MightyD

any kind of moisture will melt your lovely nests - i would not recommend freezing them.

i've frozen: baked choux pastries, unfilled - you can briefly toast them in a hot oven on day of serving to freshen them up ganache - i've frozen them with no problems but did not use them for truffles - i used them for cake fillings and toppings lemon curd - frozen, no problem mexican wedding cake dough - do you mean the little nutty cookies? if so, i've shaped them, frozen them, baked them directly from the freezer

i agree nikolaou is the best! they've always been very friendly and helpful. how about ebay? i usually get my "expensive" stuff from ebay with nary a problem - got all my wusthof culinar knives from there. most sellers will agree to put down a lower dollar value on the package itself so you don't get killed on customs.

that looks way wicked!!!! thanks so much for the demo!!

does anyone know where i can find boyajian oils in toronto? i know golda's in mississauga carries some but i'm looking specifically for raspberry and cherry, which golda's doesn't have.

i've always used plastic straws - the giant ones they use for asian bubble tea. i've made a 4-tiered wedding cake for 240 people and it held up perfectly. much easier to cut as well.

how long can a fruit curd or pastry cream filled pastry sit out at room temperature?

oh, this is so great!! i'm in the midst of translating pierre herme's "larousse des desserts" and have been confounded by some ingredients ...

cakes, cookies, pies, that makes you smile!!!!

this is how i was taught - works perfectly every time: - whip cream to very light peaks - set aside - melt chocolate over double boiler until completely melted and very hot - pour half of the lightly whipped cream over the very hot melted chocolate while whisking like mad - once chocolate has been incorporated into the first half, you can take your time and pour in the rest of the cream and fold/whisk in without any fear of the chocolate seizing never fails! key is to keep the chocolate very hot and whisk like a madman.

my pleasure! would you be kind enough to let us all know how this recipe turns out? PEARS: 2 29-oz cans pear halves packed in syrup 2 cups water 1 cup sugar 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 vanilla bean, seeded - drain pears and set aside - bring rest of ingredients to a boil and pour syrup over pears - submerge pears and refrigerate overnight up to 3 days POIRE WILLIAM CREAM: 7 oz (about 4) pear halves from above, pureed 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp milk 1/2 cup sugar 4 large egg yolks 2 tbsp Poire William 2 1/2 tbsp gelatin 1/4 cup cold water 1 cup heavy cream - bring milk to a boil - in separate pot, whisk sugar and yolks - temper with hot milk mixture - back on heat and cook to creme anglaise consistency - remove from heat and let stand 2 minutes - strain and add Poire William - bloom gelatin in cold water - stir into hot creme anglaise - cool over ice bath - lightly whip cream and fold in creme anglaise pierre herme dices the rest of the pears and layers it in his charlotte along with cubed figs.

"Desserts by Pierre Herme" has a pear and fig charlotte that consists of a bavaroise made with pureed pear - upon assembly, cubes of pear and fig are layered into the charlotte. is this what you're sort of looking for?

1) cover 2lbs granulatead sugar with water - bring to boil - boil to 140C 2) make thin royal icing - 6oz icing sugar with 1 egg white 3) line a big mixing bowl with silicone parchment 4) mix royal icing and hot sugar mixture together - add color at this stage if required 5) quickly pour mixture into prepared bowl - mixture will bubble up into sugar coral

i usually put a very thin film of butter on the blade - no problems with dragging.

the web-translated pages were hilarious!!! took me some time to figure out that "tongue-pulling-tongue" was TPT!!

found this vegan chocolate cake recipe on recipezaar - actually looks quite palatable. has no eggs or butter but has wheat flour which i'm sure can be easily substituted with something else. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/getrecipe.zsp?id=9390

wow does that ever look luscious! i am intrigued by your use of corn flour in your recipe - i've never done that before! have you considered replacing the water with coffee (i use espresso-strength coffee) for a mocha chiffon cake?

i'm really impressed by how professional you are - too many people i know would simply take advantage of the situation that you are in (ie taking free food, misusing funds etc etc).

dab of glucose works really well in sticking pastry shells together. plus, it's not a perma-bond so you can *kinda* very gently move the shells around if necessary.

yep, tasted it warm from the oven and the next day as well. to me, it tasted just sweet and gingery. it was indeed very good (hubby really liked it) but i want something that will make me weak-in-the-knees good!!

the original search was indeed for a ginger CAKE but so many recipes use both cake and bread interchangeably. baked the BWJ version and the leibovitz version yesterday. i found the BWJ one much denser than the leibovitz version and the molasses taste a little bit too strong as it had a whole 2 cups of it in the recipe. the leibovitz one was much lighter in texture and incredibly moist. it had a lovely, fresh flavour due to the huge amount of fresh ginger but i thought it tasted a bit one-dimensional. i've baked the cook's illustrated version in the past and while it was one of the better gingerbreads/cakes i've had, i thought that it was pretty standard. am interested in the recipe that swisskaese just posted above as it has buttermilk in it - might try baking that today.

i pulled up the Fresh Ginger Cake off epicurious that Ling posted and am puzzled by something: 4oz fresh ginger, grated 1 cup molasses 1 cup sugar 1 cup oil 2 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp pepper 1 cup boiling water 2 tsp baking soda 2 eggs mix molasses, sugar, and oil - set aside. mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper - set aside. and here's the part i don't understand .... the recipe then calls for adding the baking soda to the boiling water, then add this mixture to the molasses mixture above. won't this just kill the leavening?? i've compared this recipe to so many others and i can't find any other recipes that even remotely resemble something like this! can anyone shed any light on this?

thin it down with hot cream and use it as a sauce.

so far, the following ginger cake recipes have generated the most responses: 1) Baking with Julia - the book says that it is a gingerbread though 2) Gramercy Tavern Guinness Stout Ginger Cake 3) Baking Illustrated - recipe also calls this a gingerbread any others you'd be willing to test?

i found another version of the gramercy tavern guiness stout ginger cake on-line (www.tif.ca/recipes) which does have the 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. but it also has only 1/2 TSP baking soda as opposed to the 1/2 TBSP baking soda in the epicurious site. IMO, i think that even with the increased baking soda in the epicurious site, the cake would have a lighter texture with baking powder. i'm eager to test this recipe as i've heard so many things about it - i recommend going with the 1/2 TSP baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. what do you think?