American Baker in Germany

 If you follow me, you know that I love fall leaves. I decided this year I wanted to make an ombre leaves cake. I started out with an 8-inch round cake dummy and frosted it with vegan American buttercream. Then, using a maple leaf cutter, I started out by cutting leaves out of red. I placed them overlapping along the bottom of the cake. Then I used the same cutter to make some orange leaves and placed them overlapping. The next level is lighter orange. Then I covered the top with yellow leaves. Yep. Totally worth it. I love this cake. It's gorgeous and I love the fall colors. Watch us make this gorgeous fall cake on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/lX_9ATdcfbU Schaut zu wie wir diese wunderschöne Herbsttorte auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/oDoyRWeogck

 These are great for a quick snack when you don't have a lot of time and energy to work on it. Peanut Butter Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies 1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar 1/4 cup (80g) butter 1/2 cup (120mL) milk 1/2 cup (125g) peanut butter 1/2 cup (30g) shredded coconut 2 cups (170g) oats Add sugar, milk, butter, vanilla and salt to a saucepan. Break butter into pieces and heat on high heat until mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until completely melted.   Stir in oats and coconut.  Spoon onto a sheet of parchment paper and allow to set up at room temperature for about an hour or in the fridge for half an hour. These cookies are a family favorite. They are soft and sweet and taste of peanut butter and oats. If you don't like coconut, you can leave it out. Watch us make these easy no-bake cookies on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/ZrtE5xyTpsQ Schaut zu wie wir diese leicht...

 Because young people are such big fans of TikTok, it's slowly becoming a cake theme for parties for teenagers.  I frosted a six-inch cake with black buttercream. I printed out this logo of the TikTok app. Then I cut all the pieces apart. White, red and turquoise. Then I cut out the white piece from white fondant. Then I cut out the red pieces and placed them on the white music note. And I added the turquoise pieces. Then I cut out the letters to spell TikTok with letter cut outs. And I made sure to add the red and turquoise shake motions onto the o. Simple, but effective. Watch us make this simple TikTok cake on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/jzbZtD4BIH8 Schaut zu wie wir diese einfache TikTok Torte auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/Ky8vqXds7ME

 Many people have trouble with Swiss meringue buttercream. If you haven't, you could at any time. There are lots of little things that can go wrong. If you've never made Swiss meringue buttercream, it is based on egg whites and sugar with butter added later. So, first combine egg whites and sugar with a whisk. You want to combine them in a heat-proof bowl, so either metal or glass.  The mixture will be rather thick. Then, heat the bowl on top of a pot with boiling water in it. This bowl will not come in direct contact with the heat or with the water, just set the bowl on top of the pot. This is called a double boiler. Now, Troubleshooting Number One: Egg whites are chunky . Heating the mixture over a double boiler is a very gentle way of heating it. We use this when too much heat could burn or overcook something. In this case, if you heat the egg white mixture too hot, it will begin to cook the eggs. We weren't making an omlette. Solution: Unfortunately, if you have overh...

It's been 20 years since September 11th, 2001. I can't believe it's been 20 years. I was in college when the twin towers were destroyed. I remember it so vividly. I will never forget. I knew that I had to make a memorial cake. I am definitely not trying to trivialize anything. This is just how I work through my own feelings about what I experienced that day and hope that is speaks to others as well. I made a batch of vegan American buttercream and colored it black, red, blue and two shades of green. I frosted a sheet cake dummy with white buttercream. I printed out a picture of the lower 48 United States. I traced around the cut out with a toothpick. And I traced the outline of the twin towers inside the US map. They look different because the twin towers actually didn't line up. They were more like catty corner from each other. They weren't in a line. So, no matter where you were standing when looking at them, the perspective would never be exact. Then I put the bu...