Donauwelle
A marbled chocolate and vanilla sponge with sour cherries, topped with buttercream and dark chocolate glaze, baked for 45 minutes.
Photograph credit: Torte Donauwelle (image of Donauwelle on Wikidata Q829243) by Burkhard Mücke · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Making Donauwelle Ahead
Keeps for 3 days in the fridge.
Donauwelle: The Method
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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F and line a 30 x 40 cm tin. Beat 250 g butter with 250 g sugar until pale, beat in the eggs, and fold in the flour, baking powder and milk.
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Spread half the batter in the tin. Stir the cocoa into the other half and spread over the top. Press in the cherries and drag a knife through for waves.
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Bake for 45 minutes. Cool completely.
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Whisk the cornflour, 80 g sugar and a little of the milk. Warm the rest of the milk, stir in, and cook for 3 minutes until thick. Cool, then beat in the 250 g butter. Spread over the cake and chill for 1 hour.
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Melt the chocolate and 30 g butter and pour over the cake. Mark waves with a fork. Chill until set.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.
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Worth Knowing
- Cool the cake before the cream.
- Chill the buttercream before glazing.
- Use a hot knife to cut squares.
Behind the Recipe
Compare it with a Black Forest gateau and you will find the same cherries and chocolate in a flat cake that cuts into tidy squares. Donauwelle, the Danube wave, gets its name from the wavy pattern of the dark and light batter, which looks like the surface of a river.
Make one batter and divide it in half. Stir cocoa and a splash of milk into one half. Spread the light batter in a lined tin, spoon the dark batter on top and spread it gently. Press the sour cherries into the batter in rows and drag the tip of a knife through to make waves. They sink in as the cake bakes and give a juicy sweet and sour layer.
Bake at 180°C / 355°F for 45 minutes and cool completely. Spread with a layer of vanilla buttercream and chill for 1 hour, until firm. Pour over a dark chocolate glaze and score it with a fork for the wave pattern. Cut into squares with a knife dipped in hot water. It keeps for 3 days in the fridge.
What to Put Next to It
Coffee · Tea · Sparkling wine
Donauwelle FAQ
How long does Donauwelle take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour of Chilling, so allow 2 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling the cake and the custard and chilling until the chocolate sets, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 16.
Donauwelle Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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