SweetSide

I haven't made this with brown sugar, but that may work as well. Caramel: 2 Cups granulated sugar 4 oz butter -- softened 1 1/3 Cups heavy cream -- heated Caramelize the sugar. When it is the color you like (I make mine medium amber; lighter and the flavor won't come through well in the buttercream), add the warmed cream and butter to make the caramel. Stir over low heat until smooth. Refrigerate until cool. Whip 1 lb butter. When light, slowly pour in the caramel. Continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. I guess without the eggs, this is an American buttercream and not IMBC, but it is good...

We used Belcolade in school, along with Cacao Barry. For the milk, I liked it. For the others -- dark (not sure of %) and white -- I prefer other brands based on flavor. For texture, I liked it.

Come to my house... my cookies never spread enough. Sorry, that doesn't really help, but I'm interested in the thread so that I can do the opposite and get more spread.

Do you have a favorite lemon buttercream? I've never made lemon before, and this sounds nice.

What about the too dark crust? I'm not great at diagnosing problems, but that leads me to believe oven temp was too high or that there was an issue with the sugar. High oven temp goes against the sinking part unless there was a door opening problem (been there too many times...) or being undercooked. I'm also thinking the eggs weren't whipped enough and couldn't hold the structure aloft.

LittleIsland, they do make SilPat rolling pins with handles. I just don't like them as much as non-handled ones and since I already have a maple one with handles, I didn't duplicate it. No handles does take getting used to -- all personal preference. Others seem to like the pins they have, but I didn't have a handle-less pin, tried one of these, and LOVE them. Don't replace something you may already have and like. As for the pen thermometer -- it is good for anything you need a thermometer for like syrup for buttercreams, or for curds and pastrycreams or bread pudding. Reads accurate in like 5 seconds and goes up to over 500F. Has a very thin probe and is accurate with only a small insertion unlike others that you have to insert like 2 inches. I hate waiting around for an "instant read" one to creep up and stop moving. Plus it's digital. Here's a link: Baker's Catalogue Dishers are a must if you make anything in single portion sizes. Happy Shopping!

I like my pastry cloth better than rolling on a silpat. But, with a wood pin, ya know how ya have to flour it and little bits of dough sometimes stick to it? Then you have to get them off or they continue to cause trouble? Nothing. I roll pastry, I roll fondant (other thread, yeah, I know), I roll cookies. Nothing has stuck to it. Then, you just run it under water and clean as a whistle. Not heavy either. They come with handles, straight bakers pin (no handles) and tapered French pin. All colors. And, my "complete set" of tartlet tins is 72 tins, 12 shapes, 6 of each, about 1 1/2" in diameter. Square, diamond, round, barquette, heart, some fluted, some straight sided. Like having them for making little nibbles for parties. You can fill them with anything....

On the rolling pin, I bought a SilPin -- silicone rolling pin (actually I have two now, French and bakers) -- and won't go back to wood. If I had marble, that may be different, but the silpin sticks to nothing. Love it. And as for that pen thermometer -- besides a scale, it is THE thing I love best. Hands down. No waiting. Also love my 5 wheel adjustable pastry cutter. And my full set of tartlet tins. And my Cuisinart 12C food processor (my going away gift). Love my assortment of microplane graters too.

I have sets of odd-shaped pans from Australia (hexagon, octagon, emerald, etc) and they are 3" deep (my rounds and squares are 2"). For the larger 3" deep pans, I've used a heating core (it's hollow on the inside and you use some batter to fill it to plug the hole it leaves behind.) All the flat-head flower nails I've seen have a little curve or lip to them - when you use them, do you flatten them out so they sit level in the pan? ← I don't, but I'd like to know if anyone else does. They do leave a mark on the surface where they were, but frosting hides that easily enough. Can't be any worse than the mark from the heating core...

Nah, ain't gonna shoot you K8! Just won't eat that crusting stuff, and I do consider it buttercream as long as it's made with butter. Just don't like the little socks it puts on my teeth. And if a home baker can only make buttercream with butter and powdered sugar, more power to them. At least it didn't come from a can with all that hydrogenated or fractionated oils in it. I'm all about the light, smooth, silky stuff. And fondant doesn't qualify. I will admit when using fondant (the GOOD brands, not Wilton), I do eat little chunks like candy. But, won't eat a slab of it on a cake. Texture thing going on there, just like you said -- I don't want to chew my frosting. Now on a cookie, I don't find it all that bad.

I don't think this is correct or I am buying back alley cake supplies. "Pssst, buddy, over here. Look at these beauties...*opens his big black raincoat*.. I got some dragees and non-pareils in a dime bag, what say ya?" ← Even here in less progressive New England, ALL silver dragees are labeled not for consumption. They still sell 'em in the stores, but you are supposed to pick all those buggers off your dessert before you eat it. Then what? Have a dragee fight? Shoot, I think I have to rip my fillings out.... silver and mercury you know...

I actually did not see this, but someone told me about it. Yes, indeed they did strip the fondant off the cake before serving. I would imagine it was a crusting buttercream which is why it stayed on the cake. This probably means an American powdered sugar frosting, emphasis on the powdered sugar to get it to crust. Yuck! It's like fondant on fondant. ← Not sure about that myself -- I made a fondant covered cake and under it was IMBC. Cake was chilled down and the fondant peeled right off leaving most of the buttercream underneath. A thin layer (film) was stuck to the fondant. Shame I lost that layer... 'Nuther debate, but I don't do that crusting stuff either... Who wants a crusty cake?!

Frosting vs icing: I did read another thread on the semantics of topping a cake... but to me, icing is the thin runny stuff or like royal icing that sets hard. And frosting is spread on. OK but that's just me. I know you all know what I mean. ← Frosting is not a dead word -- I and most people I know refer to frosting as the light, fluffy stuff that you put on a cake. Same definition as you for the icing LittleIsland -- royal or run sugar. Icing is the stuff made with icing sugar (powdered sugar). I'm reading to see if you find your perfect chocolate frosting -- I haven't one either.

For books with good recipes and good instructional information, I like the following (not in any particular order): Baking Illustrated (by the publishers of Cook's Illustrated) Martha Stewart Baking Handbook King Arthur Baking Companion King Arthur Cookie (book? companion? it's downstairs....) Those are non-professional books. I gotta get me that Toba Garrett Cookie book....

how do you make your white chocolate ganache? what cream: white chocolate ratio? ← I've never actually used a firm white ganache as a frosting before. Perhaps someone else can chime in with a good ratio. For dark chocolate, I use 3 parts chocolate to 2 parts cream. White would need a higher ratio of chocolate because it is softer. I've done a whipped white chocolate ganache that was a 1:1 ratio of cream and white chocolate. Much lighter. But, depending on the color of the cake, you may not get the coverage you want.

I love that book for many reasons.

Relatively well?! That thing is smokin'! ← That's what I was going to say! You have to nit pick to find a flaw with that!

A firm white chocolate ganache is also an option....

SweetSide, are you saying that you skip this process entirely for recipes that require heating the eggs? And you've had no problems? That would be great news if that's the case. ← I have when my "room temperature" eggs are summer eggs (I have no air conditioning). In winter, my room is only 62F. And only for some recipes such as genoise. So far no problems... Now, did I just jinx myself?!

Glad my analogy wasn't so bad after all!

What is curdling in a genoise? I'm not following that problem. The temp of the heating shouldn't be high enough to cause the eggs to curdle. ← Not the heat. It's the sugar. At least, that was what I was told. It's never happened to me before and eggs curdle when they see me coming. ← Sure, if you don't keep it moving, the sugar will start to "cook" the eggs. I was taught that once they are combined, they have to keep moving... I've never had them curdle except for the time I had to leave them alone for a while due to an emergency something or other where I got called away. Had to start that part over. Ick.

What is curdling in a genoise? I'm not following that problem. The temp of the heating shouldn't be high enough to cause the eggs to curdle. In fact, I was taught by one chef that the reason eggs were heated was that in the past it was the only way to get enough volume when whipping by hand. With a heavy duty mixer and room temp eggs, they don't need to be heated and not heating will produce a moister crumb. Warming loosens the egg so that it will whip easier.

Yup, the wilton stuff is liquid. ← I don't know about that Wilton glucose... I was going to buy some, but I'm not all that fond of Wilton food products so I read the label. Ingredient list was one item: corn syrup. So, is the Wilton stuff pure glucose or is it corn syrup... I didn't buy it because if they are labeling corn syrup as glucose, then I can get it cheaper at the grocery store. I haven't sprung for a big bucket of glucose because I don't use enough of it.

No, no. I think you are trying to think about it too hard -- the ring is closed. The "outside of the cake" simply means that the cut edge of the strawberry is lined up with the edge of the cake, both of which are touching the ring. The strawberry is simply sitting on the cake. Bad analogy, but think of the cake as the floor to a room and the cake ring's the walls. When your furniture (strawberries) is "around the edge of the room", it is on the floor, but bumped up against the wall. In the same analogy, you are thinking of hanging the furniture on the outside of the house... Yeah, like I said, bad analogy, but it's early...

I've not made this particular cake but...have made many similar. The fluffy layer at the bottom is the cake. The 8" cake round will fit snugly inside the 8" cake ring. Then you line the strawberries with the cut side against the ring. "The outside of the cake" means the outer edge so it shows when unmolded. The "icing" above the strawberries is the white chocolate cream filling. As you fill the mold, you press it along the sides carefully so that it fills in the cracks. Then you fill in the center area. There is no icing on this type of cake. As you look at the picture from bottom to top it is cake, strawberries, filling, cake, white chocolate petals. When finished you refrigerate until firm. The berries will provide "slip" so that the ring slides off easily. When running the knife tip around, make sure you press it along the ring and not toward the center of the cake. Hope that helps!