DianaM

Yes, a block of chocolate can most definitely "go bad," both in terms of flavour (any type of fat will eventually turn rancid; milk and white will spoil faster than dark) and in terms of temper. Like Kenneth T said, if your block got out of temper between Christmas and "recently," then it's useless for seeding. If you have a marble or granite slab, you could temper some by tabling it, and if you've been successful, use the tabled bit to precrystallize the rest of the choc block. If you have a cocoa butter block, you can try chef Eddy's method, my favourite for small quantities of chocolate: http://www.chefeddy.com/2010/03/temper-or-pre-crystallize-chocolate-using-cocoa-butter/ Can chocolate be untemperable? If you got water into the melted chocolate and it seized, then yes, it is untemperable (can still use it in some baked stuff etc). Otherwise, whenever I had issues with crystallization, it was "operator error." Is the chocolate cursed? Sometimes it feels that way, doesn't it. Chocolate sure does have a way of keeping us humble. Milk and white are more finicky usually. Sounds trite, but practice really does make perfect. I am not familiar with the Chocovision machine, but my suggestion would be that you try tempering by hand. Seed with cocoa butter or chocolate that you are certain is in temper, or table the chocolate on marble to precrystallize without the use of seed. Always test the temper before pouring the chocolate in moulds. Hit your moulds briefly with a heat gun before pouring in the chocolate, so the chocolate is not shocked by a very cold mould. Make sure heat can escape quickly from the chocolate in the cavities, so that residual heat does not knock your chocolate out of temper.

I know good food porn when I see it , so I added him as a flickr contact a while ago. I think I was looking for a namelaka recipe, and I found one on his blog. His work really is exquisite. Someone here on eG posted a question about a pic from here: http://instagram.com/tonistpastry I bookmarked this page as well, and have been drooling over his pics, as well as chef Bachour's, ever since.

Looks delicious, and definitely sounds doable. I did have a good chuckle when I checked out the recipe: the components are measured using 3 different measuring systems, LOL.

Baked cakes without glaze or icing freeze very nicely, usually with no loss of quality in flavour or texture. Wedding cake decorators do this all the time, even freezing cakes overnight only, as they cut with less crumbs if previously frozen. Wrap tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap. Then place, wrapped, in a ziplock bag, pushing out as much air as possible, and making sure bag has a tight seal. Then freeze it. It should take about 3-4 hours for it to thaw at room temperature. The flavour and texture will be just as fresh as on the day you baked it.

This is my experience also. I have made truffles and dipped bonbons using William Curley's formula, which is 1:1.15 ratio cream to dark chocolate. All have set up beautifully, but for all of them I started with melted, tempered chocolate at working temperature. And this is what I do for the ganaches I use to fill cakes. I use a 1:1 ratio of cream to dark chocolate, then boil the cream and pour it on top of the unmelted chocolate. Stir to emulsify, cool to room temperature undisturbed, then start stirring every once in a while. In about half hour, the ganache becomes of spreadable consistency, so I can fill and frost a cake with it.

Dhardy123, if you try this in a shell, please post your results.

I will do my best to answer your questions point by point below. Difference between double and single-acting: keychris has answered this. I'll just add this: single-acting means it's activated by acid at the mixing stage. Double-acting means it is BOTH acid-activated during mixing, as well as heat-activated during the baking stage. If the recipe calls for double-acting, I would not substitute single-acting. Double-acting is widely available though, I don't think you should have a problem purchasing this one. I myself don't keep single-acting around, I just find I get the best results with double-acting and use it in all my baked stuff. Shelf-life: baking soda will last indefinitely in an unopened, or tightly closed container. Baking powder has a shelf-life of approximately one year from the day you open it. You can also test if it's still active this way: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/11/how-to-tell-if-baking-powder-is-still-good/ Buy less of both BS and BP, so you don't have to store them for long. BS in the cupboard. If I bought lots of BP, I'll keep some in the cupboard for easy access, the rest can be kept in the freezer, and you use it to replenish your cupboard stock. Bring it to room temp before opening the bag, though, to avoid the condensation problems keychris was mentioning. Substituting buttermilk or yogurt for milk in a recipe: yes, you most definitely will have to change the amount of BS/BP in the recipe. This is a tricky one, in my experience. The acid-base equilibrium is the crux in the leavening of cakes, and I myself have not yet learned how to do this in a consistently successful manner. It might help you to know this general rule of thumb: 1/2 teaspoon BS is neutralized by 1 cup fermented milk or 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar. (McGee, p.534, and Beranbaum p. 473) Perhaps more experienced bakers can help you with this one. Why use both baking powder and baking soda: BP is basically an alkali combined with a dry acid, plus cornstarch. The leavening power of BP comes from the reaction of the base with the acid, when the solid acid comes into contact with water. If the recipe contains too much acid (ingredients like molasses or brown sugar, cocoa and chocolate, buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream), then the base in the BP is not enough to neutralize all the acid. And that is why you also need some baking soda in the recipe. I hope this helps you. I learned all this from McGee's On Food and Cooking (see Chapter 10, p. 515 and onwards), and Beranbaum's Cake Bible (p. 419-445, 469-478). Both are excellent resources.

First thing, I would buy some popsicle moulds that are about half the size of the ice-blocks. Smaller portions of whatever you make at home will be better for him. For the lemon-flavoured treats, I would make some simple syrup with equal parts water and organic cane sugar (or some other, minimally processed sugar) AND steep lemon peel in the simple syrup while heating it. Be generous with the peel, it supplies the characteristic "lemony" flavour, the juice is just acid basically. Then I would dilute the syrup with lemon juice, and add grated lemon zest - this will give you a very strongly flavoured base. I know it seems counter-intuitive to start with simple syrup, but you can dilute this base with as much water as you want to reduce the sugar content, but still keep it palatable for a 5-yr old. You could try to sweeten treats with honey, but since it has a flavour of its own, your nephew might not like it. Honey is sweeter than sugar, you can use less of it (by weight). Some varieties, like acacia, are quite mild and could be "masked" by assertive fruit flavours. As for getting a rock-hard popsicle. Sugar keeps frozen desserts from becoming rock hard. Therefore, the less you have in the recipe, the harder the popsicle.

Would anyone mind sharing the peanut butter microwave sponge cake recipe from Modernist Cuisine?

This has been my experience also. I would, in this order: make sure I didn't overmix, make sure my oven is properly calibrated and accurate, and then start decreasing the leavening. As for sifting, I always sift cake flour, or else a firmer clump may not mix into the batter properly. If the recipe directs to sift the flour (without other ingredients) three times, I wouldn't do it. If the recipe directs sifting the flour with the baking powder/baking soda, salt, cocoa etc three times, then I assume they want to make sure the other dry ingredients are properly dispersed into the flour. But I'd make my life easier and just sift once into a bowl, then use a whisk to further aerate and disperse the dries, before adding them to the batter.

Bojana, thank you for posting this video. The lava cake part is at 1:29-ish.

Annie, do you remember what was your ratio of praline paste to IMBC?

Not sure if any sponge recipe will work, but if you're in the mood to experiment, you can begin with this recipe (and video): http://www.joyofbaking.com/SpongeCakeorBiscuit.html You need the right pan for this, though, 17x12".

I second Ruth's recommendation for Cacao Barry. Smooth as silk. When I bought it, I had to stir it up all the way to the bottom of the pail, to divide it up in 1kg tubs for storage. After fully mixing it up, I did not find any gritty bits, either of sugar or nuts.

I have successfully used many times Mark Bittman's recipe for Warm, Soft Chocolate Cake from his iPhone/iPad app, How to Cook Everything. He doesn't call it lava cake, but that's what it is. I found it online as well in a NY Times blog post: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/molten-chocolate-magic/ To. Die. For.

And me, please!

Kerry, I can bring some ingredients if you think they might be useful: feuilletine, hazelnut praline paste, yuzu marmalade, some raspberry compound flavouring, semi-sweet truffle shells, invert sugar (I bought a 5-kilo bucket a while ago). I have more than I can use of all of these ingredients, so would be glad to bring them along if you think we can experiment with them. Please let me know.

I use an x-acto knife, but change blades frequently, to make sure they are sharp. I place the sheet on a self-heal mat, cocoa butter facing down (I bought the mat at an office supply store - conveniently, it's got straight lines drawn on it already), and cut long "ribbons" from the sheet. Then sharp scissors to cut the "ribbons" into individual pieces. I've also used before a paper trimmer or guillotine paper cutter, but they, too, need to be sharp. In my personal experience, the transfer sheet itself can make a great difference: the "fresher" the sheet is, the less the cocoa butter rubs off on the wrong surface. Whenever I start a fresh batch, the cocoa butter stays in place when cutting, and then neatly transfers onto the bonbon. Older ones tend to flake more easily.

All the chocolates look beautiful, but those blue robin's eggs are really amazing!

RWood, from what I understand, the concentrate is twice the strength of regular puree. Therefore, do you use half as much as you would use puree? I used the Perfect Puree product for a RLB cake, and I think I had to dilute it to use. For a ganache however, it makes no sense to add water. So how do you work with the concentrate?

That looks beautiful! Am very jealous of your quennelling skills.

It will be great to have Ruth there to teach us! I actually watched her compete at the World Chocolate Masters, she did an amazing job. Do you think she would be willing to share the recipe of the tarte au sucre she made for the competition? If my memory serves me well, her version was a very chic-looking (and probably delicious) rectangular tart, I would love to try and recreate it at home after the workshop. I second lebowitz's request for information on bonbons and showpieces. It is always a great experience to learn about others' creative process when preparing for a competition at this level.

Origami is one way to go, I guess. I would try to return them to the store, and if that does not work, then contact the manufacturer. If that does not work either, you can always sell them on ebay or craigslist.

Curls - those hearts look sooo pretty! So whose passion fruit formula did you like best? Keychris - both the caramels and the hearts look great! Could you please describe your process for removing the caramels from the flexipan? I have always wanted to try using a square flexipan for caramels, to avoid having to cut them, but I was afraid I'd have trouble removing them neatly from the mould.

Kerry, please add me to the list for Saturday dinner. The meal we had last time from chef Dave was amazing, looking forward to this one as well!