[chocolate garnish for wedding cake]

Wull, I have not seen this picture but I have some ideas for you.

Now if you are just wanting to be a chocolate purist, get your choc the correct temperature and use a spoon and scoop up petal shaped kina free form petals. You could actually pour out your choco and wait till it starts setting up and touch it with a teardrop cutter and then scoop that up. Have fun.

Or or or you might want to use what some people call candy clay in order to roll the chocolate out and use cutters similar to what B Keith recommends. Candy clay is 14 oz of chocolate or candy melts melted & add one third cup of corn syrup, slowly stir together. I let mine sit in the container that I melted it in and smooth it all level on top or it separates. Cover well & let that harden overnight and pinch off & knead it in small portions to soften. If it does separate, just knead it all back together.

So you can use candy clay to make rose petals - but not super thin ones.

Or or or - But if I wanted a melty in your mouth candy to look like real translucent petals I would use two parts marshmallow fondant and one part candy clay.

Marshmallow fondant is nothing more than a 16 oz bag of marshmallows melted with two tablespoons of water and add two pounds of confectioners sugar - so put one pound of sugar in a bowl, pour in the melted marshmallows & water and any flavoring, mix and add the other pound of sugar - you will need to micro-zap this a few seconds (like 5-6 seconds) here & there to loosen it up so you can knead it all in.

So combine 2 parts mmf with 1 part candy clay. You can now roll this out nice & thin :). You can now cut out a teardrop shape. Put this on a cushy placemat or spongy thing, actually this is pretty important for success - it's called a celpad - get it at a cake deco store ten bucks maybe - dust with cornstarch first - take a ball tool which is a dowel with a ball bearing on each end - or just use a marble or ball bearing - and run it over the edge of the petal that is sitting on the celpad to thin the edge to remove the just cut look - then rub the marble over the belly of the petal and it pops up just like a rose petal - sit it in a spoon to let dry. Wa - a - a - la - yummy candy rose petals.

Oh yah and you can flavor these however you want too. You can color the dough with food color or airbrush afterwards, and/or brush with petal dusts also available at cake deco stores. Getcha' some super pearl dust at least and brush that over the finished product.

[Chocolate and Parafin]

It's been used forever to make the chocolate a little more tooth friendly and it helps it to not melt so fast. When we were in New Mexico we got our favorite candy bar, Caramello, and the chocolate was loaded with something to enhance the shelf life to make it last better in that climate. The melt factor was much much slower than the bars we get here in Tennessee.

Anyhoo - the product you can use that is without question made for ingestion is called paramount crystals. Add to chocolate so it is easier on the tooth in that you can bite it and it doesn't just crackle in pieces - for example to coat a piece of candy or cake - the cake is much softer so you want the chocolate softer. Stuff like that.

But parafin has been used forever for this purpose. Not that it is plan A. All candy bars have something in there & we've all been eating it.

[Swiss versus Italian Meringue Buttercream]

I'm not a professional pastry chef and don't claim to be an expert, but in the pastry course that I took a while back I THOUGHT we were taught that French buttercream was a whole egg buttercream and Italian and Swiss were meringue buttercreams. But I could be wrong.

Am I wrong? I would love to have clarification.

Wull, yah I have heard the exact same thing. However I have a recipe I have used forever for French buttercream that is eggless, aheh. So??? But for really yes you are correct - there absolutley is a French bc that does use the yolk.

But so far I am becoming more & more convinced that that's a whopping typo in that MS book - somebody copied & pasted the wrong formula. But then again there are decorators out there relying on that recipe as Swiss mbc when it's Italian. Gets confusing.

Maybe we should call it 'European' buttercream or 'part of it was heated buttercream' and put whatever the he** we want in it!!

[Banana Bread: Tips & Techniques]

Nikki, I see you have plenty of recipes now. However, I refined this recipe years ago and it is thee bomb. People who do not care for banana bread love this stuff.

half cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 and a half to 2 cups of softly mashed eating quality bananas

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

half teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

third cup raisins

nuts to sprinkle on top

Key here is to use nice ripe but still eating quality bananas, discard bruises for best texture. Just mush them with your hands or a potato masher - You don't want to food process or homognize the bananas or this batter. A few small lumps of banana is fine. But I do mix in a Kitchen Aid mixer or by hand.

Trust me on the cinnamon & raisins - it so works - you could grind the raisins if you want and you could also soak them first in a hot liquid, alcohol or juice or whatever.

On the mixing, y'know have room temp ingredients, cream the butter, add sugar, eggs & lemon beat well. Add lightly smushed bananas & dry sifted ingredients. Sprinkle the nuts on top and bake for 75 minutes at 350 degrees in a greased pan.

I make loaves or bundt - I usually make this in huge batches in any thing & everything I can fill & bake in.

Hope you get to try this once at least.

[Apple Pie]

Bosco's has a nice apple crisp - if you have a Bosco's in your area. But the best apple pie I know of is the make it yourself kind - and the runners up aren't even close.

I'm sure it's out there somewhere - I just haven't found it.

Good luck - when you find it, let me know.

[Swiss versus Italian Meringue Buttercream]

Poor Martha has what some people call Italian meringue buttercream listed as Swiss meringue buttercream in one of her books. I hate to pick on her beings as how she's within the confines of her 'college dorm without the freedom' thing. But is there not a clear cut formula for each of these???

I mean I thought Swiss meringue buttercream was egg whites and sugar heated then whipped into a meringue, & add butter etc.

I thought Italian meringue buttercream was heated sugar and corn syrup added to meringue etc.

But I must be wrong??

Then I was told Julia was on Martha's show making a cake and joined in calling it swiss mbc. So while a rose by any other name is still as sweet - is there not a definite Swiss mbc formula and a definite Italian mbc formula???

Anybody know??