Does this look like fun?
It sure does, doesn't it! Baking and cooking is so much fun and eating it afterwards is even better. 
But it also makes a big mess and we are going to talk about that today.

Listen, I know how hard it is to clean up, I have to do it every day. And its not always fun, is it?!
But I promise you, when you also clean up the mess you make, your parents will much more likely let you bake or cook.
​Also, a clean kitchen is something every chef prides him or herself in. A clean kitchen is a good start and a great end to every dish you create. ​

TIP:
Here is how I do it, when I don't feel like cleaning up. (I do this usually when I put whatever I bake in the oven).
I put on a song I love to listen to, I plug in my headphones and clean up as much as I can until the song is over.
First I put all the dirty dishes in the sink and soak whatever needs soaking. Then I put all the ingredients I used back where they belong. (If you don't know where they go ask your parents, or leave them in a neat stack on the counter). 
Next I wipe the counters down... (oh, but maybe the song is over, then start another one).
Now I have two thing left to do. 
​I wash the dishes or put them the dishwasher, dry them if I hand washed them and put them away. Lastly I sweep the floor. And viola, I am done and it rarely takes me more then two or three songs. 
​That wasn't so bad, was it?! ​

This is what my sink looks like after a class. Be glad that is not what your kitchen usually looks like. 

Are you ready to learn? If you are going to hone in those baking skills, egg cracking is not just important, it is super fun! Even if you're only 3-years-old, you're ready to crack a whole carton of eggs into a bowl. Let's get started!

Start with Lots of Supplies
Are you cracking eggs for the first time, or are you a seasoned egg-cracker? Either way, cracking open a whole carton of eggs is the best way to become a pro. Let's practice: 

• holding the egg
• cracking it in the right spot
• choosing the right type of bowl

For bowls, something sturdy with enough weight to it is always best, so hop to the cupboard and find the best bowl you can!

Let's Get Cracking​
Now, hold your egg with both hands long ways so that there is some empty space in between your fingers. Get a good grip before making your first crack, eggs can be slippery!

Time to crack!

• make a careful crack by tapping the egg on the corner of your bowl
• push both thumbs into the hole (not too far!)
• hold the egg low over your bowl
• slowly pull the egg apart with your thumbs and drop the yellow and white insides into your bowl

Tada! Don't worry if the yolk breaks the first few times or if you make a mess, that's what practice is for! Keep at it until you can confidently crack an egg right into your bowl.
Bonus Tip! Separate the Egg Whites from the Yolk
Have you mastered egg cracking already?! Watch this fun video on separating the egg whites from the yolk! There are many ways to separate egg whites from the yolk, but this water bottle trick is especially fun. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o50TPjIDCQ0&feature=youtu.be

I love my homeschooling groups. We have such a nice time baking together. In our homeschooling series I let the kids decide what we bake each week. I feel like it is a good way for them to think about what they want to put in their body and what they are inspired to do. Also it gets them thinking about recipes and possibilities and some of the time crazy recipes show up that even I had never tried making before. I encourage creativity and brain storming. 

Some of our cakes. 

Before we parted, the kids tasted each flavor of the cakes and we discussed the difference. This is important to me, because I want the kids to become aware of flavors and mouth feel. 

And if you need proof.... yes your kids do the dishes here too! :) 
​I can't wait for next week. We will start making Fairy houses! 

Today we made petit fours.
Petit fours are sweet little cakes, decorated with a poured icing and in this case marzipan flowers.

One of the cakes the kids made was chocolate and the other one vanilla. 

Here the kids are making little delicate flowers out of marzipan that we dyed with food coloring. The smaller the decorations the fancier the petit fours look.

Very carefully the cakes are drizzled with a poured icing and then decorated.

I think they turned out really nice! Bon appetite! 

Hi there, 
I had an amazing time at Cafe Schoenleben, with Martin Schoenleben, master pastry chef, from my home town Puchheim, Germany. Puchheim is just west of Munich and he owns the last real bakery in that town. All the other bakeries there are chains and bake previously frozen Pretzels and bread rolls.
Not so with Martin! He is the sweetest man and he loves to share his knowledge with people. 
Check out his blog here: (it is in German, but it's worth a look) 
http://cafeschoenleben.de/category/blog-einfach-ein-schoenes-leben/
Here we are in front of Cafe Schoenleben:

I contacted Herrn Schoenleben before I left the US to travel to my hometown and he was all for meeting with me. I dropped by briefly to schedule a time with him (and to buy some baked goods, of course) and we quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to learn how to properly make bavarian Pretzels, or Brezen as we call them.
After a quick trip to Berlin I met him at his bakery where he had the dough already prepared and an apron and hat for me at the ready.
He got to work and taught me how to properly "throw" a Pretzel.

First he cut and weighed the dough into four pieces. (it was a lot of dough)
​Cafe Schoenleben makes 300-400 Pretzels a day! 

Then he flattened each dough ball and pressed them in this machine that cuts the dough into even pieces.

Each of those smaller pieces now goes through another machine to roll into these "sausages"
​And then we get to work by hand.

Each of the smaller "sausages" get rolled into longer strands, approximately 60cm or 23 inches.
then each strand is thrown, by a left hand motion to shape the Pretzels. I will show in my upcoming video on how to do that. 
Stay tuned!

This is what they are suppose to look like!

After letting them sit for a few minutes, we dipped them into Pretzel solution, sprinkled them with salt and baked them.

The solution we dipped them in is part Lye and part water, so it is quite dangerous and requires you to wear and apron, gloves and safety glasses.
​At home we would use baking soda and water, which also does the trick. :) 

And here are what they looked like when they were fully baked! 
​
Beautiful and delicious! Freshly baked Brezen! 

They were so pretty I even made my kids pose with them! 

Thank you Martin! For taking the time and teaching me your wonderful craft! I will cherish it forever! 
Until next time!

We had fun making these cookies and it tested our geographic knowledge. I started shaping South America and the kids thought I was shaping Africa. Then I got all confused and need to look it up.
Lol! 
The dough was super simple and it really doesn't need any chilling but of course you can pop the dough in the fridge if you want to make the dough ahead. 
Just let it come back to room temperature before rolling it out. 

SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE

Ingredients:
3 cups flour 
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla or 1/2 tsp almond extract
​1 pinch salt 
green & blue food coloring

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit
2. Mix all ingredients together making sure not to over mix the dough.
3. Separate dough into three bowls.
4. Dye the dough with the food coloring: 2/3 blue, 1/3 green & 1 Tbsp or so in white
5. Roll out the blue dough and using either a round cookie cutter or a glass cut out circles.
6. Use the green and white dough to make the shapes of the continents.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the bottoms slightly brown.
8. Cool before eating.
   
   

Here is a template of the globe in case you need a little guidance. In our class we just let the kids come up with their own world. But it would also be a great geography lesson. 

Oh my, we had so much fun today at the Women's Expo! 
Bake Austin hosted 6 workshops and talked to countless ladies. The place was packed and our workshops were so popular we had them full 1 hour before each one started.
We tried making as many people happy as possible and we had 81 people take our workshops in total today. We made succulent cupcakes and I think everyone had a great time, I know I did! 
I tell you what, today taught me this: "Do not stand between a woman and her cupcake!"

In my house packing lunches has become a science project. 
One of my kids is really driven to eat super healthy and the other probably couldn't care less.
Neither one of them are picky eaters, for example we never had to make separate meals for the boys when they were little, they happily ate everything we served them. But now that our lives have become busier, with half of their meals consumed in a hurry, like breakfast and lunch, what I choose to feed them has become more crucial.
One of my boys is in school until 7-8pm almost every day of the week and so I need to pack him a large lunch and tons of snacks.. (Yes, I still pack his lunch- it's my little thing I have not been able t let go of).
So, I always try to find good healthy granola bars that are packed with wholesome ingredients, no preservatives, high in protein and low in sugar.
The ones that I like tend to be really expensive and so I decided to try my hand in it and it is surprisingly easy and affordable.
For example I made a batch of Chocolate, Date, Coconut bars (those are like the Lara bars that I adore)
Cost:
2 cups dates = $6
1 cup almonds = $1
1/2 cup coconut = $0.50
1/2 cup chocolate chips = $0.50
2 tbs flaxseeds = $0.10
= $8.10 for 12 bars = $.067 per bar (mine are a little smaller then Lara bars, but even if you made them larger, lets say you get 10 bars out of it, it still  would be $0.80 per bar.)

​Here are three recipes that we like in our family:
​

Making puff pastry is not a small feat and especially not for a group of young girls between the ages of 8-12. Today we tackled this dough and the kids had a blast making what most adults are too afraid to tackle.

They mixed flour, cold butter, salt and ice water together with a pastry knife and then turned it out onto the table. At first the dough was a bit crumbly, but it came together quite nicely. They started rolling and folding and making a beautiful laminated dough! 

We then wrapped the puff pastry in plastic and placed it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour. Then we proceeded to learn about knife skills and sliced apple finely for our next task: Apple Roses!

After the dough was chilled and the apples were heated to the point that they were soft with rolled the dough out, placed the apples on it and rolled them up.
​Here is a little video the kids shot of themselves making them: 

Here is one sweet little unbaked rose! :) 

Here the girls made a production line: rolling out dough, cutting it into strips, filling it with apple slices and rolling it up to shape them like roses.
The happy chatter was so lovely and the smell of apples and fresh puff pastry was pretty awesome! 

And here is the finished product! I have to say I think they did great and they were super yummy! 

It was a wonderful day at Bake Austin and I hope you come bake with us sometime!