devlin

Yay! I thought so. Although if you'd said no I'd have come up with some excuse not to do it. I'm just opposed generally to making a blue cake. It seems like one of the most unappealing looks in a cake and I can't think I'd feel compelled to eat a blue cake myself. ← I get that people want interesting looking cakes, and I suppose if it's strictly for decoration and they don't intend to actually eat it, then that would be one thing, but a blue cake? I've seen them, and even Martha Stewart's blue wedding cakes (or, I guess, Kromer's probably) put me off, as beautiful as some of them are. There's just no way I look at a blue (or green) cake and think, "Wow, can't wait to put that in my mouth." They end up reminding me of quilts or anyway fabric of some sort, which is sort of gag-provoking.

Yay! I thought so. Although if you'd said no I'd have come up with some excuse not to do it. I'm just opposed generally to making a blue cake. It seems like one of the most unappealing looks in a cake and I can't think I'd feel compelled to eat a blue cake myself.

Will any of the colorings/dyes used in fondant turn folks' teeth the same color? If I use blue to color fondant, for example, and people actually eat the fondant, is there a danger it'll color people's teeth?

You can knead in paste or gel color as you would into fondant or gum paste. No need to worry about seizing as with plain melted chocolate. Alternately, if I want a whole batch of one color, I'll add the color to the corn syrup before stirring it into the chocolate. Saves the fuss of kneading it in later. Another option is to make your rose using the natural white chocolate color, then use yellow petal dust to add color later. Makes for a more natural and refined-looking finished product. ← With the exception of adding color to corn syrup first (I like the sound of that), those are the options I'd considered might be possible, but since I've never done it didn't want to waste a pound of chocolate. Thanks!

If I want a yellow rose, for example, can I simply add yellow food color? And which variety of color would be best? Gel? Or is this just not a good idea?

Try no kneading at all and only folding. I gave up kneading altogether a few years ago. Great pics.

I'm wondering, since the deciding factor is the "sweet" rather than flavor, whether you might try cutting back on the sugar to see whether that might mitigate the apparent sweeter flavor of the duck eggs. Cool experiment. That's a thing I'll remember next time I'm shopping for eggs.

Thanks, I've actually got the discountsugarflowers site in a file as well. I'll take a look at the other.

Any recommended sources for gumpaste flowers? I've looked at sugar craft and cake deco. Any others folks might recommend or prefer?

Many years ago when I was a poor graduate student, a friend who was exceptionally animated and very controlling of every situation and who made a great deal more money than I and invited me out to dinner with others very often: I continually made it clear I couldn't afford to share the entire bill for the entire meal which was always what she insisted on and which everybody else went along with, whereas I preferred to pay for mine separately as I would order something small and maybe one beer or glass of wine, knowing exactly how much I could afford for any particular evening out. It seemed a simple enough thing to do, and as I'm not one to draw attention to myself, a thing that didn't have to draw any notice or attention at all. The bill, without tip, invariably was at least double or more what I ordered and enjoyed myself. She'd agree up front with my own plan for me, and then invariably make a huge deal after the meal that we *all* share the bill equally, including me, noting to anybody who happened to be listening during the settling up (which of course was everybody) that she'd pay for mine, leaving everybody with the impression that I was her own special charity case. The same friend, after she'd had her first baby, would breast feed at the restaurant dinner table, but only after making a big scene of covering herself entirely with a small blanket she'd bring for the occasion, making sure everybody knew just how uncomfortable and mortified she was by having to peform this thing, by which time everybody in the restaurant was rivetted to the scene and we'd all have to endure this circus atmosphere of the entire breast-feeding thing, during which she'd continually poke her head out from under the blanket and make much of how embarrassed she was and how mortifying the experience was and how unfortunate it was that she was forced to do it.

Thanks y'all.

I'd like to ship some frozen breads and am wondering what the best method is so the stuff's still frozen when it reaches its destination. I'm assuming the best way would be to use dry ice and wrap the breads in insulated foil, but I don't have a clue how to do it, don't even know whether that's the best method, or whether another method might work that I just haven't heard about. Anybody have any experience in this regard?

Along the same lines as the macerated fruit, strawberries macerated in a little balsamic vinegar, marsala (or something along the same lines as marsala) and sugar, and then spoon over slightly softened vanilla ice cream. If you macerate the fruit long enough, you get even more juice to drizzle over everything. It's fabulous. And couldn't be easier. And in fact, if you macerate either frozen or those godawful massive rock-hard "fresh" strawberries found in the produce section of nearly every supermarket on the planet, they end up tasting a lot like lovely ripened-on-the-vine strawberries.

Following the link, I see that the author of the recipe has noted this bread will be dense and fairly dry. I guess for me I'd simply make another bread. Because if you change this to make it lighter and the like, it won't be the same bread at all. I would think that perhaps what you're looking for might be found in a brioche. That said, I suppose I'd add more eggs and a lot more butter (room temp, not melted) to get what you're looking for, in which case, again, you're pretty much making a brioche. I would not lower the temperature and bake longer, which in my experience is a sure way to dry a loaf out as it bakes. I tend to bake at higher temps for shorter bakes which gets a moister crumb. I know that sounds counter-intuitive to a lot of folks, but it's the way I bake. On the other hand, I haven't baked a brioche in awhile, so it may work differently there. http://www.thevillagebakeryonline.com

Just a cursory glance at the recipe from food network, but it looks close, if not identical, to Nancy Silverton's which is a to-die-for cinnamon sticky bun recipe. Fantastic.

The last two options are the best, and why I didn't think of it right off the bat is a good indication that my brain is sludge right now. It's what I do all the time to every sort of bread.

What about making the dough early morning and then refrigerating?

Thanks so much all. That's just what I needed.

It's usually the other way, pour bavarois into mold, top with cake and set. Repeat as necessary. I still don't think that sogginess is a major issue, unless you have an unusual genoise recipe. ← But this is a layer cake with a bavarian center layer.

I'll be using a soaking syrup as well, but it seemed to me it might be a big difference between brushing on a soaking syrup and pouring on a bavarian cream to let set. I'm thinking the other option would be to mold the bavarian into a cake pan or springform, same size as the cake layers, lined with plastic wrap, and then once set, flip over onto the genoise.

The base cake is a genoise, filled with a bavarian. What's the best method for assembling? It seemed to me that to put the just-finished bavarian onto a genoise and then refrigerate would risk turning the top top of the genoise into mush.... Yes? No?

Maybe try baking 5 minutes or so less than you normally do. It sounds like it may be a simple issue of baking just a little longer than might be necessary. Or maybe oven placement?

Golly. I'd like to hear from somebody how to do that too, if it's possible. What comes to mind immediately is to only partially bake the crust and then give the crust and the filling to folks separately and have them finish it off themselves.

Thanks for those recs. I've been wanting a pizzelle maker for years, dating back 15 years to when my ex mother-in-law used to routinely drop off massive bags of pizzelles which rarely lasted two days. I love them, and she made the best pizzelles I've ever had, and I keep looking and sampling. My impression, though, was that her earlier cookies, made in a single pizzelle iron with a non-stick surface, were better than those she started making later when she got (as a gift from a son) a double iron with a non-stick surface. The later ones seemed less crisp to me, nearly rubbery. The early ones were the best pizzelles on the planet.

Anybody know anything about what makes for a good pizzelle maker? And is an aluminum plate better than non-stick? Or is it just a mess to deal with?