miladyinsanity

Yep, that just went in my quotation file, duly credited to you, k8! ← Thanks, K8. I needed a new sig line.

Thanks Klary and Patrick. I'm eating caramel ice cream with chocolate swirl--I swirled in the last of the ganache. Curiously enough, this ice cream doesn't freeze very hard.

where can I find ultra sperse? I will try it out... would you use it just like you would with constarch? ← If cornstarch makes it watery, tapioca starch should not.

That's the birthday dacquoise, from just over a week ago. I don't really think you can call it a cake. I used RuthWells recipe with a mixture of almond and hazelnut, and I think I used PH's caramel ganache recipe because I'm going through a caramel phase. Today, I'm having the Tribute Cake in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. No pics because I did an awful job frosting and torting. Tastes good though.

Waiter has a unique voice. That is why he has kept readers. He found readers because of content. Whether he has the stamina to make the transition from blog to voice...we'll find out.

It's the same thing here. I've relatives who pay 2-3 times the regular price to buy French organic dairy products etc at Carrefour, and at the same time, my cousins are inhaling Froot Loops and Cocoa Puffs.

*drool* I've not made macarons in awhile.... This could be an obvious question, so forgive me, but nevertheless, where do you get the lavender? ← For the dry ones, try the spice shop, but some tea places will have them too.

Why not? I'm a cake person, but I'm an equal opportunity pastry person--IOW, put it in front of me and I'll eat it.

I'm having a pity party with a 4 layer dacquoise (because that's how many layers I got from the half-batch I whipped up) with PH caramel ganache, chocolate and salted butter caramel ice cream, and frozen brownies. I think today I will make my goal of Out-Linging Ling.

If you want the Luchetti chai ice cream and chocolate wafer recipe, it's available online. For the creme brulee (I think you should be able to do with with pots de creme too), you could serve them in Chinese porcelain spoons, as shown here.

Well, I picked up a packet of potato starch for my not-quite-marshies, but I didn't use any icing sugar in my coating. You could use tapioca starch instead, but whether it's better than cornstarch, I've no idea.

Do it whilst it's frozen. You can let it soften a bit to make it easier to level though.

May I ask what other modes does your oven have? Mine has a pastry mode, and my cakes have been turning out pretty level since I figured out how to turn it on.

Oh why didn't I think about that! I have one, because I don't like the idea of using a knife on the plastic sheet I knead dough on. Thanks gfron1!

After months and months and months of procrastinating, I've finally made a batch. I flavored my half-batch with TEN grams of instant coffee to get any noticeable taste at all. Except that I don't think I beat them long enough (I poured the syrup in and couldn't remember how long it had been in there), so now I've got what tastes like soft coffee nougat. Not bad, but not what I was trying to get. Next week, I shall try again. Candy-making is addictive. And it's less hot than baking, which is a huge plus. Also, any tips for getting the goo out of the mixer bowl? Even my trusty silicone spatula didn't do that good a job, and one does not want to waste too much of the goo(d) stuff.

How about this sourdough chocolate cake, Michelle? Now I'm off to browse through your previous foodblog.

LittleIsland, I'll PM you, but you know, it's actually cheaper to buy Valrhona cocoa in bulk here (9.50 for a kilo) than Van Houten. You can also find Hershey's Special Dark here, but you have to really look to find it.

I've had 2 deep fried chicken wings, fried rice, a Korova Cookie, a slice of Castella cake, 2 slices of Emily Luchetti's Brown Sugar-Ice Cream Chocolate Roulade, a handful of salted butter caramels, a slice of processed cheese, and now...I'm craving pasta. And scrambled eggs except there are no eggs in the kitchen. Yesterday it was lots and lots of cake, mangosteens, crab, deep-fried mantou (I sense a theme here), and pasta (I sense another theme here). Also, I'm eyeing the brownie I have frozen in the fridge--I've plans for it, but the evil demon keeps saying, "you can bake another one, so eat it!"

Cleo, do you eat oatmeal regularly? Or any other kind of cooked cereal porridge? You may even be able to cook really thick bean soups in it. You may need to do some fiddling, depending how fancy yours is, but most of them have different cooking options now.

Hope things go well for you, chefpeon!

Here you go...enjoy! You can lower the sugar a little bit. Henry added a few pinches of salt (to taste) to the recipe, but deliberately undersalts it a bit so it is perfect when you sprinkle on some extra crunchy salt on top. caramel ice-cream ← Thanks!

Its amazing to me that anyone would want to eat a sugar-covered raw quail egg. ← This strikes me as hilarious. But I do agree.

Can we get the recipe, Ling? I do have a salted caramel ice cream recipe--untried so far--but what Ling says is good, must be Really Really good.

There's an eggless chocolate cake recipe here. I've not tried it out, though, so i can't tell you whether it'll work.

I've found a new, wonderful PMS Craving. Brown sugar ice cream. It's just brown sugar, a touch of salt, milk and cream. Emily Luccheti's (spelling?) recipe in her new Ice cream book. It's on Leite's Culinaria if anybody wants it. It tastes exactly like this soft-serve (after churning, before freezing) ice cream I used to love as a kid, but better. I'm happy, so so happy!