Donauwellen (Danube Waves Cake)

Donauwellen (Danube Waves Cake)


I love cherries in a cake and this is one of my most favourite cakes, the Donauwelle (translated Danube Waves Cake).
It is a very popular cake in Germany, yet it's unclear, how the cake got it's name or where it originated. It might have gotten its name due to the swirl effects within the cake and the chocolate decoration pattern, which resembles waves. Another name is Schneewittchenkuchen, which means Snow-White-Cake, possibly due to the colour combination of black, white and red, as mentioned in the fairy tale.

I simply love the combination of a marble sponge filled with sour cherries as a base, topped with a vanilla pudding (custard) buttercreme and then covered with a thin layer of dark chocolate. Delicious!
I used to make the cake only on occasions, when I  either had a visitor from Germany bringing me a glass jar  of Cherries or two, or when Aldi or Lidl would have them on sale. The ones I use are in a juice, hence not that sweet and I was delighted to find them in my local polish wholesale shop, which is open to public.  Now I can make the cake whenever I fancy it or the kids request it again :)

Before you start though, prepare the cherries by draining them from it's juice. Use a sieve over a jug, you can keep the juice for ice cream sauce, simply thicken it over a low heat with cornflour or arrow root.
Pre-heat oven to 180C (fan-oven 160C).

Ingredients for Sponge:

• 2 Glass jars of Sour Cherries (Net weight approx. 350g each)
• 250g soft Butter
• 200g Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• inch of Salt
• 5 medium Eggs
• 375g Plain Flour
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 20g Cocoa Powder
• 1 tbsp Milk

Method for Sponge:

1. add the Butter into a bowl and mix with a hand blender until smooth
2. slowly add Sugar, Vanilla Essence and Salt - a tbsp at a time - until all mixed together
3. add Eggs, one at a time, mixing each egg on highest speed for about 1/2 minute until adding the next one
4. combine the Flour with the Baking Powder and sieve half of it into the mixture, blend together on a low speed, for not too long, just so that all is well mixed together.
5. pour about 2/3 of the mix onto a baking tray (approx size 40x30cm) and even it off
6. sieve the Cocoa and add the milk to the 1/3 in the bowl and blend together until you got a smooth chocolate mix
7. evenly spread the chocolate mix over the 2/3 of the mix on the tray and with a fork mix them together a little bit, to get a marble effect
8. dry off the drained Cherries on a paper kitchen towel and spread them evenly onto the tray
9. using the back of a spoon or your clean hands, press the Cherries slightly into the cake mix
10. put the tray onto the lower shelf of the oven and bake for about 40 Minutes

Ingredients for Vanilla Buttercreme:

• 500ml Milk
• 1 Vanilla pod (always use a Vanilla Pod, it gives a much nicer flavour)
• 4 Egg yolks
• 50g Cornflour
• 100g Sugar
• 400g soft Butter
• 200g Icing Sugar

Method for Vanilla Buttercreme:

1. pour Milk into a saucepan
2. slice the Vanilla pod length ways, just so that the vanilla pod has an opening
3. add Vanilla pod to the Milk and bring to the boil, but don't stir as the milk will burn otherwise
4. once boiled, leave to simmer for 5 minutes
5. in a separate bowl, add the Egg Yolks, Sugar and Cornflour and mix until smooth
6. slowly add the Egg/Sugar/Cornflour mix to the Milk, stiring constantly with a whisk, until thickened, otherwise the vanilla pudding will burn
7. remove the Vanilla Pod from the Milk and leave pudding to cool to room temperature, make sure you stir regularly to avoid a skin from forming
8. smooth the pudding through a fine sieve to make sure there's no skin
9. add the Butter and Icing Sugar into a bowl & mix until smooth
10. add the pudding spoon by spoon to the Butter mix - make sure both are at room temperature - in case of curdling, put the bowl over a saucepan with hot water (not boiling) and stir until smooth (but make sure no water gets into the mix)
11. Once the cake has cooled, spread the cool Vanilla Buttercreme over the cake
12. leave to set in a cool place for an hour

Ingredients for Chocolate Glaze:

• 300g Dark Chocolate (75% or 80%)
• 2 EL Vegetable Oil, i.e Sunflower oil

Method for Chocolate Glaze:

1. Break Chocolate into small pieces and add to a bowl
2. add the Oil
3. place bowl over a saucepan with hot water - not boiling
4. slowly melt the Chocolate - make sure that no water gets into Chocolate
5. spread the Chocolate over the cooled & set Buttercreme mixture until fully covered
6. If you want, you can add a waves design onto the Chocolate with a serrated side scraper
7. once the Chocolate has set, cut the cake into little squares and enjoy :)

TIP:

If you don't have the time to make the Vanilla Pudding from scratch, you can use ready made Pudding Powder ( i.e. from Dr. Oetker) and make the Pudding according to instructions. Then once cooled add it to the Buttercreme as per instructions above.

If you have any questions, let me know :)