Coffee Date No. 11

Shame on me, why does it always take so long for me to finally invite you to another coffee date? It has been forever. Last time I invited you to a coffee when I made my my second wedding cake. It was so much fun, but it was also exhausting. The first wedding cake (pictured below on the left) was made in Spain, the second (pictured on the right) I made partially in Munich, took the frozen cake layers with me for 600km, along with my KitchenAid and ten million tools, and then finished the fillings, frosted and stacked the cake in an Airbnb. If you are interested in the process and recipes, check out  this blogpost  and well as this one. In 2022 I haven’t been asked to make a wedding cake yet. This means, I can  just relax and enjoy the spring and summer ahead.

Picture on the left: Hueto Fotógrafos

However, it looks like somehow I ended up making fancy cakes regardless. This time a couple asked if I could make a gender-reveal cake. Of course I could. It is not as common in Germany yet to make an event out of this. One thing I knew for sure was the fact that I didn’t want the traditional pink and blue on the cake, but instead went for a neutral color. In the end I went with a “bee” theme, because baby and babee seemed to be a cute pun. Even though I was not 100% satified with the cake (especially with the air bubble wrap) as it did not represent the honeycombs the way I wanted to, the parents were over the moon regardless. And it was quite a process to get this done in Germany.  First I was handed a sealed letter by the doctor, which revealed the sex, this had to make it untouched to my apartment (the mom-to-be brought it herself), I baked the cake and obviously didn’t say a word to the parents until they cut into the cake and it showed a pink filling. By the way, the color was all done naturally, it simply was raspberries that did the job. As always all parts of the cake were edible, the bees as well, the honeycombs were made with candy melts. Since I am often asked about the cake toppers, I get them on Etsy. If you are interested in the recipe, let me know in the comments.

Our puppy Hazel has been growing, she is almost ten months old and absolutely adorable. The first months with a puppy are really hard, but now we got used to each other and it is more easy-going. However, she had to go through two tough surgeries already, which is a pain if you are this young and cannot play with other puppies. So much restrain! She is recovereing though. I am excited to take her on long hiking tours in summer.

I started 2022 with the vegan January. I published only vegan recipes in the blog. You especially seemed to like the German mole cake. Reason for the vegan recipes was the chronic sickness endometriosis I was diagnosed with about a year ago, you can read more about this here. Supposedly a vegan diet can reduce the symptoms and fight the inflammations. However, I have to say I didn’t feel any different. I have to admit, I did not go fully vegan in January, I sometimes had vegetarian days, but I did not see any change. For me the worst symptom of endomertriosis is feeling exhausted and tired all the time. I didn’t feel that the vegan diet changed that in any way. Maybe I was impatient and the timeframe was too short. However, I did turn to intermitten fasting in February. I basically eat between 7:30 to 3:30 and will then fast until the next morning. Remember, the main meal is eaten during lunch in Germany. I have had cheat days and I eat whatever I want during the eating window. Intermitten fasting seems to be working better for me. I seem to sleep better and feel more energetic. For now I will continue intermitten fasting as this somehow seems to be better for my body.

Be sure to check in on my blog the week after Easter. I had a horrible bike accident five years ago and I am going to celebrate the anniversary with a lot of other bloggers as I don’t have any permanent damage. I am not going to spill the secret, but I am going to say that there is a lot of chocolate involved. My creation also includes Nutella.