K8memphis

My first one goes dead center for that very reason. On my old griddle it was one dead center over each eye. Second batch was eight at a time. Even still they just don't look the same as the second & following ones, proper temp or not. Mine don't anyway. I mean I can hide it in the stack, my husband's stack of course. But a beginning pancake maker probably needs to feed the dog the first one.

Agreed. Except for the agonizing part, because I find that the batter needs time to rest too ... maybe because the baking powder needs time to activate; I don't know. So it's simple to kill both chunks of time concurrently. Finish mixing the batter, turn up the fire, and wait five minutes. There are plenty of things I can clean up in that time. I might also be waiting for the oven to warm up (with a couple of plates inside) for those same minutes. ← Well I can get my first one to look ok on one side but you can still pick it out of the bunch. Besides if I get the surface that hot, it's out of control too hot & I screw the second load. I mean it's like you gotta ante up to the pancake gods sooner or later.

A few words on organic chocolate... Most of the organic and hippy rainforest chocolate brands are exactly the same as each other. There's a very small number of organic chocolate factories in the US, and they make the same chocolate and just repackage it for different brands. Which explains why most of those brands are all about the inclusions, not about the chocolate. Also, organic cacao is chosen on the basis of whether or not the cacao grower paid to have the property certified, not based on flavor. So if you're looking for the best tasting chocolates, you won't necessarily find them in the organic selections - that's just not their priority. Most cacao is grown on very small plantations (less than four hectares) and is essentially organic - the growers can't afford pesticides anyway. But they also can't afford to pay for certification. ← Has anyone had Fair Trade chocolate? Is it any good? Is it consistent I wonder? I've considered stocking it.

My suggestion would be to test them with your recipe and fabric. An idea is to bake off your cupcakes in regular papers then perhaps slide the baked cakes into these wrappers. A wrapper for the wrapper. But still you need to test. So many variables.

When I take a cake order I control as many things as possible. This order looks runaway to me. For dictating a certain certain recipe for a decorated cake I would charge considerably. To change an existing recipe into the whim of the bride would be priceless as the commercial goes. No way. Incalculable cost. I have formulas I have honed out over time and those work and if I have to try something entirely new I control it and they pay my price. Imbedding raspberries into the frosting is asking for trouble. Will they leak? Maybe maybe not. If they do what will you do? You will be handling 150 cupcakes enough times to make yourself want to scream as it is. Diddling with some recipe to re-make it into what the bride imagines in her head is impossible and could be incredibly frustrating. You just have to decide how many hoops you wanna jump through. Times that by one hundred and fifty then multiply it by it's gotta be fresh and flavorful and beautiful and on time and underbudget and delivered safely and set up perfectly and not wilt until the appointed time. Too much math pour moi. I mean you could sub in more flour or whirled oats. Y'know whirl them in the food processor to chop it up. Maybe toast 'em first. I would suggest dropping berries around the cupcakes. It would be very pretty. Include some blueberries too. Me, I would grab hold of this quick. It's too runaway. I would not assemble these more than one night before. What will the humidity be like that day? Sometimes cupcake wrappers decide to slip away from the cake. Maybe these would be real stable and friendly. What if What if What if. My gut tells me to eliminate every potential hazard when I'm doing a (big decorated) cake and still you run smack into them. So to include them in the planning is something I try to avoid. And I try to include back up plans for as much as possible too. Maybe you are going to use those paper souffle cups like some folks do--that's a great idea too. Cup cake wrappers can be a pia. I couldn't get the link to come up. Does the recipe do well to be refrigerated? Does the cake still taste soft when it comes back to room temp? Sometimes I find recipes made with butter have a dry mouthfeel because I guess the butter needs a zapping in the microwave to relax or something. The cake can be wonderfully moist but if it's too firm in the mouth it's deemed dry. Scratch cake is real tricky for that reason and a thousand others. Ramble much, Kate?

Me too. Seems to be getting into the danger zone. Well past the danger zone maybe.

Activated charcoal is a godsend for food issues if this is a food issue. It's an over the counter pill available at most drug store.

Oh how exciting! I'm not familiar with France. So the only idea I have to share is that I once got to do a cake for a guy who popped the question on top of the Eiffel Tower. And he was really really afraid of heights too besides forgetting half his speech. But isn't that cool? Just a question popping thought pour vous.

I would call the restaurant.

The way I make fries works. Cutting thin, rinsing, drying, putting them in nice brisk hot oil once or twice. The pictures of the results of this method to me do not look promising. Some of them definitely look grease sodden to me. I think there must be some kind of additional finesse to this method that is escaping us at this point. Or this method doesn't work as good as the old way. Shoot me.

Oooh does that look good. I used to make something like that and I put raisins and cheese in the biscuits. Nice wintery good comfort food. But I'd broil the tops of the biscuits if everything else was done. Dark on top ooey gooey on the bottom. mmm (The flash probably whited the biscuit tops a bit.)

She did that time.

Well I am not an expert in chocolate but I can even tell a difference. I mean the temperature of the chocolate is part of the key to all this as you alluded to. It's a fat so it's gotta melt in order to taste it. I mean I like Belgian chocolate, I think Belgian chocolate (in general) rocks. I had a lot of chocolate tasting this summer at the world pastry forum and frankly some of it sucked to my taste buds some of it was great. But I like Ghiradelli's (I think I came close on the spelling) But I could tell the differences. Did you try other chocolates at the same time & temperature? No I do not find that cost is any indication that I will appreciate the chocolate any more. But I'm not super palette girl either. But you sure can tell a difference when you get into collecting the different chocolates. But price is not a factor for me. I mean just because it's expensive doesn't mean it's better. So it's not a crock. It's just something that you might wanna explore more in depth. Like I had that chocolate at that time. I don't hob nob with all those different chocolates much otherwise. Wow I've read/seen some of the write ups here on egullet of some chocolate tastings though & they sound fabulous. I also like Hershey's-- nostalgic favorites die hard. I prefer milk chocolate to the darker stuff but I do like the darker stuff. I'd recommend that you get an expert to help you discern the difference and to supply some inventory for the experimenting too.

Also, the Southbeach Diet book has many recipes developed by named Soutbeach Miami Florida chefs. I never cooked so good as when I followed those recipes.

It came out great. I did use the cornstarch. If I didn't use it and I baked it and I needed it, it woulda been too late. But I forgot how creamy and light cheesecake is with the sourcream. I'm gonna make it this way from now on. It was easy to cut and serve to. Cut real pretty without freezing. I mean it was even a tad warm come to think of it. What I should do is cut down the filling recipe duh Kate. Yeah, she always called to be sure I was leaving my house to meet her halfway. And I always said I was and I never did. No matter how mad she got. Well a couple times I did but mostly not. Then we had a huge colossal snow storm and we were supposed to go to a movie (and eat candy >> there that's about food) and she was fuming mad tromping all the way over in all that snow and mess. She of course lived closer to town. Well she slipped on the ice like three times in a row right in front of my house. I was cool the first time because she was so majorly po'd at me. The second time I laughed silently as she stomped off in the lead. The third time we both lost it uncontrollably.

Glory, Rob. You the same Geephron who was aghast at a little cornstarch in cheesecake? Celery buttercream? I can't wait to hear the rest of the components. If it gets thick the sugar would probably relax it. I make Swiss all the time so I'm not as familiar with Italian. But the recipe I just looked up said 1/4 cup water to a cup of sugar. So a third to a cup sounds good. But sorry, dude, everybody I know that does celery buttercream has already turned in for the night. Don't forget celery seed. Maybe if you smush those & infuse your celery juice that could help get you the right depth of flavor without having to reduce the juice so much. Maybe.

Gotcha. While you're at the store. Grab a crockpot and some nice lettuce and some great cold cuts and some really cool mustard and some awesome bread from the bakery. Get home, eat sandwiches. In the morning toss the bird in the crock pot with any of the lovely other suggestions here and come home to supper!

Oh my gosh that's funny. Umm, I mean I have a friend who has to put a bit of flour in her raspberry swirl cheesecake so it does not weep. Of course cornstarch is not flour. Well it's almost in the oven...it doesn't seem firm enough to hold up the apples so maybe I'll just fry 'em and slap 'em on afterwards. Hmm, maybe I should make some muffins. How did you know I abused my best friend in high school??

Hmm. What about the water I dissolved the gelatin in. Like about a third a cup-ish. There's already a little bit of cornstarch in the powdered sugar. Think the extra yolk would suck that (the water) up?

But not triple the sugar! Just double it.

Dude, say that into the mirror. Buy a crock pot. Or get some of those nifty baking bags when you buy the chicken a the store. They are in the aluminum foil section of the store. Don't forget to put a bit of flour in there because it says it will explode if you don't. I always put twice as much flour & twice as many little holes as you're supposed to poke. I like to stay doubly far away from explosions when given the chance. Come on, how often do you get advanced warning. Ok I'm on a tangent. You can toss these recipes into a roasting pan--those blue enamel speckled dealies or in some kind of ceramic or corning ware, umm those other overpriced enamel pots, in a skillet, in a chicken fryer, electric skillet. I mean how were you planning on cooking it? The fact is, unless you use a pressure cooker cooking a whole chicken isn't exactly fast food. You could boil it kinda fast. Boiled chicken is better to cook real slow though. What about trying to back things up and cook the chicken on the weekend. edited to say: You would LOVE a crock pot!

First off I am not a gelatin guru. Some background: I need one more pound of cream cheese to make this German type cheesecake. It's got apples on top and it's not real thick like New York cheesecake. It's also not real fussy. You fire it up in a 450 degree oven for a few then lower the temp to 400 and all is well. No water bath no fussy fussy. Yeah, I'll get to the question in a mintue, one more particle of information. So I have this brand new filling I just made last night. It's a pound of cream cheese 10-ish ounces of sour cream and about a pound of 10x sugar (powdered sugar) and some flavorings that will match fine. And I hope I stabilized it with a little packet of bloomed gelatin. It was a real nice consistency for my filling but I have a bunch leftover. Question time--thought we'd never get here. I'm gonna use some of the filling as my one pound of cream cheese I'm short. I mean I think I am. (I could get another pound of course bu-ut.) But will the gelatin do anything weird? How about I add an extra egg or something? How about an extra egg and some cornstarch too? Just cornstarch? Here's the cheese formula but I'm tripling it: 2 8 oz cream cheese, softened........cream well until smooth 2/3 cup sugar..........................add & mix 3 eggs beaten.........................add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla...............add & mix well & pour over crust What do you think?

I cut my own foamcore boards. Cake drums are paper wrapped and are great. The edges are not smooth you can see the paper folded over but they are made to present cakes on so they are fine. I have no trouble making things super secure. I err on the side of real stable. For example the cake I'm working on right now is just a 4 inch tall 8x12. I have it on only two cardboards. I have two bamboo skewers within one of the boards. Nothing is gonna crack. Everything is very stable. You can get thicker foam core too. Half inch I think.

I would use a pan the correct size and just use the decor to make it look fluted. You don't have to worry about the cake itself. Like just striping the outsides with a plain tip will do it. The flutes you might want to bake in there will not survive the icing anyway. Know what I mean? Or just sculpt a cake. Like I'd bake for example a 6" and top it with an 8". Just sculpt the sides to correspond. Maybe flip it over to do the carving easier. Something like that. Or even a 5" and a 6" or something. You could also use fondant strips to imitate the flutes.

Here is the link. http://www.paperorchidstationery.com/modul....php/nav_id/775 Are these not to die for beautiful? Edited to say, Cake-Buddies to the rescue! My friend Joy had the link.