Donauwelle, meaning Danube Wave, is a sheet cake made from vanilla and chocolate pound cake, topped with sour cherries, a German buttercream frosting, and chocolate ganache.
Though technically, it is not a cake but a Torte, consisting of a baked cake to which other ingredients and decorations like whipped cream, icing etc are added afterwards. For the Donauwelle, buttercream and the chocolate ganache are spread on top of the pound cherry cake.
I personally never made a Donauwellenkuchen, but instead bought the frozen dessert from Aldi. Under Sources and Resources, you’ll find links to recipes to make the Danube Waves cake that sounded good and got good reviews. My YouTube playlist also features videos on how to make the cake, in German and English.
The Name
Before baking, you’ll have to press the cherries gently into the batter which will create a wave pattern. Once you cut the cake, you will see the Wellen or waves, hence the name Donauwelle. Usually, a second wave pattern is created with a cake comb in the chocolate glaze.
The cake is also called Schneewittchenkuchen or Schneewittchentorte (Snow White cake) because of the colors associated with Snow White: red (cherries), white (buttercream), and black (chocolate cake/glaze).
The Origin
Where the cake came from is not clear, but it’s safe to say that the cake has its origin somewhere where the Danube flows. Which is probably why the cake is more popular in the Southern regions of Germany and in Austria.
In Austria, the story goes that a baker in love invented the Torte. His beloved resembled Snow White and he was listening to “An der schönen blauen Donau” (The Blue Danube), a waltz written by Johann Strauss (Son) in 1866/67. Putting all these ingredients and influences together, he came up with the Donauwelle cake.
I have found a blog post online by a woman whose grandmother lived in then Austria-Hungary (after WWI Croatia) near the Danube. She also baked this cake, though instead of buttercream she used a mix of whipped egg whites and powdered sugar. These represented the whitecaps of the Danube, so she told her grandchildren. However, at the time the cake was called Sauerkirsch-Blechkuchen (sour cherry sheet cake) or Weichselkuchen (Weichsel being another name for sour cherries).
Nowadays, a Weichselkuchen is similar to the Donauwellenkuchen in that it can be made from a mix of yellow and chocolate cake and has sour cherries. However, there is no buttercream icing or chocolate glaze, but powdered sugar instead.
The River
The Danube (Donau) is, after the Volga, the second largest and second longest river in Europe (2857 km). It flows through (or touches) ten different countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. Four capital cities are located by the Danube: Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary), and Belgrade (Serbia).
The river is of geographical, historical, and cultural importance in Europe, connecting natural and cultural regions.
The Music
I already mentioned the waltz “An der schönen blauen Donau” by Johann Strauss II. The song is also called Donauwalzer (Danube waltz) and is the unofficial national anthem of Austria.
But there is also the classical waltz called “Donauwellen” (Waves of the Danube), composed by Iosif Ivanovici in 1880 and often played at the Vienna Opera Ball. The name for the cake might have been inspired by it. Listen to it here:
The Sculpture
In the city of Vilshofen, located in Bavaria at the Danube river, you can find the sculpture “Donauwelle trifft Vilswelle” (Danube wave meets Vils wave) by the Austrian artist Gabriele Berger. The sculpture from 1996 symbolizes the meeting of the Danube river and the Vils river, at the location where the Vils flows into the Danube.
The Donau is represented by the two large granite pieces with two wave shaped pieces broken out. These pieces symbolize the Vils and lie in a line in a right angle to the Danube rocks.
Sources and Resources
- Wiki – Donauwelle
- RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland
- Wiki – The Blue Danube
- Wiki – Donau
- Kunst in Niederbayern: Donauwelle trifft Vilswelle
- Wiki – Gabriele Berger
- YouTube Playlist (music and recipes)
- Recipes: itsybitsykitchen, mission-food, kitchenstories, dirndlkitchen, and mydinner
