I am currently living in Germany by Trier and I have some cakes that were ordered kind of last minute for this weekend. I am trying to find some stores that aren't too far away that sell cake decorating supplies. Does anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks!

There are not many stores in Germany for the supplies you are used to, but there are a couple of sites you can order online at. How good is your German?
www.tortissimo.de
www.backfun.de
www.cake-company.de

www.torten-kram.de (Ute does understand and speak English, you can always mail her, she is fast in shipping and very good, tell her Uschi sent you to her site)

www.hobbybaecker.de

Ursula's right - those are the best sites (plus I learned about a new one!)

Also, I sometimes find it's cheaper to order certain things from England. Cake drums, for example, are much, much cheaper at www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk than any of the sites I've found in Germany. Shipping is a little higher but you end up paying half as much. Expect it to take about a week from England. torten-kram is fast (just a few days - after you prepay) and they have great prices on food coloring. cake-company has the SPS system.

Unfortunately you can't get most of the stuff in stores. At least I haven't found/heard of any stores yet. Cake culture is just too different here.

If you need anything specific, ask and I might have some ideas for you. Like have you tried Alipro fondant (Massa Bianca) from Switzerland? In the State's it's imported by Albert Uster. 30 for 6 kg. Of course I have to travel over an hour to get to the nearest place that sells it but it's worth it. That stuff is a dream to work with!

Good luck with your cakes!

Jenny

Oh forgot about oone
www.bosfood.de

They have Citroperl and Oraperl, - dried lemon and orange zest, which taste much better than lemon or orange extract in cakes and cookies, and a lot more natural as well. You will end up having tiny bits of peel in your dough, but it really tastes better

in Drogerien (health food stores ) you can get Vitam Zitronenextrakt, which is a white powder you can use to flavour icing, again a much more natural taste than extract, they have that in orange flavour as well

www.madavanille.de is a site you can order large amounts of affordable and very good quantity of vanilla beans, which you can use to make your own extract (steep in vodka), syrup (steep in simple sirup) or vanilla sugar, (slit open beans and let rest in a container of sugar for at least a month, shake twice weekly)

While we're at it, you can get Tylose and glycerine at pharmacies. They'll look at you a bit weird when you want to buy the Tylose, and even weirder when you tell them it's for cake, but at least it's available. I think you can even get it cheaper through an online pharmacy.

Thanks for all those tips Ursula! I'll have to check those out. It's so tough finding just the right products and equivalents here! Bit by bit I'm making progress, though, thanks to loads of research, trial and error, and help from people at CC.

Jenny

Oh, and I got heat-reactive baking powder (not the wimpy stuff from German grocery stores) from backfun.de.

Anybody know of a better source for double-acting baking powder?

Now that I think of it, I'm also still looking for a place to get cream of tartar. Here it's usually mixed in with baking powder so I get mine sent over by family.

Anybody???

While we are chatting, did you girls know that this year is the first cake show in Germany with competition??????

It's in Hamburg

http://www.dietortenshow.de/

There will be english speaking people there as well, unfortunately I won't be able to come, but things are definatelt changing in Germany.

Tuggy (Tina) will be there as well as a few others. As far as I know, a few cake decorating supply peaople are coming as well, so if you have time, go (and take plenty of pictures)

If you have trouble with the language, give me a holler and I'll translate the most important parts for you

cream of tartar = Weinsteinsaeure

Drogerien, Pharmacies or around christmastime in shops

www.torten-talk.de

is a German cake decorating site. We have several english speaking members (including myself), so you can always post your questions there for faster results
It's a free forum, so if you live in Germany, you can get ideas and tips there a lot faster, because there is no time delay

Wow - a cake show?!? And in this corner of the country (unfortunately far, far from Hamburg) my German friends and relatives are still afraid of the colors - it's not natural! I've been able to convert some people but most have never even heard of cakes like this.

Wish I lived closer to Hamburg! I also wish I were at Tuggy's level - hers are an inspiration!

About the cream of tartar, is that pure or in a baking powder mixture? I asked at many places and was always directed toward the baking powder. I'll have to check again. And never thought of asking for that at the pharmacy - good idea!

Thanks for the sites!

Jenny

Yep, it's the first one. Tina (Tuggy) was also instrumental in bringing it about, amongst others

If you can find time (ICEs are fast trains) it should really be worth it. They have demonstrations, as well as the show.
If I lived anywhere in Germany, I'd make it possible to go, I wouldn't care what I would have to do to make it possible. Germany is a lot smaller than the USA. There will be two english ladies there as well, Di and Christina, who make awesome cakes (Di was a gold medal winner in Birmingham last year)
The three of them are also giving courses there. Unfortunately Shanghai is really too far for me to fly there for a weekend, used up all my miles for Birmingham last year

I'd really think about going except that's the one weekend I already have plans. And they can't be changed. Hopefully it'll be repeated next year! I'd love to "talk shop" with some other cake fanatics!

How awesome! Thank you so much to both of you for the advice. My german is nicht so gut! lol It is improving however. I will definately check these sites out. I am also thinking of attending the cake show....it looks like a lot of fun!

Oooh will you enter into the competition? I'm sooo jealous, why couldn't they have had it in summer? I just came back from Germany yesterday

I wish I could, but I really can't justify the expense of the flight.
Why don't you join the German forum? As I said, we have enough people who understand english and what better way to improve your German? There are dutch members, some from eastern Europe, so you wouldn't be the only foreigner, so no worries about your German

I probally won't enter this year. I am thinking of going just to check things out. I will definately join the german forum. I took German in highschool so I speak enough to get around, but we will be here for 3 years so I would like to be fluent. Thanks again! What area of Germany did you visit?

I am a Hong Kong born and bred German, but my parents came from Hessia (Kassel), and my husband comes from there as well. Off to see, whether I can find you on the German site
Once you regeister it will take time for a moderator to accept you and you will have to post at least 10 times for your account to be opened up to see all postings and subcatagories, but it definately is worth it. See you over there soon

Hi,

I am Edith  from Creations by Edith, I will be traveling to Germany in July, if you would like I can do a demo or two or bring some of my products at

no extra cost (if you buy in qty. it will be a lot better). You can visit my website. www.creationsbyedith.com

By the way, when is the Cake Show in Germany? I would like to attend or show some demos.

Best regards,

Edith De La Flor