American Baker in Germany

 Anyone who has ever been to Germany will be familiar with the amazingly delicious bread rolls that you can buy anywhere called Brötchen. If you've never tried them before, I can highly recommend. I thought it would be fun to make them myself. German Brötchen 4 cups (500g) flour 1 tbsp dry yeast 1 tbsp butter 2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1 1/4 cup (280mL) water Combine 1/4 cup water with sugar and yeast. Stir until dissolved.  Combined yeast mixture, flour, butter, salt and 1/2 cup (110mL) water. Stir until you can't anymore. Knead in as much flour as you can, adding more water a tablespoon at a time until all the flour is combined and dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Cover and allow to rise for about half an hour. Rub the dough with soft butter around the whole ball of dough and allow to rise another half an hour. Split into pieces about fist sized. Cut a slit in the top and place them on a baking sheet.  Preheat the oven with a heat-safe dish of water in it at 460°F or

 This cake was for a kindergarten bake sale. I'm using up some leftovers that I had in the freezer for this cake. The cake is a 6-inch peanut butter cake and the frosting is chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. I was slightly concerned that at a bake sake, a cake frosted with chocolate frosting wouldn't be obvious that there were peanuts in the cake itself. But I frosted nice and smooth and piped swirls on top of the cake. I piped a shell border along the bottom. But to make it obvious that this cake contains peanuts, I included some peanut M&M's. Then I decided that wasn't obvious enough, so I added some peanuts as well. I love this kind of cake. It looks so delicious. Watch us make this delicious cake on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/CBX8v-ziYus Schaut zu wie wir diese leckere Torte auf unserem YouTube Kanal machen hier: https://youtu.be/p0_0YwhZVIA

 This is a lovely and fast two-tiered cake. I used some left over colored buttercream in white, pink, green and turquoise. I frosted two tiers of cake dummies in white buttercream. Then I piped some pink rosettes on the side of both tiers of the cake. As well as on top. I added some green stars to act as leaves. I piped some turquoise rosettes along the bottom tier and star flowers along the top tier as well as rosettes on the top. And some more green stars along both tiers. Finally, I piped a reverse shell border along the edges of both tiers and a shell border along the bottom in white. I love this cake. It's so simple, yet so elegant. It really didn't take long to pipe, but it looks like I spent all day working on it. Watch us make this pretty piped cake on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Aubt1a3k9C8 Schaut zu wie wir diese schöne gespritzte Torte auf unserem YouTube Kanal machen hier: https://youtu.be/zM_IxPgGDDY

 When I was posting the recipe for French buttercream, I realized how confusing it can sound because all the buttercream recipes seemed to be tied to a place and are not clear from the names what the differences are between them. Let’s start with a classic: American buttercream.  This one is the standard buttercream in several countries, including the US and the UK. It’s very easy to make vegan and it is easy to make variations. Basically, you mix your fat (butter, shortening or margarine) with lots of powdered sugar and thin it down with water, milk or some other liquid.  I also have variations on the classic recipe on my channel for a cinnamon version, a lemon version, a peanut butter version and a strawberry version.  American buttercream is stable under fondant.  However, on a scale of not sweet to sickeningly sweet, it is sickeningly sweet. So, you will only enjoy this buttercream if you love things that are very, very sweet.  On the plus side, you really only need some basic ba