Lindacakes

For anyone who is interested in Bake Offs -- Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America by Amy Sutherland is an excellent book. Very interesting, very entertaining. It's about competitive baking, who sponsors it and why, who enters the contests and why, and what goes on there. My guess is, the folks who compensated for the altitude are regular cookoff circuit people who know the ropes. I'm guessing the contest made it known, but only in the fine print.

Fruitcake. I've kept peel for a year, it's okay, but it loses it's oomph. Not frozen, just wrapped well.

Thank you everyone who helped -- it is Tiptree's Little Scarlet. And ever since I posted this question, as it would be, I've seen it everywhere. Especially after I ordered two jars online. I'll hit Dean and Deluca anyway, as I've had other flavors recommended to me now (medlar . . . ) and I want to try them.

I find the denouement to this story quite fascinating. I don't believe that anyone even considered a compromise, and I believe you got that compromise by being honest. I think it's best to be honest and professional and keep your sense of self untainted by the shortcomings of others. I believe when you developed the recipes for your employer, you did that from an honest position, too, you were doing your best. I'm delighted that your cat returned, there's a lesson there, I think, about not giving up hope. And I sincerely wish that your biopsy comes back clear. And I hope that in the future you'll be able to work somewhere where quality matters and your creative talents are appreciated.

Somewhere I read about an expansive jam from Britian, can't remember where I read about it (Here? Gastronomica? The Saturday Evening Post?) but a woman described it as teeny tiny whole strawberries and oh-so-delicious. Cannot google myself into it . . . The preserving thread, which captivated me yesterday, made me remember it. Can you help me?

Too late to do any good (Best of luck, Ling!), but I have a recipe for a fresh fig and thyme pie I've always wanted to make. Getting that many ripe figs at one time has been a problem. But I was thinking thyme shortbread . . . That photograph of figs is absolutely . . . provocative.

I can't help you there, but if pumpkiny cookies are something you wish, Martha Stewart has a terrific recipe for pumpkin cookies with browned butter icing that are irresistable. I got it from her Christmas cookie magazine this year, but I think it's repeated in the baking book. Surely she dreamed of these while she was in jail . . .

I am going to make this cake -- you've indicated red and yellow fruits for the light cake, but nothing for the chocolate cake. I'm thinking dates, figs, apricots . . . what else? I'll marinate the fruits for several months -- okay, or longer? Is this a fruitcake that needs to age? At least a month? Or do you eat it immediately? Thanks for your help.

Ooooo, this is really nice, thank you -- my scale does the conversion for me. I've been curious to try a chocolate fruitcake -- I have a small sort of gift book of fruitcake recipes that is quite marvelous, the author gathered a lot of big name cooks' favorite recipes together -- Maida Heatter offers up a chocolate pan forte I've been curious to try. I'm going to end up with dozens of fruitcakes this winter, I'm afraid . . . Can you post the address to your blog? I'd love to read it. I'm a big fan of Gastronomica, do you get that? Food culture mag, fascinating.

I wouldn't want a stranger to find that bucket. In another thread I bagged a recipe for making one's own candied cherries and I'm going to try doing that for another fruitcake I make -- I don't have time to do it for this one. Another source I like is Sunnyland Farms. Good nuts. Black walnuts.

Thanks for the explique -- if you are willing to share that recipe, I would be interested. I understand if you don't. Regarding the mother/daughter sharing thing, that is the craziest case of recipe tightness I've ever heard of. It makes sense, though, in the oft seen paradigm of mothers being jealous of their daughters. My mother never bakes any more, and loves it if I make something of "hers" so that she can taste it again. It's a real compliment to me to have her say that mine is as good as hers. I ordered all of my fruit yesterday -- from Vine Tree Orchards. One stop shopping there, and their fruit is quite nice. I think this year I'm going to try a very good port to see how that would affect the flavor. I also do the big plastic bucket thing. Imagine what someone who didn't know what it was found it? It's very exciting glop when you know what it's going to turn into, but pretty scary when you don't. I actually don't like the black cake until it ages for four months. I don't like a directly boozy taste, personally. So I don't feed it, either. Which is good. When you've got a pile of fruitcakes going, feeding them must get very time consuming! Regarding the wedding cake -- steamed fruit cake? Eee gads. The only home videos blooper things I find funny are the wedding ones -- I suppose because the whole weddding display is pretty false and rife for a foible . . . What does a marriage need more than a lack of pretense and a sense of humor? Yet the symbol of the union is quite the opposite . . .

Howdy, neighbor, glad to meet you! I think we should form the cult of the black cake -- how did you get involved? Laurie Colwin? I'm behind on my maceration, but I'm going to order the stuff this weekend. No nuts? You don't use ground pecans in the actual cake? Thanks for the rum tip, I'll give it a try. I have the sort of twisted desire to always up the quality ante and try to get the cake better and better. Do you stir your fruit? I've heard people advocate for truly mashed fruit, untouched fruit, stirred fruit, unstirred fruit, the whole shebang. I don't see any harm in stirring the fruit once in a while to keep the alcohol evened out. Do you feed your finished cake on rum? Last year I had seven fruitcakes, two kinds, aging in my closet and I felt rich.

Would love to know what makes a Silpin good. I have a Silpat and I don't use it anymore, not since I learned to love a pastry cloth. I have a marble rolling pin and I don't like it -- it's too heavy, makes my back hurt. What is a "complete set" of tart tins? How many sizes? How many of each size?

I'd look at the one King Arthur is selling, although I think that might be the model that someone above had beater problems with. I'm on my second Cuisinart, the chrome one. I don't have a stand mixer, so I use it for everything. I have a large mixing bowl, so it works pretty well. The first one died in the middle of a big thick gob of dough, I was pushing the envelope. I think I got ten years out of it. I have to admit, I like the shiny chrome, I'm a magpie. I lust for a set of All Clad strainers. I think there's three or maybe four, they're 99 bucks. Ridiculous if you are buying them for yourself but they make a dandy gift. Incredible craftmanship, like all All Clad products. Another nice thing for $200 is a 5 1/2 quart LeCreuset dutch oven, but that's not a baking toy. If you're a pie person, a solid maple rolling pin sets a body back about 45 bucks and can't be beat. I have a Salter scale I got from King Arthur that is just tops, sets you back about 70. Ditto for an instant read pen thermometer (also from King Arthur, also about 70 bucks). You have nice coworkers.

Lorna, your cake has the color! Very tasty-looking. The frosting is different from mine -- more cream colored, mine is quite white against the red. I never use the chopped nuts, myself. Which recipe did you use? One additional word on chemical ingestion: (keep in mind I use two bottles of McCormick's and I eat it once a year) It would be a good idea for all of us to limit our exposure to as many chemicals as possible. I don't think that means running around in a spacesuit, or forgoing a hot dog at the ballpark. It's about overall exposure from the atmosphere, cleaning products, foods, etc. I'm too lazy to go bag the facts right now, but they are easily researchable. We are all guinea pigs in the current environment. There are hundreds of chemicals in use that have not been properly tested, not tested over time, and not tested together. When your body exhausts itself trying to fend them off, you get multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome. I know someone who developed this. It isn't pretty. She developed it during a work project in which she spent the day in a small conference room with a brand new rug. The off-gassing of the new rug over a six month period put her over the edge. All the food I buy is organic, I try to eat at home as much as possible, I do my own baking. I also live in a big city and try to offset that unhealthy atmosphere as much as possible. Except when I have me a big slice of RVC!

My recipe calls for two ounces of red food coloring -- that's two bottles, depending on which size you buy . . . I'm perplexed by everyone's fear of large amounts of food coloring. Red dye number two was taken off the market some time ago. Most flavors and perfumes are now made in a factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I'd be a lot more afraid of most packaged food than a bottle of food coloring. We ingest all sorts of chemicals thoughtlessly -- hairspray, Windex, air freshener, Cool Whip, etc. but food coloring has people really running. Maybe I missed something on the six o'clock news, though. I got my recipe from one of those employee recipe books that a vendor mailed to us one year -- I work in publishing, so they made a little cookbook slash type catalogue. It was like, the six o'clock shift proofreader's recipe. It's basically the same as everyone else's.

Guys, can you tell me where I can find this delectable cake vs. pie thread? I spent hours looking for it yesterday and came up zip. I want to know who won.

I support Jaymes' support of red velvet cake for all the same reasons. There's something about the flavor of a good red velvet cake that can't be beat. It's all in the buttermilk/vinegar thing, and as an oil-based cake, it's extremely moist. Ditto on the cream cheese icing, very tangy. As far as the 2 ounces of red food coloring goes: I eat this cake once a year. on Valentine's Day. I make it myself, I'm not interested in someone else's version. My sweetie and I each take a fork and work at meeting in the middle. I've eaten this cake in the bathtub. By candlelight. I've made this cake in small heart shaped pans and arranged them in an outward-facing circle on a magenta plate. I have large heart-shaped layer pans for it. I love this cake. The red color is very important. It does look like velvet. Deep, rich, sensual. Exquisite. So what if it all comes down to a red poo.

Kerry, thank you for the reply -- excellent information to know. I have quite a few of these books, I just find them attractive. And thanks for the encouragement, I'll give it a try. There seems to be a whole resurgence of marshmallow appreciation going on, which I greatly approve of. I'm a big fan of delicious homemade toffees, so maybe I'll start there.

I actually thought this subject was a witty twist on Torquemada -- that the original poster had somehow been tormented by milk cake . . . I need to step away from the computer now.

This is an old topic, but timeless. I have to record my own hated meal. Whenever I visit (about once a year) my brother's wife will invite me over for dinner. And I know exactly the menu I am going to get: city chicken, on little wooden skewers a casserole made of white rice, broccoli and cheese salad with bottled Italian dressing either "yellow stuff" or "green stuff" The "stuffs" are a jello and whipped topping mix, the recipe clipped from a women's magazine during my nephew's childhood. Apparently they like this. Perhaps the first time I was fed this, I remarked favorably on it. She believes that I look forward to it.

OK, I'll play. Except it would be more fun if I disagreed with you. I am a cake lover (note name). More than that, I am a frosting lover. This I believe: that cake is a mere support system for frosting. I believe that frosting tastes best when it's thick and fluffy and swirled onto the top of the cake in undulating whorls. I believe that few people can create gorgeous, sensuous, undulating whorls and thus, rolled fondant was invented. Some uptight person invented it, so a cake would look smooth. Perfect. Flawless. And then cakes looked so flawless that it was someone's idea to get creative and tip them all to an angle so they didn't look so uptight. It matters more how the cake looks than how it tastes. (Except at the Magnolia Bakery in New York City, where the cake tastes crappy and looks crappy!) There is an exception to this: cassata. I like cassata. I like the taste of almond fondant on the cassata. I like the smooth glassy surface in which glaced fruits are reflected.

This is sketchy advice, but big cookie fans might look to Maida Heatter -- she often specifys that a cookie needs to be baked large. On account of explicit cookie size instructions, I bought a set of graduated round cookie cutters!

All of you guys are making exquisite candies -- thank you for taking the time to upload the pictures! I have a candy book question -- I make candy rarely, but for some reason I love collecting old-fashioned candy books. I like the pictures, and the depictions of homey simplicity. Question -- are the recipes in these worthwhile? Or are they just really behind the times as far as technique and flavor? I heartily applaud your efforts to make non-chocolate candies -- whereas there's a lot of high quality chocolate that is readily available, it's tough to get a nice piece of really good marshmallow or peanut brittle, etc.

Kerry, your nougats are absolutely stunning. I had some torrone in Italy, from San Gimigiano that was so fresh, so soft, so delicious that I continued eating it long after my jaws ached. It was the most tied together experience of both pain and pleasure . . . I don't remember now what all the nuts were, but I was impressed by the great variety. Hazelnuts, almonds and pistachio certainly, but I think another. Anyway, a question -- this torrone did not have the wafer paper, and I prefer it that way (bad childhood experiences with torrone) -- is there a reason why it is called for? Non stick issues or uniformity issues? This celestrial torrone was also irregular, which added to its charm for me.