Kris

Yes I would! I couldn't find the recipe though.

But didn't you put a layer of buttercream under the fondant already? I don't see why they should have had to apply a fresh new coat of it.

I've been hospitalized a few times for various surgeries, but my most unpleasant stay was when I was hospitalized for a staph infection 8 years ago. At first, I didn't have much of an appetite. I guess that was a result of the infection. But the meals certainly didn't help, particularly the breakfasts (which they never got right regardless of my choices indicated on the menu card). The scrambled eggs were of the powdered variety and were usually tepid. I would stick to the fruit juice and fruit cup. I don't remember exactly the types of food I would have for lunch and dinner, but they must have been very underwhelming. I do remember that the chicken and beef dishes were bland. And I usually didn't eat the veggies since they looked like they were from a can. It was rather pitiful that I would start looking forward to the post-dinner snack of pudding and jello as the highlight of my culinary day. When I started getting my appetite back, I began craving a Big Mac. So I had my then-friend/now-husband smuggle in some McDonalds for me. And sure enough, I got busted by one of the nurses who scolded me to no end. I'm a big woman and I love to eat. But I lost 20 pounds in 12 days in the hospital.

I haven't been to a theme park in years, but my last foray to a carnival type atmosphere was to Atlantic City's boardwalk. I had to try the fried Oreo cookies. I just thought it was such an odd concept. I wasn't too impressed. I mean it was alright but nothing overwhelminingly delicious. The cookie turned to mush after being fried and it was covered in all of this dough. It's not something I would get again.

I've never watched her show but from reading this thread, now I'm interested. I'm in NYC, on what channel does it come on and at what time? For those who have difficulty in obtaining ingredients like recao and aji dulces, there's a website called http://www.caribbeanseeds.com where you can actually grow them yourself.

P.S. - Alberto, I was not at all offended by your comment about measuring ingredients. I just wanted to clarify that I'm accustomed to weighing out ingredients since I bake. But you're right in the sense that most Americans DON'T weigh, they go by volume measurement when cooking and baking. And particularly in baking, that could lead to some real disasters. I'm also intrigued by using a parmiagno/pecorino combo, the Ligurian method of using pesto with pasta & potatoes as well as roasting the garlic. Boy I'm glad I posted my pesto problem. I've gotten some great other possbilities to boot!

Now that I think about it...there may have been some stems added into the initial pesto batch. With this second batch, I made sure to wash the leaves thoroughly and picked off all of the stems.

Hooray! I did it, I did it! I was determined to make a good batch of pesto so I made sure to buy sweet Italian basil, pine nuts, a new head of garlic and some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (although I don't think anything was wrong with the one I had). To answer a couple of questions raised in the thread: 1. The parsley was flat leaf parsley. And upon further inspection, it seemed gritty and had a pronounced taste of its own. 2. The olive oil I initially used wasn't rancid or off. But I bought a new bottle because I liked the shape of it. 3. I'm American and I typically weigh my ingredients in my recipes - particularly since I'm a baker. But this recipe didn't have weight measurements. 4. I used fresh parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated by hand from a wedge I purchased from Murray's Cheese Shop (the oldest and most reknown cheesemonger in NYC). 5. I did try the first pesto batch on gemelli shaped pasta and it was still horrible. For my new batch, I took a lot of the advice offered in this thread: 1. I bought pine nuts 2. I used a little vitamin C (in the form of a splash of lemon juice) to keep the basil brighter. I didn't want to blanch. 3. I pulsed the basil at first and tried my best not to overprocess it. 4. I omitted the parsley 5. I used kosher salt 5. Oh, and I washed the basil very thoroughly. Too lazy to use the mortar and pestle and I added a little more cheese than the recipe called for. YUMMY! Thanks to everyone for your input.

I use 1 heaping teaspoon of gel food coloring from a cake supply store. I've found that the shade of red is very important...I only use Super Red now since it has more pigment than other reds. Therefore it doesn't impart a bitter aftertaste to the cake. I've used other "reds" like Tulip Red and Ruby Red but they don't work as well. Too bitter. I've been to Cake Man Raven's store in Brooklyn and I think his red velvet cake is good. But I prefer more of a "chocolate-y" flavor. My recipe calls for 2 tbsp. of cocoa. I'd like to try Jaymes' recipe, but I can't seem to find it on this site. I'm still searching...

Red Velvet Cake is a cake that I make and offer on my menu to customers, but it's not really a favorite of mine. I've tried many variations over the years and always found the cake to be slightly on the dry side. In my doctored cake mix days, the cake was moist (and my husband loved it) but I wanted to find a moist scratch cake recipe. I've come to the conclusion that the best scratch red velvet cakes contain oil instead of butter. And that's what keeps it moist. The recipe I use contains oil, buttermilk and 2 tbsp. cocoa. For the red color, I use 1 heaping tsp. of gel paste Super Red food coloring from a cake decorating supply shop. I've made the mistake of using other shades of red (e.g. Ruby red, tulip red, etc.) and those impart a bitter taste to the cake. Super Red food coloring has more red pigment so you don't have to use as much to get a vibrant red color.

I think you all are right - the parsley probably did add some bitterness. But now you have me wondering about the type of basil I picked up... Tomorrow I'll take a photo with my digital camera and upload it. Because I'm not exactly sure if it's the Italian kind or an Asian variety. It was just labeled "basil," so I went with it.

I know quite a few non-Jews who believe that kosher meat is cleaner. I had an aunt who only bought Empire brand chickens and turkey because of this perception. And she wasn't Jewish in the least.

Thanks! Another question: Is it remotely possible that it was too much basil or that the basil was just too fragrant?

What is the purpose of boiling and shocking the basil?

I added 1 large clove of garlic. The walnuts taste fine, I mean they aren't rancid or anything like that. But you're right - they're not pine nuts. Next time I'll rinse the basil better and nix the parsley. So what if the pesto turns moss green? Also, I'm thinking it may have had TOO much basil. It was just a very overpowering taste of basil. Does anyone have a tried and true basil recipe they can share?

I love pesto! So I wanted to try my hand at making it myself. This is the recipe I used: 1 1/2 cups basil leaves, packed 1/4 cup parsley leaves, packed 1 garlic clove 1/4 cup walnuts (I didn't have pine nuts handy so the recipe said you could substitute) 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil salt & pepper 1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated. I combined the garlic & walnuts in my food processor then added 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Then I added the basil, parsley and remaining oil. I then tasted the mixture. It tasted bitter and bland at the same time (if that's possible). And gritty. I thought maybe I didn't pulse the mixture enough so I ran the processor a bit more with a little salt & pepper added. I then stirred in the cheese. The pesto tasted HORRIBLE. It was even more bitter, spicy and just overwhelmingly pungent. And it was still gritty. The parsley was supposed to keep the pesto bright green but it turned moss green anyway. And I could taste the parsley in the pesto even though the recipe said that the parsley wouldn't add its own taste. I ended up throwing the whole thing away. I checked the bunch of remaining basil leaves and saw that they had residual grit on them that I must not have washed off properly. So I realize that mistake. But in terms of the actual flavor...I'm very disappointed. The basil was extraordinarily pungent and aromatic. I can't imagine what went wrong. Any tips or suggestions? Any foolproof recipe?

RodneyCk, I tried the Cook's Illustrated cake. I tried several white cake recipes from the Ultimate White cake thread on this very board. At first they tasted okay -just after being removed from the oven, while they were warm. But as they cooled, I found the texture to get crumbly/powdery and sort of dry. Maybe it's just my palate, maybe it's my technique. I brought in slices of these various white cakes to my co-workers/friends (my guinea pigs) and they all agreed that the white cake was inferior to the yellow/butter cake that I usually make. Overall I prefer richer and denser textured cakes made with whole eggs vs. egg whites. For that same reason I don't like (nor make) angel food cake. It just has a crumbly and powdery texture that I don't care for. I have a cake book by James McNair (I wonder if it's the same one you're talking about), but I haven't tried his white cake recipe. I will try this one next. My main interest in starting out was learning how to decorate a cake. I'm no Colette Peters or Sylvia Weinstock, but I can get by with producing a decent looking cake. Now I'm focusing a lot more on the actual cake itself - the taste, the the texture, the right combination of ingredients & technique to produce great scratch cakes that are consistently good each time. I'm with you - I hope that cake decorating doesn't revert back to that "rococco style" that you described. It seems dated and over-the-top now. But funny enough, I've read where some decorators wistfully long for those days since they were able to put their piping & lambeth skills to good use. With the popularity of fondant in America has come a stripped down, modern looking type of stacked cake with minimal piping (except for some lacy/embroidered techniques) and lots of gumpaste flowers. I don't see this trend going away soon.

Here's another lightbulb: "White" is not a flavour. There, problem solved. No more white cakes. ← You're right, it's not a flavor. But occasionally I get people who ask for "white" cake. I never got any requests for white cake until I removed it from my menu (since I have yet to perfect a scratch recipe). So I reply that I don't offer white cake anymore but how does a vanilla flavored butter cake sound? I haven't had anyone refuse me yet.

P.S. - A few years ago when I wrote the owners of Choco-pan for samples, they obliged gratis. I don't know if they still do that though.

Although I'm not a big fondant fan, homemade fondant tastes superior to the commercial stuff. I've made homemade fondant ONCE and I liked the taste better than the commercial fondants I've tried (Wilton, Bakel's & Albert Ulster's Massa Grischuna). But you still have that chewy texture and it doesn't last nearly as long as the commercial stuff. There's another fondant-like product out there called Choco-pan which tastes better than regular rolled fondant. It comes in a variety of flavors, including a chocolate flavor which is reminiscent of a tootsie roll. But it still has that chewy texture that I find difficult to get past. It's also more expensive than most fondants.

My husband and I have been having a debate about the look of a finished cake. He is of the opinion that a cake should look professionally finished...even if the taste is "so-so." I don't want to name names, but there is a baker who is becoming well known whose cakes are baked from scratch. He uses Italian meringue buttercreams and other natural ingredients in his cakes. The cakes are expensive, but the frosting job looks like something that your average home cook/baker would do. After seeing some of his cakes on tv and on his website, my husband feels that they look sloppy and unpolished and that he has no business selling cakes like this. A girlfriend of mine also shares this view about this baker's cakes. I (and my mother) on the other hand see the inherent "charm" that a cake like this can possess. Not only is it a cake that's from scratch and probably tastes good (I've never actually sampled his stuff because he's located in another city), but the cake has a "homemade" look to it that reminds people of the cakes their grandmothers and/or mothers used to make. Not to mention that there seems to be a growing contingent of people who decry a pretty looking cake that tastes like artificial crap. So I guess there's something for everyone out there.

Rebecca263, 17 bakeries you had to try? Wow, your daughter is very exacting... What kinds of things did you (or she) find wrong them? And why would you have to pay extra for a bakery to make something that they advertised as their basic type of icing? I don't get that.

I've often wondered about that too...why a home based cake decorator would want to use buckets of Bettercream or whatever the price club/supermarket is using for their cakes. I think that stuff is even worse than "American buttercream." But I remain silent in order not to be publicly castigated.

I've been a victim of "cake mix zealots" myself and over the years, I've found that the "cake mix vs. scratch cake" debate is an extremely touchy one. Those who advocate scratch cake baking had better tread lightly. When I began my foray into cake decorating by taking the Wilton classes, they recommended baking the cakes with Duncan Hines. So I did. And it worked for the most part. But a little part of me nagged me inside...I felt like I was perpetrating a deception by passing off a boxed cake as a Kris creation. Finally a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that I wanted to be known as a scratch baker. Both my mother & maternal grandmother baked from scratch so I wanted to continue in that tradition. Therefore, I set off to find and develop recipes that that I could master. It took a lot of experimentation, but I finally have a collection of scratch cake recipes that serve me well for my baking purposes. I'm still experimenting to a few elusive recipes that I haven't perfected yet (e.g. white cake). But until such time that I get them under my belt, I just don't offer them for sale to my customers. I find the aroma, taste and texture of a well made scratch cake to be infinitely preferable to a boxed cake. And I swoon over the batter. I don't like that "fluffy" and "airy" cake mix texture that has no real density or "weight" in your mouth. And the smell of the chemicals when I open a box mix makes me slightly nauseous now. Don't even get me started on the color of your typical "yellow" boxed cake mix. I take a lot more inward pride when I bake a scratch cake. I am NOT condemming anyone who uses cake mixes in their baking. Everyone has to determine what is best for his or her baking operation. But I'm constantly learning, experimenting and developing on my cake journey. And I find that this is what works for me. Getting back to fondant though...I don't see the fondant trend dying down anytime soon. The cat has been let out of the bag on American shores and by all indicatations, the brides here are just crazy over fondant now. The look is divine although like I mentioned before, the taste leaves something to be desired. I wonder if cake decorating pendulum will ever swing back into the direction of fussy, ornately decorated buttercream cakes complete with lots of piping and swags.

I've made this observation YEARS ago. After attending many, many, many weddings over the years, I've discovered (by trial and error) that most brides didn't give a crap about how the cake tasted...only that it looked pretty. Most of the weddings I've attended had wedding cakes that were iced in either whipped cream or "American" buttercream. And the vast majority of them just tasted bad. Some of the more recent weddings I've attended have had Italian Meringue Buttercream iced cakes and the rolled fondant that you despise. I'm not a fan of the taste and texture of rolled fondant. I can't get past that chewiness. But it's a really beautiful look on a cake. I don't see too many buttercream iced cakes that look as stunningly iced as a fondant covered cake. But I still didn't want a fondant cake for my own wedding cake back in 2001. For the most part, my customers don't request fondant covered cakes. I guess it's because I don't do wedding cakes but stick to the party & dessert cake genre. And believe it or not, most of my customers prefer the "American buttercream." I personally like Italian Meringue Buttercream the best, but I've gotten some comments that it's not sweet enough or it's too buttery.