Happy 45th Birthday!
The Händel Torte,in honor of my musical man.
Happy birthday was sung as Handel's
Water Music floated through the background.
(yes from a box, I could not resist the name but ain't it purty)This is a Torte, not a Kuchen, or a cake. Tortes are a whole cake cut into thin layers which are then then spread with a whipped cream. Not cool whip, but hand-mixer whipped whipping cream and perhaps flavored. There is no 10x sugar butter frosting found in this culture. Perhaps a more known example of a torte is the Schwarzwald Torte or Black Forest cake. However a glance at my Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, 1989, p. 82 recipe looks nothing like what the Oma up the street makes and it has no Kirchwasser.
A Kuchen here is a more familiar form of the pound cake found in the southern United States, with a couple of exceptions: it is not as sweet and it is a bit on the drier side. The kuchen however is still as rich with eggs, just not as moist as its US cousin.
