runwestierun

I have homemade veal stock in the freezer and it's very gelatinous. I took a hunk of that and refroze it in a thin sheet in a ziplock on a cookie sheet. I ended up using a biscuit cutter to cut rounds of it to use in the burgers. It worked great! More flavor and better mouth feel than plain ground beef. My stock is unseasoned so I did S+P the center. Now I think I will try it with a thicker slab of stock to try to make a hamburger soup dumpling. I am thinking with the viscosity of the veal stock that it might be good. I may also try it with frozen butter. Thanks again for the idea.

Do you slash the loaves before baking?

Genius. I will try it this week. I always make my grilled burgers juicy lucy style. It takes less time to cook them so they stay juicier, they cook more like 2 very thin patties than one thick one. I may try it with frozen teriyaki sauce or something similar instead of burger juice, just to practice the concept. Thanks for posting this idea.

I haven't salted my egg water but I can speak to shell permeability. We never use soap to wash the eggs from our henhouse because even just a couple seconds' exposure means the eggs taste soapy.

If you are thinking of maybe replacing it with another Kitchenaid, I just received the fall William Sonoma catalog and they have the Kitchenaid Artisan mixer for $149.99. It's probably a misprint, though, because I've never seen it anywhere that cheap. They are usually more than twice that.

I got it done. Puff pastry ended up being the strongest structural element I could figure out. Thanks for all your help. Edit: I thought I posted a picture, but I will try again.

My god Ruth you are a super genius. I've got the puff pastry thawing on the counter now, if that doesn't work, square cake it is! Thank you so much.

Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "fake". I probably should have used the word "display" since this is for display only and won't be eaten. And oh I wish I was an artist or a master food stylist who could whip up a perfectly flaky-looking facsimile of this cake but alas I lack both the knowledge and skill. And the wedding is in less than 3 weeks so I also lack the time to become an artist, sadly. Also, I don't think the bride would allow a truly fake cake made out of something else because she is very earthy, organic--a localvore. For instance, I am not allowed to use lemon in the preparation of the pies for the wedding because they were not grown locally. I am now going to try ChrisZ's suggestion of puff pastry. A friend of mine originally told me she thought this was maybe a short puff pastry, puff pastry without all the turns. I haven't baked this inside a pot because ALL my pots have rivets inside and I didn't want a rivetted cake. If this fails I think I will bake it inside a pot and apply decorations over the rivet spots. I am a little worried that I won't be able to get the crust out of the pot because of the rivets, though. I think the tiers are quite tall, that's why I haven't used a cake pan. I think I will put paper around the puff pastry like Blether suggested for the hot water pastry, though. Back to the kitchen!

That's a good idea. I can make the cake dummies out of Rice Krispy treats so I can fit the dummies to the flashing, rather than making something a specific size to fit the styrofoam. I am going to try one more time with the dutch oven and cover it with wrinkled up aluminum foil to see if having nooks and crannies to grip will keep the crust on the pot. I really want this to look good up close.

The cake was made at Betty Crocker. I emailed them to ask if they could give me any guidance, and here is their response: Dear Mrs. Perkins: Thank you for contacting us concerning www.bettycrocker.com. We appreciate the opportunity to address this matter. The four William & Kate Royal Wedding cakes were created as inspirational and concept cakes. We did not create recipes for them. The decorations (leaves and flowers) for the “Something Borrowed” cake can be individually baked then glued together with frosting or royal icing. The main pastry parts of the cake were baked on foil forms to give the round shape. I hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know. Sincerely, Bobbi Hart Consumer Services

Do you have a recipe? Does that pastry keep it's shape ?

Yeah, Scottie, that makes sense. I was hoping to make the crust in one piece, though, because this will be viewed up close 360 degrees. Also it's a smaller scale than the original. And I don't have confidence in my ability to make panels that will curve and fit together into a perfect cylinder without looking like Frankencake. Any ideas how to make it in one piece?

I would like to make something like this "Something Borrowed" wedding cake made out of pie crust, it's the third cake as you scroll down: http://joyofdesserts...four-royal.html I want to make 3 tiers instead of 5, and they don't have to be edible. They are just for looks to support the actual wedding pie at a wedding that features pie instead of cake. I am trying to figure out how to make it and I've had some spectacular failures. I am trying to bake the tiers by draping pie crust over inverted stockpots and dutch ovens. Regular medium flake butter/shortening pie crust sloughed off the pot. I thought I'd use bread flour to make it tougher, but it looked like a bread cake instead of a pie crust cake. I tried an all Crisco crust and froze it for 5 hours before baking and it sloughed off the pot too. Anyone have any ideas? I sure could use some help.

Oh my god Shammalamma you made my heart jump when I saw the bread and pastry editions before I realized what you were doing. Now somehow my world seems a little smaller and grayer.....

13 more for me: 11 about pie, 2 about other stuff.

I made the most amazing brioche of my life using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. So delicious, so perfect. Tragically the ducks only lay in the spring here.

We're on the north Pacific coast, so humidity isn't anything like the interior of the continent, but it'll be hot. Yes, I'm making 9" pies, but also mini heart pies, hand pies, pies in a jar and fruit and chocolate tarts. She wants pie pops, too, but I am worried that they would fall off their sticks in the heat. I'd thought about heat and humidity for the fillings, but not the crust, so thank you for bringing that to my attention. Also, thank you for recommending a "clean" pie for the bride and groom. They aren't very concerned what flavor the pies are so long as there is a large assortment that includes cherry. I do have limited refrigeration. It would work to bring the cream and custard pies out at the last moment, thank you. I have some whipped cream stabilizer. I've only ever used it indoors. Anyone have experience with it out in the heat? I'd sure like to be able to use some. I have bowls with frozen gel inside of them. I could put the whipped cream in one of those by the ice cream server, that might work.

I'm doing a wedding pie display this August for about 200 ppl. The bride wants pie, not cake. It's outdoors in August so it'll be hot hot hot and I am worried about my good friends egg and cream. I've never done pie for a wedding before. Anyone have any suggestions? The wedding's kinda artsy/rustic.

Oh what a tale of irony! Hilarious!

Bellinis! Kir royale!

I would so buy that.

I have found that if I am kneading a dough by hand or with the KA dough hook, it works just fine if I mix the dry yeast in with the dry ingredients. However, if I am using the food processor, the dough rises much better if I add yeast through the chute after letting it bloom in warm water. I have no idea why.

Wow. It's even greater in context.

Well.....you could make some dessert with bacon (speck) and when people ask what the heck it is tell them to give it a little reSPECKt. OK even I can see that idea sucks. Maybe it'd be better to make a cake with little dots or specks on it. You could make little individual fruit fools in ramekins and line them up and say it's a Chain of Fools.