Mette

I made 8 kg.s of seville orange marmalade and it was a bit of a rush job - and now it's too runny and won't stay on the toast, which is it's calling. How can I fix it? I see the following options: reboil for a thicker set - but will this destroy the pectin? Reboil and add pectin - how do i calculate the pectin ratio? Use for dessert sauce - we'll be eating the stuff till kingdom come :-) Help - sourcing the oranges has been very difficult and I really want to fix it! Thanks

Hi Jim, you're always going to be in some kind of trouble if the filling goes above the edge - either poor capping or filling mixed in with your chocolate - ideally it should be 3 mm below the rim of the shell (but honestly - who's measuring?). As already stated, you need a firm scraper (I use one of these http://shop.rockidan...plastskaft.html), warm chocolate and friends willing to eat the misfits. And then you need to watch the angle of the scraper - you want to keep it fairly vertical, but at a sligt angle towards the direction you are scraping, and be quite firm. It really is hard to explain, and quite easy to understand once you've seen it demonstrated.... Best of luck

Finally something post-worthy.... The legendary Danish Othello layer-cake: Almond genoise, vanilla sponge, very rich pastry cream made with whipping cream instead of milk (and llightened with.....you guessed.....whipping cream) and finished with marzipan and chocolate - my hubby's 46 today

Hi Kerry, I shall not make 2013 as I expect to start a masters course in February, so between this, work and family, long weekends in frozen Niagara will probably not make it to anywhere near the top of list. I'm sure you'll all have a wonderful time.

Deconstructed æblekage (Danish apple trifle): apple syrup (super reduced apple juice), vanila ice cream, freeze dried apple and caramelised rye bread crumbs (crappy mobile pic...)

The spoils of this week: Black currant cordial (Ribena), red current cordial, red currant/raspberry cordial, red currant jelly, white currant jelly, red/black currant jelly ('tis the time for currants in Denmark) Good year for cherries, too. Eating pounds and pounds of the little buggers

This is great - I would have commented earlier, but just spent 2 weeks in Crete (away from the wet, cold Danish summer). It is so much fun to read an outside view on Denmark and the foods here. Even more so because I grew up in Århus (sorry, Aarhus ) and used to live just around the corner from the Market, and as a kid, we'd go to the harbour in Norsminde on a nice day. You might want to try all-spice in the frikadeller for a boost of flavour..... Lovage is traditionally used for very little, but pop a sprig in when you boil those 'aquarium' (scrubbed, not peeled) potatoes, and it adds a lovely, summery flavour. Your take on smørrebrød looks good. By husband, an Englishman, get grief at all family events for having heering on white bread and gravlax on rugbrød (black rye bead). Keep it coming !

Elderbushes in full bloom now, so elderflower cordial. The easiest ting in the world: 30 elderflower heads, 1-2 lemons cut up, 1 kg sugar, 25 g citric acid. Mix with 1 l. boiling water, leave to steep 3-4 days. Strain. Bottle. Dilute w 3-4 parts water and ice cubes. Ahhhhhh. Note: Must be either kept in the fridge and used within a couple of weeks, or add a bit of conervation stuff to the bottles Note 2: always make double or triple batch. It dissapears really quickly

Diana, those are beautiful. I've finally got around to playing with the new toy from the conference - the atomizer. The colours are red, orange and gold, to go with the mandarin orange filling. The red and gold are mixed from cocoa butter and PCB's powdered colours, and they came out nicely. The orange is Wilton colour powder, and it is very, ehmmmmmm, subtle.... Looks like I hit the temper spot on - my normal downfall My best shot with the mobile camera

A chocolate slug - how sweet

No, just dyed green with nasty chemicals. Same for this one: Number-one-son is into badminton, so he wants a badminton-cake to take to school. Could have made a cake-shuttle cock, but that is way to involved for a weekday

The flavours sound great. I didn't realise that Krusty the Clown lives locally and is a tween

Birthday season in the Temple household: strawberry and lemon ice-cream cake covered in green marzipan as per the birthday girl's request For hot candies, why not just add cayenne?

Thanks very much - they went amazingly quickly (as did everything else) What a confidence booster to bring stuff to a celebration

Chocolate-banana-layer cake with whipped cream for the sprogs' joint birthday. In the cellar as the fridge is full

I looked at them in the shop and i rejected them exactly as they looked very bubble-prone for those of us with a low-tech setup. Nice molds, though

Not a great picture, and inquiring minds might like to now what all that chocolate is doing on the sofa, but: Chocolates for my friend's 40th birthday - I haven't had much time recently to do cool, drawn out productions so I went the easy way and purchased shells from PCB, filld and capped them. The quality of the shells i medium - not dreadful, but not brilliant either. Makes producting 500 chocs in 5 hours doable. The flavours are: elderflower, blackcurrant, Gianduja with marcipan, and espresso (as well as little smartie-rounds for the kiddies). The blackcurrant is tasty but to firm - my adaptions from a recipe to be slabbed did not add up, obviously...

Residence is good for me too

I was looking for something to practice the 'bouncey-bouncey-scrape'-technique on, and came up with these puppies. Its an apple-ganache piped on a crispy round of milk chocolate mixed with feulliutine. I'm pleased with the dipping, although there was a lot more than 2 bounces per dip

I guess I'll have to start saving the pennies :-)

Thanks all for a great weekend - it was definitely worth the international travelling - new friends and new techniques - what more could you want. I'm especially pleased with my atomizer (thanks, Kerry) - the poor man's airbrush. On Monday I went to the big craft shop next to the hotel and picked up a bunch of Wilton powdered colours to mix with cocoa butter to play with in the atomizer. Anybody have any experience in mixing your own coloured cocoa butter? I did the blood orange - it was blood orange compound and habanero extract and a dash of Grand Marnier - the ratios were very much to taste (and I personally prefer bold flavours). I am not normally keen on orange flavoured chocolates, but the blood orange is very bright. Next time,I think I'll use fresh chili for flavour as well as a kick, and possibly some cracked black pepper - or substitute black pepper for chili (oh, no, the wheels are in motion....)

would that be ground grandmother, freeze dried grandmother, or made into stock?

tikidoc - thanks for the offer - I appreciate it. I'm all for getting the most out of the days Sat and Sun so put me down for an early start. And as I'm very much from out of town, any restaurant for Friday evening is fine by me. I'm sure I'll learn loads no matter what he topic, but i especially like the idea of breakouts.

Is there any equipment it will be absolutely necessary for me to bring (I'd rather fill the suitcase with samples and borrow moulds, scrapers etc)? And I'm hoping to get rides between the hotel and the college, as I will not have a car... I'm so excited!

Food cannot be dishonest, only the people producing, processing, marketing, selling and/or cooking it