RuthWells

I am trying to find a venue for our company's summer "luncheon". In the past this event has been a pool party at the home of one of the owners; said owner has since retired. Ideally this would be an outdoor venue with some activities available, as the employees bring spouses, partners, and kids to this event. We're outside Philadelphia, in Delaware County. Any ideas y'all may have would be most appreciated!

Quick question for those who have done croissants before -- is there any reason I couldn't shape the croissants, allow them their final proof, and then freeze them prior to baking?

Oh. My. God. I think I would have cried for hours at losing one of the planes after such painstaking work. My hat is off to you -- I am in awe!

My favorite yellow and white cakes are both from "The Whimsical Bakehouse" by Liv & Kaye Hansen. Each yields 9 cups of batter and is written to be baked in two 10" rounds. I have baked the full recipe in two 9" rounds for a nice, tall cake. I reduce the formulas by 2/3 when I want to use 8" rounds. I've also adapted them for 13" rounds and sheet cakes without rescaling the levening (i.e., I scale the levening as I do the other ingredients, without adjusting for the change in surface area). Yellow Cake 8 oz unsalted butter 2 cups sugar 6 large egg yolks 1.5 tsp vanilla 3.5 cups cake flour 1 Tbs + 1/2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 1.5 cups milk Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl and add them to the egg mixture alternately with the milk. Bake at 350* for 20-35 minutes, depending on the pan size and how full the pans are. Suggested variation: Substitute 3/4 cup orange juice for half of the milk and add 1 Tbs grated orange zest along with the milk. Makes a fabulous orange cake. White Cake 6 oz unsalted butter 2.5 cups sugar (divided) 1.5 tsp salt 3 1/3 cups cake flour 1.5 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp cream of tartar 1.25 cups milk 3/4 tsp vanilla 3/4 cup egg whites (from 6-8 large eggs) Cream the butter and 2 cups sugar with the salt. Whisk flour, baking powder & cream of tartar together in a large bowl and add them to the butter mixture alternately with the milk and vanilla. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into cake batter until just blended. Bake at 350* for 20-35 minutes, depending on the pan size and how full the pans are. ************ Notes: The recipes call for the batter to be baked in 2 10x3 round pans, filling one pan with 3.5 cups of batter and the other pan with the remaining 5.5 cups. This in theory should give you 3 layers once you split what comes out of the more-full pan. The book's baking times for this configuration are 20-25 minutes for the less-full pan and 30-35 minutes for the more full pan. I play with this configuration all the time, adjusting baking times as needed. These cakes are both moist, flavorful, have good crumb and cut cleanly. After a lot of years only making RLB's buttercakes, I am a convert to these formulas.

I think that's a terrific idea, Patrick. It took me 2 whole weeks to find the best white cake thread.......

Let me help Ruth out: "Yellow and white cakes, search for the perfect" "White Cake, lets find the BEST recipe for this" And some others: "The Best Chocolate Cake, tweaking the recipe" and another on Chocolate: "Finding the best Chocolate Cake recipe, do you want to participate?" "World's best carrot-cake recipe" "banana cake recipe, Searching for the perfect one" "I want a Spice Cake recipe, Show me your best!" "The World's Best Coconut Cake, Gimme" "Looking for good flourless choc cake recipe, Whose got the best?" "Strawberry cake recipe?, Like the box kind, only not from a box" There was also this discussion about Yellow Cakes: "Need Tried And True Yellow Cake, Preferably moist (duh)" And these aren't cakes, but were under "the best" category: "Lemon Bars -- best recipe, anyone interested?" "Best pecan pie recipes, looking for some buttery goodness" ← ROLF, Toliver! You're fueling my insanity! I know how I'm spending all my free time for the next several weeks....... (Seriously, thanks for the white and yellow cake links!)

Super -- I've already got the dough resting in the fridge and am adding the butter block tonight. Probably won't actually bake them off until Friday or Saturday. I'll try to remember to take pics!

Will do -- I'll post them later this evening.

I'm right there with you on this on, Ludja. I cannot abide Crisco and high-ratio shortening based icings -- ruins the whole cake for me.

Hi Patrick, Per my original post, the additives that I object to are artificial flavors (and colors), hydrogenated (or partially-) fats, and extra emulsifiers. I have to stop by the market on the way home tonight, and am planning to check out the ingredients list on a box of cake mix. I'll take notes and post it if you like!

Kathy, I certainly agree that it comes down to personal taste and one's priorities. One of my priorities is to reduce the amount of additives that my family and I consume. Sounds like your priority is satisyfing your customers -- nothing wrong with that. It is my opinion that one can achieve excellent flavor, clean slices, and happy eaters with a scratch cake. Your experience has been otherwise. I don't feel a need to convert anyone (I presume I was the scratch baker you referred to in your post); just presenting my opinions for folks to take or leave.

Thanks for all of the wonderful ideas! The Fattoush salad sounds great, and the frozen chocolate mint mousse sounds perfect. I love the bathroom bouquet idea.

Wendy, Have you ever tried the white and yellow butter cake recipes from "Whimsical Bakhouse"? I find them to be exceptional -- moist, flavorful, and with great crumb and slicing properties. I did read the "searching for the best" threads and these recipes did not seem to make it into the discussion. I'd be happy to post or PM these to you if you like to try them!

As an exclusively scratch baker, I read this thread with great interest. It seems that there is some range as to what we all consider to be a "cake mix." Not having been exposed to higher-end mixes (all-organic, natural flavorings, etc.), my opinions are based on standard grocery store mixes such as Duncan Hines. My own preference for scratch is based on taste, economics, and a desire to not have the finished cake be laden with artificial flavors, hydrogenated fats, and extra emulsifiers. I find the quick-and-easy convenience factor with mixes to be marginal over scratch in a home-baking setting (having never baked professionally, I can't speak for production baking), so in my kitchen, there has never been any reason to go with mixes! A lot of posters have mentioned that their customers or target audience are used to cake mixes, and that they bake from mixes because that's what the customers want. I'd like to suggest that it's a great goal to open people up to the experience of scratch cakes, which they may not otherwise be exposed to. I am very active with a local theater company, and every year while planning our season, we get caught between wanted to give our audience what they want (big happy musicals) and presenting fare that our artists are more interested in, such as strong dramas. We always attempt a balance and constantly remind ourselves that if we don't make the strong dramas available, our audiences may never have that exposure -- and may never realize that a strong drama can, in its own way, be as wonderful an experience theatrically as a big, happy musical. I feel the same way about scratch baking. Most folks may be accustomed to mixes and be leery of anything different, but I love to give them an alternative and hopefully change their expectations. My coworkers are mostly youngish folks, in their mid-20s and early 30s. I started bringing scratch cakes in for office birthdays when I was first hired here about 2 years ago. The look on some of their faces was priceless -- I could tell that many of them had never tasted a scratch cake, made with natural flavorings and real butter (let alone real buttercream) in their lives. Those are the moments I love as a baker.

Thanks for the ideas, Stef -- I like the idea of a mint sorbet. My mint is a spearmint variety called 'Kentucky Colonel' and has a strong, clean spearmint flavor.

Hee! Great idea, but of limited utility for me -- if I drink at all on weeknights it really throws me off. Great weekend idea, tho!

I have a bumper crop of wonderful mint in my garden right now. What (other than infusing cream for mint ganache and making mint syrup for juleps and tea) shall I do with it all? Any suggestions most appreciated!

Oh dear -- croissants sure don't sound like a good option for you!! I haven't thought ahead yet to what I'd like to try next -- is there anything on your list you're hankering to do?

Thanks for that advice. I will strive to work slowly and patiently. We're having fairly cool weather this week which should work in my favor.

Thanks, Arbuclo! I'm eager to try the croissants (which I've never done before). You game?

My goodness! Thanks so much for your kind comments. I must say, having read your participation in this thread was a great part of its appeal!

I have been greatly inspired by this thread and would love to see it reactivated. In that spirit, here are my attempts at pinwheel Danish (apricot filling) and sesame bagels. I found the Danish dough to be very forgiving and easier to work with than I expected. The apricot filling was much too sweet for me -- next time I would start with 1/2 the sugar and test/taste until satisfied. The bagels were great fun -- the instructions in the book are terrific and really guide you through. Very chewy and satisfying bagels. Hard to get them uniform, though!

What sorts of desserts would you like to be making -- more ideas along the lines of cookies and bars, or would you like to do other kinds of individualized dessert, or add cakes and tortes that would be served by the slice? My initial thoughts are that eggs are cheap -- meringues and their variants, custards, egg-rich cakes, etc. would do well. Subbing cocoa for chocolate is great. Lemons aren't expensive and hold a wealth of possibilities.

Seems to be that the variable butterfat content in "heavy cream" is a likely culprit for the difficulties that people have had. Has anyone tried Rose Levy Berenbaum's technique for raising the butterfat content in cream? It involves melting butter and incorporating it into the heavy cream.

What a gorgeous cake, CurlySue! Nothing to be disappointed about, there. And I'm surprised to learn that you are the Sue of Sue-perb Creations -- I have been admiring your work on your website for a looooong time. Even wrote you an email several months ago! Nice to "see" you again.