Bee Sting Cake 2.0
"Bienenstich" in German is a sweet yeast dough cake with honey-caramelized almond top, filled with custard cream. I knew I would love the cake. So, why 2.0? There was 1.0. In the early morning, I started making the cake by adapting a recipe from smitten kitchen. After 1 hour first rise, the dough looked puffy. According to the recipe, I stirred the dough to deflate it slightly. After 30 minute second rise, the dough looked very puffy although the recipe said "it’s not going to rise a lot." Really not? Once I started placing very warm gooey almond topping on the surface little by little, the dough was bubbling and rising more because of the heat from the almonds, I guess. The almond topping on the top were sinking in the fluffy dough. It didn't look right, but I baked it anyway. I was right that it wasn't right. The cake looked terrible. The almond topping never came back to the surface. They made a gooey layer at the bottom of the cake. The dough part tried to rise by hanging the cake mold wall, and the final shape of the cake was like a crater on the moon. Not just only the shape but the taste was awful - doughy and over-yeasty. Sad. That was the story about 1.0.
While the 1.0 was still in the oven, I started making another one: 2.0 with some careful modifications. (1) keep milk, eggs and butter in lower room temperature before mixing them with the rest of the ingredients, (2) reduce yeast by 1/4 teaspoon, (3) shorten both first and second rising time, and (4) apply non-stick oil on a spoon to scoop hot and sticky almond topping to speed the topping process up. Basically I tried to control yeast's activity so that it won't over-rise like 1.0. The 2.0 had a gorgeous golden almond top!
