THE PARENT AND KID SHOW

'It's the Parent and Kid Show' exclaimed Saffron as she took her place on the seat cushions on the floor in the kitchen next to her brother to watch her sister bake. It was Cinnamon's turn to bake her first cake and one of many of this new year as I bring true one of their wishes for 2016.

We had been watching Die Küchenschlacht on ZDF this past week as we had times before. As we sat and watched, we would try guessing who would be the ones to lose. 'The bearded man will win' we all agreed as we watched the last show of the year last week. We were correct.

The children wished to emulate the cooking show somewhat. Though it is a challenge to do so in such a small kitchen with no island and limited counter space, we managed to bake two 5" cakes today. The first I baked with Cinnamon. The second was with Saffron. Sage gets his turn tomorrow.

Lemon poppy seed cake was Cinnamon's cake. I had her measure out the flour, sugar, and butter on the new scale I bought in Germany on one of my last trips to Berlin. I told the children they would not be using the American measuring system of volume with measuring cups. The measuring cups I had for years I left behind in my divorce and never bought replacements so the option of using measuring cups was no option at my place. We will use the weight system instead. The true system.

We used the recipes I developed for my travel bake book, one I have tried getting published to no avail - yet. The recipes are simple and require no mixers. Dry ingredients get folded into the wet ingredients and the resulting batter is baked for about 30 minutes. The children's favourite part was getting to lick the bowl and rubber spatula. They were excited to each get their own colourful rubber spatula to use for baking this year.

Saffron selected yogurt cake from my book of recipes. It was everyone's favourite though we ate half of both cakes after dinner. We decided the lemon poppy seed needed more lemon zest next time. A great excuse to bake again the next time they are at my place this month.

The children enjoyed our 'show' but wished Mario could be here. 'Will Mario be here this year' they asked. There are some wishes I can make true for them. Others are simply out of my control.