Hello everybody! I’m quickly popping in today to say „hi“ and to share a very special 3 layer cake recipe with you. It’s my Mom’s secret recipe for the most delicious cake that you’ve ever had: the 72-Hour-Cake or Dreitages-Torte in German! It doesn’t only taste good – it’s quick and easy and since you have to bake and assemble it three days before you will actually eat it, it is the perfect cake for busy families. Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

3 Layer Cake / Dreitages-Torte – The Recipe:

The ingredients for the three cake layers:

200 g butter
180 g sugar
4 eggs
250 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp non-sweetened cocoa
a few drops of rum (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C.

Butter a round cake pan (Springform).

Mix flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.

In a second mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Then carefully add one egg at a time and make sure to scrape down the bowl after each egg. On low speed, add flour mixture until just combined. Don’t overmix!

Spread 1/3 of the batter evenly in the cake pan. Add a few drops of milk if the batter is not „runny“ enough. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Add cocoa to the remaining batter, divide in half and bake two more cake layers. You end up with one yellow layer and two brown layers.

Once the cake layers have cooled off, you can sprinkle them with a few drops of rum.

The ingredients for the filling:

400 ml cream
100 g sugar (or a little bit less depending on how sweet you like your cake)
3 packages / 24 g vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker Vanillezucker is available in the US at World Market, for example. But you can always easily make your own using sugar and vanilla beans).
400 ml sour cream (Schmand)

Whip the cream with the sugar and the vanilla sugar. Carefully fold in the sour cream.

Assemble the cake by spreading one half of the filling onto a brown cake layer. Top with the yellow layer and add the other half of the filling (if you end up with too much filling, well, just eat it ;-). Finish with a brown cake layer.

Cover the entire cake with melted baking chocolate (Schokoladenguss). I’ve been using Baker’s Semi-Sweet baking chocolate bar (not sponsored!) which is so delicious that I usually end up needing two packages.

I hope you’ll enjoy this cake as much as I do. I’ve made it several times (though I won’t make it for a while since all of our stuff will be on the way to Germany very soon!) and it’s always been a success.

More favorite recipes:

• Rosemary-Infused Shortbread (Heidesand in German)
• Apple Crumble for Friendsgiving