Like it or not, it is fruitcake season. In Germany, we have Stollen, which a fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar and Lebkuchen, which is similar to gingerbread. Both are widely available at German bakeries during the holiday season, and a lot of people also make these traditional desserts at home. But there is also a cake that I want to tell you about that I feel doesn't get as much recognition as these popular desserts but is equally good.
I am not a baker, but I'm always up for a good challenge. So when The Chopping Block's Marketing Manager Andrea Miller let me know our private Facebook group was going to have a fruitcake challenge this week, I knew I wanted to revisit this recipe.
I thought back to 30 years ago and checked out my handwritten recipe book from culinary school, since we learned how to make most of the traditional German desserts then. And there on page 3 of my recipe book, was the Konigskuchen, also known as king's cake. This was my call to action to make this fruitcake for our challenge this week, but I could not recall making this cake since I was in school. I likely have not!
I found it interesting as I researched this cake that many recipes call for a particular loaf pan but my recipe did not require a specialty pan. It called for a Kugelhupf Pan, or a round pound cake or angel food mold. Most of us probably have one of these pans in our cabinets.
My next challenge with this cake were finding some of the ingredients, since they were not available at my local grocery store, or even some specialty stores here in Chicago. The cake is a fruitcake, so back in Germany we have something called Orangeat und Zitronat. These are sugar-glazed dried orange and lemon rinds, and are sold in 60 gram packages and mainly cubed.
So in my non-baker mind, I thought about how to substitute dried fruit, like cranberries, golden raisins, which the original recipe calls for. This might change the flavor a bit from the original citrus flavor, but in the end, it is still a dense delicious fruit cake. You can also make your own citrus peel, and that is a lot of fun too. You can also substitute the milk with a non-dairy product, like almond milk or oat milk. Adding vanilla paste makes all the difference too! I also soaked the dried fruit overnight in dark rum to soften up the raisins.
You might be asking what is the difference between this cake and the traditional Stollen. The shape is different, but the Stollen is made with a yeast dough, and this particular cake uses baking powder as the levener.
The recipe I will share with you is written in grams, so having a kitchen scale is the most effective way to measure your ingredients for this recipe.
Königskuchen
Scroll down for a printable version of this recipe from my culinary school
Active time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour and ten minutes
200 g butter
200 g sugar
500 g all-purpose flour
1 pinch of fine salt
16.5 gram baking powder
130 g raisins soaked in rum overnight (discard the rum prior to adding the raisins to the mixture)
4 eggs
114 ml whole milk (you can substitute nondairy milk also, for example almond or oat milk)
60 gram Zitronat ( sugar glazed orange and lemon rind)
2.5 ml lemon extract
2.5 ml dark rum( you can also use a rum aroma)
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour a round 10-inch Angel food cake pan.
3. Start creaming the butter and sugar on low speed with a handheld mixer to a ribbon texture.
4. Add the whole eggs one at the time until fully incorporated. Follow with the milk and the lemon and rum aroma.
5. Sift the flour and incorporate the baking powder and fine sea salt. Add this in small increments to the wet mixture until fully incorporated.
6. Drain the raisins, discard the rum, and fold the raisins into the cake mixture, together with the Zitronat if you are using it.
7. Transfer to prepared pan.
8. Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for about 70 minutes.
9. Once the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool before getting removing it from the mold.
10. Sift it with powdered sugar and slice into generous slices.
This is a great afternoon coffee cake and can be topped off with some fresh whipped cream if you like.
Learn how to make another traditional German dessert with me this Saturday, December 19 at 3pm CST in our co-sponsored class with Chicago's Christkindlmarket. I'll show you how to make a Bavarian Apple Pancake in a virtual demonstration.
Our virtual baking classes are in full swing right now. Join us for:
- Virtual demonstration: Sticky Toffee Pudding Saturday, December 19 at 11am CST
- Virtual cook along: Holiday Cookie Workshop Saturday, December 19 at 12:30pm CST
- Virtual Holiday Treats (choose your level of instruction) Sunday, December 20 at 11am CST
- Virtual Cookies for Santa (choose your level of instruction) Thursday, December 24 at 11am CST
If you want to try your hand at a fruitcake for our challenge, join our private Facebook group and post a picture and recipe to share with other group members.
Königskuchen
Ingredients
- 200 g butter
- 200 g sugar
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch of fine salt
- 5 gram baking powder
- 130 g raisins soaked in rum overnight (discard the rum prior to adding the raisins to the mixture)
- 4 eggs
- 114 ml whole milk (you can substitute nondairy milk also, for example almond or oat milk)
- 60 gram Zitronat ( sugar glazed orange and lemon rind)
- 5 ml lemon extract
- 5 ml dark rum( you can also use a rum aroma)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour your round Angel food cake pan.
- Start creaming the butter and sugar on low speed with a handheld mixer to a ribbon texture.
- Add the whole eggs one at the time until fully incorporated. Follow with the milk and the lemon and rum aroma.
- Sift the flour and incorporate the baking powder and fine sea salt. Add this in small increments to the wet mixture until fully incorporated.
- Drain the raisins, discard the rum, and fold the raisins into the cake mixture, together with the Zitronat if you are using it.
- Transfer to prepared pan.
- Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for about 70 minutes.
- Once the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool before getting removing it from the mold.
- Sift it with powdered sugar and slice into generous slices.
