Authentic Maulwurfkuchen (German Mole Cake)

Try Maulwurfkuchen, a chocolate and banana cake recipe that has it all. A chocolate cake base, with fresh banana and chocolate chip, whipped cream filling. In Germany, this molehill cake is a favorite at kids' birthday parties - but adults enjoy it just as much.

What is Maulwurfkuchen?

Maulwurfkuchen is a German chocolate banana cake. The name translates as "Molehill cake". "Maulwurf" is the German word for "mole" and "kuchen" is the word for cake.

The name derives from the shape of the cake, which resembles a molehill. The base is a simple chocolate sponge cake. The base of the cake is hollowed out and filled with fresh bananas. Then stabilized whipped cream with chocolate chips is mounded onto the base as a hill. Lastly, the removed cake crumbs are sprinkled over the cream to cover the cake. The chocolate cake crumbs resemble soil.

Origin

It is unclear when this cake was invented but it became popular in Germany in the 1990s. This was due to the emergence of ready-made cake mixes, popularized by Dr. Oetker, a German food manufacturer. Here all the dry ingredients are packed up in boxes and you just have to add the cream, butter, eggs, and milk.

However, the Dr. Oetker Maulwurfkuchen Cake Mix is difficult to get hold of abroad and expensive when you consider what simple ingredients are being used. So I will show you how to make Maulwurfkuchen without a cake mix.

Dr Oetker Maulwurfkuchen Cake Mix

Buy Now →

(affiliate link)

How to make Maulwurfkuchen

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake base

• butter at room temperature
• eggs (medium size at room temperature)
• flour (Germany Type 405, UK plain flour, USA Pastry flour)
• unsweetened cocoa (affiliate link) powder
• baking powder
• pinch of salt
• milk

For the cream banana filling

• bananas (see below some ideas for variation. You can use strawberries or blueberries instead)
• whipping cream (at least 30% fat content)
•  vanilla extract (affiliate link)
•  chocolate chips (affiliate link) (in Germany chocolate shavings are used, but they are difficult to get hold of and chocolate chips (affiliate link) will do the trick. The smaller the better though)
• icing sugar/confectioners sugar - to stabilize the cream

To stabilize the whipped cream

• unflavoured gelatin powder (affiliate link) (in Germany "Sahnesteif" is used which is a whipped cream stabilizer. You can stabilize the cream with gelatin, or with a product called "Whip it" from Amazon. Vegetarians can use vegetarian

Recipe Step by Step

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/356°F top to bottom heat.
2. Grease a 10-inch (26 cm) cake tin.
3. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, Beat in the eggs until combined.  

4. Add the flour, baking powder (affiliate link), unsweetened cocoa (affiliate link) powder, and salt. Sieve into the butter mixture and mix until you achieve a smooth cake batter.
5. Pour into the prepared cake tin.
6. Bake for around 25-30 minutes or until the cake is baked through. To test whether it is done, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. Allow cakes to cool completely before assembling.

To make the cream

7. Place the gelatine powder in a microwave-safe container. Add the water and leave it to dissolve for 5 minutes. Microwave the thickened gelatine for 5-7 seconds until it turns liquid. Keep on repeating the process until the gelatine is liquid. The gelatine should be liquid, but not hot when added to the cream.
8. Pour the cream into the cold mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until it begins to thicken, then beat in the confectioners/icing sugar. Add the vanilla essence and continue beating.
9. Once you notice that the cream is thickening (but has not started forming soft peaks yet) pour in the gelatine. If the gelatine has turned hard again, you can place it in the microwave again until liquid. Keep on beating until soft peaks form, then carefully fold in the chocolate shavings/chocolate chips (affiliate link).
10. Place cream into the fridge to chill until needed.

Assembling the cake

11. Once the cake has cooled, cut a 2 cm border around the edges of the cake. Scoop out the top of the cake. Only go about 1 cm deep, as otherwise, your cake base will not be very stable.
12. Crumble the scooped-out cake pieces onto a cake and set aside.

13. Peel the bananas and half them. Then place them on the base of the cake.
14. Spoon the cream onto the cake so that in the middle you form a little mount of cream.
15. Using your hands, cover the mount with the cake crumbs. You can press them on the cream with your hands or a flat spatula. Keep chilled until serving.

Decoration Options

In addition to covering your molehill with cake crumb "soil" you can further decorate it by placing fondant or real flowers on top (see here an example (for pictures only, the blog in German). Another idea is to form a fondant mole that peeks out of the mile hill.

Recipe Variations

Here are some recipes on how to adapt this cake for different seasons.

• try different fruit- instead of layering the cake with bananas, you can also cut up fresh strawberries. Strawberries, cream, and chocolate are a great combination. This will also work with blueberries.
• Make this cake with cherries. You can use my German cherry compote recipe as a base.
• Lighten up the cake by replacing the whipped cream filling with a quark filling. Just whip up only half of the cream, and replace the other half with quark.

Storage Instructions

Keep the Molehill cake in the fridge. This ensures that the whipped cream does not become liquid. It can last, if covered up, without problems for 3-4 days.

Freeze Mole Cake

This cake is also suitable for freezing. First, place the Maulwurfkuchen without any packaging in the freezer. After 3-4 hours it is frozen through and you can wrap it in foil or place it in an airtight container. The whole cake will take about a day to defrost. Once frozen the cake will last up to three months.

Prepare in advance

The cake tastes best after it has rested in the fridge for a couple of hours. This firms up the cream, and allows the banana flavor to infuse with the cake. So feel free to prepare the cake the day before serving.

More German Cake Recipes

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