Vegan Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)

written by Isa

Baking a bee sting cake without honey is impossible. Right? Actually not. We prepared a vegan bee sting for you that works without milk, eggs, and honey. But how do you actually replace honey?

To be honest: before I started my research, only two alternatives came to mind: agave syrup and rice syrup. However, the list of possible vegan honey-like products is much, much longer. Just think of maple syrup, pear syrup, apple cabbage, beet cabbage, daisy honey, coconut nectar, or coconut blossom syrup. You will definitely find one of the products in the supermarket or organic market around the corner!

In addition to honey, there are two other difficulties when preparing a vegan bee sting. The first is the preparation of the vanilla pudding. Please make sure to use soy milk. If you prepare the pudding with oat or rice milk, it will get creamy for a short time, but as soon as it cools down, it loses it's consistency and turns watery. You should definitely avoid that. The second difficulty is preparing the __ whipped cream__. Make sure that the cream is really suitable for whipping. Many types of plant-based cream are only suitable for cooking and cannot be beaten, no matter how many stiffeners you use.

Before you start beaking, we would like to share the last short lesson with you! During the research, we came across the tip to cut the top layer into 12 pieces before placing it on top of the cream layer. This is pretty smart! Precutting the top makes it much easier to cut the cake later, cause the cream doesn’t squish out. This way, you can easily slide through the cream layer with the knife and only cut the bottom half of the cake.

Vegan Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)

1 cake (12 servings)

2 hours (+ cooling time)

Ingredients

1 tbsp plant-based butter (for greasing cake tin)
1 tbsp flour (for the cake tin)

yeast dough

180 ml warm water
12 g brown sugar
21 g fresh yeast (0.5 cubes)
300 g flour
1 tsp salt
20 g coconut oil

cream

200 ml plant-based cream for whipping
8 g cream stiffener
500 ml soy milk
37 g vanilla pudding powder
40 g of sugar
3 tsp agar agar

Almond layer

50 g butter
50 g sugar
2 tbsp vegan honey, e.g., agave syrup (see text)
50 ml plant-based cream
200 g almond slices

Instructions

yeast dough

Mix the crumbled yeast in a bowl with the brown sugar and the lukewarm water. The water should not be too hot (only lukewarm). Let rest for 10 minutes. The yeast should rise to the surface.
Heat the coconut oil (only lukewarm). Add coconut oil and salt to the yeast.
Now, gradually add the flour and knead to a smooth dough.
Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. The dough should double in size.

cream

Whip the plant-based heavy cream with the stabilizer and let chill in the refrigerator.
Prepare the pudding according to the package instructions. The pudding powder is usually mixed with soy milk and sugar and then added to the boiling soy milk. When adding the vanilla pudding powder, we also add agar agar and let it boil for at least 2 minutes while stirring constantly.
When the pudding is ready, pour it into a bowl and let it cool down completely. Add the whipped cream afterward and let chill in the refrigerator.

Almond Layer & Baking

Grease the cake pan and sprinkle it with some flour. (26 cm in diameter).
Knead the yeast dough again on a floured surface and place it in the cake pan. Press the dough to fit the pan. Let rise for another 15 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the almond layer: Bring the sugar, agave syrup, and plant-based butter to a boil and let simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the plant-based heavy cream and fold in the almond slices. Put aside.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/355°F (convection).
Pour the almonds over the dough. Let the cake rise again for 15 minutes and then bake for 30 minutes at 180 ° C in the oven. Afterward, let the cake cool down completely.

serving

When the cake has cooled completely, remove the cake from the cake pan and divide it horizontally into two layers with a long serrated knife.
Cut the top layer into 12 pieces.
Clean the cake tin and again place the bottom of the cake inside the cake tin.
Spread the cream over the bottom half. Place the top cake layer on the cream filling piece by piece.
Let the cake chill for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator and serve.