German Apple Almond Cake with Meringue and Cream

A luscious, creamy and seductive torte with apples, almond meringue, pudding and whipped cream, the kind of cake that everybody loves.

I will be short today. I am late with posting, I was supposed to have this online yesterday, but it has been such a busy day yesterday… We are renovating a part of our house, the children area, a large project with 3 new rooms, a huge living room just for the kids and a new bathroom. We are at the point where we can actually start thinking about furniture, bath equipment and decoration. Until now I was not particularly involved, my husband is very gifted in this area and he managed everything more or less alone, but now the time has come for me to get involved as well.

So, we have been visiting some bathroom exhibits yesterday to get an idea about what we actually like and want to have in our house. After that we had the children movie-pizza evening they have been asking for for so long now, some guests on top of everything… the days just don’t have enough hours for me to manage everything I’d like to…

A few words about this cake though: it is heavenly! I like it so much I could eat three pieces at once if I could afford that… 🙂 It is so creamy, yet it has that crunch given by the almonds. It is sweet, yet refreshing due to the apples, it is just amazing. You really have to give it a try, it involves quite a few different steps, but they are all easily managed and the result is really worth it.

I had this for the first time at my friend’s Petra house and I liked it so much I immediately had to have the recipe. I would say it is a typical German kind of cake: a sponge mixture base, fruit with pudding and whipped cream, a reliable, delicious tasting cake, which is sure to make everybody happy.

I use the common Dr. Oetker pudding powder to make the filling for the cake, cream taste in this case, although you can replace that with vanilla if unable to get it. I am not sure if that is available everywhere in this world, if you cannot find it use a similar product. It is small sachet 41 g/ 1.4 oz of pudding powder which is transformed into pudding by cooking it with 500 ml/ 2 cups of milk. I don’t use milk in this case, just water and less than two cups. The whipped cream I use is the plain unsweetened whipped cream (Schlagsahne for Germans), please don’t use the sweetened one, it is a terrible thing. I also use Dr. Oetker whipping cream stabilizer or stiffener (Sahnesteif), but that is optional. I use it to make sure that the cream is stiff enough, but in this case, it is not essential, a few degrees more or less of stiffness won’t matter.

Make sure the pudding is set enough before cutting the cake. Three to five hours should be enough. My friend Petra says the cake is best served fresh on the day you bake it, but to tell you the truth I think that the leftover slices on the next day are still wonderful, so I would not worry about making this on an afternoon or evening and serving it the next day at coffee time.

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Apple Almond Cream Cake

Prep time:  1 hour

Cook time:  40 mins

Total time:  1 hour 40 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• For the batter:
• 100 g/ 3.5 oz butter, room temperature
• 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ 100 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, separated (medium Germany, large US)
• 125 g/ 4.4 oz/ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Dr. Oetker baking powder
• For the meringue:
• 150 g/ 5.3 oz/ ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ 1 cup slivered almonds
• For the filling:
• 300 ml/ 1 ¼ cups water
• 150 g/ 5.3 oz/ ¾ cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 packet Dr. Oetker cream/ vanilla pudding powder 41 g/ 1.4 oz (See note)
• 2 eggs (medium Germany, large US)
• 4-5 apples, depending on size
• 400 ml/ 1 ¾ cups whipping cream (without sugar)
• 2 packets whipping cream stabilizer, optional
• some cinnamon, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour a springform 26 cm/ 10.2 inches diameter.
2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites.
3. Beat together the soft butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one by one, whisking well in between, until each egg yolk is fully incorporated.
4. In another bowl weigh the flour and the baking powder. Sift them over the butter mixture and carefully fold in. Pour the batter into the prepared springform.
5. To make the meringue, wash the beaters of the mixer very well with soap and hot water to remove any rests of the batter you whisked before. Beat the egg whites until quite stiff. Gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until the meringue is stiff again and glossy. Spread the mixture over the batter in the springfrom and sprinkle with the slivered almonds. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the batter is cooked through and the almonds are golden.
6. Leave the cake in the springform for about 15 minutes, then carefully remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.
7. While the cake bakes make the pudding.
8. In a small saucepan bring half of the water to a boil. Whisk the rest of the water with the pudding powder, sugar and vanilla sugar until there are no more clumps. When the water boils, take it off the heat, whisk in the pudding powder mixture, place on the hob again and bring it to a boil again while whisking continuously.
9. Add the two eggs while whisking continuously and bring to a boil again. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
10. Peel and grate the apples and mix them with the lemon juice. Give them to the cold pudding and fold in. Pour the mixture over the cold cake.
11. Whisk the cream with the cream stabilizer until stiff and spread it over the cake. Place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or until the pudding is set. You could sprinkle it with some cinnamon just before serving, if you wish.

Notes

I use the common Dr. Oetker pudding powder to make the filling for the cake, cream taste in this case, although you can replace that with vanilla if unable to get it. I am not sure if that is available everywhere in this world, if you cannot find it use a similar product. It is small sachet 41 g/ 1.4 oz of pudding powder which is transformed into pudding by cooking it with 500 ml/ 2 cups of milk. I don't use milk in this case, just water and less than two cups. The whipped cream I use is the plain unsweetened whipped cream, please don't use the sweetened one, it is a terrible thing. I also use Dr. Oetker whipping cream stabilizer or stiffener, but that is optional. I use it to make sure that the cream is stiff enough, but it this case, it is not essential, a few degrees more or less of stiffness won't matter.

3.5.3208

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