K8memphis

My scribe was in charge of cutting, pasting and reformatting one of your very long entries into a Word document while I was out on the veranda dictating in between sips of champaigne. ← At last a post even Kate can understand.

Here's two possible ideas for you. Plop a scoop of cake batter into a flat bottom ice cream cone --ice them (hands work great for this) and before the icing sets up dunk them in some sprinkles of some kind. Cute cute special not too difficult. Oh yeah, the other one is, if you are getting bolder and more advanced in your baking skills and doing individual sugar cookies, you take some of the batter, thin it with water or milk to piping consistency and pipe any mesage you want on the cookies before baking. Smiley face, A+, a heart or whatever you might want to pipe. Or if you purchase cookie dough you can do this also.

Oh Oh Oh, thanks for typing slow enough for even me to catch on.

Ok cool and which are the desserts, those last seven?? Or are there desserts?

I'm not gonna look--I'll take y'all's word for it. Blood shot eyeball cherry cordials is about as gross as I can get. And little halloween cakes with big harvest moons and pumpkins, leaf bare trees and non-vomit producing spooky looking stuff, black cats, witches, spooks etc.

I have been baking as a professional in one way or another for over 30 years. I am a baker and cake designer. Umm, my son has attended culinary school recently so current job placement is fresh in my mind due to his searches--although he's savory not pastry. He has worked in all kinds of places including some 5 star/diamond places. A lot of his positions have been restaurants within hotels. Umm, I don't think you'll have any difficulty finding morning shifts for pastry chef-ing. Restaurants within hotels have the most security and benefits.

I'm sorry too Tracy, I hope it's not too painful, but I'm sure it would make a great episode on ER. I'm just totally being silly-don't mind me. But seriously, I love this thread but I am absolutely lost--whew it's all so far over my head the jetstream is above Iceland. I hope you all enjoy prawns, seaweed soup, chorizo and soup and shrimp? for dessert? But you expanded it right to include more courses??? I can't tell where the desserts start--are we still doing desserts??? Or just baking??? Maybe I'll catch on better next time.

Oh my gosh that's too funny! I saw your name and I thought oops I stepped on some toes. But I mean really--it's touted as rivaling manna from heaven and well, it falls far far short in my opinion. Maybe just down the bottle if you make the cake.

Your walnut caramel cake sounds fabulous. Interesting~~I made a lane cake once for my Southern in-law's 40th anniversary. It was cool. But my level of appreciation for it fell short of the drama that is written surrounding the cake. I wanted something uber special and it was cool. What I had was a white cake with a fruity filling and some melodramic history tossed in that few if any seemed to be aware of. I mean I only made it once as I recall and I never had it otherwise anywhere. No offense to any lovers of lane cake. But by the way who & where are you??? I think it needs to be splashed with a nice liqueur to be more fun. Not overly doused just a nice bit of some kind of splash--Grand Marnier is my default--seems to work with most everything. But any number of different ones would be nice. So it's a cool cake and I'm not trying to discourage you at all. That's just my experience with it. Splash = simple syrup + flavoring such as an extract or a liqueur

Hey, Sarah, Cake&Bake-Buddy, No, I didn't test it--I tossed it--3 of 'em. I just remember eons ago, I think it was my Mom told me not to get any iota of moisture in baking powder--in Memphis it just happens automatically. Yes, it was lumpy though at least throughout the first inch or more down into the can. Which is how I happened to have collected three cans of it. Which in turn made me think of this thread. But this tier cake had to be all trimmed down each side before icing it because the torted layers were wonky, not even and straight and level. When I use doctored mixes I have a much better product. Better in the sense of more uniform down the sides. While I like the idea of scratch cakes, they don't have the shelf life of a mix. I usually bake on Tuesday/Wednesday or even Monday and freeze for decorating later in the week. This one I finished baking on Friday & I made myself a bit nervous. "Cause scratch cake is good out of the freezer if you can microzap it a few seconds. But they don't fit in the microzapper. This cake I used the Sylvia formula on was a 125-150 serving 4-tier. I have a much larger cake this week that I'm using doctored mixes for. I don't need any additional drama this week. This one's dramatic enough as is. This way I can bake well in advance, stuff 'em in the freezer, breathe huge sighs of relief and ... Have I rambled long enough??

Wait wait wait. This could be a factor for someone. I am doing a tier cake with this SW formula. It is working better than perfectly. I did check my baking powder before I started and each of the three previously opened but well sealed cans contained a bit grainy, not purely powdery baking powder. So I dumped each one and jumped in the car~~had to fix my hair first drat that~~and bought a new fresh can of baking powder at the store. (Picked up some almond paste for the holidays too but I digress.) Your baking powder must be super free flowing and powdery for best effect. No kibbles and bits no matter how small. Sifting does not restore the action of the spent baking powder. Then again, maybe that's just in olden times when baking powder had to be all nicey nice. That hasn't changed has it??? Sarah??? Patrick??? Is this still true???

That's too awesome. Y'all are great with the puns!!

I agree with your sister. I mean, if you don't use German's Chocolate, it ain't a German chocolate cake. Put it this way, if you were making liver & onions, you wouldn't substitute fois gras and called it liver & onions. German's chocolate is what you use to make German chocolate cake. You can make a zillion chocolate cakes out of any chocolate. Using what is described as better chocolate makes a different chocolate cake, not a German chocolate cake.

I don't know, I have a bit different take on this. I've worked for others, I've worked for myself. She's the boss's wife. She gets to do what she wants, they pay the bills. I mean for me, my ego doesn't take a back seat because it's not even in the car. I leave my ego at home when I'm working for someone else. Not my self worth, my ego. I know that there are other issues for you there, Anne, but me, I just think that's par for the working for somebody else course. They sign the checks they have free reign. Now what happened wasn't cool, wasn't professional, wasn't nice but manager/owners always complain about 'they can't find any good help' worker bees complain about shitty supervisors/owners. It's a trade off. You wanna keep your cookies outa the trash, open your own place. You want the ease and comfort of arriving at work and getting a check, sometimes your cookies are gonna get lobbed in the can. There's underlying causes for this that maybe/maybe not can be improved. Horror stories abound in all fields. You still have a pretty sweet deal overall. You have to make a rational judgement when you're not upset. You work for somebody and whether they are qualified or not, they still have the final word. Yeah, it sucks.

Bison flag???? Are you sure??? If that's not a buffalo chip, I've never seen one!!!! Sorry sorry sorry, I couldn't help it!!!

Ok I get the dessert-yness of it. That bison aspect was confusing until I saw your finished product. So pretty too. I love the plating.

Wow, be still my heart, planted in the backyard! I love Jonagolds with inordinate amounts of hot spicey cinnamon, dots of butter, a few squirts of lemon. Love Jonagolds! And I brush the top crust with milk & sprinkle with sugar a la the old red Betty Crocker Cookbok. Bakes off so pretty.

Please relate how dessert-y this is. I'm trying to imagine bison dessert. Now I like cinnamon on my salmon, but it's still not dessert. If you can put any words on it, how does buffalo become a dessert?? Thanks

I want to have an open mind about all this, I know I can learn something. But I tell yah what, the hard part is gonna be to have an open mouth for anything in this round 2. I've been dangerously grossed out for a while. I was just gonna stay quiet and read as long as I could. It's the drama I can neither abide nor ignore. But y'all are even taking note of the unsavory sweets you're proposing so I just thought I'd agree real quick before somebody suggested another type of insect. Y'all are way over the line, not even close, probably can't see the line from where you're at. The grossometer is off the chart.

Oh, the bride was busy being a bride I guess. The cake is awesome. About the different sized balls--when I shop I keep on the look out for nice rounded bowls that I can bake in. Pyrex, and stuff like that.

Touched a nerve there, ChefP. To be a good G'ma if I gotta allow Barney in my house in any way, tv, whatever, I'll never make it! Barney cakes suck. And his freakin' hips are bigger than his bulbous head. And those songs! I don't think I spelled boulbous right, b-i-g f-a-t is what I meant. The whole copyright thing has some advantages after all. God forbid I infringe on a Barney copyright. But the turtle cake with the genius elephant pillars is the bombshafrigginbomb. I love it!

I absolutely love it. I don't know what you would want to improve. You did an awesome job. It has character and charm and is well balanced with the extra hazards and all the little ball cakes sitting around. It's adorable. Way cool!

That is a stunning work of art. Kinda different for a wedding but I bet the bride was dileriously happy with it.

Maybe. But rings and dams have different purposes. One uses a ring certainly to build up layer upon layer of different components in a cake. The purpose of a dam is to glue the cake together around the outside perimeter to have something the icing can adhere to so the cake does not shift and slide apart on the slick filling. However, for my particular purposes, if I am torting a 16 x 14 x 10 x 6 square cake a ring would be incredibly cumbersome. I currently have a 17" & 15" square, a 12" petal and a 9" & 6" round tier cake going. I mean I can tort and fill and ice a zillion cakes without a ring and without a dam but on the long ride home it's likely they'll spring a leak or slide. I mean little home cakes that go from counter to table don't really need a dam either kinda sorta, if you stick in a bunch of toothpicks So a ring is not essential to torting and building up a cake. A dam is essential if you want it delivered in one piece. The dams are actually the secret. I think it's just pretty for the pictures. I've heard that that's a whole industry, food for photos.

I would not trade. I might add to and start a collection. Keep the old one. Some of the new ones are not as sturdily built as the older ones even if they are touted with "more power". My 27 yr old 5 qt KA beats rings around my new and improved 6 quart. I had to have the 6 qt replaced already once so I baby it. But I am not basing this on just my personal experience, it is very true. Umm, be sure you don't use more than the recommended amount of flour when you knead --for my 5 qt mixer 8 cups is the max and umm, no more than two loads of bread in a row. Start a collection At least give yourself a lengthy trial run on the new one before recycling your old one. Never met a mixer I didn't love