This is a sponsored opportunity from Goldrich Eggs, but the opinions are 100% my own.
Growing up with German parents in Canada and now living in the United States, many years we have had the privilege to celebrate Thanksgiving three times in one year 🙂
German Thanksgiving is typically celebrated the first Sunday in October, Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October and of course American Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
Traditionally my parents kept to German food and traditions for Erntedankfest (that’s German for ‘harvest festival’). My mom would whip up Rouladen, Rotkohl and Gurken Salat, and of course something yummy for dessert.
We keep the traditions alive celebrating all three Thanksgivings, but I’ve never in the twenty years we’ve been married attempted my hand at making the Dresdener Eierschecke for dessert. Oh let me translate that for you 😉 But Eierschecke in all honesty, is not a word you can really translate!
Eier are eggs and it’s called Eierschecke because of the egg custard top to this three layer cake. Dresden is the city where it was created – and if you’re ever there, every café on every street corner will sell it in some way, shape or form. This is not a sweet cake, and it’s got a strange phenomenon of being light and rich all at the same time!
This year for something new though, I decided I was going to make an Eierschecke for American Thanksgiving. Obviously from the name, you’ll have figured out that eggs are the star of the show. And so it only made sense to use Goldrich Eggs in this recipe.
Goldrich means Rich, Golden Yolks. That’s what we’re wanting here. A top layer that looks like a sun setting or a starburst when its baked, and when you cut the cake slices you want a colorful custard layer.
While a three layer cake sounds complicated, it really isn’t (it’s me remember! I don’t do complicated!). It is a bit time consuming though, but it’s so worth it. I got a bit creative with the middle layer, which generally uses a cheese called Quark (somewhat like a cross between cream cheese and yogurt), where I substituted plain greek yogurt in its place. Also the only recipes I could find were all in metric, and conversion to cups and tablespoons was challenging.
But here’s the recipe, and if you make it I hope you enjoy it!
Dresedener Eierschecke
Serves 12
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Ingredients
Base
4.5 tbsp butter
4 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
Pinch of salt
Mix ingredients together to form a soft dough. Press evenly into a 10″ springform pan and prick the crust with a fork all over.
Middle Layer
16 oz plain Greek yogurt (Quark Cheese would be preferable, if available)
3 1/2 tsps vanilla pudding powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp sugar
Mix ingredients thoroughly and spread over the dough base. Place the pan in the refrigerator as you continue to make the rest of the recipe.
Top Layer
1 4 serving package of vanilla pudding made per box instructions
7 tbsps of butter, melted and cooled
4 tbsps of sugar
5 eggs, separated (alternately to make a ‘lighter’ version you can use 3 eggs, separated)
Once the butter is cooled add it to the vanilla pudding. Then add the sugar and egg yolks.
Look at the beautiful color of the #GoldRichYolk!
Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and then fold them into the mixture starting from underneath the pudding mixture. Pour this on top of the middle layer. Bake for 60 minutes. (As per a comment that was left from a reader, you may have to increase baking time up to another 20 minutes as she found that after 60 minutes her cake still seemed runny in the center).
When the cake is done, do not remove it from the oven, simply turn the oven off. If you take it out while it’s still too warm the top will sink in. After the cake has cooled in the oven, store it in the fridge until it’s time to serve. Then dust it with powdered sugar.
If you’d like the sugar to form more of a glaze, dust it with the sugar when you remove it from the oven (which is what I did). The cake will have a lot of moisture to it and the powdered sugar will soak in a bit and then when you put it in the fridge it will glaze up.
For my first try at it, I think it turned out wonderfully, and the Goldrich Eggs did not disappoint me when it came to the coloring of the custard layer.
Next month I’m going to share a holiday breakfast recipe that we make with eggs!
What ways are your favorite to incorporate eggs into your family’s day?
Tammy Litke is a Dallas blogger, blogging since 2008. She loves to watch movies, play video games, spend time in the kitchen, and travel. Between recipes and reviews you’ll find many helpful and some just plain funny posts on her blog. Welcome, pull up a chair and stay for a while!