Prinzregententorte () is a
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n
torte
A torte (from German ''Torte'' ( (in turn from Latin via Italian ''torta'')) is a rich, usually multilayered, cake that is filled with whipped cream, buttercreams, mousses, jams, or fruit.
Ordinarily, the cooled torte is glazed and garnish ...
consisting of at least six, usually seven, thin layers of
sponge cake
Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated ...
interlaid with chocolate
buttercream
Buttercream, also referred to as butter icing or frosting, is used for either filling, coating or decorating cakes. The main ingredients are butter and some type of sugar.
Buttercream is commonly flavored with vanilla. Other common flavors a ...
. The exterior is covered in a
dark chocolate glaze. Prinzregententorte is very popular in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, Germany, and available in cake shops all year round.
Origin
The cake is named after
Luitpold,
prince regent
A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...
of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
from 1886. The cake's exact origin remains in dispute; among those claimed as its creators are the prince regent's cook, Johann Rottenhoeffer, the baker Anton Seidl, and the baking firm of Heinrich Georg Erbshäuser.
A Prinzregententorte originally had eight layers of both cake and cream, so as to represent the eight districts the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
once had. Since one of those regions, the
Palatinate, was split off from Bavaria and merged with surrounding lands to form the new federal state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
by the American Military Government after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, which the locals later confirmed in a plebiscite, the double-layers were subsequently reduced to seven.
Recipe
Typically, the cake consists of very thin layers of sponge cake, each approximately in diameter, with chocolate buttercream on each side. Apricot jam may be added to the topmost layer, and the whole cake is covered in dark chocolate.
In popular culture
The Prinzregententorte appeared in
series 12
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used i ...
, episode 5, of
the Great British Bake Off
''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, att ...
, as the technical challenge.
See also
*
Doberge cake
Doberge cake (often pronounced "doh-bear-ge") is a layered dessert originating in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., adapted by local baker Beulah Ledner from the Hungarian Dobos torte. Still popular in the area, the cake is made of multiple thin l ...
*
Dobos Torte
Dobos torte ( hu, Dobos torta ), also known as Dobosh, is a Hungarian sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel. The layered pastry is named after its inventor, Hungarian chef József C. Dobos, a delicatessen own ...
*
Rigo Jancsi Rigo may refer to:
People
* Rigo 23, a Portuguese artist active in San Francisco, California
* Blessed Rigo, also known as Henry of Treviso, a medieval Italian saint
* Frank Rigo (c. 1868–1936), American opera director in Australia
* Marek Rig ...
, another famous Hungarian dessert created in the same era
*
Sachertorte
Sachertorte (, , ) is a chocolate cake, or torte of Austrian origin, invented by Franz Sacher, supposedly in 1832 for Prince Metternich in Vienna.Michael Krondl, ''Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert'', , 2011, p. 290: "my best guess is ...
*
Smith Island cake
Smith Island is a collection of three distinct island communities, Tylerton, Rhodes Point, and Ewell, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay, on the border of Maryland and Virginia territorial waters in the United States. The island is the last inhabit ...
, official dessert of the state of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.
Smith Island Cake Now Maryland's Official Dessert
from NewsChannel 8 1:38 pm Thu April 24, 2008 - ANNAPOLIS, Md. Accessed online April 26, 2008
*Spekkoek
Spekkoek (kue lapis legit or spekuk in Indonesian) is a type of Indonesian layer cake. It was developed during colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. The firm-textured cake is an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) version of the European multi-layered s ...
, a Dutch layered cake
*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 ...
* List of desserts
A dessert is typically the sweet course that, after the entrée and main course, concludes a meal in the culture of many countries, particularly Western culture. The course usually consists of sweet foods, but may include other items. The word ...
* List of German desserts
This is a list of German desserts. German cuisine has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region. The southern regions of Germany, including Bavaria and neighbouring Swabia, ...
References
*Irene Krauß: ''Chronik bildschöner Backwerke''. Hugo Matthaes Druckerei und Verlag, Stuttgart 1999,
External links
A recipe in English for PrinzregententortePrue Leith's recipe in English for Prinzregententorte
{{Chocolate desserts
Bavarian cuisine
German cakes
1886 introductions
Chocolate cakes