Yesterday was grandma’s 72nd birthday, and of course the family celebrated it and sat together. The sister of my grandma did bake one delicious tart and one delicious cake, and grandma bought the third one in a store. The tart on the photo above is baked by her sister, it was a very delicious peach tart. We always agree, she knows how to bake tarts.

She did also create cakes that we call “Amerikaner” here, translated that means “American”, it’s the cake with the smile you see below. This cake is just called that way since I can think, probably even longer. After researching, I found out they call them black-and-white cookie in America, I just can assume that our recipe is based on the American cake, and probably also the reason why we call them “American” here.

The orange looking cake below is the purchased one, we call them “Bienenstich”, that would translate to “Bee Sting Cake”. I can tell you, the finished cakes you can buy taste good as well, if you wouldn’t know it better, you would just assume the cake is home-made too. Bee Sting Cake is made of sweet yeast and has a topping of caramelized almonds, the filling is buttercream.

I can tell you, grandma was always a busy woman, she won’t even stop to work on her birthday. I had to ask her “Grandma, don’t you want to eat a piece of the delicious tart or try one of the tasty cakes?”, because she was always checking if every guest is happy.

Yes, grandma rather wants to be sure that everyone is happy, and meanwhile she forgets to just enjoy the delicious stuff as well. I think her life motto is “Others come first, then me”.

I told her “Grandma, everything looks fine, the coffee is on the table, the cakes too”, I could convince her to sit down as well, to enjoy the family meeting, to try the delicious things too. We sat together, talked a lot, and we all had a fine day together with grandma.