sherribabee

an example of how you can make it your own: ← OK, I'll head on over to RG and enter it there and then post the link here. (And I was hoping just to scan it in from the cookbook and send the pdf to anyone who wanted it -- I'm such a lazy typist ). I'll include my "twists" as well.

Texas Sheet Cake Serves 20 as Dessert. Texas Sheet Cake has always been a family favorite. A couple of years ago, I found this recipe in the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2001 cookbook and decide to give a try. It immediately replaced the old family recipe -- it was a "healthier" and richer version. I've made a few tweaks to this recipe, which I've noted. CAKE: cooking spray 2 tsp all-purpose flour 2 c all-purpose flour 2 c granulated sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt (I use table salt) 3/4 c water 1/2 c butter or stick margarine 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa 1/2 c lowfat buttermilk (I put a Tbsp. of white vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough skim milk to make 1/2 cup then let sit for a few minutes) 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 large eggs ICING: 6 T butter or stick margarine 1/3 c fat-free milk 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa 3 c powdered sugar 1/4 c chopped pecans, toasted (I've never toasted mine) 2 tsp vanilla extract CAKE: 1. Preheat oven to 375. 2. Prepare 15"x10" jelly roll pan by spraying with cooking spray and dusting with 2Tbsp. flour (I use Wilton's Cake Release, as I think it's much easier and less messy than using cooking spray and flour). Set aside. 3. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 4. In a small saucepan, combine water, butter, cocoa and bring just to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture until well blended. Add "buttermilk," vanilla and eggs. Beat well. 5. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 375 for 17 minutes. ICING: 1. In a small caucepan, combine butter, milk and cocoa and bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gradually stir in powdered sugar, pecans and vanilla [You could also all various extracts (like almond, mint, banana, etc.) or alcohols (like rum, brandy, etc.) at this point, although you may wish to omit the cinnamon in the cake recipe if you want to get creative with the flavors.] 2. Spread over HOT cake and cool completely on wire rack. Keywords: Chocolate, Cake, Easy, Dessert ( RG1213 )

Texas Sheet Cake Serves 20 as Dessert. Texas Sheet Cake has always been a family favorite. A couple of years ago, I found this recipe in the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2001 cookbook and decide to give a try. It immediately replaced the old family recipe -- it was a "healthier" and richer version. I've made a few tweaks to this recipe, which I've noted. CAKE: cooking spray 2 tsp all-purpose flour 2 c all-purpose flour 2 c granulated sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt (I use table salt) 3/4 c water 1/2 c butter or stick margarine 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa 1/2 c lowfat buttermilk (I put a Tbsp. of white vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough skim milk to make 1/2 cup then let sit for a few minutes) 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 large eggs ICING: 6 T butter or stick margarine 1/3 c fat-free milk 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa 3 c powdered sugar 1/4 c chopped pecans, toasted (I've never toasted mine) 2 tsp vanilla extract CAKE: 1. Preheat oven to 375. 2. Prepare 15"x10" jelly roll pan by spraying with cooking spray and dusting with 2Tbsp. flour (I use Wilton's Cake Release, as I think it's much easier and less messy than using cooking spray and flour). Set aside. 3. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 4. In a small saucepan, combine water, butter, cocoa and bring just to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture until well blended. Add "buttermilk," vanilla and eggs. Beat well. 5. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 375 for 17 minutes. ICING: 1. In a small caucepan, combine butter, milk and cocoa and bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gradually stir in powdered sugar, pecans and vanilla [You could also all various extracts (like almond, mint, banana, etc.) or alcohols (like rum, brandy, etc.) at this point, although you may wish to omit the cinnamon in the cake recipe if you want to get creative with the flavors.] 2. Spread over HOT cake and cool completely on wire rack. Keywords: Chocolate, Cake, Easy, Dessert ( RG1213 )

When I see the words 'fabulous' and 'recipe' in the same sentence,.......... of course I'd love to try your recipe, please. ← OK. I've recently replaced the old family favorite recipe with the somewhat healthier Cooking Light recipe (it's actually richer - yay!), can I post that here?

OR I have a great recipe for a Warm Chocolate Turtle Bread Pudding that is heavenly. Chocolate bread pudding with a caramel and nut concoction drizzled over the top. Also very easy.

How about a Texas Sheet Cake? It usually contains cinnamon, which ads an interesting flavor. It's very chocolately and very simple to make. You could try making it spicy with various ground peppers. Or you could add mint. Or you could add just about any type of flavor or liquor to the frosting. Although it might look like "just chocolate" he'd be in for a pleasant surprise after the first bite. I have a fabulous recipe for the cake at home, if you'd like it.

I'm no expert, but what exactly is the perceived danger with room-temp dairy? It might eventually go sour and taste weird, but that's certainly not a health risk. Is there a bacterial growth risk? And would it even be "bad" bacteria? I'm confused.

Thanks guys! I'm going to try my hand at making my own. The jar I have at home lists "hazelnuts 50%, sugar 50%" on the ingredients label. I use it to flavor buttercream, which goes into a very "texture-rich" cake, so I don't think a little lumpiness will really even be noticeable. I can buy hazelnuts much, much cheaper than I can buy praline paste. I haven't seen hazelnut butter in the markets I frequent most, but then again, I haven't really been looking for it. If that's reasonabley priced, then I may just buy that and add sugar and keep it on hand. I'll go experiment and report back. P.S. I made the marjolaine last night and made sure to have some extra dacquiose and praline buttercream leftover -- sandwich cookies for me!

Has anybody made this? I've been asked lately to make Gateau Marjolaine (YUM!) by some of my coworkers and have a feeling I'll be asked to make more down the road. I've found that praline paste is horribly expensive to purchase and, since it's essential to this cake, I wonder if there is a way to make it myself. I've never tried putting nuts into a food processor and don't know if it's possible to get a smooth, creamy result. Also, I don't know what kind of sugar to use with it (It's about 50% toasted hazelnuts and 50% sugar, right?) -- confectioner's sugar? I'd appreciate any help you guys could offer.

(I've been away from eGullet for about a year now (I was literally reading it all day long and not getting much else done), but my addiction has kicked in again. I'm back!) I'm just now in the process of "practicing" my cake designing abilities on my coworkers. I work full-time, but just finished an amateur pastry program at the French Culinary Institute here in NYC. I enrolled in the course for 2 reasons: 1) to hone my skills and develop my baking hobby a bit further; and 2) I wanted to decide, based on the amateur course, if it was worth $35K to take the professional course. I was able to hone my skills and I learned a lot more than I had expected. We touched on a wide variety of pastry elements in our 100 hours. I decided that in the end, it wasn't worth it for me to spend the $35K to take the professional course, since I really want to focus just on cakes. Our final project for the course was a 2-tiered special occasion cake. I made a Valentine Themed cake (which, quite frankly, I didn't think was all that impressive)and brought it into work with me. That very day, I had 3 women in the office ask me to make their wedding cakes! I've done a few birthday and baby shower cakes since then, just for my coworkers. And I did a huge wedding cake and groomscake for a complete stranger 3 weeks ago! A friend of mine has been pimping me out on a wedding message board she frequents. I'm going to slowly build some word of mouth buzz through my friends and coworkers. If things go well, I will plan to form my business next summer. I plan to start off with a home-based business (forming my own corporation, getting abusiness license, getting my kitchen certified, etc.) and hopefully that will generate enough business to evenually look for a small commercial kitchen and someone to finance me. But I'm taking baby steps. I make sure to take good photographs of everything I make, which will eventually be posted on my soon-to-be revamped website. Over the next few months, I will be taking some specific cake decorating classes. I will be taking a brush embroidery class from Colette Peters (the queen of cakedom!) and a few other decorating classes at the Institute of Culinary Education. I think taking some of the smaller, more specific decorating classes will benefit me more than the big pastry course will. I think it's important to start small and really gauge the amount of time and effort involved. Burnout is rampant in the food industry. If things work out for me, I'd like to do cake designing full-time, but I'm also trying to be realistic in my approach. If my friends and coworkers are pleased with my work, and so are their firends, and so on and so on, I think I'll have a solid base for building a decent business.

Not all all too late, I'll be looking for advice up until the wedding in June. Lots of good tips in your post -- thanks!

Buffalo milk? Goat milk? Buttermilk? (I imagine we'll want to keep human milk off the list )

Ooooo...good idea. I'll be out of town on the 15th, but can do either a weekend or a weekday evening. How long does it take to make cheese?

OK, so it looks like it's just a small handful of us that want to do this. Would anyone be interested in offering up their kitchen for this little experiment? I would -- if I actually *had* a kitchen. If we do this, we should consider the logistics -- how long will this take? Do we each come with our own ingredients/equipment or do we designate someone to get all the ingredients and such and then just fork over money? Ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Man! how do I get myself on your holiday list for next year?

OMG! This is one of the greatest sites EVER! *drool*

Cool Jamie! So what type of stuff/facilities do we need for the cheesemaking? Would we have to take this adventure into someone's kitchen?

My thoughts on the matter: If you wanna be on the low-carb bandwagon, fine. But [insert soup nazi voice] no pizza for you!

I want to learn how to make cheese. Any suggestions as to how I might go about this? Anyone out there who might be willing to teach me (or perhaps we could get a whole little 'class' together)? MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...cheese.

And I noticed that at Di Fara's there was no hand-washing or hand-wiping of any sort between handling the money and preparing the pizza. I just tried to forget I saw that.

The square pepperoni pizza was my favorite. I didn't know pizza could taste THAT good. I think I'm spoiled for all future pizza now.

Here are the pictures. I still feel full.

The more I think about it, the less worried I am about my ability to actually do it. So far, the game plan is as follows: Thursday night - arrive in Ohio and bake the bottom tier, at mom's house and throw in freezer Friday morning - get up early and bake the rest of the tiers at mom's house and throw in freezer Friday evening - crumb coat and apply fondant to each individual tier, drive to reception location and assemble Saturday morning - add finishing touches (extra piping, etc.), coordinate final details with caterers Saturday afternoon - go to wedding

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What about: Burger Heaven