freddurf

Patrick, I'm drooling all over my computer!

I love a simple recipe that will make me look like a cooking genius. Not to make things complicated, but when you incorporate the eggs into to the flour mixture, do you do this in a mixer or by hand? Ruth, thanks for your input on the flour!

Not long ago, my grocery store ran out of cake flour. I stopped at a health food store and the only kind they had was pastry flour. Since I was unfamiliar with this type of flour, I didn't buy it. Is this a comparable substitute? What is the difference in protien content?

Great info Sugarella! Thanks for taking the time to type that out.

Chris, you are an awesome writer! You crack me up. Ok, here's my question...how do you measure cocoa powder? I have a scale, but many of the recipes I have use cups. So am I supposed to fill the cup up with a spoon, dip the measuring cup in the c.powder or what? Depending on the method I can really get a wide range of measurments because the stuff is so fine.

Thanks for all the kind words and advice Making some items in advance is a good idea. The reason I got so far behind on this one is because I realized at 12:00 I would need another triple batch of cake and the party started at 5:30! Yikes! Another mess to clean before all my guests started to arrive. Luckily this was for DH so he couldn't care less about any details, but for myself I would have liked to have added all the finishing touches. He's so funny, he was looking at his watch and says, "honey, move out of the way, you better let me handle this." He has only frosted one other cake in his life, but he's a plastering conractor, so frosting and plaster are all the same to him. I think he did a great job, but I had to give him a playful kick for stealing all my glory! susie

That was my concern too. Anyone have an answer?

Can you use PVC pipes for the mousse rings? or are the too difficult to work with? They certainly wouln't loose there shape, but since I don't see them used much there must be a drawback.

I'm an average home baker (can you believe they let me in this place! lol )and I mostly use my 8x2. I like the added height when I stack my cakes. I have 9 inch but they are all 9x2. Take back the 9x1's. I think you'll be much happier with pans that are 2 or 3 inches high. Your cakes will look more professional without as much work.

I used RLB's recipe in the Cake Bible. I absolutely love it! Everyone who has tried it has loved it too. Not too sweet and very light.

This was the cake I was asking questions about last week. Thanks for all the input. I ended up covering the board with tinfoil and then covering the foil directly with IMBC. I was worried it would slide right off the foil. Once I got the foil covered I could see that it was going to cause no problems at all. Yeah! Details about the cake board: My friend designed the board complete with a spinning propeller and red LED lights under the wings. The cake was 14 batches of Banana Cake and then covered with lilikoi IMBC. It seems like no matter how much time I give myself to prepare for a party, I'm always working down to the last minute. I really needed to make another batch of frosting to smooth and cover some of the edges and I also wanted to add some pin stripes, but I was out of time. DH actually frosted the plane for me!

^ I love my champion. My favorite thing to do is freeze some pineapple and mango and then put it through the juicer. It comes out like smooth ice cream. Last night I used it to juice about 300 passion fruits! anyone have any recipes for all this juice?

Yes, it's kind of like a gooey blob with seeds mixed in. (at least the ones I get here are like that) You can cut it open and then slurp the whole thing out if your going to eat it, seeds and all.

I just got done juicing about 50 of them! I like to put them in my Champion Juicer. It separates the seeds from the juice beautifly. If you don't have a juicer, try mashing them in a strainer.

I hope this picture post. As you can see (hopefully) it is all one piece. I like the idea of applying R.I. to the dummy part first to give the IMBC something to cling onto. I think I'll try that. I wish I had time to test it, but I don't. I'll just have to go for it and keep my fingers crossed!

I wanted to post a picture of the wooden cake board, but I don't see a file attatchment here. Is it here or am I missing it? Picture an airplane....the only part that's cake will be the fuselage. The rest of the plane needs to look like it's cake, so it will be covered in icing. So my question is how do I apply IMBC to the dummy part of the cake board? Do I cover it in foil first then frost? Is there something special I need to do before applying the icing to the wooden part? I'm afraid it will just slide right off the dummy part of the board! It might not be an issue at all, it's just that I've never done anything like this before and there's no room for mistakes. I've never iced a cake with IMBC and then left it at room temp. I've always thrown it in the fridge to set up, so I'm worried it will be so soft it's all going to slide off in a huge messy pile! Someone please calm my nerves! I can't use royal icing because the frosting covering the dummy part of the board needs to smoothly blend into the edible part of the cake. I don't think I can make the two different icings look the same. I loved the demo on pastillage, but it won't work in this case.

I'm making a 3-d airplane cake this weekend and need some tips on applying buttercream to the wooden part of the cake board. The wheels, wings and nose of the plane will be wood with a light coating of frosting and the body of the plane will be cake. To cover the wings with buttercream, do I first cover it in foil and then apply the buttercream? Will I have any problems with it sliding off? I was going to use IMBC. I'm worried that it will slide right off the vertical tail wing because I won't be able to put it in the fridge to let it "set". It's too big. I'm in Hawaii, so it's pretty hot here. Do you think it will be ok? I have finally perfected my IMBC thanks to everyone's help here, but I'm nervous because it won't be going into the fridge to harden up a bit. If all goes well, this cake will have a rotating propeller and flashing red lights. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Rachel, I'm looking at the picture in your avatar (or what ever they call that thing) and at the new picture you posted. The colors are so different. The one under your name is so vibrant. The new one is much darker. Did you use different flavors or is it just the photo?

OMG! you are so right! I'm throwing a huge party in 2 weeks.....I might have to make some of those! Anyone know who sells some cool looking disposable containers I can make them in? There's going to be about 100 people there so I have to have disposable. edited to add: I've only tried jello shots, never made them. Any tips or recipes who be wonderful! Thanks! ← Where are you located? Smart and Final has these in the West.......... ← I'm in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. We have a hard time finding anything over here! I think I'll have to order from the source M.X.Hassett posted.

You guys are the best! Thanks for the info. I'm gonna give it a "shot"

OMG! you are so right! I'm throwing a huge party in 2 weeks.....I might have to make some of those! Anyone know who sells some cool looking disposable containers I can make them in? There's going to be about 100 people there so I have to have disposable. edited to add: I've only tried jello shots, never made them. Any tips or recipes who be wonderful! Thanks!

I'm a little confused now. How can I tell if the recipe needs the buttermilk for the flavor or the acid? If I have a recipe that has baking soda, then I need to use the real stuff or milk with vinegar/lemon juice, right? If there is only baking powder then I can use the powdered buttermilk? Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm just a home baker!

Thanks Patrick. I'll try that next time.

Yes, that's the one. So good! Does anyone know if I substituted dark choc. for the milk choc. if it would cut down on the sweetness? I'm wondering if it would mess up the scientific part of the recipe by changing the fat and cocoa solid ratio. (should I post this question on the PH thread?)

I've tried both versions and you're right, the first one is sweeter than the revised one. I filled the first one with a chocolate caramel ganache, so it really satisfied my sweet tooth.