German Butter Cake (Butterkuchen)

A yeast-based German butter cake, or Butterkuchen, is a sweet bread cake made with loads of butter. It's rich, soft, and just sweet enough. You might be more familiar with Bienenstich, and that's essentially the same cake but filled with whipped cream. If you like other sweet breads like cinnamon rolls, you'll like this too.

Not only made with butter in the dough, this cake is also topped with pieces of butter and sprinkled with sugar and almonds before baking. The finished cake is covered in cream while it's still hot so you get a very soft, moist cake. It's incredible. This is a very typical coffee-and-cake choice for an afternoon treat.

For more German sheet cake recipes, try our German plum cake, rhubarb streusel cake, or German apple sheet cake. These are all made with yeast instead of baking powder.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Yeast: this recipe was developed using traditional or fresh yeast, both of which need to be bloomed. If you want to use instant yeast, use the same amount and add it with the flour. (It's fine to bloom instant yeast, but you don't need to.)
• Cream: whipping or heavy cream, around 35% fat. This is for topping the cake so it can be a lighter cream if preferred.
• Butter: this is butter cake and it will taste like butter. If you can get a higher quality type, choose that, it makes a difference. A European-style cultured butter will be more authentic if that matters to you.
• Sugar: pictured is vanilla sugar, to add a hint of vanilla flavour. Plain sugar will work just as well.
• Sliced almonds: they aren't used on every butter cake but do add a little extra textural and flavour boost. You can omit the almonds.

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.

Method

Step 1: sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk and sugar.

Step 2: stir in the egg and butter, then part of the flour. Don't worry if the butter is lumpy, it will come together when kneaded.

Step 3: stir in the remaining flour.

Step 4: knead the dough until soft and smooth, about 10 minutes.

Step 5: set aside to rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

Step 6: roll out the dough and place it on a baking sheet. Press the pieces of butter into the dough.

Step 7: top with the sliced almonds and sugar.

Step 8: bake for about 25 minutes, then immediately top with the cream. Serve warm if possible.

Recipe Notes

Despite the masses of butter and the cake literally being soaked in cream, a common gripe for Germans is that butter cake is dry. Like any yeast-based cake, it's best served soon after baking, preferably when it's still warm. I think the idea that it's dry comes more from it getting a bit hard when it cools due to the very high fat content than it being dry, really. Because it is soaked in whipping cream, it also doesn't store all that well, so it's best to serve fresh.

The dough will take longer to rise if your home is cold or if the eggs and butter were cold. Be sure to use all room-temperature ingredients so that the rising time isn't slow (the high fat content can make the dough rise slowly).

Note that you'll need room-temperature butter for the dough, and cold butter for the topping.

Be sure to read the instructions carefully, and don't make substitutions for this recipe. It's not a cheap cake to make and skipping steps or trying to change what's in it will be a waste of good ingredients. If you've never made yeast dough before, this might not be the first recipe to start with. But it's not a difficult cake!

How to Store

Storage: while butter cake can be stored for a couple of days, it's best when fresh. If you have leftovers, they should be refrigerated in a sealed container. To refresh a piece of cake, it can be microwaved for about 15 seconds with a mug of water also in the microwave. If you don't have a microwave, you can spritz it with a little water and gently heat in a covered frying pan on low heat until just warm.

Freezing: this cake freezes pretty well. Cool fully, and transfer the cake to an airtight container. Be sure to freeze it the same day it's baked, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving. Use the same microwave method for cake that's been frozen.

Top Tips

• Don't reduce the butter: this is a high-fat, rich cake. It's loaded with butter and meant to be, so it's not the time to try to make it lower fat or 'healthier'. Omitting the cream or making it with less butter will just make a dry cake.
• Use all-purpose flour: any cake like this should be made with plain flour, not bread flour. You don't want to use a higher protein flour because it tends to make the cake chewy when you want it to be tender.
• Feed a crowd: it makes a lot of cake and it's best served fresh, so think of this is something you'd make for a group or a party.
• Use weights: if you have a kitchen scale, use it for this recipe. It's much more reliable than cups.

More Bread Recipes