1901: From the cream pastry that used to be court cake
Field exploration in Rumpenheim: What has become of the once much-praised Rumpenheim cream cake? Does it still exist? It seems to have been a specialty that not only provided enjoyment, but also identity. A traditional feature, so to speak, like Bieber potato salad, which also brings the taste of home to the tongue.
The search for clues begins at the house at Dörnigheimer Straße 4, where the court bakers are said to have operated the oven when the lords of the castle still resided, to whom people tipped their hats. When Rumpenheim children were still taught that it was an honor to be allowed to form a trellis from time to time.
The house at Dörnigheimer Strasse 4 is sobering. Certainly, it has remained a source of pleasure. But it doesn't serve baked goods. Italian wines are served here. The bakery is now called "Cantina Piemontese". Only the older ones still remember the baker Josef Russ, who ran the former court bakery until the second half of the last century, also as a place for cultivating the cream cake culture. Now the dough is no longer rolled out there.
A predecessor of Josef Russ in the 19th century was Heinrich Pohl. He supplied the palace with bread rolls and a spicy baked bread that the Tsar of Russia, for example, raved about when he visited Rumpenheim. But the ruler of all the Prussians must also have tasted Pohl's "Rumpenheim cream and butter cake". The cake was highly regarded in the aristocratic world.
A master baker, Josef Wolf, was now in charge of the court bakery when a telegram arrived from Stuttgart on August 4, 1902. Its text read: "Please send two of the flat cakes to the address of Her Majesty the Queen of Württemberg, Stuttgart, so that they arrive here on Monday morning if possible. If that is not possible, they can also arrive the evening before."
Two months later, the Queen of Württemberg requested another shipment, this time to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Her Majesty apparently also liked to use the Rumpenheim court cookies as gifts. This can be seen in a telegram from 1908: "Please send a sugar cake to Countess Stauffenberg-Usekul in Jettingen near Augsburg for Wednesday. Invoice to Her Majesty the Queen." The landgrave's family had already given up their residence in Rumpenheim by this time. But the court bakery still had the transport containers that it had had made for the shipping business.
Of course, you didn't have to be a member of the nobility to enjoy this cake. The court bakery sold it to everyone, and even today it is still popular. We make a find in Edelsheimer Straße. It's on the counter in a Bachwaren branch. Half of a round cream cake is still available. However, it was not baked in Rumpenheim, but in an oven in Offenbach.
A number of bakeries throughout the city have it on sale. The only thing it has lost over time is its first name. It is now simply known everywhere as Rahmkuchen. The designation of origin "Rumpenheimer" is a thing of the past. Like the court bakery in Dörnigheimer Straße. Like the princes in the castle and the subjects who tipped their hats. But those who remember all this can taste something like home when they chew.
Lothar R. Braun