It started a couple of Christmases ago when I had to try my hands at baking. You see, I was invited to a German Christmas gathering and I had to bring some home baking as per tradition. Or so, I was told.

I’ve never baked ever in my life, except for the few attempts at mixing some premixed bread flour with yeast and water, and switching on the bread making machine. That’s not baking, but rather more a primary school science experiment. Even then, I wasn’t always successful.

Panicked, I asked a German friend for help. She recommended a foolproof recipe that can’t possibly go wrong. It was for Alpenbrot (“Alpine Bread”), essentially a chocolate and cinnamon biscuit with a hint of cardamom and cloves. Very Christmassy, and very tasty, too!

It was however a very dark looking thing, and looks like animal poo before it is cut into the correct Alpenbrot shape. German Friend #2 named it Katzenkacke – cat poo. The name stuck.

Einhornkacke (“Unicorn poo”) is the evolution of Katzenkacke. It is Alpenbrot with rainbow candy sprinkles. Yum!

Of course, if you know Alpenbrot, you’ll notice that the shape is all wrong. This is because I wanted to maximise the cookie dough per oven tray, and that’s why it’s rectangular. It’s the mind of an engineer, says German Friend #2. He should know, he’s a German engineer.