ChocoGrok

Btw chefette, this is a STELLAR idea! Paper chains made out of clear plastic! I'm thinking about using transparencies cut up into 1'' strips, and securing the loops with superglue..dunno if the top link will hold the rest of the chain with the cupcakes? basically the link will be supporting the weight of a bundt cake.

OK. This is a link to my schematic for the installations. Hope it gets through OK. Installation 1: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...md=si&img=73097 Installation 2: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...md=si&img=73098 Installation 3: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...lbum&album=3801

OK everyone...an update on my first mock-up. I baked cupcakes in standard 2.5 in cups. I also purchased these meringue cookies from a Russian market: they are tinted light pink and resemble fluffy frosting. I mounted the meringues on top of the cupcakes using powdered sugar + liqueur. It looked pretty realistic. I used 0.12 mm fishing line doubled over to string together the cupcakes. As bkeith pointed out, the fishline is pretty strong, but the cupcakes will slide through the knots. As suggested, I tied toothpicks into the knots in a perpendicular orientation to the cupcakes. This held the cupcakes well (Thanks Natho and slbunge!). The powdered sugar + liqueur mix was not a very successful glue for holding together the meringue and cupcake. I will use royal icing in my next mock-up. Bkeith, I agree that a huge tuft of royal icing is tough-eating. I think meringues are a better option...i get height without weight or stickiness. I will also try making the meringues, tinting them, and giving them a bit of glitter. Will report back. Incidentally, does anyone know what those meringue-like confections in the Russian market are called? They look like meringues, but are different in texture: not airy and dry...rather moist marshmallowy...like they had flour in them. If my meringues flop, i might make the Russian version The styroballs, florist foam, and canned foam are all good ideas. Rice krispies...hee..fun. I will work with the fake top once the real stuff looks good. Thanks for the input everyone! EllenC, the pulley idea's fun. I'm using a step ladder for the presentation. I was entertaining the cute image of a little girl climbing a step ladder to cut herself a cupcake from a long strand of cupcakes dangling from a 12 foot ceiling.

The gigantic mirror turtle (see above description) will be holding the instructions. Dymaxion maps will be provided as "hand out"s, and the instructions + description of piece will be written on the back. After the guest understands their role in shaping the linear cupcake mobile (i.e. cut n' eat what you don't believe), the dymaxion map can be cut, folded, and used as a doggy bag for the guest's cupcakes. I'm meeting with the gallery's director today and will ask about head count. Based on this number, I will fashion styrofoam dummies which will go on the top of the stacks. I'm guessing that some stacks will be eaten from less than others will be...who really would invalidate the existence of Santa Claus ?! Once the cupcakes get ripped down, the remaining cupcakes will represent the completed piece of art work. The resulting art piece will represent, in cupcakes, the "realness" of each statement as perceived by the gallery's audience. I am not planning to refresh the stack. Once eaten, the reality as represented by the flat earth statement will cease to exist. Heee...i like the idea of bobbing for cupcakes. I had initially thought of a project which involves the audience bobbing for cake on the back of turtles swimming in a pool (ala Terry Pratchett's "5th Elephant"). The cakes would be tiny and cube shaped: petit fours painted like Earth; and the cakes would be supported by pink elephant cocktail charms.

Wow! Thanks for all the interest! To answer your questions about concept and inspiration, chefette, I'm including a snippet from my proposal to the gallery. I also submitted diagrams for the set-up. These, I think, would be helpful for you all to see. I don't know how to attach my word document though...any ideas? So here is the verbal description of the piece. It's entitled: "It's Cupcakes All the Way Down", a play on the phrase "it's turtles all the way down". The anecdote from Stephen Hawking's book explains the origin of the so called "infinite turtle paradigm" (see below). I'm doing a reinterpretation of the paradigm with cupcakes. OK. Here goes....The piece is a little complicated , but remember, you asked for it ***************************************************************** PROJECT TITLE: “It’s Cupcakes All the Way Down” INTRODUCTION: Stephen Hawking in A Brief History Of Time starts with the anecdote : “A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down." DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT: What happens when cake meets the notion of “turtles all the way down”? We propose a project in which flat earth realities are supported by cupcakes stacked “virtually” to infinity. The project is a four part invention: variations on the theme of “turtles all the way down”. Using cupcakes, each installation piece will examine a different aspect of the infinite turtle paradigm. Through the four part journey, we will explore the concepts of infinite regression, flat earth credos, and collective realities. The audience will be served some cupcake wisdom by both digital cupcakes and virtual cupcakes, and the illusions of infinity they generate. Guests will then be invited to create their own collective realities by eating cupcakes from an aerial art piece. The journey ends at a hand mirror where the guest reflects on the “being of a cupcake”. Installation 1 (title piece): A single gigantic cupcake will be filmed in real-time by a digital camera which will project its image onto an LCD screen. The bounce-back imaging will generate the illusion of infinite cupcakes. On the piece will be written “It’s Cupcakes All the Way Down”. The piece will be supporting a dymaxion map , Buckminster Fuller’s representation of earth on a flat surface. Installation 2: This installation will use 2 mirrors placed in a parallel orientation. A line of cupcakes stacked between the two mirrors will be reflected by the surfaces, creating the illusion of an infinite stack of cupcakes. The cupcakes will be stacked upside down on a large plate which will have a world map painted on the bottom in the shape of a turtle. Installation 3: This is an interactive aerial art piece in which different flat earth credos will be supported by their own stack of cupcakes. A world map will be placed on the ceiling and 4 feet of cupcakes will be suspended from the map. Four such linear cupcake mobiles will be constructed. Each map (flat earth) will have written on it a putative flat earth credo. A “flat earth credo” is a claim which is unsubstantiated by fact, but is given credence through individual belief or popular dogma. Examples are: “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” “All Dogs go to Heaven” “Green Peace is a greater threat to American security than is Osama bin Laden” “Evolution is a scientific fairytale” This is an interactive art piece where the guests will be asked to remove a cupcake from the stack they do not believe supports its flat earth credo. Scissors and a step ladder will be provided to facilitate this process. Note that this is the only edible part of the entire project, since individuals will be choosing the reality they live in through the process of ingesting. Installation 4: An ornate hand mirror which has inscribed on the back :“you are the last cupcake”. When the guest turns the mirror around and looks at his/her reflection, there is written on the front: “when the last turtle is taken away, the world is shaken and broken”. The handle of the mirror will be embellished with a line of stacked turtles. ****************************************************************** As you can see, the piece is a four-part installation. The part with the hanging cupcakes belongs to part 3. I really wish I could find some way to include the diagram because it simplifies the verbal description.... Also, if you want to see *REALLY WACKY*, you can read the footnotes to get an idea of what was really going on in my mind. The piece is being created for a show at the Axiom Gallery in Boston in which cake is featured as a transient media. See link and scroll down to "ART CAKE": http://www.weeklydig.com/arts/articles/fall_arts_preview1 The link gives the impression that the show will last 3 weeks. I therefore set up the piece to be mostly inedible, with only edible part being the interactive installation in part 3 where the audience "votes" on realities by ingesting cupcakes. I have since discovered that the display will only be up for the evening of the gallery opening. The cakes will be eaten and a video tape of the process will be played at the Mission Bar in Boston. Apparently, many of the other pieces are extremely edible, leaving little left by the end of opening night. I have since modified my piece. Installation 3 will remain as is. I might do away with the stuff with infinite regression in Parts 1 and 2, and replacing it with a cupcake balanced between a mirror and a very large paper mache turtle sporting mirror tiles. Whew! Anyone get through all of this?

Wow! Thanks for looking up all these recipes, Ludja. Looks like my soldier will be getting an assortment of cookies. And using the transit time to properly age a Pfeffernuss...brilliant! Speaking of banana bread and fruit cakes, I thinking about doing a jar cake. http://www.realfood4realpeople.com/jars.html I wanted to do a cake with frosting; however, I don't know if this is possible, particularly since most cakes need to cool before frosting and the cakes need to be "canned" hot. The date cookies from the "indestructible cookie" competition looks Mmmmm. I might just make a batch for Me. I will run an aging experiment on the date cookies and on SB's baby food brownies. SB, I know this recipe is a favorite of yours. Have you tried spiking it a bit, with Kahlua or Amaretto?

Thanks for the ideas . highchef, please post your praline recipe. Much appreciated! srhcb and calipoutine: have you a favorite recipe for the bar cookies and biscotti? Biscotti and pumpkin spice coffee sound warm and festive. The sweets will be a nice surprise for my soldier.

OK. A wacky problem I would like to present : I am creating a cupcake installation art piece for a gallery and would really appreciate any advice on the assembling process. This is an aerial art piece which will involve suspending a linear stack of cupcakes. The stack should be around 4 feet high. I figure I need 32 standard-size cupcakes for this? I have the option of making the cupcakes on the top out of styrofoam dummies (16 or so). The bottom cupcakes will be eaten (this is an interactive art piece). My questions are: 1. What kind of icing would best stand up to compression? I am worried that the frosting on the bottom cupcakes will be squished from the weight of the cupcakes on top. I'd like the frosting mound on each cupcake to stay high (like the cupcakes from the grocery store), but I don't know if this is possible. I was thinking about using royal icing because it seems stiff, but do not know it this is the best option 2. I am using fishline string to hold the cupcakes together. I will be placing knots in between the cupcakes so that the bottom most cupcake can be removed without the other cupcakes slipping off. Is fishline strong enough for this or should I consider inserting straws for extra stability? 3. I looked into styrofoam dummies online. They seem to be rather pricey. I was wondering if there is a way to fill in a cupcake liner with cheap material and just mask the top with icing? These cupcakes will not be in close range to the viewer, so I'm looking for something that will hold up the frosting. 4. I am reading that some bakery stores use PermaIce on cakes in their display windows. I'm thinking about using this on the fake cupcakes. Is this material lightweight? And does its dried form withstand compression better than edible frostings?

I recently joined "Soldier Angels", a program dedicated to supporting the US troops. I am participating in their "adopt a soldier" initiative, so I'm putting together a care package for the Thanksgiving holiday. I would like to bake my soldier something sweet and slightly fancier than a cake-from-a-DuncanHines-box. I was wondering if anyone knows of a dessert which ships well, keeps well (I believe the transit time is about 7 days), and withstands heat (it is about 90 degrees in Kuwait now, but I believe chocolate is OK)? Palatability is a requisite...and bonus points for a dessert that fits the holiday theme. Thanks!

Mmmm...I like the idea of having bursts of saltiness throughout the crust Ah, there's the rub...press hard, I did not. I did, however, use a fresh box of graham crackers...a product (or remainder, shall i say) of friends gone crazy with s'mores heavily-laden with toasted marshmallows.

Thanks for all the input chefpeon I was thinking "pretzel" because it was mentioned in one of the reviews...that and the combination of sweet/salty in the recipe triggered the childhood memory of eating pretzels and ice cream. To be more precise, perhaps I was hoping for a "pretzel-icecream-like" effect...sorry for the confusion. "Mushy" is probably a better descriptor than "soggy". The crust tasted like it hadn't solidified, almost like it hadn't been baked enough and you could still taste the crumbs coated with butter. I checked the math: used 3 +1/3 Tbsp butter for a 2/3rds scale down...I checked for the 4+2/3Tbsp hunk which is supposed to be left in the butter quarter; Didn't use a bain marie to bake this one; Sealing the crust with egg white is a great idea...it's probably my best bet for a crunchier crust.

I baked an epicurious.com "Lemon Curd Marbled Cheesecake" for a dinner party last night. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/1222199 I chose this recipe because of it's pretzel crust (the crust mix is spiked with a dose of salt before it's pressed into the pan)...yummy when paired with the sweet creamy cheesecake filling. My friends loved the filling, but the graham cracker crust was lacking crunch and hardness...doubly disappointing since I was thinking "pretzels" as I was eating the mushy crust. I am wondering if anyone has experienced a mushy graham cracker crust? Did I not pre-bake long enough? Did the crust have too much butter? I scaled down proportionally for a smaller cake, but maybe the ratio between cracker/fat changes in the scale down? Thanks

Kekule's Dream bars Maxwell's Demonical devil's food cake Kolmogorov's Monkey bread

This is a wonderful thread with yummy pictures The tagine pot reminds me of the Chinese red clay (Yixing) teapot which ages with the tea drinker, developing a history as it is infused by the flavor of different tea leaves. At the risk of committing a culinary faux-pas, i would like to ask if anyone has tried cooking tofu in a tagine? Tofu is a wonderful sponge for flavors. My family uses it often in braising.