On this day we visited the Bakery Museum “De oude bakkerij”. We took a guided tour of the museum and learned how to paint with cocoa.
The Bakery Museum is a compact building filled with a wide variety of historic baking tools and artifacts. The exhibits show how bakers worked in earlier times and preserve the practical and cultural history of baking in the Netherlands. Our guide led a friendly, informative tour and shared many anecdotes about traditional baking practices, which made the history come alive.
During the tour we were shown how simple it can be to make Speculaas figurines. Speculaas is a spiced cookie similar to gingerbread but with its own distinctive spice blend; I think it’s even better. In some places these cookies are also known as Windmill Cookies.
I found myself constantly noticing new details during the tour—every corner held another interesting object or tool that revealed more about the craft of baking.
After the tour we watched a short demonstration on how to paint with cocoa onto tragacanth. Then it was our turn to try. The technique proved easier than I expected and it was very enjoyable. I kept my design simple and consistent with my previous chocolate work—a cupcake.