About me

Hi, my name is Jenny. I am German, happily married to a Colombian, currently living in the south of Germany in Munich. When I was small, we lived in the United States for three years and I spent a year in Canada after highschool, for that reason you may find a mix of recipes here, they range from German classics to Colombian secrets and are interspersed with North American treats. If you would like to try something from Latin America, I can highly recommend these sandwich cookies with dulce de leche, they are called alfajores. My all-time favorite recipe from Germany is the classic black forest cake. If you want to get an overview of the recipes available, why don’t you check this out.

Photo: Chen Reissl  from Loveberry Photography

These are 41 facts about me as I am currently 41 years old.

41 facts about me:

#1 I didn’t have a birth certificate for a long time and just received one recently. To cut a long story short, I got it by snail mail. You can probably imagine that it is very dear to me.

#2 I had very strange ideas of what I wanted to be when I was a child. Selling crepes was one, another to become part of a circus (I still hate gymnastics, but I faithfully practiced juggling and card tricks). I also flirted with the idea of becoming a gardener.

#3 According to my grandma I always asked for sweets whenever I visited her whereas my sister checked whether there was any pasta around.

#4 Since I was born in beef-exporting Uruguay, I only learned about vegetarians and vegans when I was older.

#5 During summer break I would read books until very late and continue the story in my dreams.

#6 As a teenager I wore a boil suit regularly (yes, I was crazy).

#7 I have often been described as a dreamer when I was in high school.

#8 I hate white chocolate, but any brown one, doesn’t matter if semi-sweet, milk chocolate or with nuts, and you got me interested.

#9 I am sad that cell phones don’t produce a 440 Hertz dial tone anymore, usually the tone is a little deeper.

#10 This is probably due to the fact that I studied jazz piano and loved to tune instruments using the dial tone of phones. However, this is not possible anymore.

#11 Since I often have a song stuck in my head and also wake up with music in my head, I don’t turn on music that often.

#12 I already was a jazz pianist, language trainer, worked in logistics, until I finally settled in HR. So no, I am not trained in baking or cooking, I am just a passionate baker, all home-trained by trial and error.

#13 I probably have worked in so many professions because I studied Humanities; German as a Foreign Language and English were my two majors.

#14 I cringe when people speak poorly in German, which happens more often than you think.

#15 I usually eat one piece of what I bake. My weak point are cookies, though, I am a cookie monster.

#16. My favorite cookie is the good old chocolate-chip cookie. I tried more than 20 recipes before settling on this recipe.

#17 I got married in 2010, after about eight months of red tape with German authorities.

#18 Sometimes I wonder whether I would remember what my husband was wearing in case he is kidnapped.

#19 I have fewer shoes than my husband and also take less time in the bathroom.

#20 I hate it when people confuse Uruguay with Uganda. People, these are two different countries on two different continents!

Photo: Chen Reissl  from Loveberry Photography

#21. I love the ocean and don’t mind sitting at the beach for hours listening to the waves.

#22 I love to give names to things. The KitchenAid I got for Christmas 2017 (yay!) is called Joseph. You can look at him here.

#23 I have no sense of directions. When I took my SAT exam, I got lost after needing the bathroom. Luckily, it took only about 20min to return to the exam.

#24 Ironically, I am constantly asked for directions.

#25. When I meet somebody for the first time, I usually pay attention to the voice and will look at the hands. Probably somebody could shake my hand naked and I wouldn’t notice.

#26 One of my favorite animals is the cow. I love the brown eyes, her serendipity, curiosity and also the fact that she spends so many hours eating and remunating.

#27 I have special souvenirs from other European countries: speeding tickets. My collection contains France, Netherlands, and Austria. I believe this is due to the fact that signs are used more sparingly than in Germany.

#28 I love to fill in forms, I really don’t get why people hate forms.

#29 I often have problems with time specifications. I often forget which day of the week it is and somehow mix up “yesterday” and “tomorrow”.

#30 Unfortunately, I get hungry very suddenly and I am the most bitchy human when I am starving. “Hangry” does describe me well.

#31 I don’t understand how somebody can love to bake AND cook. I love to bake, I find it so relaxing and it usually requires me to take one step at a time. However, cooking is the opposite. If you have three pots boiling at the same time, you need to be good at multi-tasking, how this is relaxing is beyond me.

#32 When I am very sick, I love to eat noodle soup and peaches from the can. I want everything to be ultra-clean and start cleaning in my PJs.

#33 I celebrated my 30th birthday as a visitor in hospital. My husband had been submitted with a ruptured appendix.

#34 I probably baked my first cake when I was three.

#35 I hope to be as adventurous as my grandpa when I am old. He travelled to Bolivia when he was 90.

#36 For me the flavor and taste of a cake is much more important than its looks. I really hate Fondant and strongly believe that you should be able to eat all of the decorations.

#37 My favorite season is fall. I love the melancholic feel to it and the golden light. Somehow I always end up shooting way more pictures than during any other time of the year.

#38 I thought I was not a visual person and was confused when my husband got me a camera. Nowadays I have to say I love photography and definitely have that as an active hobby. There is still so much to learn!

#39 The first wedding cake I was asked to make, I made in another country in Spain. You can read about the whole experience here, here, here, and here.

#40 I believe I was 12 when I ate spinach for the first time. To my surprise it tasted much better than anticipated. I do love spinach to the present day.

#41 I love to scrape off the last little bits and pieces from a bowl. On my own wedding, I was given an apron and a spoon and happily finished off different bowls.

If my pictures make you excited about simple, yet delicious cakes and cookies and you run to the kitchen to actually bake one of the recipes, my mission was accomplished. You can reach me via info at jennyisbaking dot com.

Feel free to also connect on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.

Photo: Chen Reissl from Loveberry Photography