chefpeon

She was one of my best buds on eG. Mission, BC isn't far from me, and I had always planned on stopping by to see her on my next trip up North. Don't think I'll make it in time.

Longtime eG Pastry and Baking friends: Our very own CanadianBakin' is now living her last days. She is losing the battle with breast cancer and is in palliative care. She doesn't have too much longer, unfortunately. I am posting a link in regard to donations to her family to help with expenses and to help them after she leaves us. I hope this is not inappropriate to this forum. http://www.youcaring.com/family-fundraiser/bearing-the-bacon-s-burdens/315458#.VPU6oqFMhp1.twitter Sadly, Annie [Moderator note: edited with member permission]

I think you'd have an awful lot of trouble with them on chocolate. They were designed to use on gumpaste, fondant or modeling chocolate. The chocolate would just get stuck inside the cutter and the action of the veiner wouldn't work because the chocolate is semi-set when you cut it. You're better off using leaf shaped candy molds than going through the hassle of using a cutter and risking so much breakage.

I don't think you need to blanch them. Coat them only with egg white, not whole egg, and don't use confectioner's sugar, use granulated. Dry them at room temp. They won't last long. I would use them the day after you make them.

To be clear, there's Clearjel and Instant Clearjel. You guys are talking about Instant Clearjel (the kind that thickens without heating).

I agree, that the mousse would take longer to set in a larger bowl. But still, any mousse should set up in 7 hours, even in a big bowl. Hopefully someone else can chime in here, because all I can think of is the milk. Also you did say when you put the mousse in the espresso cups, the consistency was "almost" right. So I figure "almost" in the smaller cup would be "maybe not" in the bigger bowl.

This is sort of an odd recipe to me. I have never used milk in a mousse.....always heavy cream. My first thought is that it is the milk that is causing your mousse not to set properly. If you put your mousse in the freezer, the top, that has set, will have sort of a frozen fluffy consistency, but I'm afraid the bottom that has not set, will freeze solid. I don't think there's much of a fix for a mousse you've already made. You might try folding in some chocolate whipped cream, but I'm not sure how that would work out, to be honest.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies...... Chocolate Cake......

Awesome! I hope she replies............thanks for doing that.

I wonder where she got the violet flavored pearl sugar? When I googled violet flavored sugar, I got some directions on how to make some, but I don't have violets around and can't make my own. I'd love to know where to get it retail or commercially.

Generally the higher the count, the smaller the size. So the 250 count would most likely be, larger chunks than the 300 count. Can you ask them to send you a sample of both? Can't your supplier give you a general dimension?

Why not make vanilla malt ice cream and layer it with vanilla butter cake with the ice cream layer being in the middle? If you have an ice cream maker, anyway.

Cream of tartar, while causing extra leavening, can also add an extra "tang" to a cookie. I have a snickerdoodle recipe that calls for cream of tartar for just that reason. Why don't you just try the recipe and see what happens? And if you have extra time on your hands, make another small batch without the cream of tartar and see what difference it makes, if any. Then you'll have your answer and can share it with us!

All I can say is that in 18 years of decorating, I've never seen the cake cops pull up to my shop and arrest me. Perhaps I'm "living on the edge" but I just don't worry about it that much. However, I do do what Jeanne said, and that is, I leave off a small portion of what makes the character what it is. For instance, if I do Spiderman, I leave off the spider logo on the front of his costume.

Anytime you scrape off refrigerated colored buttercream it will streak. The color is bleeding out of the buttercream is what is happening. Once I have my colored buttercream on the cake, I smooth it well, then refrigerate, then I don't touch it after it's refrigerated. You can't stop the streaking if you scrape it after it's cooled.