Zuger Kirschtorte

Marcel Paa’s Zuger Kirschtorte sandwiches one syrup-soaked biscuit layer between two Japonais bases and coats it with coloured buttercream. Prepared roasted almond shavings finish the sides, and sweet snow dusts the top before a diamond pattern is marked.

For the Japonais, four supplied egg whites are whipped stiff with fifty grams of sugar in a kitchen machine. The separate eighty grams of sugar and supplied ground almonds are mixed, then a rubber scraper folds this mixture into the whites. The batter is spread about five millimetres thick in three cake rings on a paper-lined tray; the rings are removed before baking. The bases bake golden for about fifteen minutes at 170 degrees with fan heat, are released from their paper and cooled. Two bases are used in this cake.

For the biscuit, the whole eggs and sugar are beaten in a bowl over a warm water bath until pale and hand-warm at forty degrees. The butter is melted in a pan, and the egg mixture is whipped in a kitchen machine for about ten minutes. The wheat flour is sifted and mixed with supplied ground, peeled almonds. The egg mixture is folded into this by hand, then the same melted, lukewarm butter is folded in. The batter fills a prepared ring on a paper-lined tray and bakes in the middle of a preheated oven at 190 degrees with upper and lower heat for about eighteen to twenty-five minutes. It is inverted onto the still-hot tray and cooled, then cut into two layers. One layer about two to three centimetres high is used for the cake.

For the buttercream, whole milk, sugar and the selected vanilla pod are boiled in a pot. Salt, the selected cornstarch and supplied egg yolks are mixed in a bowl. The same boiling milk is stirred into this mixture and returned to the pot, where it is boiled into pudding, strained, covered and cooled. Butter is whipped in the kitchen machine; the cooled pudding is added, beaten in and coloured with red food colouring. Separately, water and sugar are boiled in a pot and flavoured with Kirschbrand to make the syrup.

The first Japonais lies flat-side down on a cake card and receives a thin buttercream layer. The selected biscuit layer is placed light-side up, its edge coated with cream, and it is soaked with the same syrup. The second Japonais lies flat-side down on a work surface, is thinly coated with cream and inverted onto the biscuit, flat-side up, then lightly pressed. Cream coats the top; a dough scraper smooths the edge. Prepared shaved, roasted almonds coat the sides, sweet snow dusts the top, and a diamond pattern is marked. Decoration may be added if desired.