My friend Oliver recently celebrated his 31st birthday. For his birthday I wanted to bake him something special, that was both traditional, elegant, and would hopefully taste really good. I remembered seeing a recipe in Maida Heatter’s New Book of Great Desserts a recipe for a cake that was exactly what I was looking for, the Zuger Kirschtorte.

A Zuger Kirschtorte comes from the town of Zug in Switzerland. It is a layered cake that starts with a base of meringue, a layer of butter cream, a sponge cake soaked in a Kirsch syrup, another layer of butter cream, and finally a meringue top. The whole cake is covered in butter cream, and has roasted almond slivers around the side.

Making this cake was a process. I did it over two days. The first day making the meringue’s and the sponge cake. The second day putting it all together. You might be scared off by the amount of effort this cake requires, but I have to say it is absolutely worth it.

As with every recipe I have tried so far from Maida Heatter, I have had fantastic results. Not only did the cake look amazing, it also tasted fantastic. I am definitely going to continue to try more of her recipes over the coming months, and have already ordered a few more of her cook books!