K8memphis

i think it is one of the top wonders of baking -- practice helps but just making a few batches in a row does it -- so. much. fun. congratulations, welcome to the 'club'

jaymes, i didn't realize you could freeze them like that -- i just made a ton of lemon juice with mine -- now adding it to my tea, etc.

it's turned/turning a beautiful color -- initially i rubbed some sugar in the zest to release the oils which inadvertently released more of the green dye in there too -- but the dye has been overcome by the bit of yellow food color and the lemons -- it's so pretty -- and i got some pretty glass containers -- looking forward to the simple syrup stage --

wow this thread is 10 years old-- so i am making my first batch and i was careful to have un-dyed lemons but my lime was dyed green -- dang it -- i mean who could resist katie's secret ingredient right -- so i debated doing it over -- of course i'm making a large batch to give as presents for christmas -- but i wound up adding about a dozen drops of lemon yellow airbrush color and it is definitely yellow now-- has a slightly green cast but once it gets thinned out with the other spirits and simple syrup should be ok -- at least it looks appetizing now -- so i hope the taste will not be affected -- what do you think?

are there no trouble shooting ideas for re-doing this on the pectin packaging?

i did not see a similar thick band around the knish dough that is part of the bernard clayton/regina hollander process--that's all i know--i've never been able to rework it--it's rubbery, terminally uneven and the stretch/thrill is gone. your knishes on the other hand look great though! I almost wish I hadn't looked at the pictures... now I'm wanting to make strudel again. maybe for the holidays coming up? it freezes perfectly.

it would never work as phyllo dough again--it's an uneven texture and gets very thick --i'm not famiiar with knishes -- but this is not like cookie dough or pie dough where scraps can be re-worked as itself--it's not kneadable after it rests--it's rubbery. do you mean re-worked as knish dough? wow i checked some recipes and there's a wide range of different types of knish dough--some with oil, salt & water and another with sour cream, cream cheese & butter, another with baking powder and mashed potatoes in the pastry-- maybe it could be used for knishes. i'm a knish knewbie though i discard it because bernard clayton said regina hollander did in mr. c's "Complete Book of Pastry" -- it's how i learned. mrs. h. who was born before the turn of the previous century made this for her wedding 57 years before she made it for bernard c. which i think is so cool. wedding 'cake'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/105635633@N02/sets/72157636632674896 if you can get to that --there are the pictures-- if i knew how to download here i would--but this should work also--those picture were taken the first time i had made it in a long time (15-20 years?) so the table was too big to wrap the dough around the edge so it could have been bigger but.. you get the idea anyhow--logistics is half the battle-- it's the most baking fun ever srsly--making strudel edited for clarity and because i always think of something else to add

update-- well--i did not upload the photos to egullet and 'webshots' went kaput --have to go dig up an old computer here's the link fwiw http://forums.egullet.org/topic/96068-pictorial-on-magic-dough/?hl=%2Bstrudel#entry1314827 tbc

it is ridiculously amazing--and you have a substantial piece of dough leftover that you discard--must go find photos...

I would love to see photos of this process. oh wow--your wish is my command i have photos from several years ago--they're probably already on here somewhere--i will do some digging through old computers and old posts and see what i can find-- Me too. I've done it before (years ago) with the recipe from Bernard Clayton's The Complete Book of Pastry, Sweet and Savory with good success but recipes with a lineage always interest me. Strudel dough is definitely an exercise in patience but it's so cool watching that little ball of dough stretch to bigger than the work table and, after you trim the thick edges off, the ball of dough the trimmings make looks almost as big as the one you started with. me too me too! bernard clayton is the man for dehr schsstrrooodle dough! it's like magic! i can't think of anything in baking that is as astonishing where the thrill is never gone. i'll try to find my pictures...

Hi, TDoodle Lots of different ways to bake your cheesecakes. For shorter cakes I use a real high temp and get it done--for extra deep cheesecakes I bake cooler and longer. I just use a quick read thermometer to determine doneness. I'm with Celeste and Scott--preparing an uncracked perfect topped cheesecake has never been a goal of mine--we're just going to cut into them anyway. My particular observation is that it seems you might be close to holding them too long at the wrong temp--they only get four accumulated hours out of safe temperature including purchase and delivery time frames, if you soften the cheese initially at room temp before mixing subtract that from the four hours--subtract mixing time and the fluctuating diminishing oven temps you are describing would exacerbate the hazard and subtract the time to serve & sit out. If this was a post from a home cook I probably would not respond. It sounds like you are serving to the public--just a friendly heads up. To me home cooks have the luxury of all that leaving it in the oven--but i just wanted to gently mention that to you. i do wedding cakes so i have to really watch that--they need time sit out and be pretty--so my regimen includes sieving the batter instead of letting it set out at room temp very much --cooling by a very clean fan hitting from the bottom of the pan-- quick assemby/decorating and last minute delivery time. I also err on the side of well done for clients. I know you agree that safety trumps all. I was just giving a friendly heads up.

Is it any good you ask...as a door stop...but then again it might burst.

Would that be a scashooweroo?

HC--you just can't bet against the nostalgiac fave!! Although the word 'cashew' could be added to a list such as yours...

I think advancing into actually cooking something goes far beyond the intended scope of rice krispie treatness. To me scraping off a vanilla bean was pushing it but oh so worth it. I loves me some easy sweets. Even my husband who is not a baker can do the no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. Sugar Jones taught him one night. Teach a man to fish--easier still!!! We serve each other mini dishes full of Belgian chocolate chips for late night snack and whoever gets up first has to refill. So all that to say, Go Tracey with the microwave thing. Good for those who might not have a heavy pot. However, when melting on the stove you don't have to watch the pot if you use the lowest flame possible. So the microwave actually increases level of activity, no points but good try. However several points are being awarded for eating out of the bowl. To me rice krispie treats embody a certain lazy characteristic in ease of preparation that should not be disturbed. signed rkt purist Andi, Indy--points as well for double duty making a centerpiece. Butterscotch--Bourbon! Wonderful! Points aplenty. Baroness, Chris, a little more complicated but great stuff. HighChef--<sniiiiiifffffff> Stuart, Patris, CookingOfJ--I'm lost in the minutiae but Eileen is a great baker--she and I go way back and they've gotta be great! KayB--praying for world peace--worthy worthy--praying for rkt--a close second--quite possibly the answer to the first prayer. Laurie, Which 'this version'? There's at least a half dozen here.

I use less cereal* and unsalted butter and I added a vanilla bean--just so wonderful. Then I made some with browned butter and a tahitian and a madagascar vanilla bean--just incredibly freaking good. So easy and so very very good Happy Thanksgiving!! *5 cups instead of 6--and I just melt the marshmallows-- no bubbling just gentle easy melting. Hey--go crazy and mold a fresh warm batch into a little cornucopia for your table. Just butter your hands and away you go!

I think you're gonna do great! "Run of the kitchen" "lock people out" perfect attitude! Seriously. Aunt Louise can't cut the onions in advance and store them in the same frige. I love "settle for not being humiliated"!!! Worthy worthy attainable goal in wedding cake making. Let me add a thought that you let the crowd determine that outcome too. We tend to bash ourselves mercilessly in these endeavors and 'our public' is not only very forgiving they are also far sighted if the cake is nearby and near sighted if the cake is across the room. ♥ Idea, cover foam with same fabric as mdf? Maybe, just a thought.

What kind of stand are you going to make. Are you understanding this construction? You can make a beautiful and elegant stacked cake with pretty flowers and all but to get them to hang off like this is an extra component in engineering.

With the extreme amount of flowers to apply I'd avoid the powdery stuff on royal because it's gonna be messy. If you go with powdery stuff on corn starch infused fondant or gum paste, you can steam it to set. But if you just get it the right color in the first place you're golden. Not having to deal repeatedly with hundreds and hundreds of flowers would be a worthy goal. Wonder how those spray cans of color would do??

Hmm, I got an honorable mention above so I thought I'd toss in my two cents. I always have an opinion on a wedding cake pure cafeteria style though of course, take it or leave it. Thought for food. I think you will make a lovely lovely cake. Your neice is a very lucky girl. Be firm with her. Just 'cause someone's getting married doesn't mean that the forces of nature no longer apply. Royal icing as opposed to gum paste will be either very fragile or not as refined of a petal. Get some gum arabic to add to your royal --it's a coupla bucks--add some to your royal and it will strengthen it tremendously for your endeavor. I tell yah, have you ever worked with fondant? You could do a bit of practising and see how you like it. Knead in a generous amount of cornstarch--the flowers will dry crispy and easy to handle. I do not recommend Wilton fondant. Any of the other pre-made is fine for this if you try it. As far as setting it in your car. Maybe maybe not. Unseasonable warm days do happen. Cars get much warmer inside than the temperature out of doors. I'd recommend back up plans for everything. Watch extremes of temperatures. If you cake sweats those flowers are gonna slide off. If they're royal they may or may not melt from the moisture. An idea around that is fill the cake with cream cheese filling and use a reliable decorator icing that will handle like you need it to handle to pull off this cake. Make your schedule then start it three days earlier than you planned. Trust me, this one is non-negotiable. Nobody ever had a nervous break-down from having too much time to do a cake. Keep your purple flowers out of sunlight and any light. You can loose your pink/red color and wind up with blue flowers. If you triple that recipe do you have enough room in your oven to bake it all at once so it doesn't sit out at room temp for hours? You have to make that cake in advance and determine that it will hold up to the rigors of becoming a wedding cake. Like how's it gonna serve? This design looks straight forward but you gotta avoid some of these pitfalls or it's gonna break your ♥

Now, I bought the Jilk cake emulsifier product from Albert Uster--the special ingredient in cake mix. Therefore I can bake a so called 'scratch' cake using the individual ingredients that are found in cake mix. I've used it maybe three times in tests. So far I'm not crazy about my results, but I'll still keep testing it. To me so far it would be easier to add cake mix as an ingredient than to use this product. For example, use the Sylvia recipe or any tried & true recipe & sub a cup of flour for a cup of cake mix--so you can try & latch onto the durability factor provided so efficiently in cake mix. But I haven't tested that out--I'm just saying you would handily have a better product, better texture than the results I'm getting with the Jilk. So I'll keep trying the Jilk because it cost me $50 but...cake mix already has it beat without testing...well because Betty C & friends have been testing for decades huh. I made the exact recipe Albert Uster gave for the Jilk, it was horrible. Yes I might have blown it somehow but, dude, I've been baking for about 50 years, professionally for over 35. Then I started to tweak it into my recipes. I mean there's a result you get in white cake mix cakes that Humpty can't quite get together again. Other flavors are much easier to make 'from scratch'. But Duncan's just got the goods on white cake mix.

See you can make a great cake from scratch but a wedding cake is very different than any other random cake. I mean anyone can toss ingredients together and bake that off and viola make a tasty cake. But wedding cake has to be versatile and work hard for you. It has to be made in advance enough so that it can be decorated and still be fresh and tasty. So it has to have shelf life, aka freezer & frige life has to withstand the time to decorate it and retain pinpoint accuracy for freshness, has to slice very well, hold up to the delivery, and icing and etc. It's not cool for cut slices to get a stale dry edge while the sliced cake might sit out on plates at the reception for a few hours during the celebrating. For delivery a chilled cake is a happy cake in my opinion. It gets hot in Memphis--I use all butter icing so you've got to be careful. The only cake I know of that can do all those things ^^^ is with a cake mix base. It's not at all just about "a cake formula" kwim. But these are my opinions we all have different outlooks on this subject.

I'm not Wendy--And I did not re-read and catch up on this complete thread. But to answer your guestion, Ksaw, Sylvia Weinstock's yellow cake is excellent. It comes out pretty white in color-- I tweak it when I make it and I use two whole eggs and two egg whites and I use a guarter cup more flour. I just add the eggs to the creamed sugar & butter--it would probably be fluffier if I whipped them etc. but the thought of the potential of tasting egg white in my cake prevents me from going this route for a wedding cake. You can google Sylvia Weinstock's yellow cake. I would not chill this cake because it does not relax all the way back to perfect texture when it does get to room temp. And often wedding cake needs to be put in the frige for the sake of a filling or whatever so this is not a super efficient work horse type cake but if kept at room temp it is excellent. It obviously works for Sylvia!! Another idea for a wedding cake that is a nice resilient cake that can take the job description for what is demanded of a white wedding cake uses cake mix as a base. It's one box of cake mix, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of self rising flour, flavoring, quarter cup of oil, 4 egg whites (I add a yolk or two), one and a third cups water, one cup of sour cream. This makes about 7 cups of batter. You making your own bridal cake? How many people will be attending? Some cake ideas for you.

Wow that was delicious! mmmmm I loved the baby--amazing--the detail and precision.