lorinda

That bread looks fantastic! Did you achieve what you were after (the Italian bread you liked)? How long did you bulk ferment?

You're very welcome. You are obviously a naturally talented baker and I was impressed with your cake, especially as you say it's only your second one, it looked like a very happy cake. When it started leaning, I would have just told everyone it's a whimsical cake!

OK, you definitely need to use cake boards when you use dowels, otherwise there's no point in dowelling. I don't mean the mdf/wooden boards though, but the thick card board ones. You can use boards that are one size smaller than the tier as the board does not have to be exactly as big as the tier, provided it is bigger than the dowelled area on the tier beneath. If you can't get cake boards, you could try cutting plastic disposable plates to a suitable size. I would transport the tiers separately (but with the dowels in place) and stack onsite. Others use a central tier going through the entire cake to prevent layers sliding, but I prefer not to. You could dust icing sugar or put a circle of parchment under the boards to prevent the frosting of the tier below sticking to it when the cake is disassembled for cutting. Another tip is to cut all the dowels for a tier the same height, irrespective of whether the cake itself is absolutely level. This way, even if the actual cake layer is not even, the higher tiers will be level. You can disguise any slight gap with ribbon around the base, or piping. Or, if like the cake you made which has very nice textured frosting, just spread some more frosting. Use a sharpened dowel to make the initial hole, but then trim the dowel level with the layer, such that both ends of the dowel are flat to minimise movement once inside the cake. (You could also get a cheap little spirit level to take the guesswork out of levelling tiers. )

Did you use cake boards between the tiers?

You could try whipped cream cheese frosting, or mascarpone frosting.

Here are pics of my latest effort, using the malt extract powder. However, I now doubt whether the stuff I bought was diastatic malt - it didn't say diastatic on the packet. I used 2T to 1kg flour. Whatever it was, I was happy with the results, the oven spring was phenomenal. You can see in one of the pictures of the slashes I made, which opened right up. Dough was made with a mix of wholemeal, rye and white flour, resulting in a light soft open crumb.

Very interesting Bill, I defer to your experience! If my experiments are not too embarassing, I shall endeavour to post the results. By the way, a bit off topic, but would you know about the need to scald milk before using for bread - apparently one needs to remove the proteins which are detrimental to yeast. Would using dried milk powder circumvent the need to scald?

Thank you for all your replies. I will check out John Palmer's web book. It seems if the flour already has sufficient enzyme then adding the malt won't change anything. Piazzola, I am in Australia too. I didn't know that they already add alpha amylase to the flour, so that is interesting. At the moment I use Laucke's Wallaby flour from the supermarket; had a brief flirtation with Promax which I understand is what the baker's use, but didn't see much difference except it being more expensive.

In the everlasting quest to make bread rise higher, crumb softer, just generally better, I came across some malt extract recently and bought some, having read that some bakers add diastatic malt extract to their dough to improve it, especially if, as in my part of the world, the flour grown lacks sufficient alpha-amylase. The packet I bought does not have the word 'diastatic' but is called 'Malt extract', is a yellow powder. Does anyone have any experience using malt extract with bread (not sourdough)? I would be most interested to hear about it. How much does one use, and what does it do to the bread, eg, softer crumb? better rise? Thanks in advance!

Thanks Don! When I make it, I might add some cinnamon and sugar to the recipe. Have to wait till the weekend, till then am making do with bought bread.

Thanks so much Don. I look forward to trying it soon and hope my results are as good as yours. The kneading schedule is unusual - so you just knead for 15 secs, wait 10minutes - and do this 3 times? That's great, as much as I like kneading, it does get a bit tedious!

Hi Don, That loaf looks fantastic, the crumb looks very soft and well-risen. Would you mind sharing your tips and recipe? I love raisin bread, especially sliced extra thick and toasted with loads of butter.

Thanks for your reply. I would think that it should be ok too, especially as I am only doing it once a month if that. At the markets I noticed a few stalls, ladies selling homebaking and I would be very surprised if those came from a commercial kitchen. The cooking schools are a good idea, thanks. Lately the issue of insurance reared its ugly head and it was suggested that businesses wouldn't want to rent to me because of insurance issues, they wouldn't be covered if I burnt the place down. <sigh> The drawing board is a bad place to be!

I would like to know if anyone has heard of restaurants or cake shops/bakeries who are willing to rent their kitchens on a casual basis, say on a day or time when the kitchen is not being used. I wish to make some baked goods to sell at the local market and assume that I can't do this in my home kitchen due to council regulations, so it would be great to rent a council-approved kitchen on a casual basis for a couple of days a month, more or less depending on the orders. Thanks in advance.

Thanks alligande. I think the tip about covering with parchment is great. I also noticed that Delia's recipe doesn't have any leavening either. I wonder how that affects the texture of the cake - is it overly dense?

Thanks Steve. You know, that is the very story which got me paranoid about cracking! (Those ladies scare me, with the cutting of the sultanas. I can just imagine them cutting it one by one. I didn't cut my sultanas ... some things even I wouldn't do for a competition.)

That sounds good - like giving it a misting of water as it goes in the oven, and perhaps again every hour or so (it is in slow oven for 3 hrs). It's just that I had never read that in a recipe before, but I don't think it would hurt. I will definitely try this next time.

I had a look at last year's lineup Fruitcake winning entries Unfortunately I was not there in person and it's not a great photo so can't see close up but they do seem to be naked.

Good idea! I would do that if they were for a gift, but the rules of the competition state that the fruitcakes are not to be iced, so I assume no covering at all. I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope the other qualities redeem it somewhat. I couldn't even stick a cake tester so I hope it is cooked!

Thank you for your reply chefette. I first made the recipe same as from previous uses, got some big cracks, then modified it to have less baking powder (but same soda). So I have only made it once with the modified version. I can't remember if my cakes had cracks before - I think they might have - because I had always baked them for eating or decorating and usually levelled the top anyway so didn't care about cracks. But then I read an interview with some show competitors who said cracks are "a big no-no". My first cake had quite a big central crack, about a third of the cake's diameter. The second is better, but has several smaller cracks - mostly around where the fruit protrudes. Fortunately, on cooling, the cake subsided a little and the cracks closed a bit. I agree it might be too much leavener. I've since found that many fruitcake recipes don't have any leavener. I had visions of all the judges pointing at my (cracked) cake and laughing, saying "I don't believe this!"

Have found this judging criteria for fruitcakes on the net. Doesn't mention cracks, my fruitcake meets the other general appearance criteria. Think I"ll just submit it, and remember never to enter any more competitions! >>> General Appearance - (30 points)Shape: evenly risen Size: depth of an average fruitcake tin. Crust: even baking and colour throughout; tender, no burnt crust or fruit. Internal Appearance - (30 points) Sufficient batter to hold fruit together. Light fruitcakes may have less fruit. Fruit evenly distributed, nuts neatly cut, moist but not sticky. Clean, firm slice, should not crumble. No excess moisture in top crust or in the centre of the cake. Flavour and Odour- (40 points) Blended fruited odour rather than spicy; aroma is pleasing, no detection of rancidity. Taste: mellow flavour throughout cake

I have spent the last several days in the kitchen making fruitcakes for entering in the local show in April. It is a dark English style fruitcake rather than the American version. This is my first time entering anything and I am doing it more for the feedback and practice rather than the glory, although that would be nice too. I know that there aren't supposed to be any cracks on the surface, so after yesterday's attempt had heaps of cracks, I modified the recipe to reduce the baking powder by half, and reduced the baking soda slightly, and made it again. Still cracks. I'm kicking myself as I now think I should have omitted both the baking powder and soda altogether - the cake would have been more dense (and hence probably less nice to eat texturally) but at least no cracks. I am sick of making the d&*m things and my question to those who have some experience with cake competitions and shows is, how damaging is it to have some (shallow but pretty numerous) cracks on the surface? Will it make or break? Do they put some weight on the actual taste and texture too? I would be most grateful for any help.

Perhaps you could find a recipe where the fat is an oil, which would result in a nice moist cake. Or use butter-flavoured shortening. Can't help with the eggs I'm afraid, there is a product called ener-G egg replacer which is potato flour and other vegan leaveners, never tried it. I came across a delicious sounding filling recently - raspberry mousse, which contains a high proportion of pureed raspberries, sugar, gelatine and cream - although if the bride is allergic to butter, can she eat cream? You could consider asian type fillings - lotus seed or red bean paste.

Yes, I thought about the chow chow, but decided long haired dogs are too hard to represent in modelling paste, to get that fluffy look. I will need to experiment further.

Here's a few pics of the cake I made for a Chinese New Year's party. It's the first time I've done modelling; as it's year of the dog I made a few doggies. Dogs, kennels, lanterns and firecrackers made from modelling paste, 'grass' of royal icing mounted on a plaque. The cake itself turned out gargantuan. The bottom layer is chocolate (as per 'Finding the Best Chocolate Cake Recipe' thread, Epicurious tweaked version), middle layer is Amanda Hesser's mother-in-law's Almond Cake which I read about on Amateur Gourmet and top tier was a hazelnut cake. The chocolate cake was excellent, quite rich, the almond cake very nice too and a keeper. I made some whipped white chocolate/creme fraiche ganache which went between one layer, however second batch curdled on me, as did the white chocolate ganache which I had been planning on covering the outside. Originally, I was planning on hanging down the side some red fondant banners to look like traditional chinese new year banners (like the ones in this pic but when things started going pear shaped, I scraped that idea. So going to Plan B, I made some chocolate plastic which I'd never done before. What a waste of 300g of Lindt couverture! Oily melted chocolate everywhere, with the plastic of a peculiarly teeth-cementing texture. Never making that again. Frustrated, sweaty and tired with less than one hour till party time, I swore never to work with chocolate again, rushed to the shops and got some double cream, whipped it into espresso cream, which worked beautifully and tasted great. Perhaps someone could advise, given that whipped double cream tastes great, is easier to make than buttercream and stands up to being left at room temp for almost as long, I'd say, as buttercream, what are the advantages of using buttercream over whipped double cream? Despite my oath above on never to work with chocolate again, any tips on how to make (whipped) ganache without it curdling would be appreciated. When I made it the night before, left in fridge and whipped morning after, it worked. However, subsequent attempts without leaving overnight curdled. Or could it be that I was using creme fraiche, which seemed more watery than heavy cream? Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous Year of the Dog.