GTO

I'm looking to make some muffins (as in the sweet, muffin case cake-like) kind, but with the addition of yeast. Would this work? What kind of texture would it yield? I'm hoping it would make them taller/lighter. If not, has anyone tried whipping the egg whites seperately?

dystopiandreamgirl - That's a beautiful cake. The leaves are astonishing. How on Earth did you manage to place them so neatly without them melting!? Rather more humble, I made David Lebovitz's Orange cake. It's great - Tastes like carrot cake. Alongside, it some simple almond honeycomb.

Did you at least try and pass it off? "Eat it! It's caramelised!"

Just today I saw some amazing looking baked doughnuts over at Tartlette. To be honest, I much prefer the look of those to most fried ones.

No Birthday cake this year. Whatever, I filled some Croustades with Ganache instead. Served 'em with some strawberries poached in Damson liquer. Edit: Thank you Mark, for the cake dedication, very, very cool!

Thank you both very much! You're right lexy - They're little tiny greengages, about walnut size.

Here are two of my recent desserts. Rice pudding with local raspberries, from last week. And tonight - David Lebovitz's 'Plum Streusel Cake.'

Eeeeeew. I thought "It looks like snails..." "It is snails!" Each to their own, but look at what the flash on your camera has done to one in the bottom right - You can see it's skin texture!

Peter, THAT is Dinner. Perfect.

Cat: Man, this milk is off...

Heroes is awesome, I was a little bit "Meh" to begin with, didn't think I'd get into it, but yeah, really enjoying it. (Not dessert related I know.) Looking at those truffles is making me feel ill though, Mark. Despite all the stuff I do with chocolate, I cannot stand truffles. They're like eating the core of a Planet made of chocolate and usually cause me to feel violenty sick, if not physically vomit. Lol, I'm sure you make fantastic, textbook truffles however!

Mark - Holy freaking God, that is an incredible amount of inceridble desserts. I'm thinking, if I had to pick a favourite...I'd probably go for the Peach cake. I love the combination of brown sugar and peaches. So I guess it's a diet of rice and water for the next 3 years now?

I can taste that rice pudding from here, Rob. I love the way really, really dark chocolate gives that intense dark fruit flavour when you use it in things like rice pudding.

What a start, gfron! Reallt original ideas and flavours, nothing at all like I was expecting. And Mark, I was at work this afternoon and I thought "Wow, I dread to think how much dessert Mark and the others have eaten already." Altough have to say, What you're doing sounds wholely unsafe. You're insane, lol. KEEP GOING!

I made these chocolate cups today, scary as hell, but totally worth it. Have a look at my Blog for a "how-to". I filled 'em with Greek yoghurt and passionfruit.

Plus, wouldn't even the worst of pallettes recognise that cardboard filling would taste like crap?

I think that's what they call "Manggy Nectar. I have JUST eaten, and that is severely gross. I couldn't sleep last night and I was thinking - How are you all (or Y'all) planning to approach this? Are you just going to make a whole load of random stuff? Or are you going for catagories? (Baked, set, chilled, frozen). Or perhaps you could pick a set of Countries and make something indigenous to there. Edit: To fix a rather rude mis-spelling of "Countries".

Lol, yeah. In all seriousness, if everyone would just look at Rob's Flickr page for a minute. You're a Dessert MACHINE. I'm noticing under all of the pictures, that it says "From The Art of Dessert" - So unlike normal people, who read books first, it seems that you cook your way through?

Layered sorbets! Come on people. Someone do a layered Sorbet.

Mark has magic fingers. He's so focused, he's begun to sweat sugar instead of salt. Be afraid! You need to automatically ban anyone who: Owns a Bakery Owns a Patisserie Works in a Bakery/Patiesseire Has the Surname "Herme"

You're goin' DOWN, Rob! You're goin' DOWN! I'm backing a winner in Mark, I think. Come on, Mark! KICK HIS ASS!

Megan - You need to get up! Get up! Go over to the window. Open it! Stick your head out and yell "I'm as mad a Hell! And I'm not going to take this anymore!"

When you burn your finger like that, everyone does the same little dance. You know the one, that kind of speedy foot jive, followed by the Michael Jackson spin.

It looks like Blender Cake.

Blixt - You're hooked! There is now no escape! Great food, you're making me want to eat salmon - And I hate salmon.