Amerikaner

This is a food blog, as I'm sure you've noticed. And while a food blog is great fun and does serve a purpose, let's face it. Food blogs are kinda shallow compared to some of the other things that are out there. Which is okay, you gotta have a place to go and forget your problems for a little while.
But today is September 11th and since this is the first year I have a blog, I can't resist writing about it and sharing my story.

On September 11th, 2001, I was 16 years old. I had just started my Junior year as an exchange student in Napa, California (I had originally planned on spending my year abroad at a school located in Tribeca, but I didn't get in). I had been living in the US for 3 weeks.
It was a Tuesday. When I came out of my room that morning, the TV was on, which wasn't really all that unusual, except that instead of cartoons, there were the twin towers on the screen. It was the first time I had ever seen or heard of the World Trade Center. What a short acquaintance it would be.
I watched the first tower come down. I didn't realize what was happening.
Then we had to get to school. On the way there, in the car, we were listening to the radio.
The second tower collapsed. Nobody knew what to say, least of all I.
We watched TV all day at school. We were incredulous. I do remember a girl in first period saying that she thought Osama bin Laden was responsible, which I still find kind of odd.
This was the first time I ever heard of the guy.
My dad was scheduled to go to New York that day and I tried to get a hold of him all day. That's when I learned that you can't call Europe from most high schoolers' cell phones. The office finally managed to get him on the phone in the afternoon. There had been a minor work emergency that had caused him to miss his flight.
You know, I didn't grow up in a religious family. We're very secular. But that day, I really did believe that someone was looking out for my family. Still do, actually.
Over the following hours, days, weeks, even years, as more footage was published, we all saw things nobody forgot easily. People jumping out of the burning towers' windows, priests reading the last rites to those dying on stretchers just outside the buildings, fire fighters crying like infants.
I also experienced something great, though. American patriotism is oftentimes ridiculed in Europe. We find it naive at best, and maybe we're just a little jealous because we don't have it (the closest we got was during the soccer world cup of 2006). Especially during the first few months after the attacks, the outpour of patriotism was amazing. And they were so inclusive. As long as you weren't against America, no matter where you were from, you were accepted. We all had a common enemy, and despite all our differences (somehow, the Foreign Exchange Student seems to be one of the great stereotypes Americans love to entertain), we were similar enough all of a sudden to make living there easy for me and it brought the whole school closer together.
Just goes to show that sometimes good things can come from great evils.

I went to New York in the summer of 2002, when cab drivers had resumed honking at each other and most people had moved on with their lives. Still, the city was changed.

I went again last summer. Ground Zero is now a place where tourists go for sight-seeing and pose for pictures, huge smiles on their faces. I don't think they realize how inappropriate that is.
I didn't take pictures there, but I took the one at the beginning of this post outside of a fire station. I didn't know Keith Roma, but I am grateful for his sacrifice. If you want to learn a little bit about him, go here.

So, to honor him and all the other people who died that day, I made a quintessential New York sweet: Black and white cookies.
We have a version of them here in Germany. They have either black (chocolate) or white (sugar) frosting and are called Amerikaner (Americans). I'm pretty sure they were introduced here by the American forces who were stationed in Germany until not too long ago. I've been making them for years.

Black and white cookies, a.k.a. bi-colored Amerikaner (adapted from "Komm koch und back mit mir", a German kids' cookbook)

• 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter
• 5/8 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (divided use)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a generous pinch of salt
  
• 2.5 ounces milk chocolate
• 2 ounces powdered sugar

1. Mix flour, starch, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.
   
2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and mix to incorporate.
4. Sift dry ingredients over wet ingredients, mix just until no dry streaks remain.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop that holds about a tablespoon, set balls of dough on the baking sheet. The cookies spread a lot, so make sure you don't put them too closely together. I usually get about 12 cookies per baking sheet, but my sheets are big.
6. Bake the cookies for 9-12 minutes. They should be golden around the edges, but still light in the middle. They will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will set after a few minutes.
   
7. Let the cookies cool briefly until they are safe to move. Transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool completely, flat side down.
8. When the Amerikaner are cool, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Using a pastry brush, apply it to half of the flat side. Put the frosted cookies back on the rack to let the chocolate set.
9. Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and whisk until you end up with a smooth, spreadable mixture. If it's too firm, add a few drops of water or lemon juice at a time, until you like the consistency.
10. Spread the sugar frosting on the other half of the cookies' flat surface and let that set, too.
    

I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera has finally refused to work anymore, and the new one I want isn't available until October. Don't let that stop you from making the cookies, though. They're really good.

Cupcake Trio

I'm usually very eager to please. I hate to disappoint people (and yes, I realize that's unhealthy), and I almost take it personal when people dislike something I've made. Therefore, I always pay attention to people's individual taste. I know exactly who of my friends will devour anything with peanut butter, who doesn't like lemons, who won't eat anything dense but loves airy mousse pies. Of course I know about all their allergies and "gag foods". So when I make something for friends, even a bigger group, I usually feel pretty confident that they'll like whatever I come up with.
However, when I'm asked to bake or cook something for people I've never met and whose preferences I don't know, I become incredibly nervous. And this week, such an occasion arose.
My mom asked me to make a dessert for her to take to a work party. She's a therapist at a hospital and the people she works with are all extremely well educated, highly sophisticated people. Real adults, in other words.
How would I know what adults like?! I freaked out just a little. Then I considered red wine and raisins.
I asked her what kind of dessert she'd like and she said to just go with whatever I wanted. It sounded enticing.
After lots of looking at recipes and even more swearing, I finally decided I'd best go with mini cupcakes. They're bite-sized, so even people who watch their weight can have one without feeling too guilty; if you don't like the cake, there isn't a huge piece of it that you have to get rid of; and if there are different flavors, you get to try all of them. The latter especially is a good thing for me, because people can only tell me which flavor they preferred if they've sampled all of them.
I figured it would be best to make three different kinds of batter: chocolate, vanilla and something fruity. I almost made four different kinds because I couldn't decide between kumquat and peach, but I ran out of time and never got around to making the peach cupcakes.
I'm glad to say that the mini cupcakes were a success. Just as I'd thought, different people preferred different flavors, but it seems like everyone found one they liked. There was an overall winner, but I won't announce it just yet.
I'll write an individual post for each cupcake, including the recipes, but not today. I'll try to put them up over the weekend.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. Let me just say this:
There will be sprinkles.

The Baptism

Why, yes, the cake was for a girl. How did you know?

So my friend S.'s baby was baptized last Saturday. If you've ever been to a Catholic baptism, you know it's a pretty dark ceremony, what with all that talk of Original Sin, crucifixion and going to hell. I sat through a whole year of Catholic liturgies when I lived in California (I went to a Catholic private school and it was mandatory) and while I remember a lot of "Stand up - Sit down", a baptism is an entirely different experience.

I don't mind entering churches, even though many Jews believe you shouldn't. I like to admire the architecture and I think it would be stupid to miss out on such a big part of European culture just because it happens to be found in churches.

Anway, I hope there won't be anymore Catholic baptisms. I thought it was scary and it made me feel uneasy. No offense, Catholics.

I guess you could argue that other people's religions aren't really any of my business, so I'll jump right ahead and tell you about the thing that really pissed me off.

The cake.

Excuse the even-crappier-than-usual picture. I forgot my camera at home and had to use my phone.

I spent days making that cake. I made 2 trial cakes before this final version and seriously? In the end it felt like it was trying to mock me. Nothing worked out right at first. Not the flavors, not the fondant, nothing. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I won't be making this kind of multi-layered affair again any time soon.

No recipes today because I can't stand talking about this cake anymore, but if you're looking for a great tutorial on making fondant bows, look here.

To end this on a happier note, I can say that I value the experience I gained from making this cake. I'm glad that I got to work with fondant and who knows what being able to make a two-tiered cake could come in handy one day.