Baumkuchen or Kings Cake or is it tree cake or log cake?

Now this is a cake that will test you as it is not lie any normal cake that you might make, you could say that it is three cakes altogether in a ring . that is why it is called tree cake as when you cut threw it looks like a tree stump thin the rings , and king cake because it takes so long to make it is very special . Now as many of these recipes it is hard to define exactly who was first to make it. It is believed that it was invented in the German town of Salzwedel, or it could be a Hungarian wedding cake.  Or it could be as old as to go back to Ancient Greece and then Rome, as so many things can in European food. The only thing you can say that is for 200 years or more German bakers have been making this , originally over an open fire, on a spit. That is why it has a hole in the middle. Onr thing you can say is that Baumkuchen is one of the most popular pastries in Japan, where it is called baumukūhen. Apparently it was introduced to Japan by Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim. He was from Germany and was in the Chinese city of Tsingtao during World War I. At the end of the war Japanese Army removed him and his wife to Japan, why I do not know. But while he was in Japan he started to make and sell Baumkuchen. Where he opened a bakery Yokohama , that was destroyed by an earth quake so he opened another in  Kobe. He made the cake up until then end of World War II, then later his wife returned to help a Japanese company open a chain of bakeries.  Now I am not suggesting that you try this but you can make them  with 25 layers, over  50kg/100lbs in weight and a 1m to 3f long, now that takes some skill and timing.

You will need.

226g/8oz butter

168g/6oz caster sugar

8 eggs

2tbsp rum

Zest of 1 lemon

A pinch salt, if your butter is not salted

50g/1¾oz ground almonds

150g/5oz flour

150g 5oz corn flour

325g/12oz apricot jam

325g/120z marzipan

Then something to ice the cake with at the end icing , chocolate , butter cream the choice is yours.

Mow you will need a spring form cake tin to make this and lots of time as you will be in and out of the over again and again. Also line the bottom of the oven with a sheet of tin foil , you will get little spatter all over the oven and you do not want to be cleaning that afterwards.

The cake batter its self is easy, separate your eggs then blend the flour and the corn flour together.  Now in a big bowl beat the butter and the sugar together so it goes nice and white.  Then a little at a time add your egg yolks, then the flour blende. Mix this until you have a nice stiff batter. Now beat your egg whites until very stiff and fold gently into the batter.  Work this until you have a nice light fluffy batter mix.

Now you need your oven set and preheated that is most important set it at 203c or 450f and make sure that is that hot before you start.  Only lightly grease the cake tin, too much butter and it will melt and you will not get the effect you are looking for. Take about 2 tablespoons of the batter and make a thin covering of batter around the edge of the cake tin. Then put it in the oven at the very top and bake it. It will only take about 2 minutes to go golden brown. Then all you have to do is repeat that over and over again. This much batter will give you about 14 to 16 layers in an 8½" or 20cm cake tin. Now the first layer is the hardest and I am told that you heat the tin up first to get the layer to stick, but not too hot. After the first layer the rest goes on fairly easily after that.

Then all you have to do is ice the cake heat up with a little water the apricot jam and paint that on the outside of the cake , then as thin as you can apply a layer of marzipan and finish with whatever icing you want.

Now if it is not tricky as it is you can be clever and make two batters one with coco powder in it and then you do get a ring affect. Another way of doing this is to do it in layer in a cake tin and not in rings. This way you can cut it and make a cake out of it.