American Baker in Germany

 I decided this year, that no one is going to have a Valentine's Day party. It's not what Valentine's Day's about anyway. What you really want is a romantic Valentine's Day with your significant other. So, it's time to make some small Valentine's Day cakes for two.  So, I started out with some pumpkin spice cupcakes. I placed two on a cake board.  I frosted the tops of the cupcakes. And stacked another one on top. Then I frosted one of them as if it were a layer cake. Just cover it with frosting. Smooth it and clean up the cake board. Then I pressed some pink sprinkles all over the cake. I cleaned up the excess sprinkles and frosted the second cake. I pressed some gold sanding sugar into the second cake. Then I put some white buttercream in a piping bag with a small star tip. And I piped some tall swirls around the bottom of the pink cake. As well as on top of the cake. I piped a tall shell border around the gold cake. And piped a reverse shell border around...

St. Martin is celebrated in November. It's a very German celebration that entails small children making lanterns out of paper, walking around the neighborhood singing St. Martin songs and getting candy for their trouble. I don't claim to understand the tradition, but it's kind of cute. So, I decided to make a lantern cake for St. Martin this year. But we don't need a large cake, so we decided to make a mini cake. We had three layers of four-inch round funfetti cake. And some leftover Swiss meringue buttercream.  I stacked the cake with buttercream between the layers.  Then I carved the cake to be square and slanted the top layer to be more roof-like.  Doesn't it look like a lantern already?  Then I mixed yellow fondant with a bit of orange fondant.  I frosted the cake and spent some time smoothing it carefully.  But the yellow with a bit of orange was just what I was looking for. A soft, warm yellow. Then I rolled it out and covered t...