Kaffee und Kuchen

As part of our holidays, we went to Germany for a 50th Birthday party for Mr B’s uncle. I had not been to Germany before. One Germanic tradition is ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ – which is basically coffee and cake in the afternoon. This tradition formed part of the birthday party. All of the cakes were homemade – and all of them looked like they were professionally made! As well as cakes, there were also cheesecakes and gateaux – lots to choose from! I noticed when sampling cakes that sponges are very light in texture and thin in depth – as cakes are traditionally constructed of multiple layers of sponge, cream and fruit, it pays to go with a light and pale sponge. It definitely has inspired me to investigate traditional german baking.