No Cake without Frosting
26 May 2005 22:19 bon appetit!, germany, holidays & special occasionsSo much for my insightful week of blogging… Anyway…
Last week, I decided to make myself a birthday cake. Apparently, according to Mausi, that is what you do here in Germany. You make your own birthday cake and are supposed to be prepared to serve cake and coffee (In my house, milk: We don’t even own a coffee maker.) when people “drop by” to wish you a happy birthday.
We don’t have many friends here and my in-laws live five hours away, so the chances that anyone would “drop by” to wish me a happy birthday were slim (which is OK by me), but I wanted a cake to celebrate my birthday anyway.
A quick word on “dropping by:” I am American… I don’t like for people to just “drop by” my house and I would never just “drop by” someone else’s house. However that is perfectly acceptable here in Germany, and truthfully, something that really bothers me… but I digress.
Anyway, A. was generous enough to offer to buy me a cake from one of our local bakeries for my birthday, but I declined. Honestly, I am not a fan of German cake. (Something I believe I have mentioned before.) In my opinion they are too dry, too heavy, and not sweet enough. Therefore, if I wanted a cake I was going to have to make my own, and so I did.
What I really wanted was a German Chocolate Cake complete with coconut pecan frosting. I figured that I should be able to find all the ingredients for a “German” Chocolate Cake here. But alas! I did not.
Actually, I found everything I needed except one major ingredient. Because, you see, what Americans refer to as a “German” Chocolate Cake is not a German cake at all. In fact, according to The All New Joy of Cooking, “[t]his well-loved American cake is not the legacy of our German immigrants but the contribution of a man named German, who invented German sweet cooking chocolate.”
However, it wasn’t the sweet cooking chocolate that I had a problem finding. It was the pecans for the frosting. I thoroughly checked the nut section, but no pecans were to be found. I finally relented and asked one of the salesladies if they had any pecans (Germ. trans Pekannuss), but she tried to sell me Brazil nuts (Germ. trans Paranuss) instead.
My disappointment turned to astonishment when A. suggested that I should just make the cake and forget about the frosting. What?! Is the man daft? The ONLY and I repeat ONLY reason one makes a cake is to compliment the frosting. There is NO CAKE without frosting!!
However, before we went to the store, something told me to be prepared for them not to have all the ingredients for a German Chocolate Cake. Because I listened to my little voice, I also had a list of ingredients for a Carrot Cake complete with Cream Cheese Frosting (my second favorite frosting cake). I knew that I could find everything for a Carrot Cake not only because Philadelphia Cream Cheese is common here, but because I made one the first year we were here for A.’s birthday.
So, I made myself a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for my birthday and because I “conveniently” forgot that cream cheese frosting is a bit too rich for A.’s palate, ended up eating almost the whole thing myself!
20 June 2005 at 15:26
The comments have been imported by me from Movabletype:
I swear I saw pecans the other day, think it was in Kaufhof’s grocery store at Stachus.
posted by: miri on 29 May 2005
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I HAVE made the cake from scratch here. Not too shabby. Actually I have found that “their” cocoa is darned near to what I would have always liked. With the pecans, the icing was really quite easy. AND the Germans I served it to liked it. So….
My aunt has made the standard USA´s Texas Sheet Cake in Florida WITH the German cocoa and people have begged for her recipe. The chocolate has a depth, as we know here.
posted by: Lee on 28 May 2005
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Whoa. Head rush.
I just found you through Michele Agnew, and the very first entry is about carrot cake! I just posted about this… I just made one because it is my favorite and I knew my kids would be lukewarm on it, and I had it almost entirely to myself! Yay!
I also posted the recipe–wanna trade?
posted by: Mindy on 28 May 2005
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Yup! Pecans ARE here in shell around Christmas. Besides having my aunt mail them from Georgia…huge bags at a time, I buy when I see. They last! But hate the cracking.
TWO hints I have found as an American trying like heck to make an “amerikanisch” cake here. SIFT AND SIFT AND SIFT some more. AND then “short” the flour. It IS the flour that makes the difference.
About their powdered sugar. It is NOT the same as in the States. States has corn starch in the powdered sugar. SO I pour in about 1/4 cup of corn starch….also mailed to me, like Argo. But their maise something binder works as well.
I laughed with my first German´S Chocolate Cake for my German friends. It was a complete surprise…like I would introduce them to THEIR cake. LOLOL The laugh WAS on me, totally!
I find their cream cheese still not as sweet. Like most Germans say to me: sweet and salty….that´s American food. AND right they are. When I went for SALTED butter the chase was as bad here as for the UNsalted in the States. A pinch of salt in any recipe with unsalted butter gets you closer to the real “taste.”
Saw a bag of Ocean Spray whole cranberries the other day. They freeze well also. Believe was in Karstadt. But around again holidays they ARE around! Generally in produce department.
Glad you got your CAKE! Happy belated birthday. Loved your “dropped” by stuff. I laughed so hard when I “dropped” by and low and behold the lady opened her frigerator and a whole meal was “just waiting.” AND have you tried to get a birthday card to a German even a day before? In Dresden we actually drove around town and put the card in the mailbox ourselves on THE DAY OF…..to avoid the “bad luck” wishes!
Wonder what “stupid” things we Americans do? Surely there IS at least one.
posted by: Lee on 27 May 2005
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My wife and I moved here to Germany a few months ago and have been on the lookout for GCC ingredients ever since. The frosting on GCC is what makes the cake.
Though we are Americans we moved here after living in Australia for 18 months and couldn’t find the right ingredients for GCC there either.
I think my wife may try to bring back some betty crocker GCC mix and frosting when we go to the states next month.
posted by: Al on 27 May 2005
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Hee! German Supermarket Adventures. Yeah, I believe that German Chocolate Cake is actually called German’s Chocolate Cake and most Germans have never heard of it. I dunno, but every time I’ve tried to make a traditional N. American layer cake it always turned out quite heavy and weird and I know other people who have had this problem as well - something to do with the flour, I think. I’ve seen pecans at our local Edeka market now and again, but they can be really hard to find. At Christmas it’s easier to get all kind of nuts in the shell and I guess you could stock up then and freeze them.
posted by: christina on 27 May 2005
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There very well may be pecans here in Germany. The store that we were at didn’t have them though and I didn’t go anywhere else. I will be keeping my eyes open for them.
As far as the cake recipe… if I ever get a chance to actually test the GCC recipe I will post it. I have never made a GCC from scratch before, only from the Betty Crocker box!
posted by: Renee on 27 May 2005
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We have pecans here in Holland! I’ve seen them in the store in tiny little packets (which I think come from Germany?!) Going to share your recipes? I am always looking for good cake recipes.
posted by: Ash on 27 May 2005