JeanneCake

Thank you for sharing with us. I feel as if I've been on vacation by reading your blog, thanks for taking all of us along for the trip!

I was going to say you seem like too nice a guy and I would hate to see you in front of the evaluation gang! They don't say anything positive to these contestants and I think that with the living conditions, close quarters and lack of family/friends contact, they're looking to cause these people to break down. My son loves this show, although he's not enjoying this year's as much as last year's. Last year, they did show how they would read from the teleprompter when presenting the recipe - every week was an "on camera" presentation, not this food fire drill at the wedding, military base, NBA game, etc. - it was much more about how to be in front of a camera. By the time they got to the final four, then they started asking about their food point of view. You probably want to think about what's your "hook" before you submit your tape. And have a back up idea in case someone else has that same idea once you get to that spot. what about how to cook with your kids, or for your kids? Basic technique is what PBS is already doing; this year's contestant Amy is the "gourmet next door" which sounds similar to what you're thinking of. What can you do/offer that isn't already on? Someone fill me in - I couldn't watch the show last night. It sounds like JAG is still standing, who got beamed back home (the evaluation room line up reminds me of the transporter room on Star Trek. They come in, line up in their spots, don't move a muscle .... )

I can get Sicilian pistachios from Albert Uster Imports (click here) but I don't know if they sell retail. Or the King Arthur Flour site....

What if you could modify the recipes posted on the strawberry cake thread and use cherry puree (from Perfect Puree) instead? I don't know that this would work, but it's a start. I think some of the strawberry cake recipes used jello, (or maybe the poster didn't want to use the jello) and if there's no such thing as cherry jello you might be out of luck.

Aacck. My son loves watching this stuff and I am usually hovering in the background so I have to endure it too. It is just awful. Truly and completely awful. They're saying they're going to give the winner a TV show, but they've done nothing to prepare them or test them for that. It looks more like Dinner Impossible than anything else (I stopped watching that after the first few episodes so maybe that's not a good comparison anymore.)

This sounds like a Superman movie (just lost his powers is what makes me think so). Is it the second one (with Christopher Reeve)?

The most diplomatic way to handle the situation is to go the health dept route: Explain that the restaurant is in voilation of all kinds of codes and isn't covered re: liability if something should happen to a guest eating food that is not prepared in a licensed facility. And then offer that if she wants to come into the restaurant and prepare the food there, well, then - we can have you come in on (name day/time that is probably most inconvenient...) and this is what is selling so we will only need 2 cakes and X pudding..... If she's charging you for what she's bringing in - handle it the way you would any other distributor - I didn't order this, please take it back....

I don't think it would work. Based on how the cake behaved above, it was weeping by the evening as Susan's experience. I can't imagine it surviving the freezer...

That's total crap. All of the reality shows do it, to create conflict. On the Apprentice, they had little to no access to media (TV, email, etc), so they had plenty of time to talk, drink, and get in trouble. That said, what does that have to do with this show? They aren't trying to create drama by pitting personalities... IRL, I don't think the winner will live by him/herself, shut off from the world while he or she tries to film shows. ← The article in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune said that the contestants had been told they could contact their families every other day by phone. This didn't happen. Unfortunately the article is no longer active. Most people on business trips are allowed to call home more often than these contestants apparently are. But if you're told you can stay in touch up front, and then it turns out you can't.... sounds like a bait and switch tactic to me. There's no reason for it (the shutting them off from the outside world) and you and I aren't in a position to judge whether this is a valid reason or not for why the person was emotional on the show. Sounds to me as if they do this on purpose - it's just another trick to make things harder. It's entertainment and anything goes.

Tommy is from the area, and local news reported that he was told he'd be able to stay in touch with his family, which includes two toddler children. The reporter went on to say they weren't allowed to contact their families and that bothered him, obviously. I'm not sure I'd want to go weeks or days without knowing how my kids were doing, especially if they're that young. But so much for the whole premise of this gimmick. Where are the first winners of the Food Network Star contest? They're not on anymore....

Maybe this is for a different thread, but your post made me think of a question. Does anyone know if there is a difference in the mixes made for use in a bakery and mixes made for the home consumer? My rep is leaving me samples of bakery mixes and I haven't tried them yet, but I was curious if this is just the consumer stuff packed into 50 pound bags.... (he's not leaving me 50 # bags, just sample bags )

JGarner, I've done that! But with carrot cake. It was years ago, I'd just gone out on my own and baked a 2-layer 12" round carrot cake. It was heavy and dense, not at all normal. - more like hockey pucks than cake. So thankfully I had more pureed carrot and could make another batch. Same thing. In desperation, I called my friend in CA (we use the same recipe) and we compared notes. I left out the baking soda!!! Both times! Gahh! The cake was due that night and it's 2 pm. Thank god for freezers and friends!

I think the pan she used had a one inch lip on it (we called it the old pizza pan because my father used to work in a bakery while in school and he snagged one of these incredible, heavy, sturdy pans. My mother still has it!) You should be ok; I don' t know the Sue B recipe, but I've made the TX sheet cake a few times myself many many years ago and never had it overflow the pan.

Peel the peaches and stew (poach) them in a simple syrup laced with a vanilla bean. You could reduce the syrup a little and then store the peaches in the syrup. You might even want to add some white wine and poach them in that....

My mother used to use the sheet pan whenever she made a Texas Sheet Cake - it was a thin cake but it filled the pan.

Find me a hotel, I'll be your helper. I've had enough of the kitchen I'm in. But I'm not moving for another three weeks. Of hell. I won't have to worry about what it's like later, I'm living it now.

I wondered about that phrase too - I'd seen it in a Maeve Binchy novel so your question prompted me to search google for a british slang "dictionary" where I learned that "po-faced" means Glum, melancholy, long-faced

Maybe this is a job for SugarVeil icing? It's a type of royal icing that can be picked up and "played with" so to speak, when dry. It might be what you need for such an intricate design. Would it be possible to do the artwork in smaller areas and fit them together on the larger cake? Or if you're going to do it on a slab anyway, use one of those projectors to display the image onto a tile of fondant or gum paste and you could work at it over several days; then you don't have to move the embroidery, just the fondant tile.

For this situation, I've used the rice krispie cake from Colette's birthday book. I've made race cars, mostly, and a few castles. They're different from a typical layered cake, and sometimes that's ok; sometimes not. It depends on the child, whether they are always having something "different" and they want what everyone else has on their birthday.

Depending on whether I buy them at the local grocery store ($4.98/# - they'll come down soon) or the high priced gourmet grocery ($6.98/#) the prices will start to fall in a week or so. I have a bag chilling in the fridge right now! Yes, you're the only one getting sneezy. We just smile a lot at our house after eating cherries. How can you be in a bad mood after that kind of windfall!

For photograph/styling, our own Ling and Patrick S and then, for cookbooks, my favorite photographer is Ron Manville. He does the shots for Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Magazine and he did Sherry Yard's book.

So.. he couldn't give you a pair of gloves so you could hold it yourself?!!

Hello... I am in a bit of a quandry. I used to buy supplies (stands, cutters) from a shop in Melbourne called Cake Deco. At some point in the last few months they stopped shipping internationally, so I am not able to buy directly from them. But I need to buy an acrylic stand that I can only get from them for a wedding on June 23. Here in the US, the shipping firm UPS operates retail stores called Mailbox Etc that ships on behalf of individuals. Does something like this exist in Melbourne? Could you give me the name - I can contact them and see if I can arrange to have CakeDeco ship to them, and then have the package sent by the third party to me here in the US (Massachusetts, actually). Unfortunately, time is of the essence, so any ideas, suggestions and recommendations you could make are a big help!!

mmm - frozen banana - milk chocolate .... and then roll them in some chopped toffee! (swoon)!

So... you are delivering a wedding cake, or another sort of celebration cake or pastries or something - what are you wearing: Chef coat and checks? A uniform (like a polo shirt) with the company name on it? Street clothes? Whatever you wore to work that day (kitchen clothes but not a chef coat)? If you are on the receiving end of the wedding cake (you're the function manager or maybe you're watching the delivery person walk through the kitchen to get to the banquet room) does it make a difference what the delivery person is wearing?