Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake) vs Battenberg Cake

Both cakes lean on butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla, yet they put them to very different work. Bienenstich uses milk to wake a yeasted dough, crowns it with a honey-glazed almond topping baked until caramelized, and fills it with a chilled vanilla custard lightened with whipped cream, so each bite moves from crunchy to soft and creamy. Battenberg creams butter and sugar with four eggs into a tender vanilla sponge, glued into a pink-and-plain checkerboard with apricot jam and wrapped in sweet marzipan.