One of my hosts in Germany is a scientist who works in Marburg, a small university town. My first day there she took me to a cafe. As we were walking through the cafe to the terrace, I saw the following:
Traditional hand carved wooden baking molds.
Some of them dated back to 1621 and were rare.
There were several cabinets with handwritten instructions, ingredients, and notes.
Finely carved antique molds and pans were hanging everywhere.
One cabinet held an original Das Zuckerwaren - Laboratorium book.
Das Zuckerwaren - Laboratorium means The Sugar Confectionery Laboratory, and it is a practical guide to all things sweet: Jellies, pastes, nougat, marzipan, and cakes.
Some of the hand carved molds were large and rectangular.
Some were short with sequential stories,
Some were round and featured main characters from fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,
Some were over 3 feet high and depicted folklore. All were in excellent condition.
You could tell by the wonderful care of these hand carved baking molds that baking was an art.
When we finally reached our table and looked at our view, I sensed this town contained a few more unexpected treasures.
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