Eierschecke is a

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlappi ...

speciality from

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a ...

and

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. It is a

layer cake A layer cake (US English) or sandwich cake (UK English) is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for lay ...

with a base layer of cake, a middle layer of

quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly ...

-based

cheesecake Cheesecake is a sweet dessert consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest, layer consists of a mixture of a soft, fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, i ...

and a top layer of vanilla

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fr ...

. Parts of it are covered with a glaze made of

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, whole egg,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

and

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cul ...

for thickening. The term originates from a piece of 14th century menswear called which consisted of a medium-length

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Ro ...

with a very tight waistline and was worn with a Dusing, a hip

belt Belt may refer to: Apparel * Belt (clothing), a leather or fabric band worn around the waist * Championship belt, a type of trophy used primarily in combat sports * Colored belts, such as a black belt or red belt, worn by martial arts practiti ...

. The cake was named after the appearance of this "tripartite garment" (upper part, belt, lower part).

Preparation

As the name is derived from a tripartite piece of clothing, Eierschecke consists of three parts or layers: the upper layer is made of creamy stirred

egg yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example be ...

with

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 condim ...

, sugar, vanilla

pudding Pudding is a type of food. It can be either a dessert or a savoury (salty or spicy) dish served as part of the main meal. In the United States, ''pudding'' means a sweet, milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, inst ...

and, lastly, beaten

egg white Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms ar ...

s, which are folded into the batter. The middle layer (the "belt") consists of a kind of custard which, in addition to butter, egg, sugar and milk, also contains

and vanilla flavouring. The cake base is either a yeast dough or

shortcrust pastry Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken ...

. After these three layers are assembled, the cake is baked, then cut into rectangular pieces and served with coffee. While the recipe above is for the traditional Eierschecke from Dresden, there are also some variations and refinements of this recipe, e.g. the addition of

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the ...

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genu ...

s 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.

, or even the coating of the whole cake with

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...

. File:Dresdner Eierschecke 6.jpg, Dresdner Eierschecke File:Dresdner Eierschecke 8.jpg, Dresdner Eierschecke with raisins File:Dresdner Eierschecke 7.jpg, Dresdner Eierschecke with chocolate covering File:Eierschecke mit Streuseln.JPG, Dresdner Eierschecke with Streusel

Another variation is the Freiberger Eierschecke, which is much less tall than the Dresdner Eierschecke and contains neither quark nor raisins. Legend states that the quark had been used to build the city wall of

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

in the 13th century. To compensate for the alleged loss of flavour, more egg, sugar and even raisins were used. The legend is deliberately nonsensical: dairy products like quark have no history of being used in mortar (unlike

sticky rice mortar Sticky rice mortar was invented in ancient China utilizing organic materials in inorganic mortar. Hydraulic mortar was not available in ancient China, possibly due to a lack of volcanic ash. Around 500 CE, sticky rice soup was mixed with s ...

Popular culture

The German author

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including '' Emil and the Detectives''. He receive ...

once said: "Die Eierschecke ist eine Kuchensorte, die zum Schaden der Menschheit auf dem Rest des Globus unbekannt geblieben ist." ''(The Eierschecke is a type of cake which, to the detriment of humanity, has remained unknown to the rest of the world)'', and

Martin Walser Martin Walser (; born 24 March 1927) is a German writer. Life Walser was born in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance. His parents were coal merchants, and they also kept an inn next to the train station in Wasserburg. He described the ...

says in his book ''Die Verteidigung der Kindheit'' (The defence of childhood): "Eierschecke gibt es außerhalb Sachsens nur ersatzweise und innerhalb Sachsens nirgends so gut wie im Toscana." ''(There are only substitutes of Eierschecke outside of Saxony; within Saxony, there is no better Eierschecke than at the Toscana (referring to the Café Toscana in Dresden))''

References

*IREKS-Arkady-Institut für Bäckereiwissenschaft (Hrsg.): IREKS-ABC der Bäckerei. 4. Auflage. Institut für Bäckereiwissenschaft, Kulmbach 1985 *Dresdner Eierschecke. In: Gudrun Ruschitzka, Sächsisch kochen. 1. Aufl. München 1995, . *Dresdner Eierschecke. In: Reinhard Lämmel, Original Sächsisch - The Best of Saxon Food. Weil der Stadt 2007, . *Dresdner Eierschecke. Landesinnungsverband Saxonia des Bäckerhandwerks Sachsen. *Markenverband Freiberger Eierschecke

Literature

*Jürgen Helfricht, Hartmut Quendt: Sächsisches Spezialitäten-Backbuch. Husum Verlag 2007. {{ISBN, 978-3-89876-230-4 Saxon cuisine German cakes Layer cakes Custard desserts Cheesecakes

Preparation

Popular culture

See also

References

Literature