Die Kaffeestube Teil 2 - virtual Kaffeeklatsch in Germany and Austria

[cheaspicks]

Chat for those living in a German-speaking country, or anyone else who is interested.

Oh I forgot to say I usually do the icing at the beginning while the cake is baking, then put it in the fridge to harden up a bit. If its hardens too much just beat it around a bit until it becomes more spreadable....

Linzer there is a kind of cream that I have only ever found at Kaufhof/Perfetto - the karstadt shopping place. It comes in a small yellow tub and is good (I've used it on scones and was quiet happy!) I've no idea what it's called and you can only get it in small tubs :(

Cake what about English afternoon tea? For the restaurant I mean - fresh scones can be frozen (because real scones don't keep; at all) and defrosted / warmed in the microwave. I just ate a piece of cake but might need a second... all this talk of cake!
And thanks for the chocolate cake recipe, it sounds very good :)

I'm going to a wedding next weekend and I want to look (and obviously feel lovely) not simply pregnant....
I also need to order a dress, so that it arrives in time... can I please have your opinions on blue dress or this black dress. The black dress I thought might look good with this belt

What do you think? I'm not normally a fan of black at weddings but it might be worn more often than the blue one. I also love the belt and have another dress it would look lovely with... or I'll order both and sod the expense of postage/returning them :)

I think they're both lovely - agree you'd probably get more use out the black one but the blue one is my favourite out the 2.

cake - that sounds like a great but simple cake to make. Might give it a go after my Zwetschgenkuchen.

I like the black one Nutella, I think it looks like it feels really nice on, iyswim... like the belt too.

nutella I vote for black too!

cake recipe sounds good. It's my birthday soon so I'm looking for a cake to do with dd although have just had an invite to dd's parents' meeting and it's on my birthday, great!

ploom those Blechkuchen are the best cakes along with German baked cheese cake. Nice of your neighbour to share her zwetschgen!

Brilliant thanks ladies! :) I'll get on and order the black one... it seems the sensible choice... and it's cheaper. I love the blue one too but it's a lot for a dress I can only wear when pregnant if I have something to go to

admylin how old is your DD? If she's quite young I've got a ginger cake where you literally just chuck everything in the mixer then bake it (as long as she likes ginger of course...)

Nutella I realise it's probably too late now, but I'd have voted for the black dress too - going by your FB photos, I can imagine you in it more than I can the blue one. I love the blue one as well though and it's probably the one I'd go for myself; I have a similar but less dressy one, although I must confess I hardly ever wear it.

Parents' evening no. 1 survived, although I was getting a little bored after about an hour! (It lasted 1.5 hours altogether.) I didn't particularly enjoy the introductions bit; we were supposed to say what we were hoping for and expecting from this year (I'd asked DH whether he thought we might talk about it and he said no, so I hadn't "prepared" anything to say), but luckily everyone ended up saying why they'd decided to send their child to the Vorschule instead (which I had prepared). About three quarters of the parents seemed to be from an Eastern European country and most struggled to say much at all; one 20 year old sister just said her sister's name and that she didn't know what she was supposed to say about her!

I was mainly impressed by the fact that the teacher had put a chocolate on each of our desks. She does seem very good and obviously has lots of patience with the children. She had far more patience than I would have done with one boy and his little sister who were there, playing with some noisy toys at the back, talking and generally making a racket - it was quite hard to understand what the teacher was saying at times. I can appreciate that the mother may not have had anyone to leave her children with, but the fact that she didn't even attempt to get them to be quiet was a bit annoying.

cakebump dd is 12 nearly 13 and is getting quite good at doing cakes. She's creative and made me a lovely Marzipan Torte for Mothers day (might just get her to do that one again). She watches all the Carlo's Bakery programmes (he's her hero) and Betty Crocker is saved on her list of favourite websites! If we lived nearer she'd be a willing assistant if you bake often!

linzer sounds like the typical parents' evening then! Atleast you've got one done with and only 2 more to get through. Is your dh feeling any better? I've had to take my 2 to meetings before (in Berlin) but they were given a book, nintendo and strict instructions to stay quiet (which they did).

It's the school photo day. Ds turned up at the breakfast table wearing a nice blue t-shirt, perfect fit but had to send him to get changed as he had exactly the same t-shirt on (slightly large) for his last school photo a year ago!

Dd only had a mild bad-hair-morning-fit but managed to get out of the house on time after trying on 4 different scarves and throwing her hair clips across her bedroom!

The stuff in the yellow pots is Dr Oetker Crème Double. It has the consistency of lightly whipped double cream, so you needs tons of it to make Eton Mess or Delia's Chocolate Truffle Torte. I have tried whipping it to see if I could make it bigger, but nothing seems to happen. It's not too hard to find in supermarkets around here, though - near the crème fraîche.

I would also go for the black dress. I bought a full-length purple dress from Crave to get married in (probably pics on fb), but I didn't get another opportunity to wear it. Maybe next time round, but it's slightly too dressy for the theatre and most of my friends are already married.

admylin sounds a bit stressful but glad you managed to get the DCs out of the house on time!

Why oh why is there no school uniform here? :)

I agree about cream just not being right here. But I've seen (but never been brave enough to buy) some kind of cream stiffener . Germans must use something cause the cakes here are always laden with cream.

My Zwetschgenkuchen is in the oven - was surprisingly simple to do. Only made a springform size one tho since I'm not sure the dc will eat it. Therefore I've still got a lot of Zwetschgen to eat - gut ache here I come!

admylin - oh the joys of teenage girls. My dd isnt quite at that stage yet but I'm sure its not far off. That was spooky tho that your ds picked out the same top as last year. Is it an individual photo or a class one?

cheaspicks have never noticed creme double. I sometimes buy something called schmand to make flammkuchen but that's maybe more like sour cream.

cake oh the stress levels were quite low this morning compared to mornings when they start fighting about who gets in the bathroom first or when dd has a really bad hair day! I just keep saying this will pass, it's the teen years!

Ds is reading Herman Hesse - Unterm Rad in German for school. I had a little look at it last night and can officially say year 9 deutsch is 100% above me. I coped with year 8 mostly but that's me out of it now. If he needs any help we'll have to get a tutor.

ploom it's a whole school, the class and individual ones. They send them to us to buy and we usually scan the class one into the computer and send it back but buy the individuals for school ausweis etc! I'm not sure about buying the whole school one. Have you gotthat sort of photo still from your school days?

I have one class photo from primary and one school trip group photo (school cruise).

I was really surprised when we had school photo last year that they took one of me too!

I then got (for free) three copies of the class photo, one large one of myself, three medium sized and (I'm not kidding) about 25 little sticky passport sized ones. Madness!

Although they had been retouched to make me look matte and lovely, not the stressy, sweaty mess I actually was :)

cake wonder what they think you will do with all those little stick on ones? We've always got left over as we get 16 individual passport size photos each. Just another thing I'll have to sort through eventually and get rid of.

I have to buy some 2kg weights to do my physio exercises. Any idea where the best bargain would be (apart from in UK of course)! Just bought dd an Eastpak bag for school and when I compare on amazon.co.uk the same bag only costs one third of what I had to pay here. I don't get it.

Wouldnt buy the whole school one - you'd be lucky to spot your dc. But like the class ones - will buy the class one when ds2 starts next week.

I've still got a couple of primary ones of me with a proper straight bob haircut. So different to the curly mop I have now. Dont think I have any secondary ones - thankfully! The late 80's werent kind to me.

ploom I bought the first class photos from secondary and I have a few group photos of the dc at primary but that's enough I reckon.

Recently found two little tooth shaped boxes with the first few milk teeth of my dc. Thought at the time it was sweet and how could I just throw them out! Now the dc laugh at me and say mum how ridiculous, get rid of them they're disgusting!

Oh i've still got most of dd's milk teeth too - of course its disgusting but also so cute to keep them . Ds1 seemed to swallow quite a few of his first ones so I've not as many of his & ds2 still hasnt lost any but the longer he kerps his little baby smile for the better.

The cake is a success!! Just treating myself with a bit now. Think my MIL freezes the extra cake - have never done that - is it ok to do?

I'd say it's OK to freeze ploom as you can buy that sort of cake in the freezer section (same as cheesecake). Are you sure you'll have some left to freeze by tonight though?

Probably - I've just had a slice but could maybe have one more later & dh will have one or two but that still leaves about a third of the cake. Twas delicious tho despite my worries about buying the right kind of Quark - its sonething I never buy and there were loads of different sorts.

Ploom what is it with Quark? I think its gross but everyone in Germany seems to love it!

I have a theory that to be German you have to have two main qualities: liking Quark and thinking the Dutch are crap drivers. Literally every single German person I have met fits this!! :)

Pellkartoffeln und quark is one of my favourite German style meals! No one in the family likes it though so I never bother!

I'm planning on making humous today. I love chickpeas in any form and as I have already done chickpea curry this week I thought humous would be a change. Wonder why you can't buy ready made humous here? In the UK it's even in Aldi.