Donauwelle

Inside, cherries push down into the two-colored batter, and a comb draws lines through the chocolate on top. The Donauwelle, whose name means “Danube wave,” has two waves made by different techniques. It is a German sheet cake: sour cherries are baked into white and cocoa batters, then the cake is topped with white buttercream and a dark chocolate coating.

Layering two colors of batter and making waves with cherries

The base is a batter made by beating soft butter with sugar, adding the eggs one at a time, and then mixing in the flour. At first the whole batch is white, and part of it is spread onto the baking sheet. Cocoa and a little milk are added to the rest to color it, and this batter is spread evenly over the white layer.

Instead of swirling the two colors together first to make a marble pattern, pitted sour cherries are laid on the layered batter and pressed in lightly. Where the fruit is pressed in, the dark batter sinks into the white layer, and curved boundaries form during baking. The wave is both a pattern and the trace left by the baked-in fruit.

Some recipes make the batter by whipping eggs and sugar and then adding oil, milk, and the dry ingredients. The ingredients and mixing method differ from those of the creamed-butter batter, but both methods layer white batter, cocoa batter, and cherries in that order. The batter is not necessarily a pound cake batter with equal weights of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour.

Donauwelle on a baking sheet. The cross-section with sunken cherries and the wave pattern on top are visible. Photo: Hannes Grobe, 2007-06-20, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 2.5. According to the file history, another user changed the aspect ratio on the original hosting site in 2023. The background appears to be a single color, but the details of any editing are unknown. We made no further edits.

Draining the juice and adjusting the thickness to the pan

Jarred cherries are drained well in a sieve, and excess moisture is blotted from their surface with paper before they are arranged on the batter. This keeps excess juice from collecting around the fruit, and the soft batter is baked until it is firm enough to support the cream layered on top.

A baking sheet with a deep rim or a baking frame provides enough height for the cake and the cream on top. Because the thickness of each layer changes with the area of the pan, the amounts of batter and cream are adjusted to the pan so that no layer is too thick or too thin.

Bringing the milk cream and butter to the same temperature

The white buttercream is made by cooking a vanilla-flavored, starch-thickened milk cream, cooling it, and gradually combining it with soft butter. The surface of the milk cream is covered while it cools so that no skin forms. Bringing both the butter and the milk cream to room temperature so that their temperatures match, and then adding the cream to the whipped butter a little at a time, makes them easier to blend smoothly.

The baked base is also cooled completely, and the cream is spread evenly over it and chilled. Spreading cream on warm cake would melt the butter, so baking and layering are kept as separate steps. Each slice is built from these layers in this order: the two-colored cake containing the fruit, the white cream, and the dark chocolate surface.

Drawing the wave pattern before the chocolate sets

Chocolate or couverture is melted with a little oil or coconut fat and quickly spread over the set cream. It is not poured on while too hot, but brought to a state in which it can be spread without melting the cream.

Drawing lines with a fork or a pastry comb before the chocolate sets gives the chocolate a wave pattern too. Unlike the uneven surface created by the baked-in fruit, this wave is a pattern that remains only on the surface of the coating. Lightly marking the cutting lines before the chocolate has fully set and using a slightly warmed blade at the end make it easier to cut the cake without badly cracking the top.

A sheet cake cut for family celebrations

Because one large sheet can be cut into squares, Donauwelle is also baked for family celebrations. Dr. Oetker’s recipe (ingredient proportions and method) is baked on a 40×30 cm baking sheet and cut into about 20 pieces. It is made so that every piece contains fruit, both colors of cake, cream, and the coating. Unlike a round torte, it is easy to cut into pieces of equal size.

A pastry class instructor who visited a family in Germany had a homemade Donauwelle for dessert, made by the woman who welcomed them, and was given that family’s recipe when leaving for home. The cream, made by cooking a milk pudding and combining it with butter, has also been passed on along with the family’s method.

Leftovers can also be frozen in small portions and thawed slowly while still wrapped. After baking, the cake is kept chilled to preserve its layers and served one piece at a time.

A name linked to the Danube and to Snow White

Dr. Oetker suggests that the cake may have been created by a pastry maker living along the Danube, but no named maker or date is certain. Even if the river’s name expresses the comparison with waves, it does not establish the place of origin.

In some regions the cake is also called “Schneewittchenkuchen,” meaning Snow White cake. The red of the cherries, the white of the cream, and the black of the cake and chocolate match the three colors of the fairy tale. The Austrian magazine Servus also carries a story about a pastry maker in love who listened to a Strauss waltz and made waves with fallen cherries, but the magazine itself treats it as a story of uncertain truth.

Some cakes called Snow White cake replace the chocolate with a red covering of cherry juice and are baked in a round pan. Under the same Snow White name, there are both a sheet cake covered with dark chocolate and a round cake covered with red juice.

Glossary