Eierschecke

‘The Eierschecke is a cake which, to the great detriment of humanity, remains unknown in the rest of the world,’ said Erich Kästner, German author.

This Saxon speciality might not enjoy international fame, but it’s a huge hit in Germany. The traditional Dresden Eierschecke cake is made using yeast dough or shortcrust pastry, a moist layer of quark and egg custard, and the ‘Schecke’ pudding layer that gives the cake its name. At RUF, we love this traditional delicacy too, and have developed what might be the easiest recipe to make it. Our Eierschecke isn’t just wonderfully moist and light. It also has the classic three layers, of course.

Encores

What else you’ll need

For the dough:

• 100 g soft butter
• 1 medium egg

For the quark filling:

• 500 g low-fat quark
• 150 ml milk (1.5% fat)
• 2 medium eggs

For the ‘Schecke’ layer:

• 40 g sugar
• 300 ml milk (1.5% fat)
• 125 g butter
• 3 medium eggs

Preparation

Make the dough

1. Preheat a conventional oven to around 200 °C (fan approx. 180 °C).
2. Put the baking mix, 100 g butter and an egg in a mixing bowl and blend into a smooth dough using an electric hand mixer (dough hook). Put the dough in a springform tin (26 cm in diameter) lined with baking paper and press firmly on the base and edges.

Make the cream filling

1. Put the cream powder for the filling in a mixing bowl with quark, 150 ml milk and 2 eggs and whisk until smooth. Then place the quark mixture on the base.
2. Set aside around 4 tablespoons of the 300 ml milk and mix with the powder for the ‘Schecke’ layer and the sugar. Bring the rest of the milk to the boil. Now remove the pot from the hob and add the mixed powder. Return to the boil, stirring constantly.
3. When the mixture is consistent, the pot can be removed from the hob again. The butter should now be added to the mixture while it is still warm and stirred in well.
4. Then separate the 3 eggs. Stir the egg yolk into the mixture and beat the egg whites in an ungreased mixing vessel using an electric hand mixer (whisk) until firm.
5. Finally, fold the firm white peaks into the mixture and spread over the quark mixture.

Bake

1. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. After around 40 minutes’ baking time, cover the cake with aluminium foil. After baking, leave to cool for around 30 minutes in the baking tray. Carefully loosen the edge with a knife and place on a wire rack to cool.