''Butterkuchen'' or ''Zuckerkuchen'' is a simple German
butter cake
A butter cake is a cake in which one of the main ingredients is butter. Butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda. It is considered one of the quintessentia ...
baked on a tray.
Flakes of
butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condimen ...
are distributed on the
dough
Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...
which, after baking, form the characteristic holes.
The whole cake is sprinkled with sugar or
streusel
In baking and pastry making, streusel () is a crumbly topping of flour, butter, and sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, pies, and cakes. .
After further kneading the ''Butterkuchen'' is baked. As a variation the dough can be sprinkled with roasted
almond flakes.
''Butterkuchen'' is a favourite element of Westphalian and North German coffee tables. It is also served at weddings and funerals and, as a result, is sometimes called ''Freud-und-Leid-Kuchen'' ("joy and sorrow cake") or ''Beerdigungskuchen'' ("funeral cake").
A regional variation is to sprinkle the ''Butterkuchen'' with a sugar-
cinnamon mixture rather than with sugar alone. This is very similar to
Moravian Sugar Cake.
In Germany in the trade, at least 30 parts butter, clarified butter or butterfat must be used to 100 parts of flour.
See also
*
Kouign-amann
Kouign-amann (; ''kouignoù-amann'') is a sweet Breton cake, made with laminated dough. It is a round multi-layered cake, originally made with bread dough (nowadays sometimes viennoiserie dough), containing layers of butter and incorporated s ...
*
List of butter dishes
*
List of cakes
The following is a list of types of dessert cakes by country of origin and distinctive ingredients. The majority of the cakes contain some kind of flour, egg, and sugar. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions such as we ...
*
Sources
{{reflist, refs=
[{{cite book , last=Weiss , first=L. , title=Classic German Baking: The Very Best Recipes for Traditional Favorites, from Gugelhupf to Streuselkuchen , publisher=Ten Speed Press , year=2016 , isbn=978-1-60774-825-0 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3GYYDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 , accessdate=February 3, 2017 , page=82]
* IREKS-GmbH: IREKS-ABC der Bäckerei, Eigenverlag Kulmbach
External links
Deutscher Butterkuchen - German Buttercakerecipe
- NY Times
Cakes
Foods featuring butter
North German cuisine
German cakes