CanadianBakin'

Do you forsee any problems with putting a 6" glazed cake on top of a 10" baked and glazed cheesecake? I will put supports in the cheesecake. I haven't done this before and it's for a family wedding this Sunday. She just wanted a cheesecake that would feed the head table as I have made individual cheesecakes for all the guests. After talking to my husband though, we thought that at least having 2 tiers would make it a bit more special. I thought that doing the 2nd tier in regular batter would be lighter and possibly more successful. I don't have time to try this out ahead and I will be assembling it on site.

You could probably make pie or crumble if you combined them with some sweet apples to balance them.

It looks awesome. I love doing events like this. Would the raspberry tarts have been better if you'd had time to garnish them? I know appearance is so important in getting things "off the plate". A swirl of red would look nice but I can't think of what you could use. I don't think a red jelly would hold it's shape, melted red wafers would cheapen the look. Any ideas what you could use? I make some apricot squares that are in recipegullet. They are awesome but if I don't decorate them, no one even tries them. If I do decorate them, they fly off the plate. We are such visual creatures.

Thanks to those that participated and posted pictures. I have enjoyed it and would have loved to bake up a storm but the timing wasn't great. Maybe next time.

bûche de été... absolutely amazing!!!

If you get stuck, you might be able to find the book at your local library.

And please do make some blackberry jam or jelly to enjoy over the winter.

I so wish we hadn't lingered...we ate at Molly's Reach and what a nightmare. They really don't seem to care at all that you're even in the restaurant. And it wasn't that way just for us. Our whole section had to wait 30 - 40 minutes for lunch. No apology and the only time she checked back was to ask if she could take our ketchup for another table. My husband waited for several minutes at the till for someone to take his money and eventually had to stop one of the waitresses. They weren't busy, just chatting away. Arghhhhh!!

I could be totally wrong but I thought a starter needed to be a couple months old before it would be strong enough to make a loaf. Our chef said it needed time to develop properly. Maybe he was just referring to flavour rather than strength. I'll be interested to see how yours turns out. I've used my starter for bread that was assisted with a bit of regular yeast but now that it's couple months old I'm going to begin today to make a straight sourdough loaf with it. The recipe I'm going to use takes 3 days so I'll have to wait to see if it works.

The mention of meringues and Pavlova made me think of a little dessert by Gale Gand in "Just a Bite". I can't find the recipe or a picture online but it's not complicated. Using a simple merigue you pipe little cups about 1" - 1-1/2" across the bottom and then just pipe up a couple rows on the edge to form the cup. Bake till they are crisp. Just before serving you pipe in whipped cream to fill and then top with one raspberry. Oh.my.goodness!! These taste so good. The combination of sweet, crispy, creamy and tart all in one mouthful is just wonderful.

Rob, how's your starter doing? Has it revived?

Along that line...I've seen this done with gingersnap dough filled with white chocolate mousse. I bet you could fill them with your pastry cream instead and top with some diced peaches or ? With the puff pastry you could make vol-au-vents to fill with just about anything. I wonder if you could fill them with cooked custard and torch them, although you wouldn't be able to get a nice flat finish on the custard....maybe not.

I've tried baking several different recipes but my favourite and always successful one is the Golden Butter Cake from Whimsical Bakehouse. I made it again just 2 weeks ago. This time 4 layers filled and frosted with 7-minute frosting. Large ribbon coconut coating the sides. It's very versatile. I can PM it to you if you like. I'm happy with the flavour, texture & sweetness and it always gets rave reviews.

I'm not an expert by any means but I did just begin a starter about 2 months ago as part of a class with a world class pastry chef. I brought my starter to class one day because it was looking lifeless and he said my starter was too liquid. I stirred in a good scoop of bread flour and by half way through the class it looked great again. Now I just make sure to always have quite a thick batter. I don't know if this will help or not but it might be worth a try. I'd also be tempted to remove the berries as I don't think you need them anymore. If it still smells right I think you should be able to revive it.

Hi Ann, just wondering how many ounces you use per cup of AP flour? I'm guessing by your description that it is 4-1/2 oz but since you offered to answer questions I thought I would ask. Oh, also for cake flour since you use that quite a bit as well.

Rob, it looks fabulous! Another busy week for me but I hope to start baking from this book soon. I was thinking of just starting at the beginning and working through all the recipes that interested me. I can hardly wait!

That is another one I'm seriously considering.

Rob - thanks so much for starting this thread. I just got this book out of the library and I can't wait to start baking. Unfortunately holiday plans are going to hold this up for a bit but at my first opportunity.... It's going to take me awhile to figure out where to start. I think I might try the caramel nut cake you posted a picture of. MMMmmmmm.

It would seem so. Wikipedia gives the following values for flour protein content: 9-10% Pastry Flour 10-11.5% All-Purpose Flour 11-13% Bread Flour If those values are correct, then a 50/50 mixture of pastry and bread flour would have between 10 and 11.5% protein, exactly the range given for AP flour. Since pastry flour is made from soft wheat, bread flour from hard wheat, and AP flour from a mixture of both, mixing pastry and bread flour is just like making AP flour. ← Protein content is also different depending on which country you're in. Canada's flours usually have a higher protein content than US flours and I think Europe is different again.

They look delicious! Thanks for including pictures and I'm glad the parchment trick worked for you.

Klary, I've had the same problem with the cake recipe and a friend of mine made the chocolate cake recipe in this book and also ended up with a dry cake that didn't rise much. I'm not sure what we did wrong. So I just stick with my tried and true yellow and chocolate cake recipes but use the frosting and filling recipes.

Coffee and banana are great together, even better with chocolate! Marcy Goldman has a recipe on her site www.betterbaking.com for Chunky Monkey Muffins. She uses 1 Tbsp strong brewed coffee to 1 cup mashed banana. They also have coconut, pecans and white & dark chocolate chunks. Very delicious!

hummingbird, have you had cruellers before? They are quit eggy and I'm wondering if the taste and texture are similar. I also have never seen or heard of a Malasadas and I've never tried a Dough Boy.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post your adventure. I'm really looking forward to it.

In school I learned a great way to do the transfer. We did it with french cruellers but I imagine it would work with other doughnut-like items. You put your doughnuts or whatever on a piece of parchment that has been greased with shortening. Only put on each sheet as many as you can get in your fryer at one time. Let them bench proof and then you just flip the whole thing over into the fryer. The shortening will melt and release the doughnuts. It's a bit scary the first time but it worked great.