KatieM

Ok, I've got some coffee in me, and so now have some more typing energy! I found the Nigella recipe, it was indeed in Feast. Which is a great book, BTW. Chocolate Malteser Cake For the cake: 3/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup superfine sugar 3 eggs 3/4 cup milk 1 T butter 2 T Horlicks malted milk powder 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted 1 t baking powder For the Frosting and Decoration: 2 cups confectioners' sugar 1 t unsweetened cocoa 1/3 cup Horlicks malted milk powder 1 stick plus 1 T soft unsalted butter 2 T boiling water 2oz Malted Milk Balls Make sure all ingredients are at room temp before starting. Preheat oven to 325. Butter and line two 8" cake pans with parchment. Whisk together the sugars and eggs (in your stand mixer) while you measure out the other ingredients. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a saucepan until the butter melts, and it is hot but not boiling. When the sugars and eggs are light and frothy, beat in the hot butter mixture, and then fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Scrape batter evenly into the two pans and bake for 25 minutes. The cakes should have risen and spring back when pressed gently. Let them cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then turn them out of their pans. Cool completely before icing. She uses a food processor to make the icing, so that you don't have to sift the 10x sugar. You could use a mixer if you wanted to, I'm sure. Blitz the 10x sugar, cocoa and Horlicks powder to remove all the lumps. Add butter and process again (this is why you need nice soft butter). Stop, scrape down, and start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel until you have a smooth buttercream. She only uses the icing between the layers and on top, not on the sides, so if you wanted to ice the sides, you'd probably need to double the recipe to have enough. The malted milk balls are placed in a circle around the top of the cake. She claims you must use Horlicks powder as opposed to American malted milk powder, because the Horlicks has less sugar and more malt flavor. She gives the Vermont Country Store as a source for the powder. I think you would be fine with regular malted milk powder, though. Actually, I think that the best recipe would be your favorite chocolate cake recipe (although not a dark one, more of a milk chocolate one) with the addition of some malted milk powder and the filling descriped above by Jaz. That sounds the best to me, although I will probably try this Nigella recipe, since everything else of hers I've tried has turned out pretty well. Anyone actually tried making a malted milk ball cake out there? edited because I can't figure out how to get links to work.

Deborah, I have indeed heard of a malted milk ball cake. Malted milk balls are my mom's favorite candy, and we found a recipe for a cake for her once. I'll see if I can find it . . . Ooh, here it is. Now bear with me, this is a long one. It's just printed on a piece of paper, so I can't credit the source. Chocolate-Malted Layer Cake with White-Chocolate Frosting Cake: 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa 1/2 cup instant malted milk powder 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2/3 cup vegetable shortening 1 3/4 cups sugar 3 eggs 4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares, melted 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups chocolate milk White-chocolate frosting: 1 1/4 cups heavy cream 3/4 cup butter (no substitutes) 1/4 cup confectioners sugar 1 lb (about 2 2/3 cups) white chocolate chips 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips Make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine cocoa and malt powder in a small bowl. Grease three 9" cake pans and dust with cocoa-malt mixture. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, remaining cocoa-malt mixture, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl cream the shortening and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time. Add melted chocolate and vanilla. Add flour mixture and chocolate milk alternately. Scrape batter into prepared pans. Bake 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. Make Frosting: In a large saucepan bring cream, butter and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in white chocolate chips. Let stand a few minutes, then add vanilla and whisk until smooth. Pour into a mixer bowl and chill 2 hours until thickened but pourable. Beat on high speed until fluffy. Fold in mini chocolate chips. Use frosting as both a filling between layers and as icing. Now, I'm not sure my mom actually liked this recipe much, so I'm searching for a better one to make for her for Mother's Day. She is a malted milk ball fiend, and her name is also Deborah (even spelled the same way). How weird is that? Actually, I think there is a recipe in Nigella's Feast for a Malteser cake. When I get some more typing energy, I'll post that one. Or if anyone has tried it and wants to post their thoughts, that would be great. Hope this helps! Katie

Ahh, they are NOT a Southern chain. In fact, the original Steak n' Shake was located on the old Route 66, just south of what is now Bloomington, IL. They are all OVER here in Central Illinois, which is fantastic. That is one thing I missed dearly when I lived in other parts of the country. I seriously love Steak n' Shake! This is a great foodblog! I love all the pictures! We've been gearing up for the Derby here in Illinois, too. One of my jobs is working in clothing retail, and I've sold several blue and white striped seersucker suits to folks heading down to the Derby. I do hope you include some pictures of people all dressed up if you can!

Jody, I thought of a couple of ideas for you that might make this whole process a little easier. If you'd like to make the Hebrew letter silver, and the background a different color, bake the cookies in the torah shape and ice with your background color. Then, you could do one of two things to make the Hebrew letter. One: Pipe the letters out of cookie dough (print a whole sheet of them off on your computer and place the sheet under parchment to trace). You would need to use a stiff dough like one you'd use with a cookie press. I saw this in a recent issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, where there were piped monogram cookies. It looked really cool. You could then ice the piped cookies white and paint (wet method with lemon extract and dust) them silver. Place the dried painted letters on top of the torah cookies secured with some more royal. For that matter, you could just pipe the letters from royal icing onto waxed paper and let them dry and paint. I just usually have royal icing letters break on me, so that's not my preferred method. Two: If you can find a small enough cookie cutter in the shape of the Hebrew letter, you could cut the letters out of gumpaste or fondant, then paint them. Ditto the NuSilver recommendation. I haven't tried the Ambassador foods dust, I'll have to check that out. But if you want to make NuSilver shinier, you can add a little Super Pearl. That is what I always do, but then, I always have both in the house. Hope this helps!

I'm also so happy to see Beatrice Ojakangas get this award. The Great Scandinavian Baking Book is really outstanding. I use it constantly. Actually, her recipe for food-processor Danish pastry is in Baking With Julia as well. Before this book, I had a hard time finding books on Danish cooking. My family is Danish, but a lot of the great baking recipes have been lost, and I found replacements in this book! She includes Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelanding baking in this book, with detailed descriptions on why the various baking styles differ.

I use the same method as chefpeon describes above. Works every time. For some reason, I've never been able to get levelers to work for me. But, whatever method works for you . . . is the one you should use.

I made the Peninsula Grill coconut cake this week to test for an upcoming coconut cake order I have. It was outstanding! I did make a few tiny changes, though. Because I'm a dork and I bought every kind of coconut product known to man when I was shopping (I didn't know what recipe I'd be using yet), I subsituted coconut milk for 1/3 cup of the heavy cream in the cake recipe and then I threw a dollop of cream of coconut in with the icing, because I had it in the house and I thought "why not?". This cake rocked. Oh, there are two reasons I think they torte the cake at the restaurant. One, this particular cake is very easy to split. It is fairly firm and has a nice tight crumb. Also, the filling just screams out to be spread between several layers. This also helps with the moisture of the cake layers.

Here are my thoughts on this. I have a small cake business, and I only bake from scratch. However, has taken me two years to develop the recipes that I use on a regular basis. There ARE quality yellow/white cakes from scratch out there. You just have to have the patience to test various recipes and find the method that works best for you. Because I've made my standard yellow cake so many times, I promise you I can make it as quickly as any box cake. But here's why: I make my own mixes. Whenever I have a little extra time (like on a Sunday) I will do all the measuring of dry ingredients for several basic yellow, chocolate, white (and banana ever since I discovered Wendy's banana cake) cakes. I use a scale, so I basically sift everything into a bowl on top of my scale. I seal them up in ziplocks and label them with the flavor and date. Then, when I need to bake, all I have to do is throw the dry ingredients in the mixer, nuke the butter to soften, and I'm pretty much there. Of course, I also use the hi-ratio mixing method, so there's no creaming of the butter/sugar. I would never chastise someone for using a boxed mix, though. I think it's a great way to start learning to bake, and to get over the fear that many people have regarding cake. I would recommend for those of you who are serious about the results you produce, that you start with a book like The Cake Bible, and when you see the success you have, I guarantee you'll never want to use a boxed mix again.

Just a little further clarification on the Last Supper question from a Christian. From Matthew 26; 17-19 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to such a one and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples'" And the disciples did as Jesus directed them, and they prepared the Passover. It is interesting to note that Jesus and his disciples did not observe Passover in the temple, because Jesus had many issues with the temple and tended to do things his way. It was the start of a new religion, after all. It was at this Last Supper that Jesus gave his disciples bread (unleavened) and wine, saying that they represented his body and blood. Jesus was betrayed later that evening, and his crucifixion and resurrection occurred in the days following. Christians celebrate the Last Supper in two ways: at the Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) service the Thursday before Easter, and in their weekly or monthly Communion. This is why most churches serve unleaved bread and kosher wine during Communion. On another note, I am very much enjoying this blog! You are some kind of superwoman to blog this week!

Everything looks gorgeous, Neil! Thank you so much for sharing. The photos are truly awe inspiring! I have just one question for you . . . Will MARSHMALLOWS be on the menu?!

Glad you finally posted, whatelyj. I love your description of how people approach trifle! You should try bringing trifle to a party in the U.S.! Since it's not very common, I'm often asked, "What IS that exactly?". Once the first person digs in, though, the rest disappears rather quickly. Trifle is an easy fallback for me, because I almost always have cake in the freezer. I'm thinking of making one today, actually! I have some of Wendy's Secrect Banana Cake in the freezer, I have bananas, I have eggs, milk, cream, etc . . . could easlily throw together a banana cream trifle. Oooh. I think I WILL make one today! Other fallbacks: Casual get together, ie setting up for a fundraiser or something, Texas Sheet Cake. Takes 30 minutes, feeds a crowd, you can eat it out of hand while setting up chairs. Pies are never unwelcome. I live in downstate Illinois, so this is especially true in my neck of the woods. My grandmother's pear pie is a perennial favorite. Best Ever Brownies from Baking With Julia is my new favorite thing to take to people's houses for dinner. I've had several offers of marriage (from both sexes!) after people have taken a bite of these brownies. They are sublime. Other than that, time allowing, I really like to experiment. I get bored making the same thing all the time, and if I make something more than twice for the same people, they'll never let me try anything else, so I have to change it up. I love having to bring something, because it gives me an excuse to make something new. Recent experiments have been: The Love for Three Oranges tart from The Pie and Pastry Bible A salted-caramel chocolate tart with a pretzel crust. I'm still perfecting this one. It's of my own invention. I love the salty-sweet-chocolate combination, though.

I'm not sure what to tell you about your name, but I just wanted to offer my support, because I am actually still struggling with this same problem myself. I cannot for the life of me pick a name for my business. So I'm sorry that I can't really help, but GOOD LUCK! I do like the idea of using bakin' somewhere in the name though.

This whole salted caramel thing seems to be pretty trendy right now. I've seen quite a few recipes lately in various mags. I think there was one in the September Food and Wine that had a salted caramel as a topping for individual cheesecakes. Looked pretty good. I'm actually working on a chocolate tart that has the same topping. Salty, sweet, and chocolate is a divine combination! Looks like it will be an excellent holiday gift! Me, I'm doing gourmet dog biscuits. I have a lot of friends who have dogs that are like their children. Hmm . . . maybe we should have a what are you making for holiday gifts thread? Off to start one in Special Occasions . . .

This is a good point, but I guess I should clarify something again. I do not have a shop (yet). Right now everything I do is out of my house, and I'm working on the health code stuff since I just moved. The laws are different here in Illinois, so I'm trying to figure them out. Also, most of my business right now is through word of mouth, so I should probably be mostly concerned about how it sounds when someone recommends me. They'll be saying, "You should get your cake from ______, she does incredible work!" Of course, that's what I HOPE they'll be saying! That's why I wanted something that is one word, easy to remember, easy to pronounce, etc. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about how to incorporate my brother later on. Who knows what kind of business it will be? And I could always have something in the window that indicates that my cakes are done out of the same place. Here's some of the names of other places in town that might eventually be my competition, if that helps at all: Sweet Indulgence Cake Artists Studio Mirabella I feel like hitting my head with a hammer right now. Why is this so ridiculously difficult?

Umm. Do I win something if my family had the most pies? Because I'm pretty sure I can beat all of you. First, a disclaimer: there are a lot of farmers in my family. I'm from East Central Illinois. My grandmother was from Southern Illinois, and Germany before that. On my dad's side, anyway. My mom's side is Danish, but they never come to Thanksgiving. So. We had 13 pies. Plus brownies, Thanksgiving "sugar" cookies (turkeys and squirrels for some reason), caramel corn, apple brown betty, pumpkin roll, ice cream (my own very custardy vanilla), and various other things I can't remember, since I'm still in a bit of a diabetic coma. No mincemeat pie, but just about every other midwestern stereotypical pie: pumpkin pecan lemon meringue cherry apple apple crumble pie (as opposed to regular crust top) pear (my grandmother's invention from having too many pears on her tree one year) blackberry duplicates of several, and then, the most feared Thanksgiving pie that only my dad and his brother eat . . . . RAISIN PIE That one is truly gross. And I really love pie. It's millions of raisins in some custard between two crusts. Bleh! But my dad loves it. It's his favorite. Incidentally, one of my uncles has a tradition of eating one piece of each pie on the buffet. I think he only made it to 7 or 8 pieces this year. He's slipping in his old age. And slivers don't count. It has to be a full-size piece. There's usually a competition to see how many pieces the menfolk can eat. Uncle Glen wins every time. And he's the skinny one! Oh, just for point of reference, we had 27 people this year. That equates to about 1/2 a pie per person. And we ate 40 lbs of mashed potatoes ( I should know, since I peeled the darn things). And that's on TOP of the three kinds of sweet potatoes, and the 40 lbs of turkey. And we had no leftovers!

Glad you posted this question. I was going to post along similar lines. I always strain my base through a chinois, but my question has to do with the optimal thickness/temp to bring the creme anglaise to. My recipe says 170-180F. That seems like a pretty wide window to me. And the well-defined-track-on-the-back-of-the-spoon test doesn't seem to be infallible to me either. I haven't made an ice cream I haven't been pleased with yet, but I'm just wondering if I could make it any better. Would a thicker custard base make an ice cream that is firmer at room temp? Or am I on crack?

That's basically it, but I have to second GG's suggestion of the bourbon kind. I've had a million different versions, but the best I've ever had were at a former boyfriend's family Thanksgiving. His sister-in-law's mother made these RIDICULOUSLY good yams that she never would give me the recipe for, but she did tell me that they included a judicious amount of good Kentucky bourbon. She had to make like 4 pans for 6 people since everyone loved them so much. It was her mother's mother's mother's recipe or something like that. No other sweet potato or yam dish has affected me like that one did (not even my own mother's ). From my research, I think I've figured out how she did it. First, I know she baked the yams first (I did manage to get that much out of her), then peeled and cut them up. Then, a syrup is made from the bourbon (at least 1/3 cup per pan) and brown sugar, possibly molasses, butter, and pecans. This is done in a saucepan to cook off the alcohol a bit. The syrup is added to the yams, and everything gets mashed up. She added some crushed pineapple, but this is probably a more recent addition. The stuff is spread in the pan and baked to get bubbly. The addition of marshmallows is your choice as well. She didn't add them, and for the first time, I didn't miss them. I'm sure you've got it figured out by now, but I thought I'd add this version in case you wanted to try something different. Really though, you can't go wrong with any of the above suggestions. I'd eat piles of them prepared in almost any fashion.

Did anyone see the Southern Living holiday mag? They had a pretty similar recipe for homemade marshmallows in one section. I was intrigued by the coconut version, which used coconut extract in the mix, and then used toasted coconut instead of the sugar/starch mixture to coat. Sounds like a sticky mess to me, but it might be good! I made the pumpkin version for the Sycamore, IL Pumpkin Fest. I made Jack-o-Lantern ones for the kids, and plain ones for the adults. All the adults were bummed that they didn't get the Jack-o-Lantern version! They were thoroughly enjoyed by all, in any case. I was surprised, because I thought that the flavor might be a little too unusual. Once people tasted them however, they loved them. I think the pumpkin ones were actually more popular than some of the other flavors I've done in the past. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be making more cinnamon ones and mint ones with the holidays approaching. Once again Neil, your marshmallows rock!

Sheesh! So many responses! I really have opened Pandora's Box, haven't I? I was a marketing major for Pete's sake. Why is this so darn hard for me? Ok, so now you know why I don't want to have Malone in the name! People have called me Molly more times than I can count! This is an intriguing idea! I really like the one word, two syllable thing, and I love how it could easily be turned into a sweet/savory thing with the addition of my brother. Of course, I also like the alliteration in Buttercream Bakery or Buttercream Dreams katiecakes Ok. So people have been trying to get me to name my cake business this since it started. I don't really know why I've objected so much, but maybe it's because people always giggle when they suggest it. They think it's SOOO cute. And I try to explain to them that I don't necessarily WANT cute, that I want people to take me seriously. I may have to give in, though. If enough people keep suggesting it, it's clearly what the public wants! I've decided against anything with the word "custom" in the name. Turns out there's already a special occasion cake business in town with custom in the name. Of course, this guy apparently also does faux painting. On walls. Kind of a weird business if you ask me. Good for him though, I guess. I guess I've also decided against heliotrope, even though I love it. Turns out (from my casual poll of my friends and family) that not enough people would "get" it. It IS considered a bakery scent by the perfume industry, but I guess that isn't common knowledge. And I'd love to do something with a Danish name, but so far I haven't been able to find an appropriate Danish word that is easily pronounced or spelled by the general population. The Danish language is very gutteral and difficult to pronounce, so I don't want to use something that would make people afraid to call me (afraid of mispronouncing the name). Soooo. Back to square one? Maybe we should take a vote. Here are the names I'm seriously considering. Please don't be offended if one of your suggestions isn't listed! I'm just trying to narrow it down a bit. Sugar ( maybe sugar and spice later on) katiecakes kakes (even though my mom will disown me) Buttercream Dreams/Buttercream Bakery Ambrosia (even though there are 30,000 other places named this) Theobroma (used less than ambrosia, but still quite a lot) Something in Danish (can't find my Danish/English dictionary right now. If I find something suitable, it may work) Please vote for only one, if you can. And thanks again for all your help everyone! Also, any new suggestions will still be appreciated. Thanks again everyone! Oh. And sorry for the ridiculously long post.

Incredulous look at the screen, sputtering, but how? I thought Heliotrope would be a completely original name! Who knows about heliotropes? They're kind of obscure, aren't they? Actually, they're kind of sexy, too. Some poem I read in high school had a line about "prurient heliotropes". Hmm, would it be a little too sexy a name for this little town? But they smell like vanilla, and that's so perfect. I adore morning glories, but it may make the name sound like I only do breakfast things. Grrrr.... this is so hard!

Does anyone remember the episode where Lorelai's parents brought back Marzipan from Germany or somewhere? Everyone was spitting it out. This really bothered me. Marzipan gets such a bad rap. What is wrong with marzipan? It's almondy, sweet and yummy! What's not to like? That bourbon and salt marinade DOES sound good. Someone try it and let the rest of us know. Edited because I typed too fast.

Whoa! 32 replies since yesterday! I really hadn't anticipated such a response! Thanks so much for all your suggestions, everyone! Ok, so I've gone through all of them, and here's what sticks out for me: I really like the simplicity of Kakes or any other one word name, and I know that my graphic designer can do really cool things with my logo. He's awesome, and best of all, I can pay him in trade! However, I know my mom would heartily disapprove of the mispelled word thing. Ditto stacked. I actually really like that, but this being a fairly conservative area, I think it might offend more people than it attracts. Sinclair, thanks for the suggestion about the word custom in the name. I do want to convey that I do customized work, but I don't want people to be scared of it either. I may use chefpeon's suggestion of using creative instead. As far as using a location in the name, I don't have a shop (yet ) so I can't really use a street name, although I did grow up on Mayfair Rd, so I suppose I could use that in the name somewhere. I don't especially want to use Chicago in the name, though. It would work if I lived up in the suburbs, but down here people sometimes are put off by something that has Chicago in the name because it implies that where they live isn't as good as Chicago (they're a little touchy about that down here). There are quite a few other suggestions here, and a lot of them are really excellent, but I think I'd really like to go with a one word name if possible, with an explanation underneath. My last name is Malone, but I REALLY don't want to use that! I know, I probably should, but I just don't think it sounds "pretty" enough or something. It would be easy to bring my brother in that way, but I just don't really like my last name that much I guess! My brother and I are Danish, though (I know, the last name is Irish, but we're actually only like 5% Irish). I would use something in Danish, but a lot of Danish is quite difficult to pronounce. I did always wish I could open a real Danish patisserie in the U.S. though! What if I used something completely unrelated, like Heliotrope or Morning Glory? Those are two of my favorite flowers. Kind of like Magnolia in NY? I actually worked at a bakery in Baltimore that is based on Magnolia. I also really like K8Memphis' suggestion of Ambrosia. Actually, I LOVE that one, but it's probably been done before. What do you all think? Too many choices? Thanks again for the help guys, I really do appreciate it! Katie

Hmm . . . both very good suggestions! Kakes, though. That's kind of fun and abstract. However, my mom made me promise that any business I started would not have any cleverly mispelled words in the name. She finds these offensive, as she is an English teacher. But I really like that one. Maybe something in that vein, though? I suppose I could always explain that I do more than cakes on another line. Something like "Your custom confectionary solution for weddings, birthdays, dinner parties, etc." Or something like that. Any joint venture with my brother (whatever that may be) would probably have to involve a name change anyway, though it could always say something like Such and Such place, featuring Kakes. Then again, I have no idea. Does any of this make any sense? Thanks again so much for your help and suggestions, everyone! Katie

I know this is a lot to ask of you all, but I thought with so many creative minds, you might be able to help me come up with a suitable name for my cake business. It's been operable for about 18 months, but since I've just relocated, I have an opportunity to change the name if I like. Plus, I'm currently in the process of forming a website, new business cards, etc., with the help of a graphic designer. So whatever name I pick, I'm kind of going to have to stick with. So here's a little background so you have an idea what I'm looking for. I mostly do wedding and special occasion cakes, but I also do a lot of dinner parties and catered events, so it isn't just cakes. I do pies, tarts, pastry, candies, chocolate and pretty much anything else someone might ask me to do. I like to keep the business very customized, and I try not to do any of my cakes more than once. So the current name is Katie's Custom Confections. I'm not completely sold on it, and I mainly do NOT want anything that sounds really cheesy. Also, my brother is a culinary chef, and it is very likely that we will form some sort of joint venture in the future, when we both have more experience and more capital. So I'd like to have a name that could concievably morph into or join into another, bigger business later on. Anything else I could tell you? I live in Central Illinois,so I'm not sure if that is relevant, but idealy the name could resonate nationally as well as locally (wishful thinking now!) It's really frustrating, this name game. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Even if the suggestion is to name my own business and to leave you guys alone! What do you think?

I don't know if this would be the "ultimate" recipe, but it is my German grandmother's recipe, and it has always worked well for me. If you want them crispy, bake them longer. Personally, I like mine just barely set and kind of gooshy, but the range for baking is 8-14 minutes, so it's all about how you like them. 1 cup soft butter 2/3 cup sugar 1 egg 2 t vanilla (or 1t vanilla and 1 t almond, depending on your taste. I prefer the almond addition myself) 2 1/4 cups ap flour (you may need more) 1/2 t salt Combine butter, sugar, egg, and extracts. Sift flour and salt together, then add. Chill dough, then press onto ungreased cookie sheets. I find they stick better when you press, release your pressure on the cookie press, THEN lift it up. Kind of like when you're piping, actually. Bake at 400 for 8-14 minutes, depending on how you like your cookies. Hope this helps your quest! Katie