorte experience was helpful to anyone interested in making this cake.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write me in the comments box below.  I’m no expert, but I will do my best to help in any way possible.

xoxo, Krista