I spent a summer in Japan when I was 15 and discovered that Japanese chefs can take any foreign  pastry– Italian tiramisu, French puff pastry, and even Spanish churros– and improve on perfection.  The Japanese versions of western style cakes tasted lighter and more flavorful.  And boy were they pretty.  But try as they might, the Japanese have not mastered the German Baumkuchen, the self proclaimed King of Cakes.  Germany still has a monopoly on this unique tree cake, and Berlin has expert bakers at Konditorei Buchwald, a cafe near the Bellevue S-bahn in Tiergarten, who have been baking this treat for 150 years. This wonderfully intricate cake is characterized by striations of sponge cake gently baked to resemble the rings of a tree.  In grade school I learned that the rings of a tree reveal its age.  Not so for the Baumkuchen.  Instead the rings reveal the care and consistency that is required to make an especially good slice.  The Baumkuchen is cooked over a flame on an electric spit which looks like a horizontal doner kebab machine.  Batter is lovingly and repeatedly poured over the cake and baked at even intervals.  When it has reached the desired thickness, the cake is brushed with a light coating of apricot jam and sealed with a hard chocolate or clear glazed bark. The cake is then cut into doughnut-shaped rings.  The Konditorei is a great place for Kaffeeklatch;  they also have a brisk to-go business selling Baumkuchen by the pound. While not cheap, this dense and flavorful cake is a wonderful treat to bring to the folks back home.  Even to your Japanese friends in Tokyo.  Oishi! (Amanda Herman)