lorinda

When I make frangipane tarts, I blind bake the shell until they are pale, then fill and bake. However my problem is that the frangipane takes a certain amount of time to brown and cook, by which time the pastry is burnt (or attained a level of browning which is not ideal). Due to this problem, 50% of the tarts made for Christmas lunch didn't make it to the table . :-( All the recipes I have seen say to blind bake, but I was wondering if anyone has baked them without blind baking first, and if so, does the pastry on the bottom cook properly? I have tried shielding with foil, but it didn't really help.

They can be used in any recipe. I have used them in chiffon cakes, making royal icing, financiers, and it turns about great. HOwever, remember that the vessel in which they are frozen is free from grease. I also remove the chalaza before freezing.

Hi John, I bake my chiffon's in a regular sized domestic oven and turn off the top element after approx. 30 mins, and at the end of the cooking time (65 mins) it is very brown. So I can't really help you, other than to say - don't cover the top with aluminium foil. I did that once, and the cake promptly sank (even while it was in the oven).

Check out flickr. There's heaps of cupcake groups, such as Gorgeous Cupcakes and Cupcakes take the cake. They have gorgeous designs, very inspiring.

Hi Dan, I do realise these things are up to the publishers and editors, one day I will write to them and complain. I agree 100% with your reply to them. My day job involves writing and I know how often things get changed (for the worse) and one is powerless to do anything.

As a home baker, let me correct the assumptions of the above posters that home bakers don't own a scale and prefer volume. I do own a digital scale and much prefer using weight rather than volume. Indeed, I will convert my recipes to weight, so that they can be made with consistency and easily scaled. I detest recipes that use volume, except for very small quantities which are difficult to accurately weigh. I also get irritated by recipes involving boiling of sugar and such, where temperatures are not given. For I also own a probe thermometer and like to use it. So much simpler to say "simmer till 170degrees" rather than "simmer till a lightish amberish/brown colour, but not too dark." So please, don't patronise us home cooks.

What a terrific cake! You should be very proud of yourself. It sounds delicious. "My only responsibilities were transporting the cake two hundred miles to the wedding. I also provided technical help in affixing the mosaic to the center cake." "ONLY" responsibilities?!! Don't underestimate the difficulty or stress of transporting a completed cake, whatever the distance, it is a great feat to transport it.

I was wondering what you all do with cocoa butter ... I found a tub in my local store and was going to get it.

You could pipe a template of it in reverse, then use it to imprint the design onto (not dried) fondant, then go over the imprint in royal. The success of this would depend on how detailed it was, but you could get the general lines, and fill in the details from sight.

Thanks for all your replies. Imagine, congee in 10 minutes! It sounds almost too good to be true. I am motivated to go out and buy one now.

Has anyone tried cooking joong in a pressure cooker? They usually take around an hour boiling away which is a pain, was wondering whether putting them in a pressure cooker for say 15 minutes would do the trick just as well. Also, can you make chinese soups in a pressure cooker?

ChocoGrok, those cakes look terrific! I love the patterned chocolate pieces on the black and white cake, those transfer sheets worked really well! The cherry blossoms are very beautiful, it is so cute how they were collected! About attaching the flowers: it helps if they are light - so either make them smaller or with thinner petals, to make them lighter, especially for the side where gravity isn't your friend. Then yes, use a stiff royal icing - royal icing only has egg white and icing sugar (no water) so simply add more icing sugar until you get stiff peaks. To have no nooks/crannies in the fondant covered cake, the cake itself has to be very smooth and flat; any imperfections in the cake will show up in the fondant. You can use spackle paste (as per Toba Garrett) to smooth it out first. Great work!

When I first started cake decorating I took a short evening course at the local community college which really helped - before that I had never heard of gumpaste. That taught me the basics, such as needing to remove the 'cut' look of the petals and what the tools are used for. But I only learnt 1 flower and since then I am self-taught which suits me better, so if you are the kind of person who is motivated and can teach yourself from books, then do that. I like Alan Dunn's books (also with Tombi Peck). I agree with one of the above posters who said x-acto knife is very useful, plus a ball tool for thinning the edges of petals. For cherry blossoms I would colour with non-toxic artist's pastels (chalks) as the outside has to stay white. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42256787@N00/

Ask the bride for any fabric swatches / what flowers are in the bouquets, what if any theme of the wedding, theme colour; doing this you can gauge how 'bridezilla' the bride is. Ask for 30% deposit to secure the day, plus the balance payable at least 2 weeks prior. Ask for any (refundable) deposit to cover any cake plates etc that you want returned. Provide an instruction/cutting sheet to venue informing them where and how many dowels etc, need to be removed prior to cutting.

That's really cool, your photos are great. Thanks for sharing!

Cakeballs! Or freeze to use to make spackle as per Toba Garrett's method.

I love the colour of that Sylvia Weinstock cake. Can anyone please help with what colours would I use/mix to get that? It's a sort of goldy yellow, brilliant!

I made 2 batches of IMBC today with frozen egg whites and it whipped up just the same as with fresh whites. Thanks Ruth for the terrific demo, which gave me the confidence to give this a go. The first time, the butter must have been a bit cool going in so I tried the hot teatowel and it worked a treat. Second time, the butter had been out a bit longer so it didn't need the hot teatowel. I also made raspberry IMBC by adding some raspberry puree according to RLB's recipe and even though you don't need to add much, the BC is a very nice bright pink colour, lovely!

Thanks for your replies Ruth and May. I think I'll go with the IMBC for the stability, as I will be making 4 layers of cake/3 layers filling. Plus it'll give me a chance to use up all those egg whites in the freezer.

For those who have tried both, which do you prefer: IMBC or Neoclassic Buttercream (as per RLB)? Neoclassic buttercream seems easier to make, but would it taste too eggy and be less light and fluffy on account of not having any whites? I want to make a lemon buttercream for cake filling by combining lemon curd from Fine Cooking (from the Best Lemon Curd thread) with a buttercream to make it less runny, and find IMBC somewhat daunting. When I made it recently, it looked curdled, I gave up on it, then put it in a sink of cold water and rebeat it and it came together quite miraculously, but was a rather stressful experience.

I live in Sydney and I'd be ecstatic if I ever found good flour for anywhere near 45c a kilo. Even the bulk Weston's, as you say, works out to be almost double that at 80c a kilo.

http://www.earlcraftncake.com/cart/index.p...products_id=311 Have it in 1kg bag (and 150g as well). (Australian supplier, check if they will ship to you)

RLB's basic soft sandwich loaf dough from The Bread Bible makes beautiful dinner rolls, buttery - smells like brioche. She also has a recipe for butter dipped rolls which I've not tried.

I never 'got' cakey brownies. If you like cakey brownies, wouldn't you just eat cake?

Hi Michelle, I have tried the WhiteTruffle girl tweaked version. While the taste and moistness is good, I find that the cake crumbles a bit too much for my liking when sliced. How did you find your version, with respect to crumbliness? Perhaps the extra oil in your tweaks would stop the crumbling problem? Lorinda