Demmler's Sunday Cake: The Frankfurter Kranz

JEveryone knows it, almost everyone has eaten it, but very few of you have ever baked the Frankfurter Kranz yourself. Yet it can even be found under the heading "easy". The Frankfurter Kranz is a classic with vanilla buttercream, fluffy sand cake layers and crunchy hazelnut brittle. Click here for the recipe:  

• Ingredients:
• 1 packet of "vanilla-flavored" pudding powder (for 500 ml milk; for boiling)
• 275 g sugar
• 500 ml + 5 tablespoons milk
• 400 g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 250 g flour
• 50 g cornstarch
• 1/2 packet baking powder
• 150 g red currant jelly
• approx. 50 g hazelnut brittle
• cherries for decorating
• grease and flour for the mold
• cling film

• Preparation:
• For the buttercream, mix the pudding powder, 75 g sugar and 100 ml milk until smooth. Bring 400 ml milk to the boil, remove from heat. Stir in pudding powder, bring back to a boil while stirring, and simmer for about 1 minute. Pour pudding into a bowl, cover directly with foil and let cool at room temperature. Store 250 g butter at room temperature. For the dough, cream 150 g butter, salt, 200 g sugar and vanillin sugar with the whisk of a hand mixer until fluffy. Stir in eggs one at a time. Mix flour, starch and baking powder, stir into the fat-egg cream alternately with 5 tablespoons of milk.
• Grease a Frankfurter wreath form or ring form (1.4 liter capacity; 22 cm Ø) well and dust with flour. Pour in the dough and smooth it down. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Let cool slightly on a cooling rack. Turn out of the pan and let cool completely.
• Beat butter stored at room temperature with the whisks of a hand mixer until creamy white (about 15 minutes). Gradually stir in pudding by tablespoonfuls. Stir in jelly until smooth. Cut cooled cake twice horizontally. Spread currant jelly on bottom layer. Spread 1/4 of the cream on top of the jelly and smooth it out. Place second cake layer on top and spread with another quarter. Place third base on top as a lid.
• Fill some of the cream into a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle. Coat all around with the remaining cream. Sprinkle the wreath with brittle. Pipe remaining cream as tufts on the wreath. Cut cherries in half and place on top of the tuffs. Chill for approx. 2 hours
• Etwas Creme in einen Spritzbeutel mit Sterntülle füllen. Rundherum mit der restliche Creme einstreichen. Kranz mit Krokant bestreuen. Restliche Creme als Tuffs auf den Kranz spritzen. Kirschen halbieren, auf die Tuffs setzen. Ca. 2 Stunden kalt stellen.

Would you have known it?

The Frankfurter Kranz, with its round shape and brittle cover, is the image of a crown of the German emperors, which is supposed to remind of Frankfurt am Main as the place of coronation. In addition, there are the voucher cherries, which are supposed to symbolize rubies. The oldest recipe preserved to date dates from 1735. In English, the cake is also called Frankfurt Crown Cake, while in French it is known as Couronne de Francfort, Frankfurt Crown.