1917 to 1945 Cake #4

The Blitz Torte

This cake was popular in the 1920's in cities with large German populations, such as Milwaukee and Brooklyn. In German "blitz" means "quick". The Blitz Torte was meant to be a cake you could quickly pull together with the ingredients on hand. A recipe appeared in a cookbook called Tested Recipes in 1922. A food editor in Milwaukee says it is Wisconsin's unofficial state cake. The editor asked readers to send in family recipes for the torte and she received over 100 entries!

My Experience

This cake has two layers. The cake layers are spread with a quick meringue before baking and filled with a custard. Lastly, it is sprinkled with almonds and cinnamon sugar before going in the oven.

I am a bit surprised that this cake is supposed to be quick and easy. It includes 3 parts; making a custard, making a cake batter, and putting together a meringue. The recipe includes over 15 ingredients. I guess the Germans considered it quick, but I sure didn't. It also didn't help that my custard and meringue had a hard time coming together.The custard was runny and I do not have much experience with meringue so I was not too confident with its texture.

The cake looked like a mess! A large heap of unrecognizable parts with a variety of consistencies. I didn't even know if it was safe to eat, haha:) Of course I had to try it and it was actually not bad. Flavors were fine, but the textures were a bit odd. Overall, I don't think I would try a repeat of this one!

Surprisingly, one of my neighbors said, "My husband said it is his fave so far." So you never know how other people are going to react.