History

Atomic Cake was created in the late 1940s or early 1950s by baker George Kremm while he worked at Calumet Bakery in Chicago's South Deering neighbourhood. Kremm named it in honour of the Atomic Age fascination of the postwar years. He took the recipe with him when he opened Liberty Bakery in Roseland in the 1950s, and the cake spread across South Side Bohemian and Polish bakeries. Today Calumet Bakery in Lansing, Weber's Bakery in Garfield Ridge, and Wolf's Bakery in Evergreen Park are the canonical Chicago Atomic Cake bakers. The cake is the default birthday cake on the South Side; rarely seen north of the Loop.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg

Make it at home

Yield 12Hands-on 1 hr 30 minTotal 4 hrDifficulty Advanced

Ingredients

  • For banana cake layer: 200g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 120g unsalted butter softened
  • 200g light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 250g ripe banana mashed
  • 100ml buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • For chocolate cake layer: 180g plain flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 120ml buttermilk
  • 80ml neutral oil
  • 120ml hot coffee
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • For yellow cake layer: 200g plain flour
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 120g unsalted butter softened
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 120ml whole milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • For Bavarian custard: 500ml whole milk
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 30g cornflour
  • 2 tsp gelatin powder
  • 200ml double cream whipped to soft peaks
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • For strawberry glaze: 300g strawberries hulled
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp cornflour
  • For chocolate fudge: 200g dark chocolate; 150ml double cream; 50g unsalted butter
  • To finish: 800ml double cream whipped with 60g icing sugar; 200g fresh strawberries; 2 bananas sliced; chocolate shavings

Method

  1. Bake the three cakes in three 23cm tins, each lined with parchment. Banana: cream butter and sugar 4 minutes, beat in eggs, fold in mashed banana, then alternate dry ingredients with buttermilk. Chocolate: whisk dry ingredients, beat in eggs, buttermilk, oil; finally stream in hot coffee. Yellow: cream butter and sugar 4 minutes, beat in eggs, alternate dry with milk. Bake each at 175C (155C fan) for 25 to 28 minutes. Cool completely.
  2. Make the Bavarian custard: whisk yolks, sugar, cornflour. Warm milk; pour over yolks while whisking. Return to pan, cook to thick custard (5 minutes). Stir in vanilla. Bloom gelatin in 3 tbsp cold water, melt and stir into custard. Cool completely. Fold in whipped cream.
  3. Make the strawberry glaze: blend strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Mix cornflour with 1 tbsp water, stir into glaze. Cook 3 minutes until thick. Cool.
  4. Make the fudge: warm cream, pour over chopped chocolate, stir to smooth ganache. Add butter, stir to glossy. Cool to spreading consistency.
  5. Layer: place the banana cake on a serving platter. Spread half the Bavarian custard on top. Arrange sliced bananas across the custard.
  6. Add chocolate cake layer. Spread strawberry glaze; arrange a single layer of sliced fresh strawberries.
  7. Top with yellow cake. Spread fudge across the top.
  8. Refrigerate 1 hour to firm.
  9. Cover the entire cake in whipped cream, smoothed with an offset spatula. Decorate with fresh strawberries, sliced bananas and chocolate shavings.
  10. Refrigerate 1 hour before slicing. Slice with a hot wet knife; the cake is famously fragile.

Tip from the editors. Bake the three cakes the day before assembly; cold cakes are far easier to layer without crumbling. Atomic Cake benefits from being made over two days.

Where to eat atomic cake

Atomic Cake in Chicago

Weber's Bakery ★ 4.4

$ BakeryPolish doughnuts (paczki), Polish ryesWalk-in only

Weber's Bakery in Chicago is the Garfield Ridge Polish bakery on Archer since 1930, with rye breads, kolacky cookies and the Fat Tuesday paczki line out.

Worth the queuePaczki

TipOn Fat Tuesday the queue is two hours. Pre-order on the website by the Friday before; collection runs all day.

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