To all the cheesecake lovers out there: here comes an East German classic to replace New York cheesecake as your favorite dessert. The popular Dresdner Eierschecke is a sheet cake that is composed of three delicious, perfectly complementing layers. The base hereby consists of a sponge or yeast dough. A thin quark-based layer connects it with the upper part which is made of a creamy egg and vanilla pudding. All together form a fluffy cake with a fine and subtle taste.

Rectangular pieces of the sweet delicacy can be spotted in cake displays in most confectioneries throughout Saxony and Thuringia. There, Eierschecke can be found with countless refinements such as raisins, chocolate coating, almond splinters or crumbles. The simple original, however, stems from the beautiful city of Dresden. For that reason, Saxony’s capital also forms the mecca for all lovers of the sheet cake.

If you ever visit Dresden, we highly recommend stopping by Coselpalais. Built in 1765, it is one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in the historic old town. Surrounded by such a traditional and magnificent interior, a piece of Eierschecke immediately tastes twice as delicious. Apart from that, the Palais offers a huge range of other delicious, homemade cake specialities and is therefore always worth a visit.

A popular variation of the original Dresdner Eierschecke is the Freiberger Eierschecke in which raisins find use instead of quark. Rumors have it that the quark could not be used in the town of Freiberg in the 13th century. The mayor allegedly ordered to use everything on stock to restore the decaying city walls. Sounds quite strange, right?! Who knows whether this was actually the case. Maybe the inventor simply didn’t like quark and thereby justified his defection from the Dresden original.

More To Discover

Eierschecke And Its Unexpected Name Giver

While the ingredients don’t seem very unusual, the name definitely is – even for German speakers. The reason for that is its historic background. “Schecke” originally referred to a certain type of men’s clothing in the 14th century. The garment consisted of a strongly waisted frock coat which men usually wore together with a waist belt. The resemblance of the cake’s layers to the three parts of the garment – upper part, belt, lower part – gave the pastry its name.

Now whether you have enjoyed it before and want to have it again or you are simply intrigued by the traditional East German cake. Here is our authentic recipe for you to bake the original Dresdner Eierschecke at home. And if you ever make it to Dresden or any other beautiful Saxonian city, make sure to try and compare.

Recipe: Original Dresdner Eierschecke

by SunnySideCircus

Category Food & Drinks // Germany

Ingredients

50 g margarine
275 g sugar
7 eggs
100 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
500 g quark (20% fat)
1 pack vanilla pudding (powder), milk according to recipe
125 g butter
1 pack vanilla sugar

Instructions

First of all, prepare the vanilla pudding as explained on the packaging but leave out the extra sugar. Let it rest and cool down.
Spread some butter on a baking tray or baking form
Take 50g margarine, 50g butter, 2 eggs, flour and baking soda and blend everything well until you get a smooth dough
Fill everything into the form and bake it for about 10 minutes until it turns golden.
In the meantime, mix the quark, 2 eggs and 150 g sugar and let ot rest for a little
Now, separate the 3 egg yolks and mix them slowly with the melted butter and the cold pudding
Whip the egg whites and blend them extremely carefully with the pudding mix so that it becomes very light and fluffy
When the cake base has cooled down, spread a layer of the quark on it and top it with the pudding
Bake the cake for 45 minutes at 180°C with circulating air
Finally cut the Eierschecke into small rectangles or wedges if you used a round form