American Baker in Germany

 As an American expat, it's important to celebrate the Fourth of July in my own way. So, I frosted a 6-inch cake dummy with vegan American buttercream. And I covered it with white fondant. Then I marked some red fondant at intervals to create stripes. And I placed them on the cake in diagonals. I cut out some blue miniature stars out of blue fondant and placed them on the top of the stripes and one between each stripe. And I cut out some larger stars and placed them on top of the cake. Happy Fourth of July! Watch us make this patriotic cake on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/PVcdckSmZ60 Schaut zu wie wir diese patriotische Torte auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/MWyuZ2ANuNA

 These cookies are very simple. Simple to make and simple with few ingredients. Sandies: 1 cup (250g) butter 1/4 cup (50g) sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar 2 1/4 cup (280g) flour 1 cup (150g) chopped nuts 1 cup (125g) powdered sugar Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour. The mixture will be quite dry at first, but with continued beating, the dough will come together. Fold in nuts.  Roll into a log and cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) slices Bake at 350°F or 180°C for 12-15 minutes.  Allow to cool and toss in powdered sugar. These are very simple, crunchy and buttery. Watch us make these simple cookies on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/6-hohNpbmAc Schaut zu wie wir diese einfache Kekse auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/41asdufxLFY

 This was a request by Theresa and Cam from the YouTube channel Flour, Eggs and Yeast. So, first off, I made a rainbow of fondant colors. And I colored some vegan American buttercream black. And I frosted a sheet cake dummy with the black buttercream. I rolled out some red fondant and pressed this square texture mat into it. And I cut out the shape of the red Tetris pieces. Then I did the same thing with orange. I placed them on a cake board. And I did the same thing with yellow, green, and the two blues. Also purple. Now we have a lot of different Tetris pieces. And I placed them all over the cake. I made sure to always leave a space in each row empty, because a full row in Tetris disappears. This is a colorful, nerdy cake. A bit on the playful side. Watch us make this nerdy cake on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/qbkSh9swNrg Schaut zu wie wir diese Nerd-mäßige Torte auf unserem YouTube Kanal machen hier: https://youtu.be/IJfbbq5oF_8

 Italian Meringue Buttercream is quite similar to Swiss, but has a different method. You may notice that the ingredients are almost exactly the same as my Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe. Italian Meringue Buttercream: 2 cups (400g) sugar 1 cup (225mL) water 7 egg whites 2 cups (500g) butter 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt Begin by combining the sugar and water in a pot on high heat. Then separate your eggs. Place the egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer. Yes, you definitely need a stand mixer for this recipe. The method doesn't really allow you to use a hand mixer as you could easily burn yourself. Whip up the egg whites to stiff peaks. Allow the sugar syrup to come to between 235°F and 240°F (115°C - 118°C). This is the soft ball stage, if you need to know that. Remove the syrup from the heat and pour slowly in a thin stream into the mixer as it is mixing the egg whites on low. Allow to continue to mix on low until the meringue cools to room temperature. This can take a