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Planning when you bake a wedding cake at home, part 2

Weiße zweistöckige Hochzeitstorte

In this series I will explain how you can prepare a wedding cake at home. In the first part I already explained how I knew how big the wedding cake was going to be and how I decided on diameter, height, etc. The below blog post is going to explain how I planned the baking part and which utensils are essential when you bake a wedding cake at home. Let’s do a small recap before I dig into the details of planning and scheduling everything:

Top tier: 18cm/ 7 inches diameter, 15-18 pieces, height about 12cm/ 5 inches (not including decoration), recipe: American carrot cake

Bottom tier: 26cm/ 10 inches diameter, 40-45 pieces, height about 13.5cm/ 5 inches (not including decoration), recipe: chocolate caramel cake (Whisky was replaced with coffee)

Outside: Swiss Meringue Buttercream with 1 kilo (!) of butter and 12 egg whites.  There was some left, but I think this was a good calculation. Obviously you will need less if you are going for the semi-naked look. But since I wanted this to look like a ruffled bridal dress, I needed a thicker coat. You can’t see the orange/brown color from the carrot cake or the brown color from the bottom tier.

Total: About 55-63 pieces

Tip # 1: Make a trial run (or several)

As I was going to bake this wedding cake in another country, I needed to be extra sure that everything was going according to plan. Since I needed to get used to the oven, I made a trial run and also tested the ingredients (which often have a slightly different texture in another country). I did a mini carrot cake a few days beforehand and was pleased with the oven. It did take longer than mine in Germany, but it was doing its job and that was the main thing. Obviously, I had tested a lot of recipes beforehand and made a lot of trial runs back at home in Germany. For that reason you do find quite a lot of layer cakes on the blog recently. You need to feel comfortable when you make a wedding cake so practicing is key. Practice every part of it, not only trying different flavors, but also how to stack it, how to decorate, etc. It doesn’t matter if the wedding isn’t going to take place for months, feel free to start early so you are really prepared well. You should feel comfortable with all parts and have tried them at some point or another.

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Healthy Ginger Muffins with no Refined Sugar

Gesunde Ingwermuffins ohne Haushaltszucker

It has been four years since I put these ginger muffins on the blog the first time. Partially they are made with whole wheat flour, the traditional butter is replaced with coconut fat and we will not use any refined sugar, but instead sweeten them with molasses. Since they contain feshly grinded ginger, they are super moist and delicious. Of course you can argue if this really is “healthy”, but at least they are healthier than your average muffin. At least I didn’t feel guilty eating them happily with some joghurt and more molasses for breakfast.

Gesunde Ingwermuffins ohne Haushaltszucker

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My 10 favorite Christmas Cookies

Weihnachtsbäckerei

I’ve decided to open the season, it is time for Christmas cookies! Have you started yet? Every year I promise to start early and then I end up with a long, long, long list of cookies I want to bake, but nothing happens other than the list getting longer. Well, maybe this blog entry with my ten favorite Christmas cookies will also make your list longer, but maybe you will actually bake some, that would be actually awesome. Please let me know in the comments if you do!

#1 Tiny gingerbread houses

Seriously, I feel Christmas is not complete without gingerbread. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, ugly sweater cookies made with gingerbread, you name it. My recipe also includes some printables for these cute little gingerbread houses.

Die allersüßesten Mini-LebkuchenhäuserI urge you to try these cute little gingerbread houses

#2 Alfajores with chocolate and a slight hint of orange

Hands down, my favorite cookie from my country of birth Uruguay. It is filled with dulce de leche, do I need to say more?

Alfajores, a cookie made with cornstarch, filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate

#3 Cute little Santas

These cute little santas are a simple sugar cookie with ermine frosting, I just love them, check the recipe for further details!

If you really want to get into Christmas, make these cute little Santas!

#4 Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies with caramel and sea salt

This may not be the traditional Christmas cookie, but all these flavors, I promise, you won’t regret making these!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Caramel and Sea SaltAll my favorite flavors combined, peanut butter, chocolate, caramel and sea salt, yes!

#5 Meringue cookies that actually look like mushrooms

You have some egg white left over? How about these little cuties? They only contain two ingredients, egg whites and sugar and are glued together by some chocolate.

Pilze aus BaiserYou are making a yule log for Christmas? How about decorating it with these little mushrooms

#6 Linzer cookies

Another Christmas cookie I can’t do without. Who can say no to these cookies with a slight hint of almond and yummy jam filling?

Linzer PlätzchenThis is one of the traditional Christmas cookies in Germany, go ahead and try it!

#7 Stained-glass cookies

They are easier to prepare than you may think. Obviously I give a lot of tips in my blog post to guide you along.

stained glass cookiesThey look so cool and actually are not that hard to make, try these beautiful stained-glass cookies, they are a perfect gift and wonderful decoration.

#8 Snickerdoodles

These snickerdoodles are made with a lot of brown butter for extra awesomeness.

Snickerdoodles mit gebräunter ButterOh, this joy of cinnamon and brown butter called snickerdoodles!

#9 Heidesand cookies

You may not know this traditional cookie from Germany, but it has brown butter and real vanilla. So buttery, so good!

Heidesand-PlätzchenThese shortbread cookies are prepared with lots of brown butter and real vanilla. Traditionally from the north of Germany and so good for Christmas.

#10 Vanilla stars with chocolate ganache

If you are a chocolate lover, these cookies are for you. Instead of jam or buttercream, these cookies are filled with wonderful chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Star CookieIf you can’t decide if you want to do chocolate or vanilla, why not combine these two flavors? Make these vanilla stars with chocolate filling.

So which one is your favorite Christmas cookie you can’t do without?

How to Host a Macaron Baking Party (with lots of printables)

how to host a macaron baking party

If you are into baking and if you like to bake with others, you should host a baking party. Since a lot of people are fond of French Macarons, I would suggest making it a Macaron Baking Party. Yes, it is a lot of work and yes, things can go wrong, but believe me, it is soooo much fun! If you follow my advice, I can grant you that your party will be a success. I learned from trial and error. So let me try to lay it out for you:

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