keychris

I believe you can put metal bowls in a certain type of microwave. Whilst it is a bad thing to do in most cases, it's not impossible. I was always told to never put plastic bowls in the microwave either, and I never did until I burned myself very badly on a superheated glass bowl from the microwave. I also thing that Bernadry is saying it's better to use a metal bowl over a steam bath, not in a microwave I personally prefer to keep my chocolate as far from water as possible, so no steam baths here. Microwave is much easier and quicker.

I don't have that book to hand at the moment, but if it's anything like nougat, you may need to whip the mixture for longer with a little heat on the bowl to evaporate more water.

how long will it stay that tidy

invert separating is simply the sugar crystals sinking to the bottom of the solution, it hasn't gone bad

@pastrygirl the description in the CW catalogue is " Re-usable jelly for mould making. "

I imagine you could probably spray a layer on perhaps?

loving the finish on those ones Bentley

in my house? about 10 minutes

Where are they leaking from, Jim? If it's around the cap, it's just sealing that's an issue - the soft caramel is getting squeezed when the chocolate sets and contracts, and because the filling is fairly liquid, it's going to come out of any tiny holes or cracks there are. Would sealing the back with an acetate sheet help perhaps?

Hey Lucy, your location says Victoria. If you're in Melbourne, check out Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in Brunswick, they always have transfer sheets in stock, but the size is probably not long enough to apply all the way around a cake, you'd need multiple strips. They also sell rolls of acetate strips which you could pipe designs directly on to. You'd have to be quick at piping to get the designs piped whilst the chocolate remained flexible enough to shape around the cake though. I've seen chocolate applied to acetate and then whilst still semi-set applied directly around a cake, where it will shrink in and hug the cake, you just peel the acetate off after 20 minutes in the fridge if your chocolate is in temper. Alternatively, you could line the outside of the cake tin with baking paper, wait for the strip to be semi-set, wrap it around the cake tin + paper, let it set, slide it off, then carefully slide it over the cake (it should larger than the cake if you use the outside of the tin) but this way I think would be trickier depending on your decorations on the cake. Do you know how to check your chocolate is in temper? I assume you've used the machine before if you have one Is it a melting tank or an actual tempering machine? Edit to add: I definitely wouldn't use old camera film. Chris (also in Victoria )

" So forgiving it takes the intimidation out of baking with yeast! " ... I've never been intimidated by yeast. There's no black magic in bread making

I wonder if that would work with honeycomb, given it's extremely attractive to moisture!

I find honeycomb stupidly hard to cut evenly, so I usually end up just smashing it and dipping the chunks! It still tastes great

I'd imagine it's just to make it flow out of the canister easier.

I don't understand why you're cooling it to 84 and then rewarming it. If you're trying to create the beta crystals from nothing (wild crystallisation), then that's how you do it - melt, cool, warm, use. If you're seeding (which is what you're describing), add your seed and cool whilst stirring to the working temperature of the couverture. If all the seed has melted before you reach the working temperature, you probably need to add a little bit more. If it's all melted out and you're still 5C above working temperature, you won't get the seeding method to work because there's no beta crystals left to seed, they've all melted.

To play devil's advocate: does it matter if it's warm? You're going to melt the chocolate anyway

I sense much anger is this one

Don't leave it in the fridge too long

This is why it's good to have temperatures - her stovetop was obviously cranking in a lot more heat than yours was!

Thanks for that info Jim, I have some of that in the cupboard! Did the lemon juice decrease the pH or increase it? I would have expected a decrease.

Looks good, let us know how it goes!

Yes, you could be right! I've not had a good enough reason to get a smaller airbrush than the one I was given - freebies always are a good thing There's no branding or anything on the one I have, it's just an HVLP gravity feed with a 100mL canister on it.

Depends how fresh the eggs are as to how long you would leave them out for, I guess!

@pastrygirlI have an Iwata SmartJet Pro (IS875) - http://www.iwata-medea.com/products/compressors/smart-jet-pro/ This isn't really high enough pressure. You can make do with it, but I have to pause after each row of cavities and let the pressure build back up. It's really great for spatter applications that use a lower pressure, but if you want easy whole-cavity coverage you'll need more pressure. If I do get the opportunity to upgrade, I'll give the IS875HT a go, unless someone on here has a better suggestion

I haven't had any go bad, but I have had colours absorb moisture which made them perform extremely poorly. I vacuum seal all my colours after use now.