jlwquilter

Amazon has (had??) a few copies that were priced ok.. $25 and $30. I was talking myself into buying a copy but wanted to check out the local bookstores first. Ebay didn't have any copies listed right now (I did however buy the Baking From My Home to Yours cookbook for under $11 all in! Yeah!). Didn't get to the booksore due to dealing with TS Fay. Checked again last night after power was restored and the $25 copy was no longer listed. Drat! Until... I went to my girlfriend's house today and she told me that she bought the book for me as a thank you gift off Amazon! Can't wait to get it so I can add in my notes... can't do that on the library copy I am using now. Those librarians are not to be trifled with! Also got an order today for the Chocolate Pave cake from an acquaintance who overheard me rhapsodizing about it. Gotta love it!

Well, I did make the chocolate mousse yesterday... AWESOME! I even almost followed the recipe, which is quite a trick for me. I had a few more egg whites hanging around than what was called for in the recipe but they added in easily.I upped the chocolate and sugar amounts just a touch to compensate for the extra egg whites. I even used what I understand is decent chocolate this time - Callabaut Bittersweet, which I bought Friday at Whole Foods. I also bought Valrhona but at $16 a pound I didn't want to use it on a first time trial of a recipe. I will make the mousse again with Valrhona but it'll have to be pretty stinking amazing in order to justify the price difference over the batch made with the Callabaut. Now to re-read this thread and pick another recipe to try!

I can personally attest to the fact that quick temp changes will crack the enamel even on a LC pot My own stupid fault

This thread is so old I'm not really expecting anyone to read my post... but given my totally embarrassing actions that's probably for the better. I fear I will not be welcome here going forward! I just got the CDBPH from the library, after reading about 10 pages of this thread a few days ago. What pictures! What raves of the recipes! Anyway, I made the Pave. End of story first: it was FABULOUS! It looked awesome, tasted fantastic and while it took me time to make it all, no single part was hard. Love it! I served it for dessert to new friends... and they came back the very next day and we ate the 2nd cake too! They think I am a genius Anyway, the back story to the Pave is that I could not have tried harder to RUIN the cake if I had purposefully set out to do so. I found out about the friends coming over very late so had no time to go shopping and simply made due with what I had on hand AND I was baking late at night/tired. I should have baked some cookies but I WANTED to make the Pave so bad. I used Hershey's cocoa. I grabbed the 1/3 cup for measuring the flour instead of the 1/4 cup. My eggs were huge so I decided to eliminated one egg. I used Hershey's milk chocolate bars and some of their Special Dark in the ganache. I didn't know about not having the caramelized sugar send up more than wisps of smoke (I had plenty of wisps) so probably cooked the sugar too long, but it was definitely NOT burnt. I failed to totally incorporate the whipped egg whites to the point that my batter totally filled both cake pans to the brim - which were amazingly the odd size called for in the recipe. Realizing that I was in trouble, I scooped out batter, finding the unincorporated egg whites and proceeded to fold them in using a tablespoon right in the pans. Lord. I still had too much batter so pulled out a tiny cake tin and baked that along with the 2 regular loaves. Despite watching the baking times carefully, I think I overbaked the loaves a bit as there was a thin top layer of much lighter cake visable when I unmolded them. The rest (har-har) went well. Cakes froze up well, torted easily, soaked up the syrup (I used it all per Patrick's suggestion), and the chocolate-caramel ganache was a dream to spread after warming up on the counter for a bit (it was a rock right out of the fridge). Oh, I left out the apricots totally on the first cake, on purpose. On the 2nd cake I added sliced fresh strawberries to one layer (I was going to do it between both layers but was under pressure to get it done and forgot until I got to the 2nd layer). As the same group ate both cakes, some liked it better with the strawberries and some didn't. All want me to try it with bananas! Moral of the story is that this recipe can take a total moron making it and still come out totally awesome! I even sorta wonder if I need to spend the $$ on getting better chocolate! I hope Dorie doesn't see this post; she'll ban me from buying the book, which I intend to do I really want to make the mousse next! Dare I try??!!

I just made this recipe again a few days ago... for anotehr order for the same people. This time I baked half the batter in four 4 1/2" springform pans. Baking time was about 23 minutes... although I do think I overbaked them a tad. My hubby siad this cake was a bit drier than the last cake. Also he didn't taste that slight buttermilk tang as much... I think this may be due to my buttermilk this time around being much fresher than the last batch. I keep buttermilk on hand at all times (use if for my biscuits for our own meals) and sometimes it's in my fridge for a LONG time. The first cake used this older buttermilk, but I used it all up and had to buy a new container for the 2nd order. Does this make sense? That the older buttermilk was more tangy? Is there a way to tangify (how's THAT for a word?!) fresh buttermilk.. add some vinegar to it??

I've been having issues with accessing the recipes too, the past few days. I hope they get it fixed fast! I need a carrot cake recipe asap. Here is Jayme's Red Velvet Cake recipe EXACTLY as it was posted. I did not add in any of my personal changes (as noted in my previous post) as I figure that's for you to experiment with. Red Velvet Cake, Submitted by Jayme It does use a large amount of oil - 2 cups, but it sure ain't "dry". Red Velvet Cake was ver populare back inthe late 60's & 70's and there were frequently "Red Velvet Cake cookoffs". This recipe won the blue ribbon at several state fairs. 2 1/2 c sifted cake flour 2 c sugar 1 c buttermilk 1 tsp soda 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp salt 3 eggs 2 T cocoa 1 T vinegar 1 oz red food coloring 2 c vegetable oil - "buttery flavor" is good, but if you can't find it, add 1/2 to 1 cup of Butter Flavor Popcorn Topping oil (to make a total of C oil) - available in the popcorn section at the store. Crean Cheese Frosting: 1 stick butter 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese 1 box powdered sugar Dash salt Cake - combine all ingredients; mix well and pour into 1 large or 2 small buttered and floured cake pans. Bake 300 degrees for about 40 minutes or until done. Frosting - cream well, then frost well cooled cake.

Chefpeon - Guess what. I am such a ditz sometimes. I need cream cheese frosting, not sour cream frosting, for the RVC. Duh. And I do know that I can freeze the frosted cake ok so I am good to go. Just need to start baking! I am sure however that at some point I will need to tackle the sour cream frosting question, just not right now!

Thanks for the input! I was just able to now do a google (having to dash out to get child from camp really messes the day up - LOL!) and generally results said that sour cream seperates during defrosting so not a good choice for a to-be-frozen cake. Total bummer. I talked more with the customer and they REALLY want the red velvet cake again so I will do mini-cakes, frost with the vanilla sour cream frosting and wrap them super well. The guy will just have to find room in his fridge until he eats them all! I don't freeze frosted cakes either, as a general rule, but this was the first time I'd specificaaly been asked about being able to freeze a frosted cake... so I came to the experts!

Hi. Home baker here staring a VERY small custom baking business. I did a red velvet cake with vanilla sour cream frosting for a birthday a few weeks ago ... a big hit apparently! Now they want smaller version of the cake for the birthday boy (he's had surgery) that he can eat over a period of time... it's only him (adult man). The cake itself is no problem... I have several small pans I can use to different effect. And I know I can freeze it well. However, the frosting! If I frost the cakes, let them set up, then wrap really well, can they go into, and more importantly, come out of the freezer well?? If not, just how long could a well wrapped sour cream frosted mini cake stay in a standard home fridge and not get gross OR make someone ill? 3 days? a week? Longer?? They want this for MONDAY. Nothing like having lead time

Thanks for the info on glucose vs. corn syrup. I have so much to learn! The recipe that I was looking at is for Royal Chocolate Frosting. I am not in the market to make any soon but you never know! I am starting a very very small baking business and am building my recipe base, trying to anticipate wanted items and such. If someone could post a link to the subsitution thread I'd appreciate it. Frankly I am stumped/having problems figuring out the search feature on this site

Hi. Thought I'd grab the chance to piggy back here... I picked up a dessert book from the library a few days ago.. basically European type desserts. One recipe calls for glucose. I found a tub of glucose (Wilton brand) at the store... ingredient list simply said "corn syrup". Does this mean I can just use my corn syrup out of the pantry?? Or can I "power up" my corn syrup to do the same job? I am a home baker and trying to increase my skills and knowledge... but not get ripped off in the process by buying items that I already have on hand, but under simpler names. Thanks!

I made 2 red velvet cakes in the past few days... for a birthday cake order. I basically used Jaymes recipe (THANKS!). The first time the only change I made was to sub in 1/2 cup butter for part of the oil. I used 1/2 cup of the butter flavored popcorn oil as the recipe suggests. Cake batter was very thin. I did use an oversized pan on purpose and watched baking time like a hawk. End result was a very nice cake but the thinness of the layer made me go back to a standard 9x13 pan. Oh, I used 2oz of food dye. No after taste at all. Hubby has been eating this test cake. The second cake, which was the one that went out for the order. I creamed the 1/2 cup of butter with the sugar and then beat in each egg seperately. I also used 1 cup of the butter flavored oil and 1/2 cup of regular oil. This was because I poured the butter oil first this time and goofed on the amount - but now think it was meant to be! Anyway, the cake batter was thicker and seemed, I don't know, more like cake batter I guess. Cake baked up great. I froze it overnight and then defrosted the cake. I frosted it with vanilla cream cheese frosting... I did thicken half of the frosting with more confectioer's sugar so I could use it for piping a very simple design. Cake was a HUGE hit at the birthday party. Even those that had earlier professed to not like red velvet cake really liked it. And those that like RVC said it was the best ever tasted! Yahoo! So... thanks again Jaymes for sharing your great recipe!

Forgive me! I am searching for a red velvet cake recipe (have an order due Wednesday) and came across this topic first. I have now located the red velevet cake thread. That said, I am happy I read thru ALL the pages here as I am now dying to try some of the chocolate cake recipes mentioned here... YUM!

Reporting back in The vanilla and chocolate marshmallows came out great! Whoo-hoo! I cut the slabs into bunny heads (cookie cutter) and enrobed most in chocolate. Sold them to co-workers of my DH, and they sold fine. I do have some that I didn't send in and I am finding that the texture/flavor is changing a bit - and not for the better. I've kept each flavor in it's own plastic container. Any idea on why they might be "going bad" after only a week (or less)? The strawberry scraps I have left are actually yucky now and I am throwing them out. By the way, I can't ever seem to keep a candy thermometer in good shape (always get water inside) so I used an instant read probe type thermometer to temp check the syrup. Seemed to work fine. I was also amazed at the difference dusting the mallows make. I ate a few pieces off the very first strawberry slab and ugh! I was worried. Then I dusted them and it was night and day. My DH has been really pushing the idea of selling at the farmer's market and I said I'd need a commercial kitchen... now I know to check my state (FL) laws instead.... unless anyone knows what it says? In case it matters, I live in Palm Beach County. Those peeps are great!

Thanks Desiderio amd Patris for the input (and words of welcome!). I now have a batch of chocolate and a batch of vanilla marshmallows resting. For the chocolate I decided to try 1/3 cup natural cocoa (I wanted more volume and a lighter texture but good chocolate flavor too) and 1TBLS of creme de cocoa liquor. The mixture looks much more "normal" - no excess bubbles, a light chocolate color, etc. The volume was less than both the strawberry and vanilla batches but not nearly as less as the first try I did several days ago. I have hopes! I do think I may have zoomed a bit beyond (a few degrees) 240 though, so will see what if any difference that may have made. The mixture was indeed very very soft and very very sticky. I have more waste left in the bowl than I'd like... any suggestions on how to get more out of the bowl when pouring?? The vanilla batch went very smoothly. Also very very soft and quite sticky with more waste than the stawberry batch but less than the chocolate batch. Both taste pretty darn good - what I've scraped off the bowls. Here's another question. I will be dipping/enrobing (I do not know enough yet on chocolate to know the differnce between terms) the marshmallows. Should I still powder the mashmallows in the confectioners/potato starch mixture before doing the chocolate? I did so (dusted) on the strawberry ones and it seemed to work fine but if I can cut out a step and save time, I'd like too. I really love the idea of swirling in melted chocolate and getting a mix of textures but that will have to wait a bit to try that I am afraid. Thanks again for the help! This newbie appreciates it!

Hi. This is my very fist post as a member - yeah! And this topic is what made me join Just so you know, I am a home baker, not a foodie professional. I successfully made a batch of strawberry marshmallows a few days ago. Very easy and quite fun. I used pureed frozen strawberries for all the water. Cocky gal that I am, I then tried chocolate marshmallows... tripling the amount of cocoa (natural) in the recipe as at least one poster here said they'd done. Crash and burn. I need help in identifying where I went wrong. When I dissolved the cocoa in the boiling hot water, there was so much cocoa that "dissolved" wasn't exactly what happened. I panicked and added 1/4 cup more of water (maybe a tad more). The rest of the recipe I followed exactly. I did think to deduct the extra 1/4 cup water but then worried that the sugar wouldn't have enough liquid to do its thing in. The resulting chocolate marshamallow was half the amount of the strawberry batch (which I kinda expected from other posts), had alot of bubbles on the surface, and failed to achieve marshmallow texture. It's actually pretty tasty "sheet mousse". The inside looks like a very fudgy brownie - no air sack texture. I used the same gelatine and amount that I did for the strawberry batch - 4 packets of Knox. Would that extra bit of water really have made such a difference? Was it the amount of cocoa (1 1/2 cups total)? Or that I used natural instead of Dutch cocoa? I really need to figure this out as I have a person that would like to buy the chocolate marshmallows for Easter if I can get the recipe working. As an added question, do you think that if I took the "sheet mousse" and mixed it in my mixer (high or low spead?) I could get it to smooth out, maybe fold in some whipped cream and really have a sorta mousse desset? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!