Eggless Bienenstich Kuchen (German Bee Sting Cake)

For this month's We Knead to Bake, Aparna chose this German Bread (actually a German Cake).. It is an interesting cake with yeast used as the rising agent.. This has 3 texture, the top layer is little hard from the caramel, the cake is soft and the custard filling is smooth and silky.. This made 8 big pieces. The frosting was left over. So next time, I would do half the below frosting for this recipe..


Ingredients
For the Dough
All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
Milk - 1/2 cup + 1 table spoon
Butter - 100 grams
Salt - 3/4 tea spoon
Sugar - 2 table spoons
Instant Yeast - 1 1/4 tea spoon
Egg Replacer - 1/2 table spoon
Warm Water - 2 table spoons
For the Topping
Butter - 50 grams
Honey - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 2 table spoons
Vanilla - 1 tea spoon
Slivered Almonds - 2/3 cup
For the Pastry Cream (you will need only around 1/2 of this quantity for this cake)
Fresh Cream - 200 ml
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Custard Powder - 3 1/2 table spoons
Milk - 1 cup
Corn Starch - 1 table spoon
Agar Agar - 1 tea spoon



Method
First Make the pastry cream and refrigerate until use.
To make the pastry cream, Mix custard powder to 1/4 cup of cold milk and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
Heat the remaining milk and sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves completely.
Add the custard milk slowly in a thin stream and whisk continuously to ensure that it does not lump. Also reduce the heat to medium low
Cook and whisk until the custard becomes very thick. Remove from heat and allow it to cool
While cooling whisk a few times to ensure that it is smooth and shiny
Once it is cooled to room temperature, transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate.
Now make the dough


Whisk together warm water and egg replacer well until it is gooey
Heat milk and butter until the milk is hot and the butter is all dissolved. Set aside to cool a bit
To the mixing bowl, add flour, yeast, sugar and mix well. Now add the salt and mix well
Add the egg replacer solution and mix well until it is incorporated
Add the milk butter mixture and knead until it forms a smooth, soft dough which is little short of sticky. You may need to add a table spoon or 2 of milk more if the dough is dry
Grease a bowl with oil and place the dough inside the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or plate and allow it to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It will not rise as much as the bread dough, but it will rise a lot.
To a 9x5 loaf pan, line it with parchment paper and leave it to overhang to ensure that cake can be lifted with the overhang. You could also do this to a 8 inch square or round pan.
Spray the parchment paper with oil spray well. Set aside
After the dough has risen, shape the dough to a loaf and press it inside the prepared loaf pan and press it to cover the entire pan
Cover and allow it to rise for 1 hour. After 1 hour, it will be puffy but not risen too much
In the mean time, prepare the topping while the dough is rising
To prepare the topping, prepare the almonds first if you do not get slivered almonds.
To prepare the slivered almonds, boil the almonds for 3 - 4 minutes
Allow it to cool completely. Now you should be able to press the almonds on one end and the skin will be peeled easily. Peel the skin for all the almonds and set aside

Cut the almonds into slivered pieces. Boiling it and peeling the skin will make the cutting very easy
Set aside the almonds sliced until use
Heat sugar, honey, butter in a pan and when it comes to a boil, add the vanilla
Now add the almonds and continue to cook for 3 minutes until it becomes thick. Stir continuously to avoid lumps
You can wear the baking gloves to protect from the hot sugar syrup as this will bubble quite a bit
Allow it to cool completely. Now this will be like a thick sticky toffee
When the dough has risen again and is ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
Put the honey mixture on top of the dough and spread it evenly
Bake it in the preheated oven for 23 - 28 minutes. Mine took exactly 25 minutes. You can see the top becoming golden and a tooth pick inserted in the center will come out clean
Remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes
Run a knife around the edges and carefully remove the cake from the pan to a cooling rack or a board
When cooled to room temperature (about 1 hour), keep it in fridge for 1 more hour to cool faster
While the cake is cooling in the fridge, finish preparing the pastry filling
Whip the cream until soft peaks are formed. Add corn starch and agar agar and whip until the stiff peaks are formed
Now add the custard filling and whip until all mixed and incorporated
Chill this custard filling until use

As I have said above, you will probably need only 1/2 this filling for this cake...
Remove the cake once it is chilled, slice it in half with a sharp knife to two halves
To the top layer, cut in to desired pieces. I cut in to 8 pieces
To the bottom layer, spread the filling and arrange the top portion pieces
Refrigerate this for 1 hour and cut the cake into the pieces where the top portion was cut. So now you have a cake piece with one top portion, filling and a bottom portion.
Serve!!!