I have known my Granny only for a few years and I was still a young child when she died in her 70th. The most I remember is her garden. She had a huge park-like garden with a lot of playground for us children. A whole lot of fruit trees and of course a part for vegetables. I loved that garden more than anything else. There was even an old stable where once the horses and the carriage found place, later the first car in town and at my times it was just a stable with the old carriage in. And an owl living there. My friend was afraid and I was curious but I have never seen the bird.
My grand-mother used to have 4 o’clock coffee. She had a huge lawn full of daisies and under a tree a table and chairs where we had our coffee and CAKE! Very often we had Butterkuchen. Known also as Zuckerkuchen. It’s a kind of dry cake with almonds and sugar as topping. And a lot of butter of course. I loved it – and still do! It is years I wanted to bake some and only a few days ago finally I decided to do so.
The butter or sugar cake is baked on a tray. The flakes of butter and sliced almonds topped with sugar give it the name.
It was once (I don’t know if still today but don’t think so) the Germans’ favorite cake for the coffee table time. The name Beerdigungskuchen (funeral cake) or Freud-und-Leid-Kuchen (joy and sorrow cake) I have never heard but seems to be called as well in some German regions.
In occasion to bring some cake for the visit in my friends’ house I bake the Butterkuchen. I transformed it in paleo just using a different (gluten-free) flour, ghee instead of butter and as sugar I used erythritol (Sukrin). For the rest I took the official recipe which you can find everywhere on the Internet.
It came out perfectly. You can eat it fresh, when still lightly warm, with coconut cream, ice-cream… find your perfect combination. It takes a little time to prepare as the dough has to rise but you can do a huge baking tray and store the cake for a few days in the fridge.
Enjoy!
- 500 gr paleo all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp sugar (e. g. Sukrin)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 100 gr grassfed butter or ghee
- 200 ml almond milk
- 25 gr active yeast
- 180 gr grassfed butter or ghee
- 100 gr almonds sliced
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar (e- g- Sukrin)
- Warm up the milk and dissolve the yeast in it.
- Put all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl and combine perfectly. Add the milk with the yeast and combine again.
- In a warm place let the dough double in an hour.
- Take the dough, mix it again and put it on a baking pan.
- With your finger form a whole lot of bumps in the dough and put flakes of butter in them.
- Sprinkle the almond slices and the sugar over the whole cake.
- Let all sit another 15 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven on 200°C/390°F.
- Put the baking pan into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes.
- Get the ready Butterkuchen out of the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack.
Stay near to the oven and have a look from time to time. Don't let it get too dark on the upper side. The cake should be lightly golden to be best and not getting dry.
Cut into squares 10 x 10 cm/4 x 4 inches.
Serve the Butterkuchen still lukewarm.
You can store leftovers on a plate in the fridge for a few days. Otherwise store the cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
