K8memphis

Toasted coconut is thee bomb in plain oatmeal cookies. I like to use ground raisins in stuff. I might have to make some of those crinkles soon!!

My favorites,,,hmmm,,, Those no bake chocolate drop ones made with oats - instant gratification Those ahh little lacey oat ones sandwiched with semi-sweet chocolate. The cut-out sugar cookie recipe that is made with buttermilk & they spread but who cares because they are so dang good. Molasses crinkles (without the spices) from the old red & white Betty Crocker cookbook. Crispy outside almost liquid inside - you gotta be kidding-good! Ummm, lemon bars. Ummm, I think my all time favorite cookie is the one we always called apricot kolachys - where the dough is mostly cream cheese, flour & butter and roll it out & cut squares & fill with apricot preserves and fold two corners together - course I've made 'em in a crescent shape too - sprinkle with 10x sugar - oh my total gosh. Love those!!! If you make rice krispie treats with butter and melt not boil the marshmallows add a squirt of vanilla - jack up the ratio of marshmallow to rice krispie a bit too - to die for! And they are a blast to model with too. Peanut butter peanut butter peanut butter Oh yah, last but not least chocolate pin wheels - refrigerator cookies y'know?!! PS. Cookie dough - any & all of it!!

It was a soda fountain drink not bottled - but does anyone remember "Green River" popular in NW Indiana (and elsewhere I'm sure) in the pre-70's??? Btw- Jones soda is carried in Target stores.

KatieM, I made your sweet potato dealies - mmmm way good!! I used cooked, toasted oats & toasted walnuts - I did add like a small handfull of whole wheat flour like a third of a cup-ish - I used the egg - I used that vietnamese cinnamon - soo good! and and and I used the juice & zest of a lemon - oh and like a tablespoon of butta - like it mattered? I was gonna put a little more butta & I forgot - and like a coupla tablespoons of brown sugar and a tablespoon or so of honey and some salt. Way good!! Really tasty!!! Thanks!!

Awesome cake, Miss Anne! edited to say - but that shoe is fantastic!!!

I see your point, my friend.

Wow, Ted, thanks! How sweet are you???!!! I am presently in between things. I've been a decorator/baker for a long time. I am looking to like 'piggy-back' off someone else's business so I can keep the artistry, provide them with some gravy money, and avoid being a full-time business-owner myself. (full to over-flowing :) Thanks again!

Wull, it's like rolling out cookie or pie dough or pie dough - it's same same - wull, you have to like 'heat' the fondant (with your hands that is) and knead it a bit is all - now fondant you can actually put in the microzapper for like a few seconds three to five seconds at a time to make it easier - when you add the color - have the dough (either marzipan or fondant) nice and pliable then put a dab of color in the middle and squish it into itself so it starts to permeate the dough & not your skin - soak your fingers in polident tabletted water if you stain your skin. Umm, if you buy marzipan sometimes it can be too dry - add a tid of shortening. So it's very very easy. Here's an idea, make your icing and pipe out a few blobs and see about the patting down the blobs thing - just use a cutting board or the counter - see how that does - it is super easy - you will get a great even very professional finish - if you like that - stay there - you can pipe a blob - pat it down - if it sticks to the towel, wait a second it will set up a tiny bit & try it again - pipe on top of each other if you want - but it has to be a buttercream that will form a crust** - not a swiss or italian meringue, these are cooked icings that stay soft & creamy to the touch. If you wanna roll out some dough, try that - super easy - honest. And and and if you have like a plastic cutting board or plastic placemat - use that to roll out on because it is real handy to peel your stuff off a plastic surface like that. www.countrykitchensasa.com has the spray colors you are looking for I think. **Like 2 pounds confectioner's sugar, half cup liquid, one cup fat, flavoring & salt - mix it up & away you go - this will crust.

Hmmm, I once was gonna use this awesome feather trim around a groom's cake but then the whole health factor thing started eating away at my brain and I decided not to poison anyone...this time So spun sugar would be totally amazing and edible and feather boa-ish but maybe more last minute and technical than you might like. Or or or you could use curling ribbon - curl it and shred it lenghtwise and entwine it to make a feathery effect or make puffs out of it & set little puffs all around the base. The leopard spot coloring could easily be acheived with an airbrush. You can also purchase colors in a can to spray on if you don't have an airbrush. Also, you could flatten tootsie rolls or buy some fondant and color and flatten balls of that to stick onto your cake. I have an easy peasy recipe for fondant out of marshmallows that would work great. Marzipan would be great - it holds color perfectly and you can get it already made at the major grocery stores. If you use a buttercream that crusts, you can just use two colors of chocolate on top of your cream color iced cake. Just pipe out various blobs of color and then go back & pat them down with a smooth weave impeccably clean towel or a viva paper towel. wa-a-a-la le leopard spots. I vote for the marzipan being the easiest - then the cans of colored spray (but an airbrush is the easiest over all)

"For those who fought for it, freedom bears a price the protected will never know." I think we should leave the politics for other boards.

Dude, Dude, Dude, Dude, Dude pop it in BACON GREASE oh my gosh There simply is no equal - pop it in a tablespoon or two of bacon grease - or add that to some regular oil - after popping use a little butta & salt - and you can use a very minimum of butta or butta spray. In fact, I do this in the microwave. I just heat the bacon grease in a big pyrex bowl for 2 mins, add the popcorn, stir it up, cover with regular plastic wrap - pop - remove the plastic wrap quick so it doesn't steam too much - drizzle with the butta & sprinkle with the salt - fasten your seatbelt and lick your chops for popcorn heaven.

Yep gorgeous cake, Miss Anne. Somehow buttercream doesn't come out like that for me when I grapple with it. That's a superb finish. But that's a light chocolate icing too. If my arm wrestling with the buttercream doesn't produce similar results I know I could get close with my airbrush Oh oh oh and the idea of not doing the rolled cake, just layers - you're a genius! The little birdie & perfect bark - great with the holly too. Awesome stuff!!

Cream cheese icing can be trickier and you do have some good ideas already. Umm also, when I do cream cheese icing, I watch my additional liquid like a hawk, and I add cornstarch to help bulk/firm it up. I also deliver cold refrigerated cake. Sylvia Weinstock does too. I love Wendy's freezer stories & methods - that stuff (the cold) is a great tool - use it!! The cold makes an invisible cohesive-ness - that no amount of nose in the air snodgrass shee-shee do you have any grey poupon Robin Leach shock & awe can replace. Before I was smart/old enough to know how dumb this was, I did a carrot cake w/cr cheese icing stacked delivered in hot hunnerd degree Memphis heat with a hyperactive kid in the car and we circled (again that whole hawk like thing or was that the kid gonna swoop down on my cake??) we circled the reception hall for AN HOUR AND A HALF because I got directions but no address for the reception hall. So that's a good idea too. Get the address. But I mean that was before the cell phone age & taking calls in between taking the vows & all that good stuff. But it's very do-able. Gum paste decorations should be fine. Chocolate leaves would be rich on that. Fondant might be better than gum paste 'cause then they could eat 'em.

I just did a package cake but I can't get the camera to download - anyhow - you could do that easy in buttercream . Fondant is kina scary until you try it. I mean have you ever rolled out cookie dough or pie dough?? Same same. As inglorious as it sounds marshmallow fondant is super easy and will give you this package effect. Or or or you can purchase already made fondant. All you do is flavor it - color it if you want it colored - knead food color into it. Y'know what would be pretty without a learning curve??? What about the package cake idea - but for the ribbon - pipe larger size leaves up & across the cake like it was kina 3-d ribbon - if you can stripe your bag of icing to get the turning colors on there y'know - or even solid color leaves - kina broad & straight like the ribbon??? Then put a blob of icing in the middle & cover it with leaves for the 'bow' But but but I mean you can use a broad leaf tip to make the straight buttercream ribbon. Then you could use a real loopy ribbon bow if you wanted. Chocolate leaves are easy - gather healthy leaves - wash & dry - brush with choco - stick in freezer on formers so they curve a little - not just flat - like 3-5 mins - peel off - I think there's more learning curve on choc leaves than fondant ribbons like for a package cake.

Wull, this is my granola bar recipe - I doubt I've ever made it the same way twice - but these are the basics. Options are us 5 cups of a combination of oats, rice krispies, wheat germ, nuts, and optional coconut & fruit. Like: > one and a half cups oats > one cup rice krispies > a half cup wheat germ > one cup nuts > a half cup coconut > a half cup chopped raisins or dates or apricots (or like: 2.5 cups oats plus 1.5 cup rice krispies plus 1 cup nuts) So whatever combination you come up with plus > a half cup flour > a quarter teaspoon salt Then the wet stuff is > a half cup sweetener - use all honey or equal parts honey & brown sugar (this is cutting back so it's less sweet for you - could be as much as two thirds cup) > half cup of softened butter or scant half cup of oil or go half & half > one tablespoon of molasses > one teaspoon vanilla The idea here is to rub this together really well. Kina mix the wet stuff & pour over the dry stuff* & rub it all together. Then wet hands with water & pack this into a greased 9x13 pan - bake like 325 degrees for 30 mins cut into bars - or or or you could use a bigger pan & spread it out & stir it and bake for like maybe 45 mins until nicely golden all over & just have granola rather than a bar. I know you're going for less sweet but get the sweetened wheat germ - trust me on this one - the other stuff tastes like day-old cardboard even within the granola. Then the rolled or old-fashioned oats are better than the quick ones. And and and if you want, you could toast the oats first too if you wanted. Like I said, I never made this the same way twice so I hope all the zillion choices doesn't detract. You could even go with a quarter cup sweetener and taste it to see if you like it - I mean especially if you have the sweetened wheat germ and chopped fruit - a quarter or third cup sweetener would be cool. *Wull, but add the rice krispies after the rubbing so you don't squish 'em all.

Lots of great ideas already. Also a monogram is very masculine. I like to do scroll decor for a masculine cake. Not the random pattern scroll cakes popular now but a balanced scroll design - scroll borders & stuff. Wheat design border is very masculine. You could use a tan or light brown color maybe a subtle burnt orange worked in. Also also also - turning leaves would be perfect for a November guys b-day.

I didn't know what happened to your toasty pound cake for sure. My first reaction was that obviously it got browned off inside. But I was flumuxed y'know how in the world could you do that??? (How hot was your oven???) I always thought the extra cream had something to do with it. But how could that have attracted the extra heat??? So the extra cream in the special butta and the slit after 15 minutes in the oven, toasted out your baby. Doncha, think??? You opened up it's little belly to the heat.

How many quarts is that, Matthew??

Neil, that's awesome!! It's tall & confident, rustic yes, and very very cool. (insert clapping hands smilie face)

Wull, guys, I practiced today and thought I would write down my observations for Theone, but I mean I am jumping off of y'alls recommendations and just writing down what I did. For the completly chocolate petal I held the cutter y'know at a bit of an angle to the chocolate, scraped the cutter into the choc for a bit and then pulled the cutter up towards me to finish, like I kind of dug in and pulled up on it. So with arms still and elbows up, I bent my hand down at the wrist and pulled the cutter up by just bending my wrists. Which is the same motion as if I was waving at the chocolate with the cutter only of course you're making contact too, again elbows are up. I used the round end of a teardrop shape cookie cutter like Sinclair suggested. When you draw up like that it makes the point of the petal. But the big big deal is getting the choco at the exact perfect temperature. To practice today, I cheated big time and used the bottom of a big Cadbury bar - warm in the Memphis weather - then I had to warm it a bit with a hairdryer - but of course I'm not recommending that, aheh. ! If you play with your chocolate - and I recommend you 'play' with already tempered chocolate like Steve already said, or even candy melts. I mean if you gotta learn the whole tempering chocolate thing that's a huge learning curve. You can do this petal thing though. I got a few passable ones even out of my Cadbury bar - Chocolate is always something I have to play with first a little to get back in the swing of it. Like getting on the merry-go-round when you were a kid - you gotta' get on just right and it's perfect but if you jump wrong you're dead ground meat. The chocolate and the merry-go-round 'travel' at their own speed and there is no mercy. But but but you want to make a nice long smear of melted choco like a half inch or so deep & as long as you want and then watch as it sets up and keep scraping until it's the right temp & you go, 'wull, dang how easy was that'. I could maybe take a picture of my scrawny offerings - I mean I only played with one candy bars worth. But I don't know how to post a picture and I'm still not sure what your cake looks like. But I mean don't use a candy bar - I was just using that so I could do what they said so I could write down a similiar hand motion so you could get it. (hey - I din know you can buy modeling choco - need to get out more )

Mel, When I grow mine I'm gonna send ya' a copy of Michaelangelo's Creation of Adam. You're very inspiring and stirred up the embers...again...the kids are grown, I'm successfully unemployed, all the pieces are falling into place...

B Keith, thank you so much!! Yah, momentarily forgot to check my copy, then I got an asthma attack dusting it off...cough cough cough kachoo...been so long since I used it, cough sputter... But also I have been using your whimsical cake instructions - well, used 'em twice - great great stuff - so easy - feels like the cake police should be closing in on you feels so wrong but works so good. ThanksAgain! BakerChick, yah I guess she did. But it really freaked me out because there are so many terms that are not nailed down, especially in sugar craft - everybody's got their own formula for gum paste and flower paste for example. I thought these meringue formulas were fairly specific. I make the Swiss all the time. The Italian I made once was too floofullee. The Swiss is like magic in your mouth. Any how, Thanks y'all.

It's a heroin plus random pharmaceuticals type a thing, aheh. Thanks for the idea.

Yah, Ohio is easy. Here in TN I have to have a commercially zoned commercial kitchen in other words, not from home. You would be wholesaling to sell to the store - you won't make much at all - unless you do big volume. I would suggest for you to determine your product line and cost to produce (including paper towels, gas, sugar, flour everything including your time) triple that - balance your price out against what other bakers get...stuff like that. Go retail instead.

FlourP, what part of the country are you in??? I'm totally pea green with envy. I need to open me a sugar art cakery type bakery. And in order to not have to be predominantly a business woman I'm thinking about trying to piggy-back with an existing or starting business. I can offer equipment and mostly gravy money profit to them. Congratulations to you !!! Wull, wait - I was getting the impression you just opened but maybe not - Congrats on the new mixer at least - dang tough business, meaning the bakery and the moving of the mixer!!!