American Baker in Germany

 Did you know that it's nearly impossible to find a decent cake mix in Germany? There are one or two. End of list. But it's just not typically the kind of mix that you can use as an ingredient like they often are in the US. So, that means I hit a problem when I find a recipe I want to try that calls for a box of cake mix. It's time and past time to find a substitution. So after a LOT of googling and research, I came up with this white cake mix substitute. White Cake Mix: 2 1/2 cups ( 315g) flour   1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar   4 tsp baking powder   1/2 tsp salt   3 tbsp vanilla sugar   Sift all ingredients together. Store in a sealed container until needed.    To rehydrate the ingredients and actually make the cake,  1 cup (225mL) milk 5 egg whites or 3 whole eggs 1/3 cup (75mL) oil Just put everything in a bowl and whisk it together until smooth. Put it in your greased cake pans and bake at 350°F o...

 This cake was a bit spontaneous. But it's perfect for New Year's Eve! First, I put a bit of buttercream in a couple of bowls. I colored them with black and ivory food coloring. Lovely colors! Then I placed a cake dummy in the middle of a cake board. And frosted it with vegan American buttercream. I also spread some buttercream on the cake board. I put the black buttercream in a piping bag with a small round tip and the ivory buttercream in a piping bag with a medium star tip. I discovered I didn't have the right size alphabet cutter to use as an imprint, so I freehanded the numbers on the clock face. Then I piped the clock hands pointing to just before midnight. I piped some swirls and stars along the side with the ivory food coloring. And I piped a star border along the edge of the clock face. I am using this glamour sprinkles mix that I got from Rewe today. I mixed all of the sprinkles together which were black, gold and white in color. Isn't that lovely? And I sprea...

 Weckmann is a man-shaped (person-shaped?) sweet bread made during the holidays. It is very traditional in Germany at Christmastime. Weckmann: 5 1/2 cups (700g) flour 1 tbsp (1 pkg) dry yeast 1 cup (250g) warm milk or milk alternative 1/3 cup (100g) butter or margarine 2 eggs 1/4 cup (60g) sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar Raisins or nuts for decoration Put 1/4-1/3 of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and warm milk (around body temperature). Mix until combined. Allow to rise, covered, in a warm place for about 15 minutes.  Melt butter. Mix butter, eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla together.  Add to the flour/yeast mixture. Mix with a spoon until combined.  Add the flour half at a time.  Mix with a spoon until you can't anymore. Knead dough until the dough is smooth, but not sticky. If the dough is sticky, add a tablespoon or two more flour. You may need a few tablespoons more or less flour than is called for, so consider hold...