Daniela Klein - Little Sweets and Bakes: Easy-to-Make Cupcakes, Cake Pops, Whoopie Pies, Macarons, and Decorated Cookies

FOR M

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Sometimes the craziest things happen in life. Opportunities open up, which you had never expected to come to you. Me, a cookbook author? Never! I would have said to you a year ago. Naturally everyone is allowed to imagine the most amazing things are happening in their dreams, but to actually have that become a reality?

Perhaps I should have warned you Im in a completely different career field that has nothing to do with baking or crafting. All of this is a passion of mine Ive enjoyed sharing on my klitzekleine blog for the last two years with like-minded souls.

You are holding in your hands the documentation of that. A book, filled to the brim with little sweets and bakes to make you happy. Things I discovered somewhere along the way and that have surprised me. A list of creations that were buzzing around in my head and recipes from great bloggers and friends. Packaging ideas that were implemented with much love. And of course the All-Time Favorites with which the Klein household could never think of doing away.

How did you stumble upon Little Sweets and Bakes ? Do you also enjoy eating cheesecake like my father, or do you tend to read cookbooks before going to bed like me? Is baking your passion? Will you give this book to a good friend because she has a big sweet tooth like you?

I make a very polite curtsy, and wish you lots of joy while you browse and bake. Merci, merci, and thank you.

DANI

A FEW FACTS ABOUT ME

I sleep with woolen socks on in the middle of summer. I seldom keep up with a hobby for more than a year guitar, piano, and flute have remained by the wayside. I use a calculator to figure out 138. You could kill me with tartar.

Above all else I like black and white and every now and then bright colors. My biggest weakness? Being impatient.

Im no baker, graphic designer, photographer, artist, or journalist. Everything here and on my blog was made and tested by me. I never get enough of pretty pictures. Since Pinterest I can collect them without my hard drive struggling along in the process.

My favorite number is 18. Once a month I get a new business idea it is never used. My greatest joy is to make others happy especially when it comes unexpectedly. I am extremely messy but Id like to think it all depends on ones perspective. Currently I prefer to wear my hair in a ponytail, because Herr K. says, With that haircut you look 35! He can tell me that again when Im 40. Herr K. = big love.

Fresh bread, cheese, milk, honey? My staple groceries. Athletic? I was once. The garden will never be rid of me. I own a maximum of 8 CDs, though more like 6. Herr K. owns infinitely more. My last wish is to go to Sweden. *At least I shared that with the anesthesiologist right before my tonsillectomy.

Before I take on a challenge, I Google it until my fingers are sore. Clothes and make-up empty out my wallet on a monthly basis. If I watch a scary movie I cant sleep for a whole year! I have avoided them since I was 12 years old.

Astrid Lindgren, picking blueberries and fishing with Papa, arts and crafts, pottery, baking, cooking and painting with Mama, bickering with and tolerating my little sister, my hamster Max, vacations with grandma and my cousins at the camping grounds are all my childhood. My family and my friends are deep within my heart and know my quirks but love me anyway, and that makes me smile at least once every day.

www.klitzeklein.wordpress.com

ESSENTIAL RECIPES & TIPS

CAKE POPS

MAKES 3035

Stylish snacking is the theme here. A chocolate cake on a stick makes quite the stir. They will hardly be served before dessert lovers pull out their recipe notebooks to write it down. How did you make that? or Is it complicated? and Could I make that, too? Of course. Its really very simple. All you need is a little time. But these tiny calorie bombs are worth the utmost effort. I promise!

Sponge cake: 1 chocolate, vanilla, or red velvet cake Pages 14/15

Cream: 1/4 cup (60 g) butter (room temperature) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar 1 tablespoon milk

Glaze: 2 1/2 cup (600 g) fondant icing, Candy Melts or Callebaut Callets

Also: 1 skewer Styrofoam block 12 in x 20 in x 4 in (30 cm x 50 cm x 10 cm) 35 lollipop sticks

1. Prepare a sponge cake following the recipe ( 14/15 ) and let it cool completely. Cut off the crust around the edges and carefully crumble the cake with your hands. There should not be any large pieces left.

2. To make the cream, stir the butter and vanilla extract in a bowl to a creamy texture. Sift the powdered sugar and stir it into the mix little by little. Add in the milk and mix everything well. Thoroughly knead the cream with the cake crumbles. The mix should be relatively moist so that while forming the balls they will not fall apart.

3. Form small balls out of the finished dough (you can make cylinders, mushrooms, cupcakes, donuts or cubes as well). Pay close attention because the cake balls will become subsequently bigger after being glazed; so hold back a bit when shaping them out of the dough. Later, the cake pop should only be as big as it should take you to make it disappear in two bites. Leave the finished balls in the refrigerator for approximately 1015 minutes.

4. Because the cake pops will be put in a Styrofoam block to dry, punch 35 holes into the Styrofoam with a skewer. Melt the glaze for 12 minutes in the microwave or in a water bath ( 15 ) and fill the deepest possible bowl so that you can dip the cake balls easily.

5. Push the pointy end of the lollipop sticks about 1/3 in (1 cm) deep into the glaze and then poke the sticks directly into the cake balls a little more than halfway through. Now the balls cannot slide as quickly off of the sticks.

6. If the glaze has dried on somewhat, dip the whole ball into the glaze and wait until the excess drains away. To dry place the cake balls in the Styrofoam block. In case the glaze is not totally covering the cake ball, you can repeat the process again. The cake pops can be decorated to your hearts desire.