Baking for the Cure: This is a post about my side fundraising for Boston. Since the start of training on November 12, I have been baking daily to sell breakfast pastries at Tim's workplace to raise funds for this race. It has been fun as a past pastry person in a restaurant to dig up some stuff that I hadn't done in awhile. I especially liked the refresher making up danishes. The benefits are that you can have your apartment smell like a dream for a few hours every day and the tricky part is arranging the time to bake. Today, I made Bienenstich, or "bee-sting" cake, a yeasted sweet bread which is drizzled with honey and almonds, baked and then split open and filled with pastry cream. Here is the recipe, sans pastry cream (from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts), and I bake it in two 4x16" pullman loaf pans lined with parchment. It is really worth the effort, and you can halve the recipe if you only want a single loaf! I find the rising time to be significantly longer than the recipe states- allow up to double the written amount of time. This is a fancy sweet bread that presents quite well with a burnished almond glaze:

makes two 9" square (or pullman loaves) cakes; each serves about 8
Dough:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 C lukewarm water
3/4 C unsalted butter, softened
3/4 C sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 C lukewarm milk
1/2 C sour cream or plain yogurt
4 1/2 C all purpose flour
2 T unsalted butter, melted

Bee-Sting glaze:
2/3 C packed light brown sugar
6 T unsalted butter
1/4 C plus 2 T heavy cream
1/4 C plus 2 T honey
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 1/3 C (about 5 oz) sliced blanched almonds

1. Dough: In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl with mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the salt, vanilla, milk, sour cream or yogurt and yeast mixture, beat about 2 minutes.

3.Gradually beat in 3 3/4 C of flour until a very soft dough forms. Continue to beat, adding additional flour until dough is smooth and elastic, 8-10 minutes. If your mixer is not strong, work on the counter with flour as needed instead- you may have to use more flour, but try to minimize adding too much. Place dough in oiled bowl, turn to coat, and let rise covered until double, about 45 minutes.

4. Butter or line 2 9" pans. Punch down dough and divide into pans, pressing evenly. Brush with the melted butter and let rise, covered until doubled, 40-50 minutes.

5. Glaze: In a small, heavy saucepan, stir together brown sugar, butter, cream and honey over medium heat. Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar; boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and almonds. Let cool slightly, 8-10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

6.Drizzle warm glaze over fully risen cakes. Bake until the nuts are golden brown, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool to luke-warm or room temp. If desired split in half and fill with pastry cream. Cakes can be wrapped and frozen (unfilled) for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!