When I traveled to Asia this fall, one of the managers in Tokyo sent me home with a Baumkuchen cake.   It’s a popular dessert in many European countries, and in Japan.  The delicate rings you see look like tree rings.  Thus the name means “tree cake”.  I thought it looked delicate like so many of the other Japanese desserts.  It was introduced to Japan in World War I by the German Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim.   

The cake was interesting.  Fancy.  Not very sweet.  This might be the American in me.  I have a huge sweet tooth and my ability to handle sweet is pretty good.