I live in the state of Hesse and the Frankfurt Crown Cake is besides Applewine (some sort of Cider) one of the things that the region is famous for. There are many different recipes for the cake but something they all have in common is the shape and the cover with butter cream, golden brittle and cherries to make it look like a crown. I like the version of the cake that comes with a base of sponge cake, cherry jam and a light butter cream. As I promised to bring a cake to work the other day I was looking for the appropriate tin to make the cake at home. But I couldn’t find it and decided that I could also go for cupcakes.

Cupcakes

• 4 eggs
• 4 tbsp hot water
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 200 g sugar
• 100 g flour
• 100 g starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius and line 18 muffin tins with paper liners. Separate the eggs and beat the egg white together with the vanilla sugar until fluffy and stiff. Don’t give it too much of speed, otherwise you’ll get the consistency of isolation foam instead of silky firm egg white. After that beat up the egg yolks with the water and gradually add the sugar until it combines to a fluffy mass. Mix the flour, starch, baking powder and salt and sift into the egg mass. Stir with a spoon by hand, adding 1 or 2 tbsp of the egg white if too dry. Fold in the rest of the egg white and divide into the paper liners (I use an ice-cream scoop for this). Transfer to the hot oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool on a wire rack.

Decoration (this is the easy Version of buttercream with a packet mix, you can also use my secret recipe)

• 200 g butter at room temperature
• 300 ml milk
• 1 pack Vanilla cake cream (Dr Oetker Tortencreme Vanille)
• 1 glass dark cherry jam
• 1 pack hazelnut brittle
• 1 pack glaced cherries

Soften the butter, then add the milk slowly while mixing and the cake cream powder afterwards. When everything is blended, mix on high speed for 2 minutes. When the cupcakes are cooled completely, core them with a cupcake corer or a decorating tip. Put a little of the butter cream on all sides of the core and fill with the cherry jam, leave a little room to cover up with butter cream. Either use a spoon/spatula or a piping bag with decorating tip to cover the cupcakes. Scatter brittle over and top with a glaced cherry. Tadaaa 🙂