How to make a Bee Sting Cake-
Hi, Chef Dennis and his Wonderful Readers! I’m Debby, of A Feast for the Eyes.
At first, I couldn’t decide what recipe to make—sweet or savory? A friend of mine suggested that I go with what my German roots (my other half is Mexican). I pondered about what to make and finally settled on making a traditional cake called “Bienenstich” or “Bee Sting Cake”.
My father was military, and my mother was born and raised in Bavaria. They married and we lived in Hawaii and California. As a kid, our family was stationed in Germany for a few years. The bonus was that we were able to visit my “Oma” often, while we were there.
I remember this cake, fondly, because of the sticky and sweet honey almonds and the creamy filling. My “Oma” would buy one of these cakes, at the local bakery and serve thick slices with coffee. There are many versions as to how the cake got its name—
According to Wikipedia: “the cake may have earned its name from its honey topping: according to one legend, a bee was attracted to it, and the baker who invented the cake was stung. Another source cites a legend of German bakers from the 15th century who lobbed beehives at raiders from a neighboring village, successfully repelling them, and celebrated later by baking a version of this cake named after their efforts.”
The cake isn’t quite like an American cake. It’s more of a pastry texture and it is filled with a pastry cream and topped with honey glazed almonds. This was my first attempt at making this cake. I made the pastry cream, the night before. You could take some shortcuts by using vanilla pudding, or Bird’s Eye Custard Powder, and I wouldn’t tell anyone. However, pastry cream really isn’t that hard to make, from scratch. I used an easy recipe from “Joy of Baking”.
You’ll want to organize and measure your ingredients, milk (whole or 2%), vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extra or ½ vanilla bean), egg yolks, white sugar, flour and cornstarch. This is optional, but you can add either Grand Marnier (which I did), Kirsch or even Amaretto.
In a saucepan bring the milk just to boiling (just until milk starts to foam up.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture (tempering), whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Then pour the egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly.
When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes thick. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Stir in vanilla bean extract, or extract) Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming.
Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Whisk or stir before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
The brioche dough isn’t too complicated to make and is what makes the Bee Stink Cake so special.
If you have a stand mixer, it’s really easy to do. You can mix this, by hand, because the dough is much thinner than making a bread dough.
I warmed whole milk (110 F) and some honey and added Active Dry Yeast to it. 10 minutes later, the mixture was foamy and ready to make the dough. To the yeast mixture, 2 (room temperature eggs) are added, sugar, a little salt, a mixture of all-purpose flour and bread flour and then 1 stick of softened butter, until just blended. It will be very soft.
Place the dough into a buttered bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to double in volume (about 2 hours). Gently press the dough down, and knead a few times (you’ll want to flour your hands). Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and up to 12. (I made this a day ahead of time, too).
The next morning, I removed the dough and placed it into a 9” buttered springform pan. Shape into a ball, and gently, press the dough to fit the pan. Cover and allow it to puff up—about an hour. NOTE: I turn my oven on WARM for 2-3 minutes, then turn it off and place the covered dough into it. (This gives the dough a warm environment and helps to speed up the process.) Preheat the oven to 350, when the dough has risen.
For the Honey-Almond Topping: Combine ¼ cup, each, unsalted butter, sugar, honey and a pinch of salt. Bring to a gentle boil, on the stovetop, and remove from heat. Add ¾ cup sliced almonds and pour over the dough.
Place the pan on a parchment covered baking sheet (the honey mixture will seep through the bottom) and bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Place on a cooling rack and remove from the pan after 10 minutes.
The aroma of the cake is intoxicating—butter and honey…wow! There is a beautiful sticky caramelization on top and all around the cake. You’ll be tempted to cut into it, but let the cake cool, completely.
Carefully slice the cake in half, with a serrated knife, and add the pastry cream. Now, brew a fresh pot of dark roast coffee or make a pot of tea.
Slice with a sharp knife and serve.
A flood of childhood memories, in Bavaria, has just come back. This looks like as I remembered.
TASTING NOTES: The cake is not very sweet. It has the texture of pastry, and the pastry cream is mildly sweet. The honey almonds…oh, that is really what makes this cake so special! It’s sticky and honey sweet, with just the right amount of richness of butter—I could eat a bowl of the almond topping all by itself.
I wish my Oma was still alive, so she could see what her Granddaughter learned to make, in the United States. An unorthodox variation I will make the next time, is to add a layer of either apricot or raspberry jam, before adding the pastry cream.
This would be perfect to serve for Brunch, and I’ll be making this for Christmas morning.
- 1 ¼ cups milk whole or 2%
- ½ vanilla bean split lengthwise or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup ( granulated white sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch corn flour
- 1/2 tablespoon liqueur (Grand Marnier Brandy, Kirsch or Amaretto) (optional)
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread flour divided
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup sliced almonds
- In a medium-sized heatproof bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together. (Don’t let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch (corn flour) together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.
- Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring the milk and vanilla bean just to boiling (just until milk starts to foam up.)
- Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.)
- Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be washed and dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor.)
- Then pour the egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes thick.
- Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). (Stir in vanilla extract if using instead of a vanilla bean.) Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Whisk or stir before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
- Makes about 1 cup
- In a small saucepan (or a small cup if you want to use the microwave), combine milk and 1 tablespoon honey and heat until it registers between 110 degrees F to 115 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Pour the mixture into bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle over yeast. Let mixture stand for 10 minutes, until yeast is creamy/foamy.
- Transfer bowl to mixer stand and attach paddle (or hook) attachment. While mixing at low speed, gradually add eggs, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt, and mix until blended.
- Gradually add all but 2 tablespoons of bread flour. Mix at medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Dough should not stick to sides of bowl; if it does, add some of all of remaining 2 tablespoons of bread flour until dough cleans sides of bowl.
- Add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing at medium speed until it is blended into dough. (Dough will be very soft.) Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand a few times to ensure that butter is completely incorporated into dough. Shape dough into a ball and transfer it to a medium buttered bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it has doubled in volume.
- Punch dough down to deflate it, and knead it a few times. Return dough to bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or up to 12 hours). Dough should have doubled in volume. If it hasn't, let it stand at room temperature until it has. (NOTE: I made the dough the night before.)
- Butter bottom and sides of a 9” spring-form pan. Shape dough into a ball and arrange it, smooth side up, in center of pan. Flatten ball gently with your palm until it covers bottom of pan. Cover pan and let dough rise until it is puffed, about 1 hour.
- Combine the butter, sugar, honey, and salt, and bring to a gentle boil on the stovetop.
- Remove from the heat, and stir in the almonds. Evenly pour over the dough and place the pan on a parchment (or foil) covered baking sheet.
- Position a rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F about 22-25 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.
- Place on a cooling rack, and allow to cool four 10 minutes. Remove from the Springform Pan and allow to cool completely.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the cake in half. I place the cake on a rotating cake stand, and being by rotating the cake and creating a cut line midway through the cake. Continue rotating, allowing the knife to cut deeper until the cake is completely sliced in half.
- Spread the pastry cream, leaving a narrow edge. Gently replace the top layer of the cake. Serve with coffee or tea.
NOTE: I make the pastry cream and prepare the dough a day of ahead of time.
As always, another great guest post by a “new to me” blogger.
Hi Cher, and thank you!
Thank you, Chef Dennis, for the honor of calling you my Blogger Friend. I love your blog, and I am thrilled to be a guest in your own kitchen!
Wow, did the real ‘Foodiewife’ write that comment?! How wonderful! I always thought those who cook this beautifully wouldn’t bother with the rest of us! Thanks! Haven’t rated this yet as I’ll make it on the weekend, but think I’ll have to do this instead of the apple cake I had in mind.
Oh my goodness. You see, this is why I don’t like chocolate; there are so many more amazing sweet treat combinations to explore. I could just dive into this cake, it looks so amazing. I agree without even tasting it that the honey-almond topping takes it over the top. It looks fantastic.
I like chocolate, but am a bigger fan of caramel and “chewy” sweets. You are so right, this topping really hits the sweet spot!
what a fabulous cake! i think i ate something like this in france, though not so lovely and layered. that honey topping is to die for!
Anna, I recently ate a slice of this at a French bakery. They call is Beehive cake. Either way, it’s one of my all-time favorite coffee cakes.
Put the dark roast on Deb, I’m coming over! So true, all Deb’s recipes are drool worthy!
Muwaaaaaah, Marie! There’s a setting for you, at my table. You know I love your recipes, too!
I love the name of this cake! And it looks just wonderful!
This is a must try cake, I love the honey and butter combination, The images are so tempting I might actually bake this cake today.
Thanks for this beautiful guest post.
Thank you so much! If you do bake this cake, I’d love to know how it turned out for you!
Oh this looks delicious! I think it will be a perfect item for my Christmas brunch!
I’ll be making this for Christmas morning, too!
Wow that looks phenomenal!
With those fabulous pictures, anyone could follow this step-by-step recipe no matter the prior cooking history — and be totally encouraged along the way that this masterpiece could actually end up in their personal kitchen!
Thanks, Susie! I hope that my photos will encourage bakers, of any level, to try.
Beautiful cake and I love the name! I think I’m going to make this for Christmas when my husband and I visit his German mother. Please tell me it has friendly visit vibes in it! I wonder if she’ll have strong memories of this and I’m betting she will since her father was a total cake lover. Thanks!
I think your German MIL will be thrilled, if you make this. Bring some good German/dark roast coffee and you’ll hit it outside the ballpark! Good luck!
This cake looks amazing! Debby–It was such a pleasure meeting you at FoodBuzz this year. Even though FoodBuzz didn’t provide speakers/panels/workshops or stuff like that, it was still fun to break bread and party with other bloggers. Beth was right though–we had the best table at the cocktail party!
We sure did have a lot of fun, at our cocktail group, didn’t we? I’m so glad that we reconnected!
Ooooh this cake looks TO DIE FOR! I love a Feast for Eyes 🙂
Wow Deb, great post, pics and recipe! Having German roots, I have a few favorite baked items from the old world I like to make. My mom is coming for the holidays and I’m definitely making this! Always fun to discover new bloggers, look forward to following you!
Hi Lynn! Thanks for your email! I’d love to know what German recipes you have to share. My mother didn’t keep a recipe card, so I am trying to recreate her recipes from my childhood memory– which is getting a little fuzzier, each year! LOL
I am in the process of making this cake which looks amazing, but I have a question about the cake part, it says 1/3 c. honey plus 1 T. I see where you mix the 1 T. honey with the milk, but did not see anything about the remaining 1/3. Since I had already started, I ended up just adding the 1/3 c. honey to my batter along with the eggs, etc. My dough did not form a ball at all and remained slightly sticky which I suppose is from me adding the honey. I added more flour a little at a time but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Since I’ve already started I’m going to carry on and hope for the best, but could you please advise me here should I decide to try this again.
Oh, dear! I’m so sorry you had trouble with the recipe, and so I re-read the directions– hoping I hadn’t let out an important step. I used 1 tsp of the honey, with the milk, as my insurance that the yeast was good. The remaining honey is melted with the butter, on the stovetop. Off heat, the almonds are stirred in and the poured all over the dough. If you look at the step-by-step photos, it should make more sense. Just remember, the dough will be a bit sticky, as you are not adding a lot of bread. That’s why I suggest flouring your hands, while shaping the dough. I do hope that the cake turns out for you. Please, feel free to email me at foodiewife@gmail.com if I can help you along the way.
I see the problem, and please accept my humble apologies. I will write to Chef Dennis to omit the 1/3 cup honey under the dough ingredients. I am so sorry… that was for the topping. Mea Culpa.
Thanks for your quick response. It’s not a problem, mistakes happen. I’m gonna give this cake another go with the changes made. It looks too good to give up on!
I agree with Chef Dennis… prolonged torture… of the best kind! (Anticipation is worth the wait.) Love that this isn’t very sweet, except for the honey almonds… and the beautiful memories you shared of your “Oma.” Thanks for a lovely guest post, Debby! And thanks, Dennis, for your sentiments on blogging friendships. 🙂
This cake looks almost simple and there are so many things going on. The idea of brioche filled with pastry cream and that honey topping just blew my hat off! I think brioche is one of the best doughs ever invented. This cake is just amazing! A wonderful guest post both of you!
what an awesome cake with great memories Dennis and Debby! Happy Thanksgiving to both of you! You’re both wonderful friends that I am thankful for!
All the best,
Roz
I had been drooling over this recipe for a few days until I finally found the time to make it, and it has got to be the most professional-looking thing I’ve made. I didn’t know how to make bread so I was really nervous it wouldn’t turn out fine, but it did and it was amazing. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for reviewing my recipe! I’m so glad that you liked it. It is easy to make, isn’t it?
Fantastic! Almost gave up as my dough hardly rose. Granted I only gave it about 3 hours to do the job. Stuck in the oven anyway and it practically rose to a large rounded cake size. The combination was perfect. Used fynbos honey as am from South Africa. This honey is incredibly fragrant and spicy and people commented how interesting and delicious the honey was. Thanks for this recipe it’s a keeper x
Ps stuck all of the bread ingredients straight into my bread maker on the pizza dough setting – totally lazy and it worked perfectly x
Wow! That’s a great success story!
Thanks for the positive feedback. Once Christmas has settled down, I’m making this again.
Thank you very much for this recipe. This is my husbands most missed dessert from our time spent living in the southern region of Bavaria. Since leaving active duty service he’s been having a hard year getting settled into civilian life ; trying to find work, birth of twins , medical issues etc, and I would like to make this for him as a surprise for Christmas and hopefully bring a small smile to his face. Your recipe is the only one which looks and sounds exactly like the one we would get from our local bakery – I can’t wait to make it and taste it. Again thank you very much for your time and effort into putting this delicious recipe out there – so many people will fall in love with it if they just try it once!
What a sweet story! I do hope you find this to be the recipe you were looking for. Merry Christmas!
This cake is absolutely device! I’m an inexperienced baker, this was my first time using yeast to leaven anything. I have also never made a pastry cream before. I believe this cake took my German grandmother back to her childhood, when she worked in her father’s bakery. I made the brioche dough and pastry cream the day before. This is almost a requirement. However, the pastry cream became a gelatinous blob in the fridge overnight. Next time, I will probably omit the flour. To salvage my cream, I added about a tablespoon of honey, and a little bit of Maker’s Nark bourbon. I added very little bourbon to cut the sweetness, but not enough that it was obvious. Great recipe. I had to hide the last slice for Grandma to enjoy with her morning coffee. This is fancy and rich enough for a special occasion. It is definitely worth the time to prepare.
Thanks, Julie B! So glad you had success. Your tweaks sound wonderful.
When I was staying in Germany with my daughter, we saw this cake in the bakery display case. “Bitte, wie sagen Sie das?” Many questionable looks later, we had our piece – it was outstanding – so very German. Thanks for the recipe.
Spent the last two days assiting my daughter in making this for a project in her German class. We had great time. I really enjoyed the results. Thanks
Thanks for the feedback Ray, I’m happy to hear you and your daughter had fun making the cake!
I don’t like almonds at all…everyone else in my family does… so I’m thinking about making this with 1/2 of the topping with and 1/2 of the topping without almonds. …noticed I didn’t say just a little without almond..
I have every intention of eating 1/2 of this cake. ..
I come from a full blooded Italian family and growing up, the Bee Hive Cake was very popular at all the family doings (birthdays, anniversaries, and religious occasions). It’s also one of my mother’s favorite cakes. I came across this recipe and decided to make it for her 93rd birthday over the weekend. I always like to make extra so I used an 18″ spring form pan and doubled the dough and tripled the custard and topping. The outcome was fabulous – everyone loved it and it tasted exactly as I remember it as a child and I’m now 61 years old. Thank you for your recipe.
Making this for my husband’s birthday tomorrow. It is his favorite cake. Thanks for laying out all the steps so nicely. This is one of the more difficult desserts I’ve attempted and I feel like I’ve been pretty successful thus far!
I’ve been experimenting with a whole bunch of different brioche and beesting recipes over the last week or so, and I just found yours this morning. I made it today and both the dough and the whole cake have turned out the best of the lot! Thankyou so much for an excellent, easy to follow recipe! I’m selling the beesting in my cafe tomorrow- hopefully everyone enjoys this German treat. Cheers Deb.
I made the custard and baked the cake in advance, let them cool overnight (custard in the fridge and cake on the counter) and assembled it the next morning. I followed the recipe exactly and the results were beautiful and delicious. Honey and butter are scrumptious separately, but together – wow!
I do have one question: in the dough’s final stage of rising, how puffed should it be before you top it with the honey-almond mixture and bake? Double the volume? I used your trick of setting the dough in the pre-warmed the oven and let it rise for an hour and the pan nearly overflowed. Once I removed the saran wrap, however, the dough collapsed some.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I can’t wait to try this! I want to make it for Thanksgiving so I should do a trial run before then. I hope I have the time. Either way, this will be coming out of my kitchen some time in the next 2 months for sure. I remember this cake fondly. When I was growing up it was always a special occasion when the Beehive cake showed up (of course mom always said it in German). It always came in squares from a professional bakery so I can”t wait to try a homemade version I’ll try to remember to come back to rate it..
I have a Bee Sting recipe but always have trouble with the cake falling when I add the almond-honey mixture. What can I do to prevent this?
I would suggest trying this recipe and following the directions closely, since the recipe you have doesn’t work
My husband has been talking about Bienenstich for some time, but we can’t find it at a local deli. I made this recipe, and it tastes excellent. I just have one question: when I took my brioche out of the oven, it was amazing-looking. It was high, golden, and smelled fantastic. After it came out it fell a little, but nothing dramatic. After removing the spring pan sides (I left the base), it fell quite a bit more. I follwed the instructions faithfully, it was cooked completely, and the texture of the brioche is wonderful. Any suggestions? I was wondering if my gas oven is maybe off a bit. Could that be it?
Hi! Is it ok to use all purpose flour instead of bread flour that it’s called for? I never buy bread flour and most of the time i only have all purpose flour on hand. Been wanting to try this after my husband and i had this cake at our friend’s dinner party. Thank u for this recipe!
You need bread flour for this recipe. I’m not sure what adjustments need to be made if you use all purpose,
It could just be because I have baby brain at the moment, but I didn’t see any instructions for baking the actual cake.
Never mind, just found it ?
I tried this out but i stuck with a good 17% gluten / 00 Bakers flour & I love the smell of fresh yeast so used this instead, all in all it turned out great!
Love the enthusiasm on this blog 🙂
Note i could have used a dash of bread improver.
Thank you!
I never ever leave comments on any web pages, but I wanted to leave a comment here as I thought this was such a good recipe and it was a real adventure making it! I like to bake regular cakes and so on but this was one of the most difficult things I have ever tried – I certainly never bake with yeast, had never made a creme pat etc.
I didn’t have active dry so just used double the amount of fresh yeast and it was fine. Also, I don’t have a stand mixer so did this by hand. I would NOT recommend this! I didn’t realise that brioche isn’t something people really do by hand, so there was about an hour of really sticky, messy kneading going on before it became a dough. If you are trying this and have to knead in the butter by hand, just keep going! It will make a dough eventually!!!
There are some other recipes on maybe more well-known sites available but I saw this one first and having read the comments, decided this looked the best – for example the Smitten Kitchen recipe has lots of comments about the top sinking in etc. I had maybe one small patch that this happened but the rest was fine and I could easily slice it in half.
All in all, it worked great, and I haven’t felt so proud after making something in a long time. Thank you!
One thing – some of the measures are a bit confusing. For instance when it states “cup 3/4” of something I would automatically think that means a cup AND a quarter. It just means a quarter. Maybe you could change that to say “3/4 cup”.
I’m happy to hear you like the cake Lucy, and thank you for letting me know about the recipe. I changed the program that places my recipes and not everything converted correctly. I’ve fixed the recipe
Just checking, is the amount of milk needed 1 and 1/4 cups or just 1 cup?
hi Alison
thanks for the heads up on the recipe, I switched recipe plugins and it didn’t convert everything correctly. The pastry cream is 1 1/4 cup milk. The brioche is just 1/4 cup
Cheers
Dennis
A few years ago, we decided to forego the traditional American Thanksgiving or Christmas food in favor of a German feast. Ever since then, i have been afraid of the Bienenstich cake. I can make a mean pretzel… Not to mention rouladen, krautkrapfen. beirocks, and even strudle. But for some reason, I was afraid to try the bienenstich. I think it was more a fear of the pastry cream. Well THIS year, I bought some vanilla pudding, just in case I muffed up the cream and just went with it. I should never have been scared. This recipe is absolutely amazing! Even my mother-in-law didn’t have a single criticism (and that is saying a lot).
Thanks for the comment and I’m happy to hear the cake turned out well!
How much vanilla extract? I think I’m going to try almond extract instead!
one teaspoon Ramona. Almond would be a nice addition