K8memphis

I prefer to ramp up the flavor and the moisture by squirting/brushing flavored simple syrup into the baked cooled cake.

Take a leave of absence from your current job and go to work in any kitchen you can find, in any position available. Or use your vacation to do this. It will fan the flames on your fire or slam the door shut on your romance with chefdom. Seriously, you would learn a lot just by washing dishes somewhere. It's agonizingly difficult back breaking work. You could even do it on weekends or something. 1. No you are not too old. 2. Just start doing it. 3. Yes you are crazy but that's to your advantage.

I got to attend ICES' big yearly convention once (Intermational Cake Society) and some lady there was saying she did this in her shop. (I'm not saying ICES supports this or not just that's where I heard about it.) Wrapped up brand new hot cake and froze it. I have heard this recommended by many different people since then.

What kind of pink paper is this? The baking powder may have lost it's oomph before you even get a chance. Baking powder is real sensitive to moisture even like humidity. I mean my stuff comes in little metal cans sealed with a tight fitting plastic lid and I have to replace it twice yearly or so because the moisture can seep into it anyway. Pink paper sounds like a possible culprit to me.

Sure some people do this because it steams the cake a bit. If the heat can't get out condensation forms. But of course the moisture level of any cake re-distributes evenly when wrapped well and refrigerated or frozen. If the cake is hot it adds some condensation as well. So yeah it's a bit moister.

And please accept my apology as well. I should have pm'd you and asked you what you meant before I posted. Let's raise a crunchy perfectly seasoned cyber french fry to each other in salute. I don't know if it's the case with your friends, but sometimes folks who smoke cannot tell the difference between food and the container it came in. And folks with sinus trouble who can't smell which that's probably all of us a time or two a year anyways. Well yes then there's those that are just dumb as rocks but...we come here to learn! It's a big wide world.

I cannot thank you enough. This is awesome. I've always wanted to make vanilla but I've never known the proper quantities and what strength I would have at the end. Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool. Love your site! Can't wait to get enough time to peruse it completely. All that vanilla spread out in the little boxes looks intoxicatingly wonderful. A dollar a piece for vanilla???!!! Get out of here!!! I'm fainting.

I don't know anything about that area of the world but I hope you find something awesome!

For wedding cakes >>> I put a lot of thought into it. I can wear a chef coat. But more importantly my attire reveals my inner artist when I deliver and during consults (cake appointments). So even if I wear a chef coat, if I am delivering for myself (not under someone else's employ) I wear a quintessential K8t outfit. Probably jeans or jeans skirt with a lace top or pristine white shirt and pearls. Or pin striped dress slacks with a cool t-shirt and pearls. Uber comfy shoes. Can be sequined & beaded, might be plain black. The pearls would always be tucked into the collar where you can see them sticking out around the edges some but I have them on for me. They're long and lovely they were Mom's. It feels really good to wear them. They are big and weighty and make the occassion of the delivery ever the more dramatic and quietly flamboyant. Because I know that I am delivering the focal point of the reception that will soon dominate the conversations and eyes and taste buds. It's important and sweet and expensive and part of a once in a lifetime experience. Jesus made wedding refreshments. It's a big deal. Over all that maybe a chef's coat maybe not, oftentimes though I do wear it I guess. If it's chilly for sure I wear it. But I tell yah if you are delivering to big venues you need the coat for sure. You need every ounce of authority you can pleasantly muster. The coat works all by itself. Guys will hit on you in the elevators too it's an instant ice-breaker for some reason. But you are all business though No time for that. You can park in no parking zones with ease. The chef jacket is a good thing to have handy. It speaks volumes for you. Parts the waters. I've delivered in wedding attire too. (when I did my kid's cake) And then of course the chef jacket can cover a multitude of errant icing spots too.

I made a molasses crinkle cookie forever but I never added the recommended spices. It's a purer molasses flavor which is very satisfying. With all the spices it's just another gingersnap-ish gingerbread type cookie. It's from the original red & white Betty Crocker Picture CookBook. At least I think it is the original like 1950 one because while the page with the date is long gone, my friend has a copy of the second printing and this little gem is re-named as a Gingie cookie in there I believe. I haven't tried the Starbuck's cookie so I'm flying blind. This one comes out crisp on the outside and chewy chewy chewy on the inside. It can come out almost molten on the inside. They are magic cookies. They are achievable only as written using s-h-o-r-t-e-n-i-n-g. Now with the softer trans fat free sh*t, I don't know if I'll ever get it just right again but... Molasses Crinkles a la Betty from 1950 See butter doesn't hold up like you want it too. Shortening has been sanitized and is now 'antiseptic'. I'd do a test and see if they will bake better from a frozen state (to compensate for our loose as a goose fats like our butter with too much water in it and our trans fat free shortenings). Try it chilled as written, and try two from the freezer one in the blob shape one patted down just a bit. See which one comes out best. And if you do use butter, use it as cold as possible. Cut it into small chunks and cream it with the brown sugar. The only differences I can see with these two recipes, Elinor's Kilvan's and Betty's is that Betty says bake at 375 instead of 350. Betty says chill the dough first. The baking devil is in the details. Spices are optional, but try it without, I think you'll really like it. These are insanely wonderful cookies. I'm almost positive I baked mine at 350. I used regular all purpose flour. Crispy on the outside molten on the inside magic cookies Edited because there's always room for improvement.

I love the jelly beans they are beautiful. What a wonderful adventure. Waiting breathlessly for the next instalment. So exciting. I do not understand the language of 'whosoever doesn't like chocolate very much' What's not to like? Why not? Hot chocolate? Chocolate cake? Chocolate chip cookies? Chocolate sculptures? Not to mention fudge and candy and savory items. The amazingness of the versatility of chocolate is overwhelming. You must (attempt to) convert her before she leaves. Geez I love your candy set up with the rolly thing I can't think of the name of, the coater thing, too cool.

I like a little egg with my spinach for breakfast adorned with generous amounts of garlic and onions, sometimes cheese and tomato as well.

Wait wait, they're called Heavenly Lemon Muffins And the angel food part is just a dollop that makes a crust on top--geez they look good. And there's a strawberry version. You could just make one up too.

I've made random shaped angel food cakes. They might shrink a bit more. I'd say make them as last minute as possible. Wonder how much you're gonna loose in the paper? Maybe use those ginormous muffin papers? I make brownies in cup cake papers. No messy slicing, serving. Cupcakes are the bomb. You've maybe seen cupcake cakes. Where a huge glob of cupcakes are iced and decorated as a cake? You don't line the cupcakes up one after another you just put them all willy nilly as close together as possible being sure to fill in the little gaps. I'm sure you've seen that. I'm just running my mouth. While I'm mouth running here, I remember seeing this in a book of mine, either Bake Sale or Gifts From Your Kitchen, these really cool cupcakes where you make a for real cupcake but you fill the cup cake paper only part way with batter and finish with angel food batter on top. I've never made them but I thought they were really cool. Angel food thoughts for you.

Cool and thanks for posting. Which one won??

That was my sweet Moma's experience with making angel food cake eons ago. She bought a new bowl for the ocassion of making the cake. One of those large plastic marbley/speckley looking melamine type bowls. She made several cakes that all flopped. Did more research, ditched the bowl and had great results. I have always been obsessive about pristine-ness doing meringues. But I have relaxed a bit of late. I guess our great mixers are our salvation. Cool. If Mom could see us now.

Just the obvious, you need food grade stuff. I got mine from www.willpowder.net. But I just dropped my spheres and stuff in the calcium chloride solution, I didn't eat it. It just tastes salty. But still I would only use the food grade stuff.

A million years ago in the early 70's there were these dynamite banana cookies. They looked in credibly unappealing like brown uber nubbly rocks with suspicious flat browner bottoms. They came stacked one on top the other in a plastic sleeve type bag. You gotta understand how good they were for me to remember them through the haze as it were. I had them as my lunch meal often. But they had oats and were soft not crunchy. In light of the way Tracey presented it, they were like a reduced banana bread-ish event but it was a cookie. Too freaking good. Maybe cook some banana down and use it like that? Make a mostly banana oatmeal and bind it with something? I mean what happens when you cook banana down. Don't think I've ever done that. I wish you the banana cookie best though.

We are each a part of each other.

I understand that some of us do thumb our noses at food or whatever, but I'm not in that mix. It might not be fair to generalize to that extent. I like thumb nosing food. I like nosed thumb food. I like some kinds of crappy food and I ain't afraid to say so. And I don't thumb my nose at anything. signed, an eGulleter ← Ok I get your point. Let me illumine mine. For example turning our collective nose up at something is quite a bit different than thumbing our beaks. The first is 'no way will I eat that.' The second is disdain 'for a lot of American palates conditioned to eat that way and without resolution'. That's a huge statement. If the weak/ill/bad preperation is ever to be even partly addressed/fixed, I would venture that a softer approach would bring better results. Mushified french fries are not confined to the frozen variety. Am I understanding that one wants to counter a lack of regard for food prep/handling with what? What is the resolution? Not ridicule. Are we surprised that the ordinary amongst us not only create but are satisfied with ordinary? I just don't see it rising to this heightened level. And nobody's gonna come around ask what's cooking if we filet/scorn them first. One gets more flies with honey, does it have to be organically prepared? This line edited>> Read. Discuss. Chew. It's big wide open. Y'all come. Come & dine. Chow time type of thing. Open means more.

Kerry are you saying the seeds puree and don't need to be strained out cause they're pulverized?? I should look this up this Rosle...but I'm tired...right after a nap I will... ← I didn't describe that very well. The blades (aka plates) are the strainer parts. One of the plates available for the Rosle has very small holes and will strain out the raspberry seeds. No pulverizing occurs. Here is a picture of the mill with it's various plates. ← Oh Dude, I'm getting one of those!! Thanks

I have noticed. The butter from the big box stores is harder than Land O Lakes or grocery store brand. Yes I think they've been diddling with the water content for a while. pmo

Kerry are you saying the seeds puree and don't need to be strained out cause they're pulverized?? I should look this up this Rosle...but I'm tired...right after a nap I will...

My fine mesh strainers would make it too time consuming to push the stuff through. I just use a regular strainer that you can get at the big grocery stores in the kitchen gadget aisles. None of the seeds get through. But is there an easier way to get it pushed through? I just mash it through with a spatula.

I understand that some of us do thumb our noses at food or whatever, but I'm not in that mix. It might not be fair to generalize to that extent. I like thumb nosing food. I like nosed thumb food. I like some kinds of crappy food and I ain't afraid to say so. And I don't thumb my nose at anything. signed, an eGulleter