{"id":11978,"date":"2020-08-12T23:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T23:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11978"},"modified":"2020-08-11T14:16:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T14:16:33","slug":"what-cake-can-teach-us-about-germany-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/what-cake-can-teach-us-about-germany-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What Cake Can Teach Us About Germany (Part 2!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! This is the second in a two-part series on one of my favourite subjects: Cake (der Kuchen<\/strong> in German)- specifically, German cakes with interesting, often place-specific, names. We will look at why those cakes are named the way they are, and learn a little language, culture and history in the process. So, as well as being lecker<\/strong> (delicious), let\u2019s see what the world-famous German Kuchen can teach us! (Click here for the first three cakes).<\/a><\/p>\n

Berliner<\/h1>\n
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Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Berliner<\/strong> is a jelly (jam) doughnut, probably most famous for its association with John F Kennedy and his famous \u201cIch bin ein Berliner\u201d speech<\/a>. The word Berliner is short for Berliner Pfannkuchen<\/strong> \u2013 \u2018Berlin pancake\u2019. In Berlin itself, this doughnut is usually just called a Pfannkuchen, whereas outside of Berlin is where you\u2019d hear it called a Berliner. It is said that the Berliner Pfannkuchen was made in the 18th Century by a German baker who was deemed unsuitable for Prussian military service, but was allowed to stay on as a baker. The doughnuts he made were nicknamed Berliners, after the baker\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

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JFK delivering his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in Berlin. Robert Knudsen, White House \/ Public domain<\/p><\/div>\n

Bonus fact: You may have heard of Bismarck doughnuts. These were named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 until 1890.<\/p>\n

Amerikaner<\/h1>\n
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The Amerikaner can be seen on the bottom right, a large, white-frosted, round cake with black lines on top. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Amerikaner<\/strong> is also known in English as the Black and White Cookie, or Half-and-Half Cookie. There are variations on it, but it is generally round in shape, with either all-white, or black and white frosting, and is softer and more cake-like than \u2018cookie-like\u2019 in texture.<\/p>\n

The exact history of the Amerikaner is unclear, but there are a few theories. One is that the Amerikaner originated in Glaser\u2019s Bake Shop, a Manhattan bakery from the early 1900s that was run by Bavarian immigrants. But it wasn\u2019t called Amerikaner back then. During the 1940\/1950s, American soldiers re-introduced these cookies to Germany. This is when they were given the name \u2018Amerikaner\u2019 in Germany.<\/p>\n

However, Germany was divided into East and West during this time, and there was distinct anti-American sentiment in East Germany. So the Amerikaner were not known by this name over there, but as Ammonpl\u00e4tzchen<\/strong>– \u2018Ammonia cookies\u2019. This was after the ammonium bicarbonate used in the cookies as a leavening agent.<\/p>\n

Frankfurter Kranz<\/h1>\n
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Claus Ableiter \/ CC BY-SA (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The Frankfurter Kranz<\/strong> is known as the Golden Crown Cake in English. \u2018Der Kranz\u2019<\/strong> means wreath, or garland. It is designed to look like a crown adorned with rubies \u2013 a very royal cake, indeed.<\/p>\n

Why is there a cake named after a Frankfurt crown? Frankfurt was seen as the \u2018crown city\u2019 of the German Empire for several years. From 1562 to 1792, Frankfurt was where the German kings and emperors were crowned.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, Frankfurt is still one of Germany\u2019s most important cities, but in a different way. It is the financial capital of Europe, even nicknamed \u2018Bankfurt\u2019<\/strong> because so many German banks have their headquarters there. Frankfurt is also home to Germany\u2019s busiest airport, and is the largest city in the state of Hesse.\"\"<\/p>\n

Frankfurt skyline. Photo by Lukas D. on Unsplash<\/p>\n

Click here for part one in this series.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! This is the second in a two-part series on one of my favourite subjects: Cake (der Kuchen in German)- specifically, German cakes with interesting, often place-specific, names. We will look at why those cakes are named the way they are, and learn a little language, culture and history in the process. So, as…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":11979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,70],"tags":[10499,917,10851,10235,376024,431116,209086,504055,376066,533793,358444,8883,95066,504062,191204,111456],"class_list":["post-11978","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-food","tag-berlin","tag-berliner","tag-cake","tag-cold-war","tag-food","tag-food-and-drink","tag-frankfurt","tag-german-cake","tag-german-culture","tag-german-empire","tag-german-food","tag-german-history","tag-history-2","tag-ich-bin-ein-berliner","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-kuchen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t