Rüblikuchen

Rüblikuchen or carrot cake started being seen at a bakery here in March. I bought a slice at a local bakery in the city center of Wiesbaden. Carrots are called Karotten or Möhren in German. Karotten are more rounded, short and thick while Möhren are long and cylindrical; both are exactly the same vegetable botanically. In fact I have seen both names at a local grocery store. No matter which name is labeled, the orange root vegetables there look like carrots for me. On the other hand, I have never seen carrots called Rübli here although all carrot cakes that I saw in Wiesbaden were named Rüblikuchen, not Karottenkuchen or Möhrenkuchen. Apparently carrots are often called Rübli in German-speaking Switzerland and Rüblikuchen originally comes from Switzerland, where it is traditionally prepared with almonds and beaten egg whites. I think the Rüblikuchen we had contained almonds and egg white, which created a very light and a little crumbly texture. I guess carrot cakes made by the Swiss recipe are particularly called Rüblikuchen even here in Germany. I wander if there is a German original carrot cake recipe. If so, the cake would be naturally called Karottenkuchen/Möhrenkuchen, maybe Anyway, it's nice to enjoy Rüblikuchen during spring and get to know a variety of carrot cakes beyond typical American-style carrot cakes, which tend to be dense, overly sweet and greasy (because of a lot of vegetable oil) and come with sugary cream cheese frosting.