Someone I know stumbled upon an interesting variation
of the common Japanese baumkuchen cake. "Baumkuchen" literally means
"tree cake" in German, and the Japanese called it so because it looks
like the transection of a tree trunk with its rings. My Kyoto friend
explained its popularity in Japan as being due to the association
between trees and long life, so the baumkuchen is like a symbol of
longevity. And you know how East Asians like to (superstitiously)
eat food that are associated with good fortune, no matter how tenuous
the link. (In Singapore, a certain raw fish salad is eaten around
Chinese New Year because the word for "fish" is homonymous with a
Chinese character representing abundance and excess.)
What I have here is an
apple cake which has chunks of traditional baumkuchen embedded within a
larger loaf of apple-flavoured pound cake with bits of apple. An
interesting association is that "apple baumkuchen" would literally mean
"apple tree cake". No doubt, it's probably another symbol of health and
longevity, perhaps, given that they had to specially embedded two chunks
of otherwise irrelevant pieces of traditional baumkuchen in there. It's
like they wanted to associate "apple" with baumkuchen, but couldn't
find a way to bake the bits of apple into the traditional cake given its
many thin layers. So they thought of this cheat.
Anyway, symbols aside, it was a very pleasant cake to savour - moist, rich and buttery with a sweet apple fragrance that permeated the slice. The bits of apple were also crisp and fragrant.
There were apparently other ingredients as well, like cinnamon (as can be expected), white peach puree, almond powder, lemon juice, vanilla beans and some wine. But I suppose they blended too well with the apple taste that I wouldn't have discovered their presence without reading the ingredients list. Especially peach and apple, which do blend quite well together, with the former enhancing the latter's fragrance.
Overall, it was a good experience. And it's also a bonus if you get it as a gift for East Asian friends, because of the auspicious associations. ^__^
Juchheim,
which produced this version, is a famous premier brand that specialises
in baumkuchen. Incidentally, it also has a branch in Takashimaya,
Singapore, although the local branch doesn't have as many flavours as
the ones in Japan. From experience, the local baumkuchen also doesn't
seem as rich and moist as the ones we've tried in Japan.
Anyway, symbols aside, it was a very pleasant cake to savour - moist, rich and buttery with a sweet apple fragrance that permeated the slice. The bits of apple were also crisp and fragrant.
There were apparently other ingredients as well, like cinnamon (as can be expected), white peach puree, almond powder, lemon juice, vanilla beans and some wine. But I suppose they blended too well with the apple taste that I wouldn't have discovered their presence without reading the ingredients list. Especially peach and apple, which do blend quite well together, with the former enhancing the latter's fragrance.
Overall, it was a good experience. And it's also a bonus if you get it as a gift for East Asian friends, because of the auspicious associations. ^__^
Found this cake interesting? Check out more unusual cakes here!
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