German Pluck-cake - Zupfkuchen

If cheesecake and Chocolate cake would marry and have a child... this cake would be it! A marriage which was meant to be 😁

Level: Easy

Serves: 8

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 1 hour + 2 hours cooling

Ingredients:

Dough:

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

5 tbsp cocoa powder

150g sugar

½ tsp salt

150g butter (room temp.)

1 egg

Cheese layer:

60g butter (softened)

100g sugar

500g full fat cream cheese or quark

2 egg

40ml milk

30g flour

20g corn starch

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon or lime juice

1 tsp zest of a lemon or lime

Preparation:

Butter a 23cm diameter round springform cake tin, lay some baking paper on the bottom and preheat the oven on 175C.

For the dough, mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the butter and the egg to the dry ingredients and work it into a dough. (It will feel dry at this stage but don’t add any more liquid ingredients!) Then on a floury surface knead the dough until it becomes smooth. (Work it with your hands!) Half it in a ratio of 1/3 : 2/3. Roll out 2/3 of the dough to the size of your pan and lay it into the buttered and lined baking pan. Pierce it everywhere with a fork, cover it and put it into the fridge. Cover the 1/3 of the dough with cling film and put it into the fridge as well.

For the cheese layer, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the remaining ingredients and stir them well together. Pour it over the chilled dough.

Roll out the remainder of the dough to 0.5cm thick and pluck it onto the top of the cheese layer. It should look like a cow’s pattern.

Bake it for about 30 minutes then put some kitchen foil on top (to ensure that the cake is not going to become too dark) and bake it for another 30 minutes. Let it cool down completely, then take it out of the form, sprinkle with powder sugar (optional) and serve it with a nice cup of tea. Enjoy!