Kim Shook

God, you guys are great! Well, I told her that I would charge her $2 per cupcake when I talked to her this morning. She understands that I was really talking off the top of my head and that I hadn't really priced out my costs. So anyway, I have my first 'job' and I am pretty thrilled about those 12 cupcakes that I'll be making next week! Thank you all for your input!

Yep, the real deal! But probably the middle size rather than the large ones. I am trying to start the cupcake craze in Richmond, but we are slow and southern down here and suspicious of Yankee trends ! Maybe $2 for complicated ones and $1.50 for simple ones?

I know the reputation of Mamma Zu's, but I haven't had a problem with service at Edo Squid - maybe a touch 'cooler than thou', but they are all infants, so I am indulgent and forgive. Let me add Acacia Restaurant in Carytown. We ate there just the other day and the meal was excellent. I had beautiful fried green tomatoes with a shrimp tartar sauce and the loveliest white anchovy and grilled radicchio salad. I would have gone back the next night and had the exact same thing - no small props coming from no repeat me!

Ok, so everyone agrees that we can freeze cheesecake, right ? I want to freeze this cheesecake. But I want to gild the lily a bit and enrobe the cheesecake in white chocolate ganache, add white jimmies around the sides and top with 6" long white chocolate curls. So my question is: do I do the ganache before freezing or after? I will save the curls for after no matter what. Thanks!

Someone Mr. Kim works with is going to ask me about making her some cupcakes. I am not a pro and would be doing someone a favor, but I wouldn't mind making a little money also. What range makes sense for a home cook to charge for cupcakes? I am in Richmond, VA, if that helps!

Stephen, you aren't even at your destination yet and I am already having a blast on my vicarious vacation! The pictures of PJ make me wish for egullet video - he is at my favorite stage, where every day and every experience is a big adventure and the grocery store no less one than Disneyland! Have fun! Photos of Momo, please.

Dianne - I copied that recipe and printed it out. It looks wonderful Jaymes - the book is great! As a southerner, I am not sure if it is a spoof or a documentary !

Marlene, I am sorry about your brother. The only bad part of web friendships is that we can't all come over to your house and pitch in like we can with our real life friends. I wish we could. Is anyone making arrangements for the non-pork types? What we've done with them in the past is to make a pot of shredded chicken bbq. That way, all the sides go with both main courses.

I have to second this. I made this cheesecake this week and it is amazing and so good. The only thing I did (it was gilding the lily, I admit) was to melt about 1/2 c. peanut butter in the microwave and swirl it through the cheesecake before cooking. I ended up with pure nuggets of PB throughout the cheesecake ! Abso-freakin-lutely incredible. I also make a really good Reeses Cup Fudge and if you want to go classic, I have a (thanks to egulleteers) perfected recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies that you can cook, top with a 'kiss' and then when the kiss melts, you smear it around - that way you get a taste of chocolate and PB together with each bite - not as pretty as leaving the kiss intact, but it tastes better !

Put me into the "I like all olives" camp. My only stipulation is that the canned black ones and the jarred green w/ pimento ones have to be LARGE and seriously crisp. But I like all the stinky, shriveldy, oily, salty, etal. ones, too.

Oh my, what a time to break your arm. I know the baby probably has you pretty busy, but if you have some free time, could you write me a manual on one-armed child care? Someday I'll need it! Does anyone know of any companies that sell custom-made cooking contraptions designed for people with disabilities? ← Really odd thing, JJ...I did a web search for "cooking with disabilities" to see if I could maybe find some cool equipment website for you and more than half of the links went back to egullet! Hope someone else has some info for you!

I bookmarked your site, JJ! I want to go back when I have more time and read. I think I have found a new favorite. Love food writing, love humor - perfect fit! alacarte, thanks for showing this to us!

Yes, but back in the 70s, they and Ponderosa were big. And if you're stuck on Route 17 in Paramus, they're one of the few choices available. ← OMG, Ponderosa! I had forgotten about them! In fact, that is my embarrassing restaurant experience. I actually worked for one of them for about 2 weeks while I was in high school. (They wouldn't give me homecoming night off, so I got my dad to call and quit for me - I am still a coward). Anyway, I was walking through a swinging door from the back carrying a huge tray full of single serving glass cups of pudding and jello w/ little dabs of whipping topping on them. I was carrying it on my hip and got wedged in the door. The door was the one behind the cash register where I was in sight of the forty-freakin-kabillion people in line waiting to pay. The tray tilted slightly and the little dishes started slowly, one-by-one sliding down the incline and crashing to the floor. I couldn't move without dropping the entire tray and all of my co-workers just stood looking at me in horror. I was the shy, easily intimidated, fat girl - and I wanted to die right there. Then, of course, the scumbag nazi assistant manager made me bend my fat ass in my tight little rayon skirt over in full view of everyone and clean the whole mess up. NOW, I can laugh!

I vote keep 'em. I wouldn't have them in my home, but that's not their purpose. I think they are great for what your intention is!

I can't vouch for the recipe, but it is an Elinor Klivans recipe. I am making it on Friday for a dinner party (White Russian Cupcakes for the grown-ups and these for the kids). Here is a link to the recipe.

Quick question. I have a cupcake recipe that calls for using melted semi-sweet chocolate as a dip for a mound of creamy filling that is piled on top of the cupcake (think of those dipped cones at Dairy Queen). Can I use a bar of good dark chocolate instead of the semi sweet? What % is semi sweet anyway? How 'dark' is it? Thanks!

Gooooooood God! Drool! I have promised myself that when the dry cool days come I am going to start the marshmallow experiments.

I never had the opportunity to meet Matt, but I am familiar with him through his posts. I loved reading his words. Thoughtful, funny, uncompromising. He was almost exactly my daughter's age. My heart aches for everyone that lost him. Much too early.

Alinka, I am so glad to see that you are blogging! I love reading your posts on the dinner thread and your photos are just inspiring! Can't wait to enjoy a (vicarious) week in Moscow! Congratulations on you coming blessing!

I also have that attachment and have never used it. Actually, I don't know why I wanted it, since I prefer sausage patties to links. ← Me too! Me too! [waving hand in the air]. Mr. Kim gets smart whenever he sees that attachment in the closet, "MMM, that was good sausage. Oh, that's right - you never used it, did you?"

Zee, which one of the three cakes that Patrick did on that thread is the one that you worked from? They all look good! And yours was beautiful, too!

Wow - I will be making this one soon! Thank you so much for posting that. One question, though. When you say that it will make 4 eight inch layers, do you mean to fill 4 8" pans with batter or to make 2 8" pans and split them? Thanks again!!!

Here you go: Strawberry Pretzel Salad. Ok, I finished the cake. Here's the odd thing. Almost NO flavor in this thing. I chose the Black Velvet cake. It is as dark as an Oreo cooky. I made the cake as instructed and I went ahead and used the shortening and butter (I didn't have any margarine) in the frosting. The texture of everything is very good. But I just tasted a scrap of cake (from trimming) with a good blob of frosting and it was just blah. I didn't expect this thing to be as good as scratch, but I certainly expected it to be at least as good as Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker and it was not! But not to waste anything, I decided that I could practice my frosting skills and it is really beautiful. I used my new cake icer tip to put a zig zag edge on the cake and used a big fat star tip to put stars all around the bottom and all over the top. So I'm gonna call it my Paris cake - pretty, but tasteless !

Good, God, Daniel. Between you and Shal, it's like the Iron Man here at egullet ! I have no ideas - I am hobby cook extraordinaire - impressing the folks who can't/don't cook at all, but I love watching you guys go at it - so I hope you will keep us apprised and give us some of your wonderful photos, too!

they don't tell you what is in just the frosting, but the ingredient list for the cake and frosting: sugar, enriched wheat flour bleached, cocoa processed w/ alkali, partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, with bht and citric acid, dry egg whites, leavening, dry egg yolk, food starch-modified, propylene glycol, mono and diesters, dextrose, mono and diglycerides, natural and aftificial flavor, salt, nonfat milk solids, sorbitan monostearate, caramel color, soy lecithin, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, xanthan gum, propylene glycol, corn syrup, glycerine, polysorbate 80.