Donauwelle Recipe

When I was a kid, having the famous German black forest cake for my birthday was the norm. After I moved to Munich, Germany, I was only looking for this cake everywhere. However, I could not find it and settled for this thing called Donauwelle. It translates to Danube wave; Danube is a river flowing through different parts of Europe. It has been five years since I had Donauwelle for the first time and it is my favourite cake now; more than the black forest cake. I asked many Germans to bake me this and share the recipe. The donauwelle recipe I am sharing below is the best one I have from one of my colleagues.

Summary

Prep Time: 1h45min
Bake Time: 30min
Total Time: 2h15min
Servings: 24
Cal per serving: 400 calories

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1. 300g softened butter
2. 200g sugar
3. 375g flour
4. 25g cocoa
5. 15g baking powder
6. 7 eggs
7. 720g sour cherries
8. 3 tbsp milk
9. 2-4ml rum essence (optional; add more if you like it strong)

For the topping:

120g softened butter 750ml milk 30ml vegetable oil 75g vanilla pudding powder 50g sugar 15g vanilla sugar 250g dark chocolate

Preparation:

For the base:

1. Mix the softened butter, sugar and a pinch of salt using a mixer on medium-high speed for a few minutes until you get a fluffy texture.
2. To the mix from Step 1, keep adding the eggs one by one; also add a few tbsp of milk.
3. Sift and mix the flour and baking powder to the mix from Step 2 until a homogeneous mass is formed.
4. Spread about 60% of the mix from Step 3 on your baking tray.
5. To the remaining mix, add cacao (also rum if you like) and mix it once again.
6. Spread the remaining 40% of the mix from Step 5 on top of the mix from Step 4.
7. Strain out any excess liquid from the cherries and place them on the spread from Step 6. Press them a bit into the dough mix.
8. After pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, put your baking tray and bake it for 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Use a toothpick or spaghetti to check if it comes out clean and has finished baking. Let it cool down for a while.

For the pudding:

1. While the base is getting ready, put the milk, vanilla pudding powder, sugar and vanilla sugar in the mixing bowl and whisk it properly without any lumps.
2. Cook the mix for 8-10 minutes on about medium heat. Keep stirring while making the vanilla pudding.
3. After cooking, let the vanilla pudding cool down. Refrigerate for an hour atleast to speed up the process.
4. Take the other block of softened butter and mix it for a few minutes until you get a fluffy texture.
5. To this mix from Step 4, add the cool vanilla pudding made earlier gradually and continue mixing it.
6. Spread this mix on top of the cake baked earlier. Flatten it out completely.

For the top layer:

1. Melt the chocolate on low heat with oil. Let it cool down for a while.
2. Spread the chocolate on top of the vanilla pudding layer.
3. Make the patterns of the waves using a fork.

Although you can start eating right away, it is better to wait for an hour or two atleast. Personally, I feel it tastes even better the next day.