Growing up in Frankfurt, my childhood was a blur of Kinder eggs and Haribo gummy bears. But my favorite of all German snacks was the milk slice. The idea behind the milk slice is simple: a light whipped cream sandwiched between two layers of spongy chocolate cake. But the slice itself had an extremely distinct taste to it; it was chocolaty and not too sweet at the same time. But the two textures of the cake and the cream complemented each other so well they were a match made in heaven. Randomly, I remembered how amazing the milk slice was, and I began looking online for places that might have sold milk slices nearby. But lo and behold, I discovered that for a fraction of the cost and effort that it would be required to send the milk slices overseas, I could make them myself!
Many of the recipes that I found online varied from each other, so it took me a while to find the perfect recipe. Eventually, I ended up simply combining a few different aspects from different recipes to create one. Many of the ingredients called for were native to Germany, so I had to improvise as best I could. Luckily, an international grocery store near my house had many of the ingredients I needed. The whipped cream was simple to make, just a basic cream with heavy whipping cream, sugar and a tiny bit of lime juice. The sponge cake was a little more difficult because it needed to be extremely thin so that the milk slice would have the perfect cake-cream ratio. The part that I struggled with the most was simply waiting for the sponge cake to melt before I could put the cream on top. But after taking the first bite, I realized that it was most definitely worth the wait. The milk slice was perfect, smooth and light but also slightly tart, just as I remembered it. The cake was barely chocolatey but left a rich cocoa taste in your mouth perfectly balanced by the cream. It was wonderful overall and an extremely easy recipe to try.