Donauwelle

The cherries sink as it bakes and drag the chocolate layer down with them, which is the wave.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

For the cake

• 250 g butter, softened
• 250 g caster sugar
• 250 g eggs, weighed out of the shell, about 5
• 250 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 700 g sour cherries, drained

For the topping

• 500 ml milk
• 40 g cornflour
• 60 g sugar
• 250 g butter, softened
• 200 g dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. THE CHERRIES SINK AS IT BAKES AND DRAG THE CHOCOLATE LAYER DOWN WITH THEM, WHICH IS THE WAVE. The article explains the pattern as a consequence rather than a decoration: the two batters are spread in layers, THE CHOCOLATE BATTER ABOVE THE PLAIN BATTER, before the top is strewn with sour cherries -- and DURING BAKING, THE CHERRIES SINK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE CAKE, CAUSING THE WAVY PATTERN.
2. SO THE WAVE IS GRAVITY AND NOTHING IS SWIRLED. Nobody draws it. Each cherry pulls a dimple of dark batter down through the pale batter as it falls, and the cut face is the record of where they went.
3. WHICH MEANS THE ORDER OF THE TWO BATTERS IS NOT ARBITRARY. Dark on top of pale, then the fruit on the dark. Reverse them and the cherries fall through pale batter into pale batter and there is no pattern at all.
4. AND THE CHERRIES MUST BE DRAINED HARD. Wet fruit sinks too fast and sits in a layer on the tin floor instead of leaving a trail.
5. THE BATTER IS A POUND CAKE AND THE ARTICLE DEFINES IT: EQUAL AMOUNTS BY WEIGHT OF BUTTER, FLOUR, EGGS AND SUGAR, then DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS, ONE OF WHICH IS COLORED WITH COCOA. Weigh the eggs out of their shells and match the other three to them.
6. CREAM THE BUTTER AND SUGAR LONGER THAN FEELS NECESSARY, five minutes, until it is almost white. This is the only lift besides the baking powder.
7. SPREAD BOTH LAYERS LEVEL AND THIN ON ONE TRAY. An uneven pale layer lets cherries reach the bottom in some places and not others.
8. A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DEGREES FOR THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES. Test at the edge, not the middle, where a cherry will always read wet.
9. THE BUTTERCREAM IS BUILT ON A COOKED CUSTARD AND BOTH HALVES MUST BE THE SAME TEMPERATURE. Cook the milk, cornflour and sugar, cool it completely, then beat it a spoon at a time into the creamed butter. Cold custard into warm butter curdles.
10. THE GLAZE GOES ON COLD BUTTERCREAM AND IS COMBED WITH A FORK, which is the article's own finish: ICED WITH A CHOCOLATE GLAZE WHICH MAY THEN BE ORNAMENTED IN A WAVY MANNER WITH A FORK. The oil in it is what stops the glaze shattering when the cake is cut.

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.

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