Hi

I was wondering whether anyone can help me with a project I am doing at school.
My German teacher has asked us to research one of our hobbies and find out about any traditions/customs in Germany/Austria. I have chosen sugarcraft but I am finding it a little difficult to find out about sugarcrafting traditions that there are in Germany/Austria - if any.
If anyone knows any useful information I would be VERY grateful!!!

Steph

X=)X

Try pming boonenati or sweet_as_tisse (Australia) and tuggy (Germany)...they are very nice and helpful.

thank you very much

Stephanie 214,
LOL...Isn't Nati in Australia, not Austria?
Steph was looking for Austria customs.

thank you any help is very much appreciated

Go to the library and look at the history of food (or check the internet) -- you'd be amazed at the amount of sugar history coming from Germany/Austria. Also check things like houseonthehill.net -- they sell the wooden cookie molds which are molded from originals in Germany, among other countries. One example I found on that site was a mold with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on a journey and they knew it was a Protestant mold because the baby Jesus had the "sunbeams" (for lack of a better term) coming from his head, which is a protestant symbol.

Another thing you might do is find particular foods that you know are either German in origin or popular in Germany (for example Springerle, which is an anise flavored cookie impressed with specialized cookie molds. The Germans use a special carved rolling pin whereas the Swiss used individual molds.) Find out why they are popular and how they got to be there. Some of the sugar arts go all the way back to ancient Rome with the shipping lanes and the sugar trade, which is how certain ideas became part of certain cultures.

Sounds like you have a fun project ahead of you!!

thank you if anyone has any information - even if its just some really random thing that you know - i would be very very pleased if you would share it with me

i have found out that gingerbread houses are very popular in germany does anyone have any recipes or pictures?

any other stuff would also b very welcome *smile*

My mother (full German) has a book on food from Germany which did have some gingerbread houses in it. Mostly what I saw when I was over there were the heart cookies, they didn't call it gingerbread though, but it was definitely a spiced thick hard cookies with royal icing decorations. I'll look for the book.

thank you

Oh, also they use a lot of marzipan for their decorations. I saw girls at a booth making marzipan roses in the marketplace in Stuttgardt every Thursday.

I have a cookbook named "Heritage Cookbook".
German-Austrian Heritage blessed us with Viennese Pastries. Under such pastries are: the Sacher Torte which is a rich chocolate sponge cake glazed with jam and chocolate frosting.
the Dobos Torte is eight thin layers of sponge cake separated by chocolate buttercream filling.
the Linzer Torte is two shortbread-like layers filled with preserves.
Also known for Springerles, originally were served in celebration of the winter solstice known as Julfest, made in shapes of little horses, now made into rectangular molds or rolled with a specially carved rolling pin.
Hope this helps.

thanks everyone pleeeease help

Try Franky's Attic - THE BEST source for gingerbread info ANYWHERE!
http://home.comcast.net/~frankysattic/members/patternsmember.html

thanks! anymore information would still be great

Appfelstrudel,that is some fantastic pastry!

Thanks to Tuggy who has helped me loads through pms and I am forever greatful to her!!

I still need help though!

Hi Steph,

I just see this topic today Gingerbread ist very traditional in Germany. Mainly from Nurnberg, but it´s different from the ones you use for building houses. It´s soft and you pipe the mass on a wafer.

Geograpical there are more and, in my eyes, better cakes in the south of Germany and of course in Austria. All the famouse cakes are from that region. Exaption is the christmas stollen form Dresden.

If you need further help -just ask. I´ll try my best.

thanks! anything else would still be appreciated greatly!

We'd like to help, but it might be productive to tell us what you have so far, or what areas are still lacking...

gingerbread houses, candycanes, gingerbread cookies, advent calendars, apple strudel, stollen

Germans, among the world's largest consumers of almonds, pride themselves on their fruit-studded yeast bread, the Christmas stolen. Tucked inside the dough is a plump log of marzipan. When eating stolen, the trick is to taste a small nibble of marzipan with each bite of the buttery cake.
marzipan roses
viennese pastries
Under such pastries are: the Sacher Torte which is a rich chocolate sponge cake glazed with jam and chocolate frosting.
the Dobos Torte is eight thin layers of sponge cake separated by chocolate buttercream filling.
the Linzer Torte is two shortbread-like layers filled with preserves.
Also known for Springerles, originally were served in celebration of the winter solstice known as Julfest, made in shapes of little horses, now made into rectangular molds or rolled with a specially carved rolling pin.
the wooden cookie molds which are molded from originals in Germany
a mold with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on a journey and they knew it was a Protestant mold because the baby Jesus had rays of light coming from his head, which is a protestant symbol.
The Germans use a special carved rolling pin

Sugarcraft in the way it is known in the US or UK is very new to Germany. German cake designs are mostly made with marzipan. Most of the weddings cakes are decorated with marzipan roses. Traditionaly the design was/is more plain.

Cake decorating done by non-professionals is very new. In the moment there are only 3 books available (all translated from english) and only one school is running courses. 2 years ago only 4 food colors (red, yellow, blue and green) were available and a self-made birthday cake looked like a plain bundt cake with candles on top.

You can only get sugarpaste in Austria and have to import all the other stuff (no shop or online-shopping available!!!). In Germany there are some online-shops, so you can get Wilton products (since ~5 years). Fondant is available from several companies since 10-12 years. Most of the stuff you can buy is imported from the UK, like colors, modelling tools etc. and there is a small range of cutters made in Germany.

Take a look at http://www.tortentraum-brauner.de/index-1.html it's a german cake-board and you can view the galleries (at the bottom) with out becoming a member. Those cakes are done by non-professionals - so you can see the standart of sugarcrafting here. Mainly novelty cakes are done, rarely flowers and 3D cakes.
Gingerbread is very traditional in Germany. Mainly from Nurnberg, but it´s different from the ones you use for building houses. It´s soft and you pipe the mass on a wafer.
Geograpically there are more and, in my eyes, better cakes in the south of Germany and of course in Austria. All the famouse cakes are from that region. Exception is the christmas stollen from Dresden.

Is what info I have

Hi Steph,

that sounds good! But the massage-board is www.torten-talk.de sorry for the wrong info

ok thanks