German Bee Sting Cake

5 from 2 votes

This delicious two-layer German Bee Sting Cake is made with soft and airy French brioche bread, filled with creamy vanilla pastry cream, and topped with crunchy honey-glazed almonds.

Prep Time1

Cook Time1

Waiting Time10

Total Time12

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: German

Servings:

Calories: 589kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Brioche

80 grams Whole milk lukewarm.
37 grams Granulated sugar
8 grams Fresh yeast 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 Egg at room temperature
190 grams Bread flour use high protein content flour
¼ teaspoon Salt
75 g Unsalted butter at room temperature

Honey Almond topping

65 g Granulated sugar
60 g Honey
55 g Unsalted butter
Large pinch of salt
150 g Almond flakes

Pastry Cream filling

480 g Whole milk 3% fat
100 g Granulated sugar
80 g Egg yolk approx. yolk of 4-5 eggs
25 g Corn starch
25 g All purpose flour
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
55 g Unsalted butter at room temperature

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Make the brioche

Heat half of the sugar with the milk just until lukewarm, then remove from the heat and sprinkle the yeast on top. Leave it for 10 minutes and the yeast should foam.
Place the yeast mixture into your stand mixer with the kneading hook on and mix it with the eggs. Then, mix in the dry ingredients: bread flour, the rest of the sugar, and a pinch of salt, and keep the mixer running to knead the dough until it comes together. This will take about 3 minutes.
Slowly add in the softened butter piece by piece while the mixer is on, and once all the butter is in, knead for around another 10 minutes on medium-high speed. The dough will become elastic and shiny.
Move the dough into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size. Then punch it out, re-shape it into a bowl, and put it in the fridge to rise again for a minimum of 8 hours or up to 24 hours.

Bake the brioche

The next day, grease a 9 inch / 23 cm springform pan.
Take the dough out of the fridge, punch the air out, roll it onto the size of your baking pan (9 inch / 23 cm) then place it into the tin.
Cover the brioche and allow it to proof for a further 1-2 hours until the dough doubles in size and fills the tin.
While the dough is proofing, prepare the almond topping by cooking the sugar, honey, salt, and unsalted butter for 3-4 minutes until slightly thickens, then remove it from the stove and mix in the almond flakes. Let it come to room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 180C / 356F towards the end of the proofing time.
Once the dough doubled in size, place the almond topping all around the top and then bake it at 180C / 356F for about 45 minutes. Cover the top with aluminum foil after about 25 minutes or if the brioche is browning too much.
Remove the cake from the oven, let it rest for 3 minutes, then carefully remove the side of the spring form. Let the cake come to room temperature before filling it.

Make the pastry cream

In a large enough bowl, with the help of a hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes, then whisk in cornstarch, flour, and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste.
Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering and pour the hot milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy.
Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated.
Pastry cream needs to completely cool before using it to fill the Bee sting cake. Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top.

Assemble the Bee Sting Cake

Cut the cake horizontally using a serrated knife then place the chilled pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with French star nozzle tip.
Using the piping bag or even a spoon, spread the cream on the bottom layer of the cake, then place the top part on the cream.
Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving. Any leftovers can be stored refrigerated for 3 days in an airtight container.

Notes

Ingredient notes

Always weigh ingredients by the gram using a digital scale to use the correct amounts.
If your yeast mixture does not foam after 10 minutes, start again. Make sure the milk is only lukewarm and not hot, as this can kill yeast.
For best results, use flour with high protein content, often labeled as bread flour. But all-purpose flour can be used instead if necessary.
The butter for the brioche and pastry cream needs to be soft but not melted or runny. Learn here how to soften butter quickly.
For the pastry cream use high fat milk and good quality vanilla extract.

Technique notes

The dough has proved sufficiently when you press it gently with your finger, and the indent stays there, or only half bounces back. If it bounces straight back, it needs more time to prove.
Do not skip the long cold ferment in the fridge, between 8-24 hours. This is essential for flavor and texture, plus, it makes the dough easier to handle.
Use an oven thermometer to always bake at the right temperature.
If the brioche is browning too fast in the oven, cover it with aluminum foil.
When cooking the pastry cream, it might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy. It's worth keeping a good quality (so that the milk won't burn in it) small/medium sized saucepan for making pastry cream only.

Nutrition