RuthWells
-
Posts
703 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by RuthWells
-
-
A whipped milk chocolate ganache would be something like 3 Musketeer filling.
Good thought, but I should have mentioned that my son's a sophisticated chocolate consumer -- he knows the difference between ganache, whipped ganache, chocolate buttercream, and the like. I don't think I'd be able to slip that by him.
<When I suggested a fancy chocolate decoration for the top of the cake, his comment was, "It must be of quality." When I asked him to expound, he said, "The good chocolate. Dark. The darker the better. You know, quality.">
-
Hi all,
My son is turning 10, and asked me whether I could make his birthday cake "like a Three Musketeers bar." I'm thinking a chocolate marshmellow filling, but I don't want it to set up as firm as homemade marshmellows do. Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
Thanks.
-
I have been taken off chocolate for medical reasons, so I am triple-y appreciative of this report and all the wonderful pix, Ling! Thanks for sharing.
-
-
Difference in yolk color are due primarily to different concentrations of the carotenoid pigments zeaxanthin (yellow) and capsanthin (red), and these differences are caused mostly by diet as Betty points out. Most chickens get their zeaxanthin from corn, but there are other dietary sources as well. Interestingly, if chickens are given a diet that contains little or not zeaxanthin and capsanthin, their yoks will be white.
Patrick, are you a scientist? You seem to have a great store of food science knowledge!
-
I keep getting bottles of rosewater given to me by various people, and I have several bottles of it hanging around now doing nothing. Try as I might, I just cannot bring myself to add this vile stuff to pastries. People rave about how lovely a scent and taste it's supposed to have, but to me it smells like the worst excuse for artificially scented crud I've ever comes across, and it tastes like.... well I don't know what it tastes like..... but it makes me have to wipe my tongue off wth my sleeve. It's just plain disgusting. Mildly reminiscent of the industrial cleaners they use in hospitals, actually.
So it has just occurred to me that maybe the stuff I've been getting has really been cheap knockoff rosewater and not the real stuff at all. I've never bought any myself so I wouldn't know what to look for. Is it really lovely and ethereal the way people describe? What should I be looking for?
I like it when used judiciously. I used it flavor some icing this weekend.
-
I did some testing this weekend and found a method I think will work ok for me. I melted some chocolate with a little corn syrup (in hopes of making the chocolate less hard) and dipped the acetate strips in the chocolate.... wrapped the strips around the cut cake and froze quickly. After a few minutes I took them out and let them sit. The acetate peeled right off leaving a perfect chocolate wrap around the mini. I let them sit for a day and tested them the next day and they were still moist so the chocolate seals them well it seems.
I'm going to sell them with the acetate still on, and then wrap ribbon around the acetate to decorate. Thanks everyone for all the help!!
Sounds like a great solution -- can't wait to see picture!
-
A Crooked Cake I helped a girlfriend make for her daughter's 5th birthday. It wasn't quite finished here. We also made "candles" out of white chocolate tinted pink with yellow white chocolate "flames" and they were mounted on each of the rosettes you can see. About 26 of them so each child got a candle. This is from a book Ruth often recommends called "The Whimsical Bakehouse". An awesome book of cake ideas for those of us who are amateurs at decorating.
Awesome cake, CB!! Aren't the Whimsical Bakehouse designs fun?
-
I am so excited I now have time to be more creative with my cakes since I have quit my job and am now putting all my time into Celene's.
Yes it's scarry but everytime I think no one is going to call the phone rings for another order. Yipppeee. Now all I need is some reliable help especially with Easter in the wings.
How exciting, Celene, best of luck to you! I, for one, want to see *lots* of pictures of your cakes.
-
Has anyone tried the new cake's from the latest issue of Fine Cooking? There is a yellow and a chocolate version with an Italian buttercream.
I just got this issue today. Have you had a chance to try it yet? I'm hoping too but it probably won't be for a month or so. I haven't closely compared the recipes yet but the flour/sugar ratio looks similar to the CI recipe.
I made the Fine Cooking butter cake this week. It was lovely, moist and bouncy right out of the oven, then got heavier and dryer the next day (without having been refrigerated). Typical butter cake behavior. It's good, but as I'm not serving it until tomorrow, I slathered it with simple syrup before filling it.
-
You could do it on non-crusting with Sugar Veil
That is a cool product. If I were making any money on my cakes I might be tempted to make the investment, but as an amateur, I can't see it.
-
Last night was trimmings from vanilla butter cake -- the recipe from the current Fine Cooking mag. Very yummy, bouncy crumb, and moist, but not too moist. Looking forward to seeing how it behaves under fondant this weekend.
-
I do brush embroidery on my crusting buttercream cakes. I use my crusting buttercream thinned down with water to do the brush embroidery.
clciky here for colored brush embroidery
clicky here for lite brown on chocolate buttercream embroidery
click here for white on white embroider
All three of these cakes were done using buttercream on buttercream.
What beautiful cakes -- thanks for sharing! This is a long shot, but have you ever used non-crusting buttercream (such as Italian meringue buttercream) as your base for brush embroidery? Or non-crusting buttercream for the embroidery itself?
-
Flooded royal, on sugar cookies, doesn't bother me *too* much, but sculpted/rock hard royal (such as for piped flowers) gives me the heebie-jeebies. Hmm. Must think this one through a bit more. Thanks for the input!
Oh....well in that case then just add about 3 or 4 Tbsp. of an oiled extract to a royal recipe....one calling for about 2 lbs of sugar.... it won't dry as rock hard because of the oil (but will solidify) and you can flavour it any way you like.
And don't forget this won't be at all like royal icing flowers because the pipework on the cake will be so thin to begin with, then you'll be diluting it slightly with water for the embroidery effect as well. It'll be paper thin by the time you're done.
Aha! The lightbulb went off. I'll try this; thanks so much!
-
Traditionally it's done with royal - for a reason. The royal holds its shape while wet so you can brush at it and smudge it the way you like.... it's also easily removable off the fondant if you make mistakes so you can start over in spots. A fat based buttercream wouldn't allow for that, nor would it smudge in quite the right way; it would smear instead.
What is it about royal that gives you the icks, other than that it's just sugar? (ick right there!) Is it the egg whites, the taste, what? You can use meringue powder for safer royal, and you can add all kinds of flavourings too. For this application, it's ok to add oil based extracts such as almond or hazelnut, which really do wonders for the taste.
Other than that, the only thing I can suggest is to actually make a pipable icing out of your fondant.... some people use this for drop strings, etc. I've tried it and it's a pain in the butt to use for strings but you can pipe it nicely. It takes a LOT of trial and error to get it to the right consistency though.
Put a small amount of fondant into the food processor with just a dash of water and puree it.... you want it to appear the same consistency as floodable royal icing, if you know what that means to look for. Sorry I never measured the amounts when I did it to give you a guideline. (And I won't be doing it again either.... not worth the work for similar results to royal, really.) You may need to adjust more water or add more fondant and keep going..... But then after you've got it about right, you'll need to push it through a very fine mesh strainer to remove any particles or you won't be able to pipe it, and that straining is time consuming. After that's done, you can pipe it just like royal, provided you got it the right formula.
Personally, I'd stick with the royal for this because it'll be a lot less work, and really, royal and fondant have the same primary ingredient so have the same taste. And royal by its very nature is just easier to pipe, and easier to smudge with water after. But brush embroidery is FUN!!!..... you'll be hooked on it in no time. I wish more customers would order it from me.
Ah, you've given me pause (in a good way -- this is why I posted, after all!). My main objection to royal is the texture/consistency once dried. Flooded royal, on sugar cookies, doesn't bother me *too* much, but sculpted/rock hard royal (such as for piped flowers) gives me the heebie-jeebies. Hmm. Must think this one through a bit more. Thanks for the input!
-
Thanks for the tips, K8 -- I will definitely be using my collection of spoofle dusts!
Still undecided about the icing, tho. -
I know that traditional brush embroidery is done with royal icing on rolled fondant. Royal icing gives me the icks, however, so I thought I'd try buttercream on rolled fondant. Other than being extra careful to not leave oily traces on the fondant, are there any pitfalls I should look out for?
TIA!
-
Mmmm, roasted peppers sound good.... all the combinations sound good! I'll give a cream cheese base a try, maybe whip in a little cream to lighten it up a smidge. Thanks for the suggestions!
I think I'll be eating choux puffs for dinner all week... oh, darn!
Salmon mousse in mini-puffs is yummers. You can top with salmon roe and a sprig of fresh dill if you feel like getting fancy.
-
what do you guys think about the truffle recipes in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet?
I made her ginger truffle variation at holiday time and was underwhelmed by the ginger flavor. If you try them, increase the ginger and/or steeping time significantly.
-
Thanks, all! I'll hunt down the King Arthur chiffon recipe to start.
-
I've never tried baking a chiffon cake in a springform (as opposed to tube) pan, but would like to try it this weekend. Does anyone have a chiffon formula that will reliably withstand such treatment?
TIA!
-
Sounds like it's time to get a copy of The Cake Bible, eh?
It's a great reference book. A lot of bakers find her cakes overly sweet and on the dry side, but it's an invaluable resource for fillings, frostings, ingredient substitutions, and the like. I am constantly pulling it off the shelf, even when baking recipes from other sources.
-
Decided to try my hand at the Chocolate and Hazelnut Dacquoise*. (*Can anyone tell me under what circumstances one uses 'dacquoise' vs. 'dacquois?' I see them both in print and would like to use it correctly.)
It's been a while since I made a dacquois but these were great and simple. The texture was just right and they simply melt in your mouth. The left-over batter makes great light-as-air cookies, too.
I made a couple of changes to Hermé's recipe: 1) I used only hazelnut powder; 2) rather than make a 9" tart, I made little individual 4" tarts.
I think I read somewhere that these are especially good after freezing. Supposedly, the freezing/thawing will give them a pleasantly chewy texture. Always nice to have a do-ahead recipe. Thoughts?
Those look wonderful, John. I would definitely try freezing them -- it will tenderize the meringue most delectably.
-
Tejon -- I'm in the middle like you. I had many failed attempts at buttercream then I found the recipe for mousseline buttercream in RLB's Cake Bible. I like the taste and texture and the way it holds up and I've yet to screw it up.
Good luck.
If you haven't yet, try RLB's neoclassic buttercream as well (the one with yolks instead of whites). It doesn't pipe as well at the mousseline, but it has a richer flavor.
Replicating Three Musketeers Filling...
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
That's my *guess*.......