RuthWells
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Posts posted by RuthWells
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I made the Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt cakes last night. They were so beautiful. My only problem was the glaze. I used Lindt bittersweet, I melted it in the microwave. I pulled it when it still had some unmelted chunks. I stirred until smooth, it was liquid and perfect, when I added the corn syrup it thickened up to a stiff frosting consistency. I spread it on. It wasn't pretty but it tasted great. Anyone know why?
What temp was the corn syrup when you added it? The choc was likely warmer than the syrup, and I'm guessing the syrup "shocked" the chocolate into cooling down significantly; hence the thicker consistency. Next time, you might try adding the corn syrup during the melting process so that you've got a consistent temp throughout.
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Those look delicious! I am by no means an expert in macarons, but I do get the best "feet" when I use an Italian meringue. The other tricks that are important are not being shy about knocking air out of the meringue while you incorporate the almonds -- unlike most meringue applications, you really do want to lose a lot of the air. For a final texture of the batter, think a loose toothpaste. From the high domes of your macarons, it looks like you got more "puff" than you want.
As for the smooth tops, the Italian meringue will help that as well. I also recommend letting the piped trays of cookies sit on the counter to dry for at least 30 minutes before you bake them. The drying makes for more surface tension on the top of the cookie, which keeps the puff down and gives you a nice tight top.
Good luck -- let us know how your third attempt goes!
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I don't have pix, but inaugurated my spanking new copy by baking the Chunky Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chippers (but with smooth peanut butter, as that's what I had on hand). Big, huge enthusiastic thumbs up from my tasters, ages 8 & 10. This cookie has a wonderful toothfulness from the oatmeal, a hint of sophistication from the cinnamon and nutmeg, and the old-fashioned comfort-appeal of peanut butter and chocolate chips. Perfect late at night with a glass of cold milk. Also good for breakfast.
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Wow, Viva, this is positively inspirational! I too do a monstrous amount of baking during the holiday season, and do do a lot of stuff ahead..... but not THIS far ahead! You've inspired me to start on my menu planning and at least get some buttercreams and cookie dough into the freezer.
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I really liked the cardinal slice. It was so pretty. It was really hard to pipe the genoise batter because it was a little loose. The espresso couleur is amazing. I can't wait to use it in other things.
I've been meaning to make the cardinal slice forEVER. Good thing the holidays are coming.
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Hello, everyone: My name is Sandra and I am new to this board.
I wonder if I could get a bit of advice from you. I have wanted to learn to decorate cakes since I was a child (I am 42 now). I am not sure where to start. Our local Michael's craft store has cake decorating classes. If you buy the Wilton starter kit you get the class for free.
The drawings and instructions in "The Cake Bible" (in the special section at the end of the book) are very user-friendly and a good place to start with basic piping techniques. There is also a good Wilton book available at Michael's crafts -- it's the one with the cake with all the pink roses on the cover -- which is very helpful with basic piping techniques.
I'd suggest that you play around with teaching yourself as much as you can, then filling in with a Wilton class. Some tasks, such as piping roses, just make a lot more sense when you see them in action, but will make even more sense to you if you have some basic piping skills first (which you can easily teach yourself).
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I'm really, really happy that you've tackled the recipe -- it's not hard, but it does take time and patience, but I think it's really worth it.
I'll second that -- I am a merely home baker (though an ambitious one) and as a croissant first-timer, I found the BWJ recipe to be very rewarding.
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Thanks for the giggle Steve. Actually, the thread that's got all the recipe stuff is the one that says Baking, From My Home to Yours, "Post your recipe notes here."
Hope I'll see everyone there.
Dorie, are there any updates on your signing/travel schedule? I don't want to miss any updates that might have gotten buried in other threads...
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Last night I made the Croque-Tele cookies from Dorie Greenspan's "Paris Sweets". It's a simple sable cookie, made with ground almonds and plenty of butter, and a soupcon of salt. They're very good, and I have no pix.
It occurs to me that every cookie I've made from this book is a winner; I should try more of them! -
Scarlett/Traca and anyone else who is interested: I'll be doing a dinner in Simsbury, Ct on October 26, then I'll be traveling a lot in November. I'll be in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Madison, CT, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Then in December, I'll be in Boston and at the Central Markets in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin. I don't have my schedule buttoned down yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post it. I would LOVE to meet as many of you as I can.
I'll be first in line in Philadelphia! To heck with waiting for Santa to bring me the book!
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I'm trying to be patient and wait for Santa to bring me this book, but ya'll are making it very difficult!
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Has anyone made Alice Medrich's chocolate mousse which uses water instead of cream (or other dairy)?
<Not trying to cause trouble, really!
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These are my creation for the fall, and I think I am going to be making alot of them this coming weekend , a crazy lady ordered a ton of them ( doesnt they relize I do everything by hand
?? 
)WOW, those are gorgeous! I'll be right over!
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Has anyone had problems with the highly decorated pans releasing the cake once it is baked? A couple of years ago I purchased (at great expense) and used a couple of different Nordic Wear non-stick mini bunt pans. They were highly detailed and are still available. Once the cakes were baked and I had waited the suggested 10 minutes for them to cool they would not release. It might have been the type of cake (it was a light wt chocolate cake out of Chocolatier magazine). With subsequent tries I found that I needed to coat the pans with Crisco or butter and flour even though the pans are listed as "non stick". I wrote to Nordic Wear but received no answer. I also found that Bakers Joy and Pam did not seem to work as well as butter or Crisco. I still have the pans but don't use them as much because of the hassle and have been hesitant about buying others.
I do very well with an oil-plus-flour spray, applied verrrrrrrrry liberally. Pam's version and Baker's Joy both work for me, but you gotta use a LOT.
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Hi Ruth,
Sorry I should have been more specific. I don't make them sugar free, I make them normally. I know you can purchase sugar free angel food cake in the U.S., not that I have seen in Canada though. I don't bake sugar-free, I find it a huge disappointment and I have tried about every sugar substitute out there. So I prefer to not offer a product of less than satisfactory quality.
I'm of the same philosophy, SQ -- I've been disappointed with almost every sugar-free or sugar-substitute recipe or tweak that I've attempted, and I feel that a small piece of the real thing is much more satisfying than a big hunk of something that's not up to par.
That being said, I will say that I've had reasonable success substituting Splenda (the regular flaked Splenda, not the "for baking" product) for some (half to two-thirds) of the sugar in lemon curds and lemon custards. The lemon is strong enough to block most of the Splenda aftertaste and the product has fewer bad carbs than it did before.
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I make a lot of angel food cakes for dieters and diabetics.
Hi Squirrelly Cakes,
I am curious about your diabetic angle food cake recipe -- I've been afraid to try a foam cake with a sugar sub (worried about the stability of the foam). How do you approach this?
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I want to try to make my own fondant, mostly because it is almost impossible to get around here and also because I want to try to make my own to see if it tastes better than the one I bought.
I am planning on trying Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from the cake bible, does anyone have experience with it or maybe some tips for me? Thanks in advance!
Hi, Heleen! I have made the RLB fondant quite a few times, and it's very user-friendly. Do try to make it a day before using it, as she suggests, to allow it to rest. And don't roll it out too thin -- it is very stretchy. And finally, I find the the taste to be absolutely fine. Have fun!
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I recieved Dorie's new book last week. Its a large book, with 300 recipes, and I can tell already that I'm going to have a lot of fun baking from it, for a long time to come. This past weekend, I tried my first recipe from it -- the caramel peanut-topped brownie cake (p. 264). Its delicious!
Leave it to Patrick! Gorgeous!
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What's a good (inexpensive) scale to get? (So I too can avoid the eighth circle of hell!)
Make sure it's digital, that it measures both grams and ounces, and that you and zero it out with the bowl still on it. I love my little Salter ($50 from Willy Sonoma).
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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.
Hey there, Mister, if I can post a cake here, so can you!! It sounds lucious.
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Well, I made a cake for my man on his day. Wearing an apron and everything, I'm SO Donna Reed.
I forgot to grab sour cream at the market so I couldn't make Kate's bombshabomb cake. Instead I made the yellow cake suggested by Ruth:
8oz butter
2 cups sugar
6 yolks
1 1/2 t vanilla
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1 T + 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 cups milk
It was nice. Nice crumb, not too moist and not at all dry. Very sweet though. It actually had sort of a sugary crust. Tasty, very sweet. Held up well for a couple of days.
Is this this one from Whimsical Bakehouse that I posted some time ago? It is a bit sweet, but I like the crumb a LOT.
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Carrying on from Patrick's search for a lemon curd that sets a little firmer than a typical curd, can anyone tell me if adding the additional eggs (and should it be just yolks?) will work to produce a slightly firmer curd? I'd like to use it in as a cake filling as well - sitting over a cream filling in the middle, and on the top of the cake.
I used RLB's recipe and am wanting to try the FC recipe, but need it to set firmer.
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!
"Baking: From My Home to Yours" (Part 1)
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I agree, Patrick.