It’s time to share a fun and special family recipe with you- The Schicttorte!

For Father’s Day, we wanted to make a favorite dessert for my husband and my father-in-law. My husband chose apple pie with ice cream, and my father-in-law chose a well-loved cake from his childhood- Schichttorte. This is a popular German cake that is simple in ingredients but rich and delicious! We all know that Germans love their rich food and chocolate, and this cake definitely fits the bill!

Schichttorte translates to “layer cake”. Also nicknamed “Tree Cake”. Because don’t the layers remind you of a tree? Essentially you are baking a buttery cake in many thin little layers, and it’s topped with chocolatey goodness.

As I was researching this cake online, it seems that there are a few different variations. You can change out the filling for jam, whipped cream, pudding or whatever floats your boat, or forgo the filling altogether. Many of the variations that I’m seeing online require you to bake each layer for a couple minutes, one at a time. Using a springform pan, you can spread a tiny bit of batter at the bottom, bake for 2 minutes, spread another layer and bake for another 2 minutes, and so on and so on until you’ve got a “20 layer” cake. That’s certainly one way to do it!

However, that’s now how my father-in-law’s family does it. My father-in-law is a full-blooded German. His father narrowly crossed the border to escape Nazi Germany, and he made a new life here in America. All of my father-in-law's relatives are in Germany. This particular recipe somes from his uncle, Gerhart Kunkel or affectionately known as “Uncle Kunkel” (for those of us who struggle with the German pronunciation of things). So you know this recipe is legit- straight from Germany!

In this family recipe, you actually bake the cake on a cookie sheet. The batter is thick, and so you can easily spread it across the pan, making the layers as thin as possible. After baking for 7 minutes or so, you can pull the cookie sheet out and you’ve got 2-4 of your layers right there! Or more, depending on how you cut it. My father-in-law said that they usually would cut each cookie sheet into 2 or 4 pieces before layering it, but you could certainly do more if you wanted!

One year my mother-in-law even did circle layers. She used biscuit cutters to cut out several little round circles and layered them so that each person had their own individual serving of a Schichttorte! They were adorable!! One of the fun things about this recipe is you can make it your own! Change the filling, the shape, even add in some extract- make it yours!

While the layering can be a little tedious, this recipe is actually quite easy and so delicious! It’s definitely one worth trying once! (Although chances are you’ll want to make it again!)

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