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No, no beveling. The only "trick" really is inverting the loaf -- the top of the Pave is the bottom of the cocoa loaf, which is just rounded to the shape of the bottom of the loaf pan. Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! I'll never be able to repay you all for the encouragement and motivation and warmth I've recieved. You all are truly the best! ← Patrick, I was wondering, I am going the Pave in a standard loaf pan, I wanted to know how far up do I fill the pan? I know I will have some batter left over.

The recipe you gave calls for 120°C which is 250°F, is that the correct temp? Thanks ← That's the correct temp in my oven, which runs pretty "hot". Really, there is so much variation between domestic ovens that you have to make a judgement call about your own. Fruit cakes are much more forgiving than lighter cakes, so err on the side of a lower temp as you dont want the outside to cook too quickly. I am sure some of the professionals can give you a more scientific guide! ← Thanks for that info. I did bake it for an 1.5 hrs and figured it should be done because the recipe said to bake for 1 hour. So I upped the temp. and baked it another 0.5 before taking it out of the oven. The wife of course said "you didn't read the rest of the sentence", and sure enough I realized my error. Nevertheless as you said its pretty forgiving and that it is. It came out just fine, the outside was not overly done and the innards were equal to the outside. Thanks

The recipe you gave calls for 120°C which is 250°F, is that the correct temp? Thanks

How do you know when your fruit cake is done? Is it the same way as any cake - when the tooth pick comes out clean?

I am making the chocolate alcohol Christmas cake, and it requires 2 C plain and 1 C self-raising flour. All I have in my pantry is all-purpose flour, cake flour and bread flour. I am not sure what to do in this case.

I don't understand, if I chop my pieces up, how will I still get the same size pieces in the cake? Are not traditional fruit cake with pieces of fruit that are the same size pieces as I will get with chopping? I am going with adding more chocolate, maybe even some Godiva liquor, and we'll see how it all works out come Xmas.

I am still marinating my fruit. I am wondering if I should chop some of my fruit, because there are large whole pieces. When you talk about the chocolate are you saying to use more than the recipe?

Wonderful job. I wish I had the time to do things like that. My mother made Hungarian strudel, but she said "just buy the store bought kind its too much work". I don't even think my Hungarian relatives even bother to make it. So my hats off to you, I bet it tastes great.

We are having a department dessert party and I usually make my standby pumpkin cheesecake, but I was curious as to what you guys might be planning? Maybe I might be diverted.

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Did you find you got a good price buying it from Whole Foods?

I have to say, looking over the Lang recipe, its pretty much the go to recipe. Throughout Hungary there are tweaks with it here and there, but by and large go can't go wrong with this recipe. Give it a shot and see how it goes. You might just love it as it is. Let us know how you like it. When I made my chestnuts we steamed them, I guess we just didn't have a fireplace, I just never asked about doing it another way, thats just the way my parents did it.

Ludja, are you processing your own chestnuts or buying it already prepared? I remember as a child cooking chestnuts that we picked up off the ground, and then shelling them, then putting them through our meat grinder and mixing it rum and sugar - YUM

I have seen recipes where the cake is made with breadcrumbs and I get the feeling that this cake would be very dry. Any suggestions for this cake? ← I will post mine when I get home, but it traditionally does not come with cherries.

If I don't have Vodka, can I use any other alcohol?

Gee, that was great idea of putting in on the inside as to my idea of using the outside. Thanks

I am going to replicate the Chocolate Stout Cake mentioned a while back with the bottle cap decoration. I would like to know that if I pour regular melted white chocolate over a bottle cap, then refrigerate it, will it separate from the metal cap without a problem? Any tips appreciated. I will have to visit a bar where there is supposed to be a bunch of tops so I can do them all at once instead of one at a time. Thanks

I have it (the recipe)saved on the side, so I can make it soon. Since you've made it, what do you think?

It was! and still is! I have served it at many meals so far and still have a quarter of it left in my freezer ... never gets stale ... the $40 was well worth every penny! ← Isn't it amazing. All their stuff looks like that - so good and apetizing, thats why I asked if anybody tried their products. I haven't any vegan baked goods that tasted half way decent, where I would be willing to bake it myself. I guess if it tastes as good as it looks, you are not as likely to beat yourself up for having another piece.

Has anybody tried these buns that were featured on an episode of Road Tasted on FoodTv? How about anyone in DC area been to Sticky Fingers Bakery? They looked so good, no fat and no cholesterol, and I am not a vegan, but I occasionally would like to try something that might be healthy for me and look great. The other items they have really good aswell. http://www.stickyfingersbakery.com/sweets.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nice slippers, oh, and the cake looks great.

Now of course, while I'm baking this thing, I'm thinking how I'm going to finish it. I like to have the cake finish reflect what's in the cake, and I'm going, "beer...hmmmm.....how do I reflect beer?" THAT'S IT!!!!! Chocolate bottle caps!!!! Funky? Yes. But cool. I made the bottle caps out of white modeling chocolate using a real bottle cap as a mold. Then I painted them with edible gold powder made into a paint with a bit o'vodka. Yeah, ok, a bit over the top for a family dessert, but sometimes I can't help myself. Once a PC, always a PC..................... ←

I filled a wedding cake using the egg-rich recipe I posted a while back, and it worked out fine -- no squishing out of lemon curd when the cake was cut, even on the 12" tier. But if you want a lemon filling that is pretty much gauranteed to be firm enough, you could do a cornstarch-thickened lemon filling, as you would do for a lemon meringue pie. ← Patrick, do you have any pix of the wedding cake to show off? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see it! ← Thanks, Ruth, but me showing off my wedding cake here, in the company of true cake decorating black belts, would be like entering a rusted-out 72' Ford Pinto in the car show . . . I'd rather not! I'll describe it though -- three tiers, 6", 9", 12", each tier filled with lemon curd, and covered with vanilla mousseline buttercream. A small red ribbon was around the base of each tier. I was asked to do the cake like 2 days before the wedding (nephew's shotgun wedding), so it was rushed. ← Aw, come on. Your photos are always great, I'll bet your just being modest. Your decorating is probably better than most, and with a little creative posing, you could bring out the best in the photo of the cake I know its definitely better than mine.

Wow, what a wonderful photo, good enough to eat the picture. Its amazing how people can make such beautiful pictures. I can't post mine because I am still practicing to get to the appropriate level of quality. Bainbridge is so much like Port Hardy, where I still remember my mom cooking for the men that would bring the whales ashore to process. I must come up to explore and see if its a good place to retire.