American Baker in Germany

 Obviously, there are no girl scouts in Germany, being an American organization, and as such there are no girl scout cookies. But, for those who miss them, here's a copycat recipe. Thin Mint Copycat: 1 1/4 cups (155g) flour 1/2 cup (50g) baking cocoa Dash salt 1/2 cup (125g) butter 1 cup (200g) sugar 1 egg 1/2 tsp mint extract 4 oz. (100g) dark chocolate 1/4 cup (65g) butter Cream 1/2 cup (125g) butter with sugar, egg, salt and mint extract.  Sift in flour and cocoa until mixture forms a thick dough.  Roll out the dough on a sheet of baking paper, using flour to keep it from sticking.  Cut out shapes, remove excess dough and place on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F or 180°C for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.  In a small bowl, melt dark chocolate and 1/4 cup or 65g of butter together.  Spread onto cookies using the back of a spoon, or pipe on for a neater look.  Allow the chocolate to set completely. Not having a box of purchased thin mints to compare them to, I can

 This is another great German cookie recipe from the north of the country this time. Hanseaten: 2 cups (250g) flour 1/2 cup (75g) powdered sugar 3/4 cup (200g) butter 2 egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar Icing and Filling: raspberry jam lemon juice 2 cups (250g) powdered sugar red or pink food coloring (optional) Cream butter, egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat in flour and powdered sugar. Roll dough out on floured surface and cut out shapes.  Bake at 350°F or 180°C for 8-10 minutes.  Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice until forms an icing. This is a traditional German method for making icing. It's quite sour, so if you don't like things that are sour, consider making the icing with milk instead. Split into two bowls and add red or pink food coloring to one of them until you get the color you want.  Ice half the cookies half and half with colored and uncolored icing. Allow to set.  The half and half icing is traditional for Hanseaten, but food coloring is always

 This cake was an order from a friend of a friend.  This cake was inspired from this one, however it was requested that the top be left free as they have a wedding topper already. Also, they wanted the colors to be inspired by raspberries. So, I began a few days before by making roses in raspberry pink and baby pink. Then I used a 12-inch silver cake board and the bottom tier is an 8-inch vanilla cake filled with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream... and fresh raspberries. Then I frosted the cake with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream. Then I started the top tier. This is 6-inch vanilla cake filled and frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. Then I frosted the bottom tier again. And I covered it in a store-bought roll of rolled out marzipan, which I have never used before and never will again. This product, while a nice, convenient idea, leaves folds and creases everywhere and is very difficult to smooth properly. Also, it's very thin and you can see the pink buttercr