K8memphis

And on the pop it in the microwave in a glass container popper thing--the best thing is to put it all in there as I described earlier, put it in the microwave then hit the go button for like a minute keep it going (probably no more than one and half minutes) until one pops, take it out & swirl the kernals around so they have a better chance to all swell up. Yeah, it cools off a bit but it will pop better.

Now hold on, did you cut that hot??????? What happens if you just tear a chunk open after it cools??? Oh man, I bet it smells like heaven at your house.

I mean my longtime response to such requests is "Sorry, I don't do legends." Meaning of course, I ain't Grandma, it's not gonna be the same. But I'd like to recommend that you consider putting it in the construction like if you had a 7" tier in there, you could use the root beer cake for one quarter or one half of that tier of the cake. Just splice it in. They can cut that part when the bride & groom do their thing. I don't think it's supposed to necessarily taste like root beer. I think it's supposed to taste like Grandma's. Maybe she can't be there, maybe she's gone now who knows. It's likely Grandma did something to it that she didn't write down too. Hence the phrase, 'I don't do legends'... But I can follow a recipe. Key here is that they have to have that same understanding. Since it baked up for yah halfway decent you could splice it in there up top somewhere & make the rest something more serve-able & all. Just an idea for yah. I like Cool Whip.

I see your point, but if my decorator is not going to be responsible for the cake & wants me to sign off on it in advance, I'd go elsewhere. I mean that's why I, as the baker/decorator reserve the right to say no I will not use this formula. And why You charge astonomic megabucks if you do use it. I mean it's gotta meet a huge list of criteria. It's gotta serve perfectly. And that's where the rubber meets the road. Wedding cakes are beautiful, fresh, engineered confection, that have to slice & serve with pinpoint accuracy. It cannot crumble. But like you could still incorporate one little portion of it in there for them to cut & feed each other & people to twitter about as the homage to Grandmother. Lots of possibilities there.

I think you should do what Wendy said, maybe just add corn syrup to an already good recipe--like my favorite is the same as Jmahl's, the one on the Quaker oats box. But like I would do a fraction of it to test. Y'know, half it or something. My favorite oatmeal cookie is the Quaker one--no raisins, but add toasted coconut--Oh man these are good! No cinnamon, can't remember if it calls for that. But if I do raisins, I toss in cinnamon. But grinding the raisins takes it to a different level too. I LOVE cookies.

Yay!!! Cool, any pictures maybe???

What I would do is make the cake once & see how it does. Test the recipe, see how you like to work with it. I mean did they make it up or have they had it before? Now the cool whip thing you can get around with substituting Rich's Cream I think it is called in my neck of the woods, or Bettercreme. It's non-dairy & does the same thing as cool whip. I think this root beer formula might work well in a cup cake, I mean assuming it flies at all. But cupcake wedding cakes are big now. To me, I'd try it out & charge a fortune IF you like working with the cake. As a groom's cake is a definite possibility but if it works for a groom's cake it would work as a bride's cake. I would NOT use a formula I was not comfortable with. Period, end of the world. To me, as a decorator, I don't really enter into what their guests will like or dislike. It's their wedding so I'm an advocate for the person paying me. If nobody eats/likes their cake it's not my concern. I mean I advise them of whatever pitfalls I may forsee but it's their decision. Like if they send out 200 invites & order a cake for 75 I'll mention that they're probably gonna run out--but again it's their call. Best thing is umm, you can charge a fortune for this. And to be honest I think it's cool. A&W all the way, baby!!! (If I had some root beer soda & candy, I'd have it in the oven myself right now) And I think I'd put some crushed candy in the whipped topping too.

I've never made bread that I had to move after it rises. I mean except move it as is into the oven. I'd be feeding the birds with it too I'm afraid (after I ate the crust . I've seen it done on tv too, but I just suck all the air out of the room. Gerhard, you are very brave.

How do you pronounce grigne? Shhhh...baby's sleeping...don't say the d-word If we have a round 3 which I'm sure we won't--no chance!!! Jackal, what do think about slashing before it rises?

How about piping gel. That would work. Pipe it then let it set an hour or a coupla hours--then put down your delicious sounding peach & raspberry--that stuff (piping gel) will hold anything given enough time. And maybe allow time between putting on your ying and yang. It never hurts to test stuff too. I would definitely test this idea before I attempted it on my product. I would add food color to the peach so it has the same intensity of color as the raspberry myself. But that's just me. edited to say I think I would reduce the fruit stuff too before adding the gelatin to intensify the flavor too. Wonder how sticky that's gonna be...

Jackal, geez, I'd slash it now cause I'm a chicken. And should he watch so that it doesn't get too poofy--so it doesn't get like jiggly so it stays kinda firm even though it's all air?? And do you have to slash it deep--it just bakes deep right??? That top one's gonna be skinny in the middle but they sure look good.

Kind of depends on what you are covering the cake with. What kind of icing are you using? One way would be to ice your cake raspberry color, then if it's a round cake, using the entire top of the cake for the symbol, just pipe one half of the ying yang on the top in the peach color. I mean another way is to cut out one half out of paper, lay it on the cake & sprinkle colored powdered sugar on top & remove the paper. Repeat with the other color. You can color the sugar with powdered food color. But what mediums are you using? What kind of icing & stuff???

Oooh lookie all the bubbles that one looks really nice. Ooh, the seagulls are gonna be crying themselves to sleep tonight. (Er tomorrow er whatever time it is there, soon anyway.)

Maybe something like this. But to me, adding the raisins means the cookies will de-crisp, will get chewy. I mean these cookies would soften just in a day or two here in our humidity anyways but raisins would hasten it I think. I tell yah, sandwiching chocolate in between is awesome too. Sometimes they are called oatmeal lace.

Yeah, I thought, "Ouch" But umm, Gerhard, the crust on yours looks awesome. I could easily eat that all up no problem-o. Dip in butter or oil. Yum yum.

Whooo hooo hooo--There's gonna be different kind of TOUCHDOWN* today!!! Go Gerhard Go Gerhard *picture both arms raised straight up in triumph

Yes it does. They are not playing nice at all are they. Chefs and diners of the world, unite. Whup their ass. Well placed phone calls and letters. We should be pleasant but we should be heard. Do they have an email address??? I'm gonna go find one. I mean I'll not be in Japan this month aheh, cough. 'Remember the AlaCarte' and all that good stuff.

Agh no, my starter did not have eggs. When I baked the bread I added eggs and baked the batter. You sure, man, in the starter?? The smell would knock you out in seven days or whatever it was. Dude, no one would be calling it Friendship Bread. Kwim???

Yeah, it's really good. I remember the 'mashing' the bag part. Umm, the hard part is foisting off all the starters that spring up off your batches. There's a fruit one too that's also awesome. I guess that one is to make a cake though. Or you could use it on ice cream & stuff--it was really good. The Amish know what they're doing huh.

I just wanna say those are adorable!

I can barely see the other side of this. Cake deco people have been hounded for decades by copyright issues. And those issues cross purposes before we get zapped for thousands of dollars. We do not make money because we make a mass media, mass marketed Mickey Mouse cartoon or movie or t-shirt. We take a nationally loved character to adorn Susie's birthday cake and I'm telling you the lawsuit frenzy is for real. Movies to birthday cakes, t-shirts to cakes--it's not even close to equal. If someone is making money on somebody else's designs to the tune of 15 equally created dishes in the same type of restaurant--directly plate to plate, that's gotta be at least unethical, if not much more than unethical.

This will not really work. Maybe use a dowel to mark your marks that you can keep wiped off or something. Or you could mark it then scrape it with a pointy somthing like the tip of a potato peeler, or an ice pick or something. I would use a bench scraper to mark it myself. It has a handier handle than a dowel. Y'know keep it wiped off, maybe heat it. Experiment with it but I doubt it will work--it's too messy. And the icing is too impressionable and you have to kind of roll the mat across the sides--it will pick up to much icing, I'm afraid.

Touché ! ← Geez this is funny Cake decorators are in general very helpful, but we do give credit to our inspiration or we as a group show our other side, we nail their ass for it. I've seen it done and it's not pretty. If this was over ONE cake, much less fifteen, cake decorators would be alll over this and fast. Chances are 0 in a billion. The chef at Tapas Molecular Bar, Jeff Ramsey, worked at Minibar for a year. What I don't get is why Mandarin Oriental didn't just offer Jose Andres a consulting fee to set up a Minibar branch at their hotel in Tokyo. It can't be because Mandarin Oriental is run by cheapskates. I wonder if anybody in upper management even knew this was a knockoff. ← Just by common sense standards 15 near identical dishes is a bit much. Credit most certainly should surely be given at the least. And now with apologie$. I have 2 small examples to bring it into focus. I am identifying with giving proper credit--not identifying with the chef's caliber in any way. I feel funny stating the obvious but there it is. Umm, when I had my little place for that little time. I wanted to do a dessert called Oh My Ganache--the deep fried ganache encased in pate choux that I learned about in our pastry forum. I asked our fellow poster' Ohmyganache' if I could call it that on my menu & I would credit him. And when he opens his place later I would reference that as well. He was very kind. But I asked. Another time I made a cake and copied a Kerry Vincent design. I have it for my avatar on another board. Someone emailed me & asked if that was Kerry's cake design. I realized that I had not properly explained my avatar and given proper credit. So I did quickly. Shoot, the boys in the hotel world should do no less than I did. Co-ome o-on. Stealing yes it is. Yes they did. And I'd give 'em the benefit of the doubt as to who did the actual stealing. I know FG doesn't give the benefit of the doubt there. That could sure get lost in the translation, but they need to totally 'fess up ASAP. Fork over credit and consulting fees too. And Fast.

Yeah, I had the sorriest salmon ever--in the fanciest of places too. It wasn't bad like spoiled--on that score, I would not eat it due to health issues I'd prolly die or wish I was dead -- I'd send it back if it stunk--but ... How about this question, yah know how they say don't order filet well done because they give you crappy cuts and don't order fish on Monday cause it's leftover from the weekend or something??? So the regularity in which consumers receive awful meals when they are being hosted/treated by someone else--think that's a similar factor???? Think it's on purpose??? Or just random. Both probably huh. Last time, with the dryasdust salmon, I thought about telling someone when I left the table to go to the john--but I didn't--it wasn't just his boss treating us it was big whigs from the mother ship--I mean from Chicago. Oh no, they would notice, they would comment if you didn't eat your food, this is not an interview, this is business. I mean you don't have to 'clean your plate' but I mean we get several appetizers & pass & share, then the entrees arrive, mine late of course blahblahblah So anyway... what a yah gonna do?

All this talk about negative feedback & critiquing & getting the manager and writing letters & stuff... I can promise you that I will get sh*tty sh*tty food in the shee-shee-est places when someone else is treating me to the meal. Whether it's his boss or my boss & everyone is politely sitting staring at their plate of food waiting for everyone to be served, I'll be served last of course, it sucks of course. Not always always. But sooo often. 3-4 times plus the time at the sushi place where they seemed to have forgotten to wash the clever wooden cutting board they were serving me my food on. But I mean to get that dingy of a surface on there they had to brush the food off many times from many previous diners. Geez I'm gonna hurl just thinking about it. And that was the time the kid was treating her Dad & all of us to a Father's Day meal--it was her first big time to treat us. I was a bit squeemish about sushi & stuff anyways. So it seems that if I even ever so gentley say to the waiter, by the way, please step aside or I'm going to throw up on your shoes. No no no, I was kidding--that's what I would like to say. But I mean how do you ask for a manager without disrupting the table--how do you recover the atmosphere after you send something back & everyone knows you'll be eating later, sometimes much later. Plus you know somebody's drooling on your food somewhere back there 'cause you sent it back. I mean I have no regrets about keeping my mouth shut at the sushi place for Father's Day (hurl hurl) because I totally did not want that to be the memory. Mom was freaked out about sushi and then she sent all her stuff back blahblahblah. But later my son agreed that that board was scary looking. But anyway--how do you send stuff back when someone else is paying??? Doesn't it seem a little umm, ungrateful is not the right word, umm, out of place to send it back, inappropriate, as if you are slighting their generosity somehow. I mean of course they want you to enjoy your meal--and get their money's worth--but still, what do you think??? How do y'all handle that?