Buckwheat gateau

The layer between the cakes is yoghurt and cranberries rather than cream.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (double cream), dairy (yoghurt), honey.

Ingredients

For the cakes

• 200 g buckwheat flour
• 150 g heather honey
• 6 eggs, separated
• 100 g butter, softened
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

For the layer and the top

• 300 g cranberries
• 100 g sugar
• 300 g thick natural yoghurt
• 300 ml double cream
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 60 g dark chocolate, in shavings

Method

1. THE LAYER BETWEEN THE CAKES IS YOGHURT AND CRANBERRIES RATHER THAN CREAM. The article gives the whole object in one sentence: LAYERS OF CAKE MADE FROM BUCKWHEAT FLOUR AND HEATHER HONEY, SEPARATED BY A FRUIT LAYER USING YOGHURT AND CRANBERRIES AND TOPPED BY WHIPPED CREAM AND CHOCOLATE SHAVINGS.
2. SO THE SOUR LAYER IS INSIDE AND THE SWEET ONE IS ON TOP, which is the opposite way round from most layer cakes. Yoghurt and cranberries against buckwheat and honey: two sharp things and two sweet ones, alternating.
3. BUCKWHEAT IS NOT A WHEAT AND MAKES NO GLUTEN, which is why these layers are thin and close-grained rather than springy. It is also why the eggs are separated and the whites whipped: there is nothing else to hold air.
4. HEATHER HONEY IS NAMED AND IS NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. It is thick, almost jellied, and bitter at the edge -- the thing that stops a cake of honey and cream being merely sweet. The article places the cake in the Lüneburg Heath, where the heather it comes from grows.
5. FIVE HUNDRED AND NINE CHARACTERS OF ARTICLE, AND IT STILL SPECIFIES THE OBJECT. What is stated is the form -- which layer sits where -- and that is an assembly instruction. The quantities, the baking and the handling below are mine.
6. CREAM THE BUTTER WITH THE HONEY, THEN THE YOLKS. Honey is wetter than sugar, so the mixture looks split before it comes together.
7. WHIP THE WHITES WITH THE CASTER SUGAR AND FOLD THEM IN LAST, in three goes. This is the whole rise.
8. BAKE TWO THIN LAYERS AT A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FOR TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES. Honey browns early; cover them if they colour before they are set.
9. COOK THE CRANBERRIES WITH THE SUGAR UNTIL THEY BURST, then cool them completely before the yoghurt goes in. Warm fruit thins yoghurt to a liquid and it will run out of the cake.
10. SPREAD THE YOGHURT LAYER ON THE BOTTOM CAKE, SET THE SECOND ON TOP, and finish with the whipped cream and the chocolate shavings. Assemble it on the day: a yoghurt filling soaks a thin buckwheat layer soft overnight.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes