CanadianBakin'

Sebastion - thanks for the tips, you might be on to something. The ingredients are Sugar, FPKO, Cocoa processed with alkali, Lactose, Palm Oil, Soy Lecithin and Vanilla. I'll give it a try chilling immediately after dipping and see if that makes the difference. If not, my rep has offered to replace the bag in case I got the last one off an old lot or something. He says he sells tons of it to bakeries and never has it returned. I'm hoping the quick chill part is what I'm missing.

Just came across the recipe in my file yesterday and my memory was not correct. We had brushed melted shortening over the wax paper and chilled it before piping the crullers. It was the shortening that melted as the donuts were tipped over the hot oil.

I found the frosting recipe on Oprah's site and it does have flour and milk in it. I'm sure for vanilla you could just leave out the cinnamon.

This tip makes it super easy to fill from the top. I don't cut anything out. Just make sure you use a cake recipe that doesn't have too tight a crumb. Once they have cooled just jam the tip in, squeeze till you feel the center give a bit and pull it out. A little might escape but you can clean it up very easily and then glaze. I think I'd be tempted to chill them a bit before glazing. You can also use a normal plain tip or a squeeze bottle with the tip cut off so the whole is about 1/4". I haven't tried the squeeze bottle but read about it in Demolition Desserts. This chocolate cake recipe on www.epicurious.com works great for this application.

That website has a cookbook that would have the recipe in it. It's calledBaked and it should be in your library. I'm trying to remember...I think their white icing was a recipe that began with milk and flour but I could be mistaken.

JeanneCake - thanks for the heads-up on pate a glacer. I didn't really know about it. There's 3 suppliers within an hour of me that carry it so getting it won't be a problem. They don't have Shokinag, instead Cacao Barry, Debelis and Mohrenglanz. Cacao Barry is the only name of the three that is familiar to me. I was reading through the Chocolate Glaze thread and was wondering if I should just be using my brownie glaze? It's dark chocolate, butter and corn syrup. I guess I should cost out both and see if there's a large difference. In the meantime...how can I recover the coating chocolate that I have now?

I use the Ultra Blue propane torch and it works like a charm. I'd say head to hardware not housewares.

I bake for a coffee house and it's not cost effective to temper chocolate for dipping biscotti, rice krispie squares and such so my Belcolade chocolate rep sold me Puratos Carat Coverlux Dark SH. I'm having a terrible time with it. This is the first time I've used coating chocolate so maybe I'm doing something wrong. I melt it like normal chocolate over a pot of gently steaming (not boiling) water. Remove from heat, wipe the bottom of the bowl dry to make sure water doesn't get in it. Dip one end of the rice krispie squares and set them on wax paper to set. When I did it a coupel weeks ago some were fine and some bloomed as soon as they were under refrigeration. Yesterday some wrinkled while still on the counter and the ones that set in the fridge again bloomed right away. Last time we still wrapped them and found after a couple days that the bloom disappeared. I've just been reading the bag and it mentions storing the chocolate at 20F or less and it's been very warm here. Is it possible that I've wrecked the whole bag by not storing it cool enough? If so, is there anyway to save it? Any other ideas? I've got a call in to my rep but I don't know if he just sells it or is actually experienced in using it.

Could altitude be an issue?

Cake for our daughters' 8th birthday. They ask for the same thing every year: chocolate cake, Oreo/whipped cream filling, chocolate icing. They love the little girls I make out of fondant for toppers.

Thanks for updating us. Always interesting to hear what's up. Exciting things ahead for you.

Oh my goodness...fresh French Crullers are amazing!! We made them at school by piping them in the same manner as the video you posted. They were piped onto wax paper which they stick to enough that you can flip them over into the hot oil and the heat melts the wax just enough for them to fall off without distorting the shape. You must try them.

I like the fun ideas in The Whisical Bakehouse http://www.whimsicalbakehouse.com/. I've also found Confetti Cakes to be a good resource. Confetti Cakes. Don't let the cover scare you. I don't do cakes for a living either but like to decorate a nice cake now and then.

Beautiful! Are those soft lady's fingers or the dried Savoiardi? Thanks Kerry! They are Savoiardi and unfortunately I didn't have time to make my own.

Here's the picture:

A Tiramisu-inspired cake for a dear friend for her birthday. It's layers of Vanilla Chiffon soaked with espresso and Kahlua simple syrup, frosted with SMBC with a bit of cream cheese added (couldn't use mascarpone this time), dusted with cocoa and surrounded with ladyfingers. ...should be a picture here but it's too big and I don't know how to resize it.

I would second KarenDW's advice. I freeze chocolate cake filled with whipped cream and covered with ganache with no problem. I don't use stabilizer but whip it to firm peaks and have never had a problem. With the orange juice it might be a good safety precaution. It sounds wonderful! Congratulations on reaching your 50th anniversary. We've just celebrated our 18th and I look forward to reaching 50.

I wonder if what they need is simply someone to be a cupcake co-ordinator. Do they specifically want your cupcakes or just good cupcakes? If they don't mind who makes them this could be a nice side job for you if it interests. You could supply the locations close by and offer to source the best cupcakes in the local neighbourhoods for the rest. You could make arrangements to have "x" amount delivered on a regular basis. If there's any problems they could call you to sort it out. I realize what you probably want to do is bake, not co-ordinate so I don't know if this is an option. You may get some free travel out of it though since they're a travel center and you'll need to visit bakeries to find out who has the best ones .

I love King Arthur's Lemon Bliss Cake. It's an excellent recipe. I scale it to use 6 eggs and bake it in a 16x4x4 Angel Food Cake Loaf Pan. For your purposes though...I recently baked a pineapple pound cake that was supposed to be baked in a Bundt pan and instead I used 2 - 9"x2-1/2" round cake pans and it worked perfectly. I would guess that using the recipe as written you could do the same. It might be a little too much for a 9x13" but you could use 2 - 8" or 9" square cake pans. Just watch the time and bake it until it's done. I'd set the timer for 30 minutes and then start checking it.

This cake from www.kingarthurflour.com would be perfect: Lemon Bliss Cake. It's great poundcake that works everytime for me. I bake several loaves every week now for one of my coffee house customers. All the zest goes into the loaf and almost all the juice is mixed with sugar and slathered over the top. The glaze isn't cooked at all so it wouldn't lose it's flavour. Even my husband who would not choose to eat a lemon dessert, loves it! I've made the Shaker Lemon Pie from Tartine and it's pretty good too.

I use dried lavendar in tea cakes and shortbread. Organic or not, you need to be sure to purchase a culinary grade. It will have been sifted more times to get rid of excess twigs and bits. I find less is more. 1/3 would be a good place to start.

I have these lovely silcone bordelais molds that I bake lemon pound cake in. It gives the effect of a mini bundt. If I remember correctly, the first couple times I used them they popped out fine but now I always have to freeze them first. This isn't very efficient and I'm wondering if this is common or does anyone have suggestions? The other problem is that the center ones rise evenly but the outside ones all rise higher towards the center of the pan and then I have to even them off individually. Again, another waste of time.

They do have some beautiful shapes! How is the pricing?

Thanks heartsurgeon! Even without the infused oil, malt powder or semolina, this makes fantastic focaccia. It also makes amazing pizza crusts. I have never been happy with my pizza crusts until using this recipe. Thank you!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/546793/Demystifying%20Macarons%20-%20Desserts%20Magazine.pdf This is a great macaron article with pictures, by Helen Dujardin. It may help you figure out what went wrong.