Lindacakes

This is sort of off topicish, but I bought a bunch of cranberries with intent to make Dorie's cranberry upside down cake. I'm not going to get to it before after Christmas, so I stuck the berries in the freezer, per the instructions on the back of the bag. Simply as is. I'm worried about those holes in the bag, though. Should I? Or does it really work to just stick the bag in the freezer?

Learned something about wattage today -- was asking a dealer about the wattage on Bamix hand mixers, because they go by a bazillion revolutions per minute or somesuch. At any rate, he gave me a long explanation on how that's figured and how companies fake their wattage rate (like giving you the wattage number that actually started the machine to smoke) because they know consumers look for it. The Bamix has 150 to 200 watts and is apparently twice as strong as the Braun, which claims 280. I would never buy an off brand anything major. Too hard to get parts and service. If anyone's interested, I just impulse bought a Kitchen Aid food processor, 12 cups, as a Christmas present. Then I researched it. It absolutely rocks and is the quietest appliance I own. Except maybe the toaster.

I would line the tin with plastic wrap. Don't know about the hard sauce -- when I give mine away I suggest something creamy. I've used mascarpone. Whipped cream would be good. Friends I've given them to have used ice cream. Creme fraiche would work.

Mottmott, I do have a suggestion for baking with a ten-year-old: Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. It's a facsimile of the 1960 original, has fun pictures and easy recipes. I learned from it when I was a kid, and I still make some of the recipes -- the butterscotch brownies and toffee squares are tops and very easy. Nick Malgieri's Supernatural Brownies (you can Google it, it's posted online) are supernaturally easy and delicious.

Rinsewind, there are several approaches to fruitcake and the Joy of Cooking approach doesn't sound bad at all. Have you tried it yet? Happy with the result? One of the tricks is getting a good base cake recipe and then playing with it. Only use the fruits you like. Martha Stewart's web site has a very intriguing recipe called Dowager Dutchess Cake I've always wanted to try -- I imagine it would have high appeal to the "I loathe fruitcake" crowd. It's nice to see everyone swapping ideas -- love this time of year because I love the stuff baked now . . .

Try the one in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet.

West Indian black cake -- started this last year and now there are those that expect it. Going to spring it on a new boss this year, who is from the West Indies, and I can't wait to see his face . . . Gingerbread tiles made with a spekulaas mold of Santa Claus. Orange and ginger florentines.

Well, since I get a company discount on the Peterson, I'll go with that. Thank you for your help and I'll let you know how it works out.

I would appreciate some help selecting a soup cookbook intended as a gift for a friend. This dear friend is a marvelous soup cook but does not usually use a cookbook. She's most familiar with Moosewood. The intention is to provide both recipes and ideas. I have poked through the cookbook threads, but no one seems to focus on soup. I have done some research and these are the three that look promising to me -- Culinary Institute of America's Book of Soups James Peterson's Splendid Soups Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Soups and Stews Can anyone who is familiar with any of these books comment on them? I'm looking for sure-fire, not too challenging, delicious recipes. Thank you very much for your time and help.

I'm taking red velvet cupcakes to mine, even though after a lost springform pan and no comments whatsoever on a batch of really excellent date cookies, I swore next year I'd sign up for napkins or soda like everyone else. Are you familiar with the Martha Stewart hors d'oevres (too lazy to look up, who can spell that?) cookbook? There's really excellent stuff in there. Some of my favorites: the lemon crab salad (can be served on crackers), the cheese puffs which are just eggs whites and cheese, and red grapes stuffed with goat cheese. These have all been tremendous hits at parties. I'm thinking that protein is a good antidote to too much sugar, so if you want to avoid sugar, I'd go in that direction . . .

Personal opinion -- set fire to it.

The Italian store in the Chelsea Market, in the back.

Ah, MichaelM, I can't wait to try those. Thank you so very much! I've been using butter from the Vermont Butter and Cheese company -- most excellent stuff.

Sure! I'll email it to your home address in the next day or two, when I get to the home computer. Let me know how you like it. For instant gratification, this is a recipe I like particularly -- Gingerbread Tiles -- http://www.estarcion.com/gastronome/archives/001633.html I made slabs of this, rolled over it with a springerle pin and then added a glaze to make a snowy effect. Adored by friends. I want to try them again cutting them into gingerbread men. There's a new ad campaign for Canada Dry ginger ale in which a gingerbread man is drinking a glass of ginger ale . . . every time I drive by this giant billboard near my house, I get absolutely mad for gingerbread . . . I don't think that's what Canada Dry had in mind.

That totally rocked! Thank you for putting that together! For anyone who is interested, Carole Walter sometimes teaches a strudel class at the ICE in New York.

Mottmott, you raise some interesting points. (Have you ever seen a mottmott? They're stunning.) I believe there is a quote in the frontmatter of Dorrie's book in which Julia Child hugged her and said, "We're just a couple of home bakers." Something to that effect, I'm at work, I don't have my book. I've been thinking about that, ever since, in the back of my mind. What is a home baker and how is he or she different from a professional baker or other alternative? I mean in the soul of the difference, not the details. I like to do simple baking and showpiece baking, and both sorts of baking please me, but I think there's a very important place for the recipes that are done routinely in the home. It's not just because they're easy, there are recipes that I don't think are easy -- excellent renditions of pie and fruitcake, for example, are not easy. Having a repetoire of recipes that are practically universally pleasing to both the baker and the baked-for, memorized or nearly memorized, to me that has something to do with the soul of what we call home baking. It may be possible for a professional baker to make something, not see the baked-for eat it, and not really care if the baked-for really likes it. But is it possible for the home baker to do that? The butter churns and churns . . .

Good idea Janet, I will try that next time! I have a recipe for a ginger cake I like very much that is very spicy -- it calls for powdered mustard, which lends a complex and interesting hot taste.

Michael M, If you wouldn't mind sharing your recipes for Brown Butter Cookies and Gianduja Sandwich Cookies, they sound very interesting to me. I love anything made with brown butter -- Nick Malgieri's Browned Butter Hazelnut Financier is about the tastiest thing I've ever eaten. L. Cakes

I used Valrhona 70 %, by the way.

Sorry -- what I mean is, whatever size you chop them to, that's the size they'll be in the cake. Except that I found a bit of clumping, so my fruit pieces were fruit conglomerates. Only where figs were concerned, though.

I've been trying to perfect my pie and I think I finally have it. My pumpkin pie, despite the butter, the lard, the cream, the eggs, was light and delicious and melted in the mouth. I'd just like to take a minute to own that. And share this: half butter, one quarter Crisco and one quarter leaf lard is da bomb.

You'll get the same size pieces in your cake, and they have a bit of a tendency to clump together. I found the fig pieces were magnets for other pieces of fruit. So, it depends on what you would like in your finished product. The recipe calls for 100 grams of chocolate. My personal taste would be to add more. The chocolate flavor of the cake, as written, is quite subtle. I have yet to try adding a chocolate sauce, but intend to. I'm ageing it and found that I liked the two week old piece better than younger pieces.

I finally made my Chocolate Alcohol Cake after months of marinating. I like the cake, but I'm wishing it was chocolaty-er. It was still warm when I first ate it and I LOVED the melted chocolate part. So, twere I to make it again, or advise anyone else, take the AT LEAST part of the chocolate measurement seriously! Also, I think I might try flouring the fruits or something before mixing -- there are bigger clumps of fruit in my cake than I like. The result is that I like tearing it in clumps and eating those rather than slicing it! I'm trying a bit each day to see how it ages. Tonight I'm going to try warming and buttering it . . .

Egggggggggnogggggggggggg!!!! That's my favorite part! Absolutely splendid! I like the inclusion of the chocolate sauce. Perfect. Every element of delishiousness spoken for.

Stir up Sunday, that's excellent! I'll be making a chocolate fruitcake on Sunday, I'll say my prayers over it. I've actually never tasted sulphur in the apricots -- I have to admit I like the nice color the sulphured ones have, and also the texture . . . Just realized that actually, the term sugarplums means candied fruit . . .