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A traditional recipe for Gugelhupf Christmas cake served in individual sizes. There are two gugelhupf cakes sitting on a white plate.
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Individual Sized Gugelhupf Cakes

Gugelhupf cake is a special cake that comes from Europe, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland all claim it originated there. Its a German bread cake made for Christmas with raisins butter egg yoke, and yeast. Its a very old traditional cake recipe and if you haven't tried it your in for a treat.1/2 cup raisins
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine German
Keyword German Christmas Cake, Traditional Recipe, Yeast Cake
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Raising time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 12 small cakes

Ingredients

  • ½ cup currants
  • 1 tbsp rum optional
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • ¾ tsp yeast
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ⅓ cup warm milk
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 large eggs
  • zest of one lemon
  • pinch of salt
  • icing sugar

Instructions

  • Step 1 - Preparation
  • Grease either individual gugelhupf cake pan, or a large gugelhupf cake pan. You can use a bundt cake pan, or an angel food cake pan as well. As long as the cake pan has a center tube to the pan.
  • Step 2 - Softening the Dried Fruit
  • Add 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup currants to a small bowl.  Cover with the rum (optional) and boiling water let stand until the water is cool.  Drain off the water and place the raisins and current onto a towel to dry.
  • Step 3 - Making the Cake Batter
  • Sift 3 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl.  Make a large well in the center of the flour.  Warm up 1/3 of a cup of milk in the microwave until warm, pour half of the milk into the well.  Then add 3/4 tsp yeast,  1/4 cup of sugar.  Stir the yeast, milk, and sugar together in the well and the incorporate a little bit of the flour.
    A large miing bowl filled with dry ingredients. There is a well in the middle filled with milk and yeast. You can see currants and raisins in the background along with gugelhupf cake pans.
  • Set in a warm place and let rise for 20 minutes.
  • Add the raisins and currants. Stir the mixture very well until well incorporated. You will find the dough kind of sticky. Spoon the dough into your baking pan.
    A tray of individual sized gugelhupf cakes rising in the pan.
  • Cover the pan with a towel, place in a warm place and let rise for 40 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 350F and bake for about 20 minutes until golden.
    Homemade Gugelhopf Christmas cake. There are two cakes sitting on a white plate, with several more of the european christmas cakes in the background.
  • If you want to serve it as a cake full size cake, spoon into a bundt cake pan and let bake for 50 minutes.