Fancy European Treats!

I am by no means a world traveler. I'd like to be. But I'm not. I have a very practical and boring life.

But, I have a cousin who married a Spaniard and lives in Madrid.

She's been there for about 5 years and I've always said that I'd like to go visit her.

Well... now she's moving to the Middle East.

So, with a free place to stay in Europe + a limited time to take advantage of this opportunity....

 I said TO HECK WITH PRACTICALLITY!!

I went. I shouldn't have. I should be saving my money.

But I did. And I have no regrets.

I spent 5 days in Spain and 2 days in Paris!!!

Thought I'd show you photos of some of the beautiful desserts and pastries I saw (and ate) while I was there. The top photo is from a bakery in Madrid at SOL (which I guess is kind of like the Times Square of Madrid). The bottom from a little market in Paris.

The trip was December 28 - Jan. 5 so roscón de reyes (king cake) was the big thing in all the bakeries in Spain. You can see some king cakes along the bottom of the top photo. Here's the deal with the king cake (according to Wikipedia):

The roscón de reyes in Spain or rosca de reyes in Spanish America is traditionally eaten on January 6, during the celebration of the Día de Reyes (literally "Kings' Day"). In most of Spain, Mexico and sometimes Hispanic communities in the United States, this is the day when children get presents from the Three Wise Men (not Santa Claus).

My cousin's husband bought us a king cake and we ate it for breakfast on the 5th just before we left for the airport. It was delicious! The funny thing was, king cakes have a little toy/trinket in them and the person that finds the toy gets certain privelages or has certain obligations (I think it kind of depends on the family) - anyway - my cousin cut the cake right where the toy was - no one had the surprise of finding it.

The other thing I found sort of interesting about Spanish baking is that, while there are lots of bakeries everywhere filled with gorgeous breads and pastries and cakes, when my cousin wants to do some American baking (chocolate chip cookies for example), she has a hard time finding some of the ingredients like chocolate chips and brown sugar. If she does manage to find them they're very expensive. So when she comes back to the states she stocks up on some of those things. Then, when she's back in Spain, she treats her in-laws to a batch of chocolate chip cookies and they're very impressed with her baking skills!

I'm usually kind of a quiet person, but my friends and family have learned that if I start talking about this trip - I'll ramble on and on forever. So - rather than write a write a post that just keeps scrolling down and down and down forever - I'll stop. It was an awesome, amazing, spectacular, fun, interesting trip.

Excuse the Mess

Please excuse the mess! We're remodeling!

If you're looking for Sugar and Meringue, you've come to the right place. I'm partnering with my best friend to bring you some fresh new ideas and more frequent updates.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to stop in one more time before the holidays to wish you a Merry Christmas and let you know that I took part in 25 Days of Cookies over at This HeArt of Mine. For my post, I shared a Snowflake Cookie decorating video. This HeArt of Mine has had a guest blogger post a cookie recipe every day in December! What a great idea and an ambitious project!

Shiny Bright Ornament Cookies

Here's another cookie decorating video.

It's past my bed time and I don't have it in me to give any detailed instructions right now. But if you have any questions just ask!

Baby Reindeer Cookies

No posts for about a month and now 2 posts in one day!

I know.

But it's the Holidays. Gotta blog when I can.

Now that I've told you all about Amy and how we're collaborating on a new blog - thought I'd share our most recent baking project.

Amy came over last weekend to decorate Christmas cookies. She is sort-of new to cookie decorating. So, I spent some time showing her and her daughter some of the cookie decorating methods I've learned over the years. We taped it so you can watch and decorate with us if you'd like. This is my first stab at posting video so please forgive any quality issues!

Christmas Deer Cookies from Emily Reiman on Vimeo.

To make these cookies, I found a cute deer on Google Images, printed it on card stock, traced it with a brown food marker and used that as a guide for my piping. This is a technique I learned from Sugar Belle.

For new cookie bakers - I always recommend reading Sweetopia's tutorials. She does an amazing job explaining both basic and advanced cookie decorating techniques.

 Hopefully I'll get a few more of our cookie decorating videos posted later this week!