RuthWells

Yes, I am mourning that fact as well. Hey, Merstar, by any chance do I know you from another board?

Opera Cake. I have great success with Dorie Greenspan's recipe (which is out on the web somewhere...). It's divinely rich, makes enough to serve your crowd, and can be assembled and even frozen ahead. The only day-off (not even last minute) attention is to glaze the cake and through a little gold leaf on there for glitz. ← Ruth, are you going through with the trouble of tempering the chocolate? ← Errmmmm.... tempering which chocolate? You've got cake, buttercream, syup, ganache & glaze -- no tempering there. ← Well, the Opera Torte that I've seen made and in my recipe file, has a tempered chocolate glaze. That's one of the reasons I have not made it yet. But I've been thinking, who cares if its tempered or not, I'll just go for it. ← How curious. I never think of a glaze as being tempered -- because you're adding cream or shortening (or, if you're Alice Medrich, maybe water) to the chocolate to make the glaze, right? And if you're adding liquids or shortening to the chocolate, you're not really going to be tempering it in the standard sense. I'd be curious to see your recipe! If you're interested in investigating a new recipe, the Dorie Greenspan one posted higher up in this thread is really fool-proof.

Hi Mottmott, I've made croissants exactly once, and it was using the Baking with Julia recipe and technique...... and everything came out great. I posted a lengthy about it in the Baking with Julia thread (buried somewhere here at Egullet). I'm wondering whether your yeast may be dead?

Opera Cake. I have great success with Dorie Greenspan's recipe (which is out on the web somewhere...). It's divinely rich, makes enough to serve your crowd, and can be assembled and even frozen ahead. The only day-off (not even last minute) attention is to glaze the cake and through a little gold leaf on there for glitz. ← Ruth, are you going through with the trouble of tempering the chocolate? ← Errmmmm.... tempering which chocolate? You've got cake, buttercream, syup, ganache & glaze -- no tempering there.

← 16 oz butter 7 oz sugar 2 oz water 5 lrg egg whites (5.25oz) 5/8 tsp cream of tartar 3 oz liqueur, optional other options.... up to 3/4 cup fruit puree 5 oz melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate 6 oz melted and cooled white chocolate RLB heats her syrup to 248 - 250. ← I need to make a double batch of IMBC and would like to use this recipe. Can it be simply doubled... or will I need to adjust something or other? Di ← You can double it with no adjustments.

Opera Cake. I have great success with Dorie Greenspan's recipe (which is out on the web somewhere...). It's divinely rich, makes enough to serve your crowd, and can be assembled and even frozen ahead. The only day-off (not even last minute) attention is to glaze the cake and through a little gold leaf on there for glitz.

Oh boy oh boy! I have luster dust in my caddy and new molds.... I can't wait to get started! Thanks so much for the inspiration.

It's not the act of tempering that I'm worried about (I am pretty adept at it) -- but rather holding the chocolate in temper. Do you keep your chocolate in temper between each step, or do you let it go and bring it back as needed?

Thanks for getting there ahead of me, Canadian Bakin'! I do want to add my usual caveat about RLB's IMBC -- I always get into trouble with the emulsion if I try to add the full 3 oz of fluid that she suggests. I usually keep it to a Tsp or so.

John, thank you for such a thorough demo! I'm totally inspired to try this. Do you have any advice for those of us who are tempering our chocolate without a temperer?

Leftover Halloween candy. Somebody stop me......

Please use a zoom lens for the close shots ... ← With the scratch-n-sniff feature enabled, right?

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll be sure to take pix and report back.

I'm going to Atlanta for a few days next week and have just enough free time to visit a few good pastry shops. Any recommendations?

My default is the Mousseline buttercream from The Cake Bible -- it works like a dream, is light and flavorful without being overly "meringue-y" tasting, and is strong enough to pipe roses. If you need it, I'll dig up the recipe. At first glance, comparing it with kthull's recipe, mine has a lot less sugar (like 50%) for the same amount of butter. Technique is pretty much the same, though I use 1/4 cup of the sugar to stablize the whites while whipping (and sometimes use a little cream of tartar, as well). I used to beat the softened butter in a separate bowl to get rid of lumps before adding it, now I simply squoosh it in its wrapper between my fingers as I add it.

Hee hee .... I've been thinking, oh, to be in my twenties again! (Just a guess based on Ling's photo....)

Flaws?! Are you kidding? They're ADORABLE!!

Oooh, I'm going to try this with my mini-bundt plaque! Mini pumpkin cakes!

I just found really fun source for this sort of thing -- orientaltrading.com. They have lots of cute, themed (and not) boxes and bags. Pretty cheap, also! When you see the prices on the internet, most often they're priced for a dozen or more pieces (click on the merchandise detail to confirm).

Oooh, I hope I'm not too late responding. Fred, I have never been able to incorporate 3 full ounces of fluid into this buttercream recipe -- it is too much liquid, in my opinion. That said, I usually splash a few tsps of vanilla (or whatever) to taste if I'm not doing a fruit flavoring.

Yay Fred!! I'm sorry I didn't/haven't gotten around to doing a demo -- I got sick a few weeks ago and got behind on everything. Once you get really familiar with how the temperatures and textures interact, you'll gain in confidence and be less ruled by the particulars of a recipe and more trusting of what "looks right".

That's 250g of cream cheese to how much IMBC?? ← Sorry....it's a standard buttercream....5 yolks, lb. of butter, etc. I've never measured the finished recipe to give a yield. ← I think that would yield about a quart.

Could we possibly coax you into doing a demo, John?

They're usually used when making chocolates, but I suppose there might be other applications..... hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in!

I'm loving the gold "laser lights" on page 3.