Can You Find Bee Sting Cake in Quincy?

Quincy, Illinois’ German heritage is well established, but its German food presence isn’t. Quincy has a veritable United Nations of food, and that’s a wonderful thing, but with Thanksgiving in a couple weeks, I was wondering if there were somewhere I could get a Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake) before the Holiday.

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Bienenstich is a traditional German cake with two layers and a vanilla custard cream filling in between the cake layers. Topped with caramelized honey and sliced almonds, this seems like a layup for a “Quincy Tradition”. I’ve looked around at the standards in Quincy for baked goods, and they have really good products. What they don’t seem to have is the German Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake). Perhaps this is something that may pop up at one of the grocery stores occasionally (like Paczki in the spring), but I haven’t seen it.

Option two is make my own. That’s not a bad thing, but someone who already has their ‘bee sting’ game down is preferable. This German treat dates back to the 1500’s. Some of the versions use yeast to make the cake fluffy, others opt out of the yeast to make the cake denser and flatter. Either way, the flavors of Bienenstich would be a grand way to chase Thanksgiving dinner this year. Ein Gouden!