Christmas is quickly approaching – I know I’ve been counting down for a little while now! The holiday season always has me looking forward to good food and good company. This year, I’ll be travelling to Germany to spend Christmas with my relatives there. My immediate family and fiance will also be meeting me there, so I’m excited to see them again as well!
It’s been a long-time German family tradition to have daily coffee & cake around 3 pm. My family cut out the coffee a long time ago, but the cake has stayed. Recipes have been adapted from white flour to whole-grain spelt flour, and white refined sugar to coconut sugar. But, nonetheless, the cake has stayed.
I don’t personally bake enough for the cake to become a part of my daily diet (probably for the better), however I know the tradition will be a part of the holiday season. It’s OK to indulge for Christmas – and I’m happy that the cakes and treats will be a little on the healthier side. I’m excited to share one of my family’s favorite cake recipes with you. The best part? It’s naturally gluten-free, because there’s no flour!
A note about this cake: it does have a German egg liqueur on top, so it’s likely not the best for children. I remember strongly disliking the taste of the liqueur and scraping it off as a child. Also – I the following recipe is my original family recipe. See the notes below to see what subtle changes I consider.
Eierlikörtorte: German Eggnog Cake
Ingredients
Dough (step 1):
- 80 g butter room temperature
- 80 g sugar (1)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 egg yolks
Dough (step 2):
- 200 g hazelnuts or other nuts ground
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g chocolate grated, unsweetened or dark
- 1 Tbsp brandy
- 1 Tbsp rum
Dough (step 3):
- 5 egg whites
Topping:
- 1 glass sour cherries or two cans
- 1 packet glazing mix (2)
- 1/4 L heavy cream
- 1 packet Whip it (3)
- 1 tsp sugar (4)
- Eierlikör – Advocaat (5)
- chocolate sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Mix the first 4 ingredients well.
- Mix in the next section of ingredients. (I like to add both the nuts & the chocolate to a food processor to grind them into a powder.)
- Whip the egg whites until stiff, and fold into the dough carefully.
- Pour everything into a round cake pan and bake at 350°F for about 60 minutes.
Once cool, prepare the topping:
- First sieve the sour cherries (keeping the juice) and place the cherries on the cake.
- Thicken 1 cup of the cherry juice with a glazing packet and pour this over the cake.(You may like to use a cake collar for this step.)
- Whip the cream with the ‘whip it’ and the optional sugar. Then spread onto the cake.
- To finish off, carefully pour egg liqueur on top and decorate with chocolate sprinkles. Enjoy!
Notes
- I always use coconut sugar in my baking to lower the glycemic index and prevent the immediate sugar high & crash associated with refined sugars. Because this cake is rather dense, the coconut sugar works really well.
- If you don’t have access to cake glazing packets (“Tortenguss”), you can thicken the juice with 1 TB of potato starch instead.
- The Whip it packet is optional (though recommended). It helps stiffen the whipping cream to get a more structured cake.
- I don’t generally sweeten whipping cream. I find the cake sweet enough as a whole. If you do add sugar to your whipping cream, don’t use coconut sugar. Maybe try a pinch of stevia if you’d like more sweetness without the white sugar.
- You can make your own Advocaat. I’ve had success with this recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/traditional-dutch-advocaat-liqueur-recipe-1128594
