3 Days Vacation

This week equals...

Just 3 days of working and then 3 days of vacation!

Where am I off to??

Sweden!  I've never been, but a friend from the U.S. and I are taking off to Stockholm on a fantastic 14 Euro flight... amazing...

Any suggestions on places to check out/ things to do???

Brandmasse: Choux Paste

Does anyone know what Brandmasse is? Translated it is choux paste. It is a delicious batter that creates the fluffiest, most mouthwatering pastries. These pastries are sinful and addicting. However, they are fantastic to make for a brunch or shower!

I absolutely love this type of pasty. I can't get enough of these... It's a problem... Don't worry, I'm aware of it.

Let's name a few:
Cream Puffs
Eclairs
Viktoria A.K.A. French Cruellers

Here's the recipe:

200g Milk

200g Water

120g Butter

10g Sugar

4g Salt

Lemon zest

Bring to a boil, preferably in a copper kettle.

200g Flour

Add (all at one time) to the kettle and work with a wooden spoon until smooth and worked through. Keep stirring, "roasting" the batter.

Let the batter cool. It's best if the batter is spread out onto a baking tray, or other cold surface.

250g Eggs

Add one egg at a time while beating slowly after each addition. Do not over mix!

Now the batter can be created into whatever you'd like!

Here's what we did:

We made what's called a Sahneringe (Cream ring). Basically cream and thickened cherries sandwiched between the pastry ring.

First fill a piping bag with the finished batter. Using a star tip, pipe out rings on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake at 220 C 20-25 minutes.

**The pastries should be baked with lots of steam. A trick I was told is to cover each ring with a can. This way the steam is automatically created, and the pastries bake up nice and big. Otherwise, make sure to spray the rings with water.

Let cool, and cut in half.

Boil together apricot jelly and a little bit of sugar. Brush this mixture on top of each ring.

Heat Fondant in a pot. Be careful! Do not let the Fondant get to hot! Test it out on your lip. It should smooth and liquid-like. Lightly brush on top of each ring.

Fill each ring with whipped vanilla cream and thickened cherries... or choose you own filling!

Green Cabbage and Film!

The Grünkohl Tour was a smashing success!  It was absolutely a ton of fun walking, drinking, eating and dancing all night long.

I was constantly asked through the night, "Do you do something like this in America?"  The answer: No way!  This would never flow in the U.S.... unfortunately.  First off, we're not allowed to drink in the street.  Well, only in two cities we are.  Secondly, I seem to think that something like this would not end so civilized, and certainly be something the public would complain about.  Large groups of people walking around in the cold... at night... while drinking??? I don't think so.  What I find so interesting is that no one questioned what we were doing.  We were about 50 people, if not more.  We even passed a few other groups doing the same thing!

Not to mention the choice of food.  Green cabbage.  It doesn't sound the least bit appealing at all.  However, it really is.  I've certainly opened my mind with food.  A few years ago, this would not have touched my lips.  No, I take that back... it would not have made its way onto my plate.  I can imagine a large number of people would also agree.  This type of food isn't found frequently in America, and definitely isn't something that people would look forward to yearly.

Moving on...
Thursday is filming day in the bakery!  A film crew is coming through our bakery while we work to get some shots of us.  I believe this film will then be turned into an informational/advertisement film for us which will then be placed on the website or maybe even Facebook (p.s. we're on Facebook).  I'll be sure to keep you updated on the film, i.e. when it's coming out and where to find it!

Grünkohl Tour, here I come!

So, I know I've been a little absent from blogging.  It's just that getting up earlier from work takes a lot out of me... and going to bed at 5pm just doesn't seem right for some reason.  Plus this competition cake is just wondering around in the back of my head...


The season is Grünkohl... and the activity is, of course, the Grünkohl Tour!  What is that??


Grünkohl is green cabbage, translated.  I know the face you just made... trust me... it tastes good!  What lots of groups do this time of year, is have a green cabbage hike.  It sounds crazy, and it kinda is... but it's really a lot of fun.  What happens is a group of people get together and walk around the city/town while drinking typically an excessive amount of alcohol.  Then, they finish at a restaurant serving green cabbage, along with pinkel (a type of sausage that is traditionally served with green cabbage), other types of sausages and meats.

It's fantastically fun.  I took part in one last Saturday for a friends birthday, and this coming Saturday is our company's Tour.  Everyone hypes up about it all year long, and I've only attend the one, last year.  


This time last year marks a pretty significant check point in Germany for me.  I kinda think of it as the time that I actually "began" here.  It was the beginning of a better time, a better mindset, and let's face it, a better opportunity for me to be me.

Practice Makes Perfect!

After hooooours of trying out my ideas for The Wizard of Oz cake... most of them didn't turn out... but hey, that's what practicing is for!

The red velvet cake:
The recipe was not compatible.  Unfortunately, the recipe did not work out.  The final product was way to dense and heavy, and the American taste is a little to sweet for the German people.  I have to say that most American recipes don't work out in Germany... our measuring standards are different and some of the ingredients just don't match up.

The spun sugar:
This was tried out yesterday...  The first time, we didn't have very much success.  The second time, we had a lot more success and I actually think it would be possible... however, I was pretty much shut down by my co-workers in the bakery in that it's "too complicated" and "would take too long."  Which may be true for this particular case, but it is certainly a technique that I would like to try again soon.

At this point, the cake will have a stripe of yellow as the "yellow brick road" and the rest, as well as the plate the cake sits on, green... like grass.  On top, will be the twister, made of chocolate, coming out of the top of the cake, along with a small house with the witches legs sticking out from underneath.  I will make the characters to be placed off to the side of the cake, and the cake will be surrounded with lots of small flowers (Poppys).  Lastly, I will use the phrase, "There's no place like home," piped out as a banner... because, let's face it, there really is no place like home!

Update:
Scratch that...
Here's the thing, when I'm not completely happy with something that I'm making... I get weird... weird is the wrong word... annoyed?  Yea okay... I don't want to do something half way... And I always try to do something original.
The red velvet didn't work out, the sugar twister-like contraption didn't work out, the chocolate around the edge didn't work out... My original thought process for the cake... didn't work out... It would have been totally original... no one else would have cooked sugar... and no one else would have baked a red velvet cake.
Okay, so now what?  I won't be modeling the characters.  I want to dedicate a little more time to the smaller details... AKA the bricks on the road.... the the ruby slippers and so on...
It'll work...

Torten Competition

In our next block in school we have a Torten (cake) competition.

Food Network Challenge... here I come!

No really, they have their similarities.  We are to make a small (meaning not tiered) cake to go along with the theme of... Film!  We can bake the actual cake before and bring in, but all the filling, icing and decorating has to be done in school... in 4 hours.

Here's the deal... I could use some ideas... I have some great suggestions already, but am looking for simple technique ideas as well because I only have 4 hours!

As for the theme, I'm pretty sure I'm going with The Wizard of Oz.  First off, "there's no place like home"...?? Could that be a more perfect slogan for my cake??  Secondly, how amazing was that film?  I think the whirlwind of color and playfulness the movie brings will be great for my cake.

Here are my ideas so far...

-The cake itself will be make of red velvet cake.  It looks great, it's American, and the whole red ruby slippers go with the theme.
- I'm thinking the top of the cake will be the yellow brick road make of Marzipan (it'll spiral out from the middle like in the movie, with different shades of yellow)
-I was also thinking of using spun sugar to surround the cake like a wreath of some sort to represent the twister.  I've never done this before, but if it works out how I'm thinking in my head... it'll be fantastic!
-I also want the wicked witched legs sticking out from under the cake with the ruby slippers on.
-Lastly, I had an idea about surrounding the table in Marzipan-Poppy flowers, like the ones they fall asleep to in the movie.

At this point, however, I'm not sure about the outside of cake... meaning around the outside...
Also, how can I encompass the characters in the cake... I was thinking if all the characters were placed on top of the cake, it might be crowded... or it could also be difficult to make all the characters in the time given...

Suggestions??

p.s. I would like to point out that the wind is totally and ironically Auntie Em today... I feel like a twister is going to come through here and take me off to Munchkin Land!

Ich Bin ein Berliner!

First off HAPPY NEW YEAR! and FROHES NEUES JAHR!

So how many Berliners (doughnuts) did we end up making on New Years?

After over 15 hours of production... about 90,000

We made almost 30,000 Viktoria...

And over 60,000 various types of Berliners...

To top it all off... just about every single one was bought in the stores.  Unbelievable that all of these Berliners can be eaten in 1 day.  You would think that after eating all these Berliners, the people would then stop eating them... Not true.  We are still producing an enormous amount of Berliners this, and the up and coming weeks.