Have you ever heard of a Bee Sting Cake?
According to Wikipedia: “this traditional Bavarian dessert 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.”
Hence the name Bienenstich, which translates to Bee Sting.
But whatever you decide to call this cake, I can promise you, your friends and family will be calling it delicious and asking for seconds!
The cake isn’t quite like any American cake you may have had. It has more of a pastry texture, filled with pastry cream and topped with honey glazed almonds.
Pastry cream might sound daunting, but it really isn’t difficult to make.
What ingredients do I need to make a Bee Sting Cake?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make a Bee Sting Cake. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the up cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How do I make a Bee Sting Cake?
The first step is making the pastry cream for the cake.
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.
Next is the pastry dough for the cake.
The brioche dough isn’t too complicated to make and is what makes the Bee Sting Cake so special.
If you have a stand mixer, it’s really easy to do, but you can mix this, by hand, because the dough isn’t as thick as bread dough.
Warm the whole milk and honey to 110 degrees F. (any hotter will kill the yeast). Add the active dry yeast to the mixture and wait 10 minutes. The mixture will become foamy and is ready to make the dough.
To the yeast mixture, add 2 room temperature eggs, sugar, salt, the mixture of all-purpose flour and bread flour combing until just blended. Then add 1 stick(4 ounces) of softened butter, until just blended. The dough will be very soft.
Place the dough into a buttered bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to double in volume (it should take about 2 hours). Gently press the dough down, and knead a few times (with floured hands). Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and up to 12 hours.
**If the dough appears too wet add 2-3 tablespoons of bread flour to the mixture. Some of the issues seem to be with the metric equivalents.
When the dough is ready place the dough into a 9” buttered springform pan. Shape into a ball, and gently, press the dough to fit the pan.
Cover and allow it to the dough to rise in a warm environment for about an hour. Start making the honey-almond topping
Preheat the oven to 350, when the dough has risen.
This is the springform pan I use for many of my baking needs.
What Ingredients do I need for the Honey-Almond Topping?
For the topping you’ll need sliced almonds, butter, honey, sugar and a pinch of salt.
Combine the unsalted butter, sugar, honey and salt in a small pan.
Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, on the stovetop, then remove from the heat. Add the sliced almonds and pour the mixture 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 the finished cake on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes remove from the cake from the pan.
The aroma of the cake is intoxicating and there is a beautiful sticky caramelization on top and all around the cake. You’ll be tempted to cut into the cake but it’s important to let the cake cool, completely.
After the cake has fully cooled, carefully slice the cake in half, with a serrated knife. Spread the pastry cream on top of the bottom half, covering it with the top half of the cake. Now it’s ready to serve.
Like most European cakes, the Bee Sting Cake is not very sweet. The pastry texture of the cake goes well with the mildly sweet pastry cream. But the honey almond topping is what takes this cake to the next level. The butter in the topping gives a delicate richness that perfectly finishes this Bavarian classic.
*Make sure to use a sharp knife to slice the cake.
This offset spatula is essential for baking and frosting cakes.
These are the spatulas I use in my kitchen. They are durable, heat resistant and easy to keep clean.
Having a good set of mixing bowls is essential for home baking and cooking.
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love!
Bee Sting Cake
Ingredients
Pastry Cream
- 1¼ cups milk whole or 2%
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ tablespoon liqueur (Grand Marnier Brandy, Kirsch or Amaretto) (optional)
Brioche dough:
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1½ 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
Honey-Almond Topping:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
Pastry Cream:
- 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 together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.
- Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring the milk to a light boil(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.)
- 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.
- 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.
Brioche dough:
- 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 on an instant-read thermometer. Pour the mixture into the 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 the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough should not stick to sides of bowl; if it does, add some of all of the remaining 2 tablespoons of bread flour until dough cleans sides of the bowl.
- Add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing at medium speed until it is blended into the 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 the 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 ½ to 2 hours, until it has doubled in volume.**If the dough appears too wet add 2-3 tablespoons of bread flour to the mixture. Some of the issues seem to be with the metric equivalents.
- Punch dough down to deflate it, and knead it a few times. Return dough to the bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or up to 12 hours). The 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 the pan. Flatten ball gently with your palm until it covers the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan and let the dough rise until it is puffed, about 1 hour.
Honey-Almond Topping:
- 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 the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F for 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 it to cool completely.
Assembly:
- 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.
Gena Durrett
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).
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for the comment and I’m happy to hear the cake turned out well!
Alison
Just checking, is the amount of milk needed 1 and 1/4 cups or just 1 cup?
Chef Dennis Littley
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
Lucy
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”.
Chef Dennis Littley
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
Luke Marinoff-Long
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.
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you!
Angelique
It could just be because I have baby brain at the moment, but I didn’t see any instructions for baking the actual cake.
Angelique
Never mind, just found it ?
Cathy
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!
Chef Dennis Littley
You need bread flour for this recipe. I’m not sure what adjustments need to be made if you use all purpose,
Lynna
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?
Janet
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?
Chef Dennis Littley
I would suggest trying this recipe and following the directions closely, since the recipe you have doesn’t work
Loretta
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..
Amy
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!
Jordan
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.
Dana
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!
Benay
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.
dee
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. ..
Ray
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
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for the feedback Ray, I’m happy to hear you and your daughter had fun making the cake!
erin friedman
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.
Julie B
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.
Foodiewife
Thanks, Julie B! So glad you had success. Your tweaks sound wonderful.
Melissa Ang
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!
Foodiewife
What a sweet story! I do hope you find this to be the recipe you were looking for. Merry Christmas!
Emily
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
Emily
Ps stuck all of the bread ingredients straight into my bread maker on the pizza dough setting – totally lazy and it worked perfectly x
Foodiewife
Wow! That’s a great success story!
Foodiewife
Thanks for the positive feedback. Once Christmas has settled down, I’m making this again.
Foodiewife
Thank you so much for reviewing my recipe! I’m so glad that you liked it. It is easy to make, isn’t it?