German Bee Sting Cake

Heat half of the sugar with the milk just until lukewarm, then remove from the heat and sprinkle the yeast on top. Leave it for 10 minutes and the yeast should foam.

Place the yeast mixture into your stand mixer with the kneading hook on and mix it with the eggs. Then, mix in the dry ingredients: bread flour, the rest of the sugar, and a pinch of salt, and keep the mixer running to knead the dough until it comes together. This will take about 3 minutes.

Slowly add in the softened butter piece by piece while the mixer is on, and once all the butter is in, knead for around another 10 minutes on medium-high speed. The dough will become elastic and shiny.

Move the dough into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size. Then punch it out, re-shape it into a bowl, and put it in the fridge to rise again for a minimum of 8 hours or up to 24 hours.

The next day, grease a 9 inch / 23 cm springform pan.

Take the dough out of the fridge, punch the air out, roll it onto the size of your baking pan (9 inch / 23 cm) then place it into the tin.

Cover the brioche and allow it to proof for a further 1-2 hours until the dough doubles in size and fills the tin.

While the dough is proofing, prepare the almond topping by cooking the sugar, honey, salt, and unsalted butter for 3-4 minutes until slightly thickens, then remove it from the stove and mix in the almond flakes. Let it come to room temperature.

Preheat your oven to 180C / 356F towards the end of the proofing time.

Once the dough doubled in size, place the almond topping all around the top and then bake it at 180C / 356F for about 45 minutes. Cover the top with aluminum foil after about 25 minutes or if the brioche is browning too much.

Remove the cake from the oven, let it rest for 3 minutes, then carefully remove the side of the spring form. Let the cake come to room temperature before filling it.

In a large enough bowl, with the help of a hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes, then whisk in cornstarch, flour, and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste.

Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering and pour the hot milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy.

Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated.

Pastry cream needs to completely cool before using it to fill the Bee sting cake. Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top.

Cut the cake horizontally using a serrated knife then place the chilled pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with French star nozzle tip.

Using the piping bag or even a spoon, spread the cream on the bottom layer of the cake, then place the top part on the cream.

Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving. Any leftovers can be stored refrigerated for 3 days in an airtight container.