CanadianBakin'

That sounds awesome! I might just have to make it too!

I'm pretty sure this is what he means: http://www.englishteastore.com/cok008.html. They come plain or with milk chocolate. It's an English digestive cookie.

Rob, that's one of the few recipes I made while I had this book out of the library and eveyone that tried them thought they were amazing! I made half with nuts, half without and made some minis and some regular size. Your looks great in the fluted pan.

You guys are awesome!! Thanks so much! Circles it is. That's what I was doing except trying to coat the whole thing at the same time. Should I have my chocolate in a narrow enough container so it's deep enough to dip right side up? Can I just hold the nipple on the plastic fork and pour some chocolate over so the bottom doesn't get coated again? Or is it supposed to get coated again? edited to add yet another question: I've still got 43 ganache nipples that are just piped onto parchment and sitting in my fridge. What should I do with these or is it a lost cause at this point?

My hat is off to all of you who can dip chocolates. I thought since I'm a fairly accomplished baker, how hard could it be? Well... I suck! I'm trying to make Venus Nipples from Indulge by Claire Clark. (Fantastic book by the way) You pipe a white chocolate/coffee ganache onto a tray, chill for an hour, then dip in tempered white chocolate. I managed to temper the chocolate ok. I don't have any dipping tools so this may be the problem. I lifted them off the parchment with an offset spatula then tried to dip them with a fork. She said to use a plastic glove if you don't have a dipping fork but that didn't work for me. The fork made a mess of the bottoms of the truffles since the ganache is a little soft and they (the bottoms) ended up with no chocolate on them. The chocolate on the top side set up nicely but the bottom is a disaster. Any ideas? Or is it just a matter of practice?

I didn't realize it was for commerical. In that case, the chef where I took some pastry classes used a regular racking system with a clear plastic zip-on cover that looked a bit like a green house. I'm not totally sure on this but I think I saw a pan of warm water on the bottom rack. He proofed everything in it.

I haven't found it necessary. I use my oven and put a pan of very warm water on the bottom, only warm enough to have a tiny bit of steam. I tried using boiling water once and it just melted all the butter. VERY frustrating after all that work but that's what my recipe had suggested.

I'm going to make my first attempt at tempering chocolate this week. At what point in the process do you add powder to the white chocolate?

Thanks for the suggestion K8. I'll give it a try. It's amazing how close many recipes are but I guess it's a matter of getting it just right for your preference. Anyone else have a vanilla cupcake that they are really happy with?

I've just re-read this whole thread and it looks like I'm not the only one who hasn't found an amazing vanilla cupcake recipe. I've made CI's and Whimsical Bakehouse...they seem a bit too dense for me. I tried another recipe I found in several places online that is made with oil and sour cream rather than butter and it was super moist but a bit greasy and obviously didn't taste like butter. Today I tried Sherry Yard's Buttermilk Birthday Cupcakes which I guess are a sponge. They are moist, great flavour, just delicious BUT they don't look nice. They are either totally flat or even a tiny bit sunken and they must have shrunk up a bit as they cooled because some of them aren't quite round anymore. I can hide the top with icing but the odd shapes would be hard to hide. From my experimenting I'm getting the feeling that buttermilk or sourcream need to be involved and perhaps a bit of oil as well as butter. I notice ComeUndone uses pound cake and I haven't tried that yet but my thought is that it would be dense although perhaps more moist and maybe that would make the difference. So what vanilla cupcake recipe do you use? I'd like one that is very moist with a bit of an open crumb. I'd also like it to hold up for a couple days and freeze well. That's not asking much, is it?!

Might not work with a dense chocolate cake but Baileys is awesome folded into whipped cream to fill a chocolate cake. My girlfriend says it tastes like Black Forest Cake without the cherries, which for her is a good thing as she doesn't like cherries. I could sit and eat a whole bowl of it. Where's that drooling icon when you need it?

Thanks for the laugh, Rob! I appreciate that you don't mind posting your flops.

It's been quite awhile since I've made it so I'm trying to remember. I know for sure it looked very impressive. Unless you have a lot of people tasting the trial run I would halve the recipe and bake it in three 6"pans as it is quite rich. The filling was excellent but I think you're right about the cake. If you've got a favourite yellow cake recipe, I'd use that and add coconut extract. I think it would be a great choice for a 70th birthday.

That was my first thought as well although it thins out pretty quickly when stirred. You'd want to be very careful that it was handled as little as possible.

Food processor all the way! Washes up in the dishwasher no problem .

I tried this once and ended up with a very firm layer of caramel that wasn't at all easy to eat. I'm hesitant to try it again.

Kerry, would you have to have acetate to make the chocolate/coconut decorations or could you use parchment? It's not something I'd do very often so I wouldn't want to buy a whole roll of acetate but it might be fun to try.

I made this last night for Valentine's day after lusting over the photo for months! But like you I had the same problem, the cakes did not rise during baking. I did not bother slicing the layers in half, because I knew that would be a disaster. I was thinking that perhaps the cakes should have been baked in 8" pans, rather than 9" ones but maybe it was the cake flour I used. Even though the cake was quiet dense everyone enjoyed it, and I am regretting sending the leftovers home with a friend ← It didn't rise when I made it either.

I remembered reading something about a celebrity having a divorce party. I found it on People.com. Here's an excerpt: The highlight of the evening came at dinner, when the Bellagio's Fix restaurant brought out a "divorce cake" for Shanna Moakler. The three-tiered cake featured a miniature knife-wielding blonde in a wedding dress on top, with a trail of blood leading to a tiny groom sprawled at the bottom. edited to add link to picture: http://www.celebsource.org/travis-barker/s...s-divorce-cake/ ...I'm not so sure it's what you're looking for.

Wow!! Cake walks sure have come a long way since I went to school. I love the penguin leaning into the pond. Big smiles .

...I don't know about that . I think the recipe I have from Chef Marco, formerly of NWCAV, would give you a run for your money. It has a secret ingredient that makes all the difference.

Kim, I love your cupcake stand. Where is it from?

I keep thinking I need to sit down and make a list before I post but that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon so I'll just list what I can remember... croissants pain au chocolate puff pastry cruellers sour dough starter - after keeping it for some time and experimenting a bit I found I preferred the taste of long ferment bread and I didn't like maintaining the starter so I ditched it. (The above all from a pastry course I took) sponge for cake rolls (thanks Jeannecake) Pain brie (Thanks to Pastry's Best magazine. I now make it all the time) edited to add: I finally mastered a Butter Cake with the Whimsical Bakehouse recipe (I think K8memphis suggested the recipe)

Jumanggy, that is very impressive! Does it require any special equipment to get that look on top?

My favourites so far have been with cocoa. My current favourite is Over-The-Fence Brownies on the King Arthur Flour site. Lots of cocoa with the option of adding chocolate chunks.