American Baker in Germany

 Ah, yeast. I get lots of questions about yeast. In Germany, you can buy dry yeast, which is the most common, and live yeast, which must be kept in the refrigerator. But what's the difference between them? And can you convert from one to the other? Let's talk about it. So, first off, what is yeast at all? As opposed to baking powder or baking soda, which both have chemical reactions that creates carbon dioxide that cause leavening, yeast is actually a living organism. Yeast is a fungus.  When you buy live yeast, the yeast is cooled between 0° and 10°C, so refrigerator temperatures, and it becomes semi-dormant and stops growing. It will come out of its dormant state when warmed up and given something to feed on. It is fastest to get the yeast to grow by giving it sugar, but you can also use flour dissolved in water.  What about dry yeast? The same concept, except instead of forcing dormancy by chilling the yeast, dry yeast has been forced into dormancy by dehydrating it. T...

 A close friend of mine is Jewish. She's very active in the Jewish community and sings lots of songs about Judaism and loves to tell people about it who are curious. So, even though I'm not Jewish myself, I felt it was past time that I made a Jewish-themed cake. So, with my friend, Rachel, as a consultant, I designed this Bar Mitzvah cake (or Bat Mitzvah, of course).  After debating a long time, I decided to go with a rectangular sheet cake. I just like how much space I have on top of the cake to decorate.  I also should quickly mention ingredients. If you're going to make a cake for a Bar Mitzvah, you're going to want to make it Kosher. So, a few tips about making sure it's Kosher: if you're planning on using gelatin in the cake, make sure there's no dairy in it. Gelatin is an animal biproduct and according to Kosher laws, meat and dairy should not be consumed together. I did ask Rachel, and she assured me that eggs don't fall under that rule. So, it...

This is a variation on my blueberry muffins. But since cake needs to be more stable than muffins, we need to tone down the blueberries. Blueberry Cake: 2 cups (250g) flour 1 cup (200g) sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda dash salt 1 egg 1 cup (225mL) buttermilk 1/2 cup (110mL) oil 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract or 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla sugar 1 cups (100g) blueberries fresh or frozen Mix dry ingredients together. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the blueberries and mix with a spoon until most of the lumps are gone. Gently fold in the blueberries. Bake at 350°F or 180°C for 45-55 minutes. That's it. And this cake is absolutely delicious. Watch us make this easy recipe on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/K3rajW5OpMU Schaut zu wie wir dieses leichtes Rezept auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/8ArYedwyXWE

 I've made a fondant cake covered with Fall leaves, but this time, I wanted to make a buttercream version. I made some orange, red and brown buttercream and put different combinations of those into piping bags with a large, closed star tip, three petal tips of various sizes, and one large leaf tip. Of course, we need a frosted sheet cake. Then I piped a star border along the bottom of the cake. And, still using the closed star tip, I piped a rope border along the top. I actually ran out of buttercream on one side, but it totally looks one purpose, doesn't it? I framed the opening with a couple of large leaves piped with the largest petal tip. Then I scattered the leaves across the top. And on the sides. Then I added more leaves with the petal tips and a good scattering with the leaf tip. My favorite were with the leaf tip. This cake was interesting for me. At first, I wasn't at all happy with the result. It was too chaotic and didn't look planned at all. But the more I ...