Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop 2021: Vanillekipferl and Pattern Giveaway
It’s Cookie Exchange time! First I would like to thank Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for organizing it again. This is my favourite blog hop of the year, and I never really have enough time to join many blog hops but this is the one I try not to miss. I started working on my project in July this year, knowing that with my health issues I would need extra time. And for once I actually finished with lots of time to spare. No last minute night shifts for me this year.
And once again, I have a German cookie recipe. (For previous entries, check German Butter Cookies in 2018, Hazelnut Cookies in 2019 and Mandelsplitter in 2020.) This time I made Vanillekipferl. I think this is as German as it can get. Or maybe Austrian. Because I started thinking about the name. Vanille means vanilla, and Kipferl means the crescent shape of the cookies. But Kipferl is not a very German word, in fact these cookies are the only context I could think of. So I looked it up, and it turns out that it is Austrian which makes perfect sense. Yes, they speak German in Austria but they have different words for some things that the average German does not understand. And Kipferl fits right in there. I also found out that the recipe originated in Vienna, so it isn’t even German at all. But they are delicious and one of my favourites for Christmas.
In Germany, the four weekends of Advent leading up to Christmas are a big thing, and we traditionally started baking on the first weekend. In most years that’s the last weekend in November. My mother is a fabulous baker, and she made lots of Christmas cookies but she stored them all in safe places and we didn’t get to eat most of them until Christmas. She needed them for another very German tradition: “Bunter Teller”. It literally translates to “colourful plate” and means a plate full of cookies, chocolates, nuts and other delicious goodies. I have three siblings, and each of us would receive their own plate as an additional Christmas gift, and nothing on that plate needed to be shared. If you have siblings, you know how special that is. If you would like to know more about this tradition, check out this post by German Girl in America. She explains it in detail and with pictures. We used to have some of those coated cardboard plates with Christmas images that she shows, and I got all excited seeing these vintage paper plates. Exactly how I remember it.
In our house we don’t believe in waiting until Christmas because there is always so much food anyway, and it feels like you are eating constantly. So we start eating our Christmas cookies as soon as we make them, nibbling one or two with our coffee in the afternoon. There is always enough left at Christmas, and when our son comes home, he will happily make more, especially if most of his favourites are already gone.
A few words of caution/disclaimer: This is a German recipe. Germans measure only liquids by volume, solid ingredients are measured by weight. And everything is metric, of course. With the help of the internet I have provided the imperial measurements but there is no guarantee these are correct… it’s the internet after all. So if a number looks suspicious to you, please double check the math.
And once again I have come up with a Christmas mug rug design. I am always super busy towards the end of the year, not only with longarm quilting but I also have to finalize the new BOM project for next year, and I always send out handmade Christmas cards. A few years ago I started designing next year’s Christmas card right away and always buy the fabric in December, thinking this would take the pressure out of the last minute rush. And then I put everything in a drawer, forget all about it, and suddenly it’s November, and I haven’t worked on my cards at all. At least I don’t have to scramble to come up with a design and run out to buy fabric but it still takes up a lot of my time in November and early December. So in July I decided I could count on Carol running the Virtual Cookie Exchange again and started drawing Christmas designs. This year I played with holly leaves and came up with two designs that I liked. I couldn’t decide which one I like better, so I kept them both. The pattern is ready to go and will be published next week. Here is a little preview, and I am also giving away three digital copies of the pattern (English/Imperial measurements only). If you would like to win one, please leave a comment and enter the giveaway. Entries will be accepted until Sunday (December 12, 2021, 11.59 PST), and I will announce the winners on the following Wednesday and email the patterns. Please scroll down to the end of the post for giveaway rules and guidelines.
Comment moderation is turned off for today to make it easier for you to enter the giveaway. But please don’t leave your email address in the comment text. It is not necessary to do so, and the spam protection software will kick in and not publish your comment, so it will have to be moderated after all. I will be happy to manually publish it but please keep in mind that I am in the Pacific time zone and will still be asleep when this post publishes.
Thank you for visiting today, and please make sure that you visit all the participants of this blog hop and look at their fabulous projects and mouthwatering cookies. Here is the full schedule of all four days of the event.
|
Monday, December 6
|
Tuesday, December 7
|
|
Wednesday, December 8
|
Thursday, December 9
|
Giveaway Rules and Guidelines
Please take the time to read them.
-
- You must leave a comment to enter the giveaway. If you don’t leave a comment, your winning entry will be ignored and cancelled.
- You are only allowed to enter once.
- The winners will be announced either on Wednesday, December 15 or Thursday, December 16, 20201
- You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaway. Any email returned to me loses the ability to win automatically.
- I will email the digital patterns to the winners right away. Please check your spam folders if you are announced as one of the winners and didn’t receive an email. Especially Gmail likes to send anything I send straight to the spam folder. If you have a Canadian address with Shaw or Telus, they are even worse and often reject my email address without notifying me or the recipient.
- No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
- You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
- All winners are chosen at random.
- All winners will be announced on the blog via the Rafflecopter entry form and a post. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
- Odds of winning a prize are based on the total number of rafflecopter entries.
- This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
