Sif

That is beyond cool!

I've grown very fond of kangaroo. I usually just wrap a slice of bacon around it and cook it medium rare and serve with any sauce I would serve with venison. Usually something with heavy cream and currant jelly. Last time I served it with fennel and brussel sprouts, coated with balsamico and EVOO and then baked.

My Lambeth Method Of Cake Decorating has a recipe for buttercream with fondant in it, the kind you melt and pour, although he has it broken in small pieces and whipped with condensed milk, powdered sugar, butter, shortening and heavy cream. It is very fluffy and very good, but not sure if it crusts. If you want the recipe I can find it again.

When I can get fresh abricots, I love to put them in a tomato salad with a EVOO/vinegar dressing with some agave nectar and salt. And rucola.

Vegans don't eat cheese. I think a nice fruit salad would go well with falaffel, or a summer fruit pie. I like to bake apple pie using margarine instead of butter (soy marg gives the best flavor) and shred almond paste over the apples. Baked fruit with almond paste or ginger is nice too, served with soy whipped cream or just a crumbly topping.

Lisa, I am drooling over here. I can almost taste it! I made vegan cupcakes today. Best. Ever. Cupcakes. I am so proud of my little invention. It's chocolate peanutbutter with ditto frosting. I made 6 and ate them all myself Vegan cakes has never really been superior to regular cakes to me, so I am very happy that these turned out so well!

Hm that is odd. Because I just checked my baking powder, and right you are, disodium diphosphate. No aluminium. But I still get the aftertaste once in a while. Maybe it's just too much baking powder then? I will however switch to a brand that uses cream of tartar, just in case.

Thanks! I guess I also found the answer to why my scones comes out almost inedible from time to time. What would I do without eGullet

I sometimes have my chocolate cakes coming out with this weird metallic taste - like cheap supermarket chocolate cakes sometimes taste. I get this both with cheap cocoa and with expensive ones, like Valrhona. I always use dutch processed. I also get it with different recipes (vegan or non-vegan) and different pans, lined or not - so I am a bit lost. I was wondering if the baking powder could be causing this taste, and why? I don't use baking soda. Any help would be really appreciated.

I have told my mom no chocolate during june, july and august, because I have the same problems. Some set up fine, some will bloom like nothing else. I figured it was the temperature. Also it was the larger (softer) truffles with a heavier coating that bloomed. My moulded chocolate didn't bloom, but took ages to set and lots of banging against the counter, to get out of the mold. What a nightmare.

I use it a lot, mostly because I think it has a really nice taste compared to regular white sugar. Just remember to adjust the liquid in the recipe.

I also have a very good recipe for this dessert (the Danish variant, not sure if Krembo is different). It's a bit like a boiled meringue, but made with egg white powder so it's thicker and has less air. But since I don't have access to eggwhite poweder on a regular basis, I make it by baking italian meringue on thin wafers for a short time at a low temp to dry it out a bit.

When you've drawn out the oil, there's not really anything you can do to save it. But as long as it tastes good... I'd probably try my hand at a frangipane or a similar baked item, just to see if it would work.

I never understood this royal icing problem. I make lambeth cakes, and thus my cakes are heavily decorated with royal icing in several layers, including stringwork on bridge. But they are also kept in the fridge, and I have never had a cake melt, even after a few days. It dries slower, but still dries. I never have been able to figure out what I am doing differently from others.

I love the splatter effect! It's really something.

Thanks. I can't get cream of tartar, but it's an acid, right? Can I use lemon juice instead? I'll try to boil it to a lower temp and add glucose. It tastes like a very mild honey - difficult to describe, but it's delicious. Really delicious. I'm not vegan anymore, but I still make it, because I find honey to strong.

I made dandelion syrup yesterday. The recipe goes as follows 1 litre fresh dandelion flowers 1 litre of water 1300 grams granulated sugar Pick petals from flowers, boil in water for 10 minutes as sift through a cloth. Add sugar to water and boil to 115 C. I made sure not to stir, and bottled it when it had cooled to room temp. It was perfect yesterday, and now I have a huge chunk of dandelion sugar with a bit of liquid on top. What went wrong? Too much sugar? And can I save it? It's supposed to be used as a vegan sub for honey, so it needs to be fairly thick.

Regarding sinking, when making genoise make sure you don't slam the ovendoor or open it too soon - and be careful with bumping the filled cakepan too. Especially with a recipe that calls for that much egg yolk and cocoa.

From the ingredient list and the description it sounds similar to marshmallow fondant. I don't care for the look, but it's a great idea.

That olive cobbler looks intriguing - and delicious! I made lemon meringue tartlets, with Toba Garretts lemon curd recipe, the best I ever tasted.

I ended up rubbing it with butter and herbs and slow roasting it whole on top of carrots, onions and a lemon - which I then scooped out into the gravy. Really good. I ate the thigh and plan to pluck the rest of the meat for tartlets, sandwiches and salads. I will save the carcass and wings in the freezer. I like duck too, but they are harder to get your hands on when it's not Christmas. Will try though, as I like duck better. Once again, thanks for great help. I have saved all the ideas for next time.

So many great ideas thank you. I'll forget about the stock for now then, and see what I can come up with. One question though, can you slow roast a chicken?

I just bought a 3 lb freerange organic (aka 5 doubled price) chicken. Now I want to get the most out of it for my money. I don't care for chicken soup, but I have a lot of want-to-try recipes calling for chicken stock. If I cut it up and roast it, can I still use the bones, or should I boil it and miss the great roasted part? Can I boil half and roast half? Any other great ideas? I'm just me, and I don't eat a lot of meat, so an entire roasted chicked might be a bit over the top.

So, I tried my hands at macarons for the first time today. Was a bit disappointed when I tasted them and discovered they were just regular almond meringues. Should have known from the recipe of course, but I have never seen or tasted macarons before. They were pretty easy and I had no problems with getting them off the paper. But since I know next to nothing about macarons, it would be nice if anyone could point out the flaws and maybe tell me how to avoid them next time

Thank you so much Amrita, I am going to give it a go later today. I have started from page 1 in "The Lambeth method of cake decorating and practical pastries", and first chapter is french pastries. I made mocha pralines, which called for croquante. So I spent a good chunk of my morning making croquante, with his recipe of course. The dough has croquante siftings and rum (I used kahlua though) and it's sandwiched with mocha buttercream and some are covered in croquante, some just have a small piece on top. They were really really good, but I almost got a cavity just by looking at them. Next up is pignolia pralines. I just love that book, both the cake decorating part and the baking part. Best paycheck ever spent.