cookingofjoy

I've been enjoying following all of your baking! With your shortbread and the comment on the world peace cookies, I thought of Dorie's espresso shortbread cookies from Baking from my home to yours. I am usually baking with consideration for kids, but grown ups seem to like these.

Kim - I could sit down with a pan of those brownies for myself! Ruth - the edges of the cookies are so clean! Norm - the torte looks delicious - you found some great raspberries! After finding organic lemons at Costco (organic citrus is hard to find here in Wi), I've been loving a lemon meringue ice cream based on a Sherry Yard recipe shared here. It's just a cup of lemon curd, 1-2TB lemon juice and 1 1/4 c half and half. I use the whites leftover from the curd for the meringue, then cut up the meringue and blend it in the ice cream. Then I've been looking for a dark chocolate bundt recipe. I got the heritage pan for my birthday, and so far I've tried the one from Malgieri's perfect cakes and now this one from food and wine. My favorite chocolate cake is Toba Garrett's chocolate fudge cake but I think that would be too dense to try to adapt? I've also liked one of the revisions on the forums here for the epicurious double chocolate layer cake. I'm thinking for the bundt, I'd like a blend of butter and oil, and I really need to increase the cocoa powder. I'd love any recommendations for good recipes, too!

I was trying to make little chocolates for my kid's star wars valentines, using Trader Joe's dark pound plus(54%). I just used some silicone ice cube molds, and the Han Solo ones turned out well, but the hearts were out of temper and all bloomed like crazy where they touched the mold. You can see a clear line on the side of the heart. Is there some way I could try treating or prepping the mold? Any other especially obvious things I did wrong?

Anna N - your crumble looks fantastic! I have some blackberries and pears waiting for me. Franci - great cut of those raspberries! The cake looks delicious.

I was thinking of the ruffle cake, too! Or the roses http://thegirlinspired.com/2013/03/tips-for-making-swirled-rose-cake/ If you're still interested in browsing decorating ideas, I've loved distopiandreamgirl's cakes on flickr. This currant one is my favorite http://www.flickr.com/photos/probonobaker/1290650410/in/faves-52772824@N06/ Here's others, too https://www.flickr.com/photos/probonobaker/

We have ramps, and I gave some to my dad. They transplanted very well! In our yard, they're on a wooded hillside, but they're doing great for him in a border garden next to some roses and mint. We also have morels, which just came up, and lots of violets. We'll have to try the daylilies, too. Later in the year we'll have wild black cherries. We also have tons of highbush cranberry, though I was disappointed to find it was the invasive, non-native. It really tastes terrible! From the actual garden, here in WI, we're just getting rhubarb, asparagus and pea shoots.

My husband likes the peanut butter cookie lara bars, so I'd found this site when looking for a homemade alternative http://leitesculinaria.com/88638/recipes-homemade-larabars.html which looks like it's from this book? And then purchased 5 lb of dates So far we've tried the peanut butter cookie (no choc chips), cherry pie (subbing walnuts and pecans for almonds), apple pie (half walnuts and half pecans), and blueberry. Blueberry was his least favorite, though I liked the lemon in it. I liked the apple pie, but it was the most crumbly. I'd used apples I'd dehydrated, and maybe they weren't moist enough. They're all very dense and sweet, but like Darienne mentions, I like the ingredient list. The kids like the bars, too, which is really the first homemade 'bar' they've liked. The quinoa bars look really interesting - I'm going to have to check out the book!

My first experience with a jelly bag was a couple of years ago making currant jelly. It took 4 hrs for it to strain, it was so ridiculously slow, like 2 drops a minute. But the jelly in the end was beautiful and clear. I've not used quince before, but I just had to commiserate on the slow straining

jrshaul - that is a gorgeous bread pudding! And almond and cherry sounds wonderful!

Those chocolate cupcakes look fantastic! I love the sprinkles!

ChrisTaylor - I hadn't seen Keller's recipe before just googling it now. Did you broil it? Does it taste lighter than a tart with curd? flourgirl - your cake looks delicious, and I love glazes Beautiful tin!

I really liked this mascarpone-limoncello cream . We used strawberries, currants and black raspberries, but I think any kind of berries could work, and I like blackberries and lemon. And the jam could be used instead of the raspberry preserves.

Thanks for being so nice! I've followed this thread forever and finally got the guts to post

I'm going to school, and it's a cohort program, and we're a small group, so for new babies and weddings, I try to make little treats for class. So for a classmate getting married, cupcakes with Toba Garrett's moist yellow cake and Rosenberg's buttercream and little sugar cookies from my mom's recipe.

I've not tried Rose's. I have used Toba Garret's fondant, with adding 2-5TB cocoa to 8oz fondant. Her recipe also recommends adding shortening, after adding the cocoa, to smooth it out. Was it still crumbly the day after? It might help to try kneading in a little water and letting it sit a bit, too. I think Toba's recipe is helpful in that it's a guide for how much cocoa to add, kind of like with the powdered sugar, add as much as needed. The chocolate fondant recipe I've used most is from Michelle Foster on cake central. And I've mostly used white chocolate (actual white chocolate, not choc chips or baking chips). 1/2 cup cream 3 Tbsp. unflavored gelatin 1 cup corn syrup 3 Tbsp. butter 3 Tbsp. glycerin 2 tsp. clear vanilla dash salt Approximately 3 1/2 lbs. powdered sugar 6 oz chocolate

FrogPrincesse - I had the same reaction to Dorie's cupcakes. The cake itself really wasn't memorable, but I have used the ganache quite a few times. I really like it for topping hostess-style cupcakes. What I've used so far is the revised double chocolate cake recipe here in the 'finding the best chocolate cake' thread, post 598. I've not made Kim Shook's chocolate bar recipe, so it's on the list with all the recommendations!

I haven't made it in a couple years now, but I remember really liking Rose Levy Beranbaum's White Chocolate Whisper cake from the Cake Bible. The link has the recipe and pictures of it as cupcakes. I'd used El Rey Icoa, and I remember it being kind of subtle, too, but if I remember right it the texture would be decent for a wedding cake, firmish with a fine crumb. But again, it's been a couple years!

I do like looking for reviews of recipes online. One of the blogs I've liked is just an archive now, but Mondays with Maida is fun in that she also got feedback from coworkers/raters for the recipes. And I just like Maida Heatter I've also liked the gourmet project, especially for recipes that I don't see on epicurious. I think for both, they're both nice resources for a recipe review, instead of actually "following". Edit: Sorry I missed your post ElsieD!

Her comparison to a clafouti didn't sell me on it either. I appreciate hearing your experience with it!

I've not ever made a marshmallow pop, but I did do little rabbit "peeps", and piping a line should be fine. The peeps were a little bit of a pain for the ears and tail, but piping a line would be no problem. I did need a fairly firm marshmallow, though. My first try using a Martha Stewart recipe for piping wasn't quite firm enough and my rabbits flattened into little trilobites The second go around, I used nightscotsman's and it worked great!

This and jrshaul's comment about making a cake reminded me of Something from the Oven. It's been a few years since I've read it, but I remember it emphasized the marketing, one example being the idea of the difficulty of consistently making a cake, and that being kind of a gateway product. And there was a study where women were presented with two grocery lists and they were to describe the shopper. The lists were the same as far as processed/pre-prepared items except for the instant coffee (I think it was coffee), and the woman went from being budget-conscious, concerned about family to lazy and wasteful. Women saw some process products as acceptable (I think canned pineapple?), but others not, and there was more resistance than our stories of embracing the processed products. One thing that stuck with me, too, was her comment that it was the start of the companies shaping our tastes more than our mothers.

Darienne and EmilyR, I know this is unsolicited, so feel free to ignore But, I've never had great luck just adding the raw apple to a cake, it's always kind of flavorless and mushy. One of Dorie's recipes in Baking (a bread pudding) has you caramelize the apples in sugar and butter first and then add to the rest of the ingredients, and it was fantastic! There weren't even any added spices, but it made a huge difference - I could actually taste the apple. I like this idea now for any kind of apple cake recipe. It's three tablespoons each of butter and sugar, caramelize, then add the apples for a few minutes. Just an idea!

I love pralines - yours look beautiful, Tri2Cook! I made the dark chocolate orange ganache and orange buttercream cake from the yellow gourmet cookbook, and I really liked it. This picture is the last piece that's a day old, but the cake was tender (though it doesn't really look it there), the buttercream was nice and light, and I loved the ganache.

I got a Romertopf clay baker and scale with an adapter - no more running out of batteries!!!

I don't know, but I've made the coconut marshmallows from Talanian's book which blooms the gelatin in lite coconut milk, and they turned out great. For marshmallows, I've folded the gelatin into the bloom, especially when its thicker like coconut milk or puree, just to be sure it blooms before adding the heated liquid, otherwise it does just sit on top. How much coconut milk did you use for the bloom? For the marshmallow recipe it's 2/3 c for 4TB gelatin.