miladyinsanity

I think this is what you're looking for.

Thank you, SweetSide. It makes sense to me now. Sigh. No chocolate mousse for me--though you'd think that with a chocolate cake and a batch of brown sugar ice cream base in the fridge I'd have nothing to sigh about.

Will custards made with egg yolks scramble without sugar? I absentmindedly forgot to add the sugar, and the eggs scrambled. I did temper in the eggs, so it's definitely not that.

This happened awhile back, but I had to read through all the earlier pages in the hope of finding somebody to commiserate with me. No such luck. I did have a lot of fun reading them though. I would feel bad for laughing, but I have a contribution. I was slicing a cake, then I put down the knife and started removing slices of the cake to the container. Next thing I know, the knife's falling down onto the floor. No, I didn't try to catch it, but... I got a nice slice on the side of my big toe. My right one. Also known as the side with the injured ankle from...you guessed it, falling in the kitchen! I bled all over the kitchen floor, and because I didn't want my mom to say I told you so, I had to clean up the blood and everything else! This was probably around 2-3 am in the morning--that's usually when I bake. Yes, I saw the warnings about cooking barefoot, but I live in Singapore. We go barefoot in the house. So now I've a noticeable line where the cut was. Not a scar, but it's noticeable enough that when I went to the doc for the injured ankle again, I was afraid he'd notice and then I'd have to spill.

I do what Shalmanese does. Is it worth the calories to me? If it's not, then I don't eat it. So I cut out all the cheap candy bars in favor of a small piece of good chocolate regularly. But I don't preach about it. People don't usually want to listen. Do you know how difficult it is for me to make my dad NOT order a soda when we're out? And his older brothers are diabetics!

I'm sitting here munching on Korova cookies. Bliss.

You're a guy? I thought you were a girl too! At least I wasn't the only one. Do you want a girlfriend? I'll even do dishes to get a boyfriend who cooks like you do. I'm drooling over the menu. Oh and I bake too.

Wait, it still turned to butter even though you added the sugar already? Huh. I'd have thought the sugar would help prevent it turning into butter.

Uh... how do you Out-Ling the Link hehe. ← By eating a tremendous amount of sweets each day. Wanna join me? I'll have chocolate buttermilk pound cake with buttermilk frosting later. And that's a gorgeous pic!

I've seen these at my baking supplies shop, not for cake pans, but for sheet pans. I'm also interested in finding out whether anybody uses them. Sorry I can't help, meredithla.

Awww... Looks yummy! I'm working on Out-Linging the Ling. Really. I've had a whole chocolate sheet cake--half-sheet size, no frosting. And a slice of Alice Medrich's Fallen Chocolate Souffle Torte. I can't believe that there's no cream/butter etc in the recipe! It feels rich sliding down your throat.

Maybe you took it too long LittleIsland?

Are you talking about silicone pan liners or silicone-coated paper pan liners?

Both pastry flour and cake flour are milled from the same soft wheat, but cake flour is bleached--you'll sometimes notice a chemical smell when you open a bag of cake flour, that's because of the bleaching process. That's why some people use pastry flour in place of cake flour--they like the idea of less chemicals. I've used pastry flour (I don't have all-purpose at home) in place of cake flour when I run out of cake flour weight for weight, and the texture does change somewhat. For most recipes, like a pound cake, it's almost unnoticeable to my palate but some 'fussier' recipes might not turn out. I probably wouldn't try making a genoise with pastry flour, for instance. Also, if you want a really white White Cake, you gotta use cake flour.

Vanessa, this blog gives a recipe for the chai tea spice here.

There is this theory that if you eat hot things in hot weather, you'll feel better. It sort of makes sense to me.

Maybe cut down on the water some?

Subbing a little coconut milk into your base will help the red bean flavor. Or you can soak the dried red beans over night, then cook them in the milk/cream with sugar (sort of like red bean soup) and then temper in egg yolks etc. In theory, this should get you a very chunky red bean ice cream, unless you use an immersion blender or similar and sieve it a couple of times. I repeat, in theory.

Actually, I saw on David Lebovitz's blog that the trick is to put them into your mouth upside down--or the salt-side on your tongue.

Thanks for the advice, rooftop1000! I'm going to university next year.

Ling, if we ever meet for a meal, I'll know what to do. I had chewy, cracked macarons with no feet. I've a theory that less sugar = more cracking and harder macarons. We shall find out whether it pans out soon. I also had another slice of RLB's Chocolate domingo cake--I agree, RLB's cakes tend to be very very very dry.

She should be able to find disposable piping bags at the baking supplies shops here--I've seen them. Though...I don't use a disposable, and I've never had any issues with mine.

Substituting more of the flour for the cocoa might have made your cake collapse, but like Ling said, it shouldn't cause your cake to fall out.

Not strange. I love the stuff, but it's hard to find here. I think the ingredient you need is Sahleb. If you search eG, maybe even just this topic, I think FoodMan experimented with it, though I might be wrong.

Do you have a lot of springform pans? They're a little more difficult to get in Japan, and I don't remember seeing a lot of them in Singapore (though I wasn't looking specifically for them). So if you don't have some already, you might consider getting one or two for cheesecakes or other cakes. Ah, not true. I've got eight and 10 inch ones--and they weren't hard to find at all. Mine came with the bundt and chiffon inserts too.