Tepee

Can I gatecrash this brunch? I can bring some biscotti for coffee.

Hi Monica Your article makes a very interesting read. However, I perused the article twice, and there doesn't seem to be any mention of a wedding cake?? Is that a non-feature in an Indian wedding? I assume then (please correct me if I'm wrong) that a tiered cake is not important as there's loads of food already. This is interesting because someone in a cake board which I go to, had a hard time getting the wedding couple (or rather the MIL) to confirm on a cake order. Would appreciate some enlightenment. Thank you.

Sniff...I feel so privileged to be privy to such a tour! Thank you so much, Rachel! Happy Belated Birthday!

Saw your banana cake review...it's fantastic! I'm looking forward to your white cake review. I can just imagine how full your freezer will be at the end of all these testings! Would like to know how long well-wrapped cakes can last in the freezer? I've only kept them for 3 weeks max before finding an occasion to use them.

Thanks, Annie! I didn't know that. I've a LOT to learn. Do you mean to say, vanilla powder can be added to fondant? And, is vanillin powder the same as vanilla powder? TIA.

LOL! That's not a pretty thought! Thanks, everyone, for your help. Yes, I think the problem lies with my fondant, and sometimes the thickness. I usually just estimate the amount of glucose syrup to add...it's so yucky to handle...so I think on days when I add too much, it makes the fondant heavier and wetter...so much so that the wetness cannot be treated by adding more confectioner's sugar. Will try to be a good girl and measure properly next time. Fondant is not available in our shops, mainly becoz, fondant cakes are not "seen" here. Everywhere I bring my cakes, it seems like it's the 1st time anyone has seen them. And, yes, you either love it ir hate it, so I tell people to feel free to peel it off if they don't care for the extreme sweetness. I don't think my fondant tastes too bad...as I flavor it according to the flavor of the cake. Oh, that brings me to another don't-have. Can't find clear vanilla here too. One day, I'll bite the bullet and get these stuff online, but, fondant, I think not, since it's so heavy and will really add to the shipping costs. I've tried marshmallow fondant, but don't really find much difference to the fondant I make.

Whew! I'd have been a nervous wreck if I had to handle a wedding cake in such a situation! I'm so happy now that I know meringue is such a "tough" bc.

You people are so lucky you don't have to deal with this heat and humidity problem! Currently, it's 102 degF outside! I normally freeze my cakes for better handling (for sculpting). After 2 hours out, I fill it with 4 mm thick buttercream (usually SMBC). Then I smear as thinly as I can a crumb-coat or rather a coat to use as adhesive. Press the cake down a little. I then let the cake settle down for another hour. While I'm covering the cake with 5 mm of fondant, the cake is still cold with beads of condensation. Everything looks fine until the next day I see the fondant sagging. Round layer cakes (3" high) don't seem to have that problem, but cakes which are shaped and higher than 3" like this one sagged so badly that the sides are not straight anymore. I had to take the pic from this angle to avoid the sag showing, but, hey, that wasn't such a bad idea coz the cake doesn't look too bad from this angle. BTW, I make my own fondant using The Cake Bible's recipe, but I had to reduce the glucose syrup slightly and add 1/2 tablespoon gelatin. I found the original recipe's elasticity just wasn't enough. Our stores don't sell fondant or gumpaste or tylose powder or CMC or....you get the drift.

I notice that this section is for Pastry & Baking. Does it cover Cake-Decorating? If not, can you pls move this to the appropriate section? Thank you. My question is - sometimes I notice some sagging on a fondant-covered cake on the next day. I usually decorate the day before required. Is it due to the cake settling? Is there any way of avoiding this? TIA!

For the benefit of other Malaysians here, exactly what brand and type TP? I use the re-packed cake flour from Bake with Yen whenever a recipe calls for cake flour. So far, I'm quite satisfied with the results. If plain flour or SRF is required, I use Tesco's organic unbleached flour; very fine and makes great cakes. Considering it's organic, it's not pricey. But you don't find it on the shelves all the time, so I buy in bulk and freeze them. I almost exclusively use New Zealand's (pardon me, I said I used an Aussie butter in a previous post) Anchor unsalted/salted butter, bought at Bake with Yen for RM2.50 each. HTH.

Glad you appreciate the whiteness. The cake flour I used was bleached.

Bet you pros can't achieve that "cute" feature, huh? Cut it up for my flip-flop cake. About the color...I don't know, but the few times I've tried making a white cake, it always turned out this white. I use an unsalted butter from Australia.

Makes perfect sense to me! Thanks, Neil! Looks as if this is a keeper.

That's it, then! I used canola oil, no wonder there seemed to be an offish taste. I must try the cake again using other vegie oils.

Scenario: Hubby (he's out of the doghouse now) leaves cakes in the car under scorching 102 degF heat. Only discovered this after lunch at restaurant was being cleared away. Buttercream #1 is in this cake. I almost exclusively use SMBC, but since it's blazing hot recently, I thought I had better try something else. This is based on the regular American shortening-based bc. Ingredients include all shortening, few tablespoons of milk, cocoa, baker's chocolate, 2 tbls concentrated coffee, confectioner's sugar. Buttercream #2 is used to cover this cake. Basically SMBC but used 2 sticks shortening (to hopefully withstand the heat) and 1 stick unsalted butter, granulated sugar, egg whites. Which bc do you think survived the ordeal? Amazingly, the one with the butter in it (the flip-flop cake) survived with hardly a sweat, while the one for my mom was reduced to a sorry puddle causing the whole cake to split. I swear the people from neighboring tables were cringing at the sight. I would appreciate if someone could do a post-analysis of why the one with the butter in it handled the heat (excuse the pun) better. Even better if someone could share with me an awesome-tasting heat-resistant bc! TIA!

Hi Shewie, I am also from KL (sortof). I assume you used the re-packed cocoa powder from the baking supplies store? M'sian #3 hijacking the thread for a sec....I, too, get my cocoa from Bake with Yen. There's 2 kinds which are sold there - one just labelled "cocoa" and the other one which I buy "imported cocoa". Don't know the brand either. Gotta try Van Houten; heard it's good too. OK, crawling back into my curry puff shell....

Don't laugh...here's my mkfradin's cake, warts and all. The one time I forget to knock out the air bubbles, I get one the size of an observatory! Sliced a bit out to test and taste. I like this cake. I'll give an overall taste of 4.7 (keeping in mind it's a white cake) and a TMC rating of 5. It behaved very well on cutting and was very moist.

Made the Woolley cake again. I'd give it a 4.5 as I felt that although it had a rich chocolate flavor, it lacked the buttery taste which I love in cakes. I prefer my tweaked Coletter Peters cake but I'm having a bit of problems with it doming on me, so I'm not posting the recipe until I sort that out. Don't have a pic of the naked Woolley cake, but I'm posting what I did out of half the cake; the other half we ate up. Burp! Gosh, can the image be resized smaller? It's so humongous! BTW, can I have a piece of your cake, Jan?

Ditto! My unrefined tastebuds can't tell the difference ; both tastes yummy to me! By the way, Annie, I had a peek at your site. You do great cakes!

Goodness! So many recipes, where do we start??? I agree that RLB's white chocolate cake is very good, very fine crumbs with a hint of white chocolate aftertaste.

For the flour, would that be AP Flour or Cake Flour, because the white cake recipe I use asks for cake flour, and I understand there's already cornstarch in it? You can say that again! Came across that site while I was working on developing mine. Shudder, shudder.

DITTO on the RLB comment. And, about the second, thanks, Wendy. I, for one, needed that. In fact, it's taken me a loooooong time to gather up courage to post here. I'll try the recipe again tomorrow; this time with the right raising agent!!

OK, I went ahead and made the cake after adding 1 1/2 tsp baking soda. Although I'm sure I'm forfeited for adding the wrong raising agent, I'll still put in my 2 sen anyway. I'm not usually so careless, but my 2 yr old was fussing a lot from her flu yadda yadda yadda. Baked in two 9-inch tins for 30 mins @ 150 deg C, and 10 mins @ 130 deg C. There was very minimal doming, and happily, no cracks. In fact, on cooling the dome settled down nicely to form a perfectly level cake. After 5 minutes out, I wrapped it up and it's now cooling, but not before I sliced out a little to taste (the call of the cake was too great!). It cut very well, no crumbs at all. And I suppose Woolley named it Fudge Brownie cake because of its density. Yes, I too found it "under-sweet" which is perfect, as most Malaysians don't like their cake too sweet. I'm going to freeze it for 6 hours and serve it tonight drenched in choc ganache. Yummy! Last month I tried one of Colette Peter's chocolate cake, tweaked a little. I thought that was very moist and good, but, the structure was a bit fragile. I do cake sculpturing and that one required some freezing for better handling. I tried to move a cake layer without freezing and it broke into 2.

Eek! Help! I was preparing the dry ingredients to bake this cake a bit later. Now, coming back to read your recipe, I found that I dumped in baking powder instead of soda. Should I say goodbye to the dry mixture?

I'd like to participate in this too. I've Scott Woolley's book but have only tried his vegetarian eggless milkless banana cake recipe (very good). Will try this one as soon as I can. Would appreciate if you could recommend a good non-shortening based filling to go with this chocolate cake. This would go down much much better and faster with my guinea pigs - my kids and DH. Thank you. Glad this thread got started.