Bee Sting Cake by Brunhilde

Fleeing the war-torn German Empire, Brunhilde “Hilde” Schuster immigrates to the United States where her cousin’s family teaches her rudimentary English. She finds work as a caretaker for the elderly member of a family whose German ancestors immigrated decades earlier.

Carl Becker, whose parents, before his birth, fled Germany after the failed 1848 revolution, feels an attraction to the new companion for the Bergmann Oma. However, he is reluctant to strike up a friendship. Resentful of his mother’s constant pressure to marry a good German girl, he decided years earlier he was born in America, he’s an American, and he will marry an American woman.

Hilde learns of an American holiday called Thanksgiving. What do Pilgrims from England and eating turkey, corn, and pumpkin pie have to do with her? Invited to join her employers’ extended family and friends, in the spirit of celebration, she decides to bake and bring a favorite German dessert —Bienenstich – Bee Sting Cake.