Ice Cream!

I made these for a meet-up of Mums/Moms in Berlin who are crafters/makers of things. While based on the weather I suppose these were for the wrong season, maybe I am pining away for warmer weather? My sugar cookies recipe is getting better and better (making it perfect and soft is always a challenge) and since piping that gingerbread house, I am back in shape with the small details. Also, I used some of my new punches to make the packaging labels and I am happy with the result. I think my next investment will be a sticker machine, so I can use better paper to make my own (I would much prefer something with a bit more shine). The evening was fun and maybe leads to further experiment? 

Vanilla/Almond sugar cookies with royal icing.

Happy New Year!

I wanted to make something festive to ring in the new year and give as gifts to a few people we were seeing in the evening. When I saw these pinwheel cookies, I absolutely could not resist. They reminded me of fireworks! I had picked up the sprinkles in Sardinia and the colors were so sweet, I knew they would be prefect for this recipe and I had been dying to use them. The recipe was a dream. They are strawberry and vanilla shortbread with rainbow sprinkles.

Merry Christmas Kita!

 This year for the school winterfest I made a gingerbread kita. I used the same recipe I used for the snowflakes below and a big dose of my standard royal icing. The idea was that there were enough pieces for each child to have at least a bear without having to argue with the other kids. When I brought it in, they were like little locusts. They could not wait to eat it. After they feasted, I came back to see what it looked like and one little girl was literally biting off the corner of the roof like a giant in the tiny village.  They picked it clean. This year I had a cutter set, which made it so much easier than the houses I had made before. I will definitely be doing this again.

Happy 80th Birthday Brigitte!

These were a quick job for another colleague. Her friend was turning 80(!) and she wanted a little gift to give in addition to a gift card. I was planning to make a gingerbread house a little later in the month anyway and had found a new ingredient source, so it was a perfect way to test while also making something I liked. The gingerbread recipe is one I have used for years (and the reason? It stays soft, even with gobs of royal icing!) 

 and I have made snowflakes like this countless time before. As usual, the recipe did not let me down and I was very satisfied with the results. She was happy and so was I.

Merry Early Christmas!

This cake is by far one a my all time favorites! Normally I bake alone (or with help from Lilly and a patient tolerance from Nils), but this time I had a partner. My first close friend in Berlin, who eventually became my housemate, was back for a visit...and she has discovered the joy of cake decorating. Since I had last seen her, she had done a few classes back in Spain and was up for trying something together. I could not ask for something more wonderful. A very close friend, who also was as interested as I in the tiny work involved in making something sweet. It was so useful to both have two sets of hands, even better another aesthetic and the best, another set of taste buds. Sadly, I don't think she will be back in Berlin permanently, so a business partnership is not in the cards, but perhaps we can continue our baking when we meet, Spain is not so far away! Also funny, very rarely do I cut one of my own cakes. This is the results of our effort, lemon cake with lemon buttercream.

Congratulations Claudia & Willy

This cake was a very difficult one of me. It had some restrictions that I wasn't sure I would be able to pull off. The rules, 1 tier only, because it was going to Hamburg and they had no way to transport it bigger. It needed to have the name and date (and my handwriting is not that great), it was for a completely German audience (which normally means I have to be very careful how sweet it is and use recipes that are modified from my go to recipes), no marshmallow fondant and it needed to include two rings somehow.  I looked for inspiration for days and days and days )because while my wedding cakes do not hold a candle to some I have seen, it is still someone's wedding and I want their photos to be lovely). Making a 1 tier cake look like  a wedding cake is hard. I think the end result was pretty and I just went back to a monochromatic look adapted the the previous wedding cake I had made. Not perfect, but still pretty. Hope I get to do more of them! Vanilla cake with apricot and swiss buttercream filling. 

Happy Birthday Sven!

This cake was for the teacher at Lilly's kita. Her son was having a birthday and wanted Darth Vader. I love this cake. The Darth Vader on the top was difficult (I had to make him 4 times, because the other times I made him, he cracked, he puffed up once in the oven and finally, he was wonk eyed!) all the rest was pretty standard, with some cute details. Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Happy Birthday Bavo!

 This cake was for the son of a colleague. She had seen the cake I had done for Nils here and wanted one similar. Normally, I don't like to do the same cake twice, but I was really happy to give this one another go and fix what I didn't like about the first one, as well as add some special touches (like his name and the headphones!) The second attempt was even better. Chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache filling.

Happy Birthday Adrian!

I made this cake for a colleague. It was his birthday and we surprised him. I love the way the headphones came out, but I am not in love with the cake. It was a bit messier than I would like and I would have preferred to do more text on the the top, but I ran out of time. Chocolate with chocolate ganache filling.

Tanzania!

 These were fun to make. A colleague's daughter was having a worldfest at school and she hired me to make cupcakes for their booth to sell. Their country was Tanzania (especially sweet because we all had recently been there). In addition to the cupcakes and the Tanzanian flag, we wanted each cupcake to have a fortune, so we used a book of Tanzanian kanga sayings (Kanga's are printed cloth wraps) and printed them onto sticker paper and cut out. When you turned each cupcake over, on the bottom in both English and Swahili, was a Kanga 'fortune'. Cinnamon cupcakes and cinnamon buttercream.

Happy Birthday Tim!

This was a birthday cake for another friend of Lilly's. The theme was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I think it came out sweet. I also made a few cupcakes to go along with it and added the rest of the rings I had used for Lilly's birthday as toppers. Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Happy Birthday Nils!

Normally by Nils' birthday I can't make another cake I am so caked-out, so he always gets something easy. But this year I wanted to do something special. iPhone Cake! It is chocolate fondant, chocolate cake with choclate filling. I seen you can guess chocolate is his favorite. I think he was suprised and I definitely got the right theme.

 

Happy Birthday Me!

This year I asked if my family would make me a cake (after the wedding cake, the last thing I wanted to do was bake on my birthday,) They worked together and made me the sweetest cake! Thanks guys, it was a great birthday.

Congratuaions Silke & Thomas!

 

Wedding Cake! This cake was a request from a friend of a colleague. She wanted a wedding cake, which was supposed to be a surprise, in three days and it had to be lactose free! This was a big job for me, but I am very happy with the way it finally came out. However, I really struggled at first with making a lactose free cake. My first recipe, I used concetrated (14x) lemon juice (which with my not perfect Germn skills and my lack of paying attention) that I thought was just normal lemon juice. Big mistake. After I had everything mixed, I tasted the batter....the flavor of that first lemon overdose cake was on my toungue for 2 days (!!!) after that. Needless to say, I was more careful the next time. The bottom layer is vanilla cake with cherry filling, middle is chocolate/chocolate and top layer is vanilla/chocolate.

Happy Birthday Lilly! (Again!)

After we got back from vacation the teacher at Lilly's kita asked me if we may want to do a little late birthday and maybe I could bring some cupcakes. Of course I said yes. I wracked my inventory to find a cute theme, but couldn't think of anything easy. I went to look at my cookies cutters and there I saw a little cutter Lilly got for her birthday. Hello Kitty! This was perfect. Also, as you can see in the pictures below, this time Lilly helped. She learned to roll ou the MMF and she used the cutters. She spent all morning helping me and in a couple of shots, you can see her work!! CHocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache.

Happy Birthday Lucia!

I got a request to do a birthday cake from my friend who's daughter is also Lilly's friend. Theme, princess, flavor vanilla. I love doing feminine cakes and a princess cake for a little girl can't get more girly. The cake was vanilla with rainbow sprinkles and vanilla buttercream. I made another crown, but it broke before I finished it. I tried this instead and by the end I think it was better than my first attempt. All materials in the cake are edible, even the sugar pearls. I also made my own gumpaste, which was easy, controlable for ingredients and dried up great. I will definitely be using this again.  My only problem with this cake is now that I look at it a bit longer, I think I should have placed the three right above the name. Next time I work out placement a little better.

Happy Birthday Lilly!

This year we were in California for Lilly's birthday so we decided to throw her a little party. Minnie Mouse was the theme. I am adding pictures of the cake and some other elements, just becuase there were a few different pieces and I like the look of them all together. The cake and the extras were pretty simple, as they were all just pieces of things I had done before. The cake was one layer of chocolate and one layer of vanilla. It was a great birthday for her, she just gets more lovely by the day.

Happy "60" Ulrike & Katharina!

Ulrike & Katharina had a "60th" Birthday party that had the coolest invite, with these great, sexy red boots. In this theme I made the cake. I was looking for a little bit of a sleeker design, like the invite, but I also waited until the very last second to make it, so based on the time, I think it turned out pretty sweet, especially that funny little hat at the top. Maybe I attempt another corset cake this year. The cake is double chocolate, with a cherry chocolate rum buttercream.

Birthday Cupcakes!

These are two sets of cupcakes I made for some work friends who both had birthday in the same week. The flavors were both exprimental. The blond ones are almond cupcakes with cherry filling, whipped cream & toasted almond garnish. The chocolate cupcakes are double chocolate with salted caramel chocolate ganache frosting and sea salt garnish. My favorite was the salted caramel ganache. So easy to make and super tasty. I used the leftover ganache to make some ripple ice cream too (home made ice cream, my new experiment!)

I really liked the little touch of the bees and I also made banners to go with each, but didn't have a chance to photograph them. Next time!