kthull

You're right Wendy. And man, that recipe was heavenly.

Bridge Kitchenware sells a double guitar for $1050 according to their 2003/2004 catalog. I'm not completely sure if that price is still valid, but if not it couldn't have gone up much. They don't have that item listed online. They're in New York and the number is 800.274.3435 (212.838.1901)

Here are Wendy's mice. Very cool because they're upright. Friberg has them in his book, but they're basically a decorated teardrop shape. I like these much better. Thanks Wendy!

I've used the 1/2 pastry cream and 1/2 whip cream before and I think that might be why I'm thinking the pastry cream is not quite right. That's the only one of the three I mentioned above that I didn't actually make yesterday...was just relying on my fast-fading memory. I'll make some more pastry cream as well. I do know that the person I'm making the cake for has had the half and half mixture before and liked it, but did not request it this time around, so I wouldn't feel safe using that. Geez...what to do with all these creams and my wife and I trying to still fit through the doorways

Thanks Wendy. I was starting to think that, but was hoping it couldn't be true. And Colleen, thanks for that recipe. I'll give it a try...sounds great!

I have a request for a chocolate layer cake with custard filling for my neighbor's 1 year old birthday party, and I'm having a hard time with the custard filling part. When someone asks for a custard filling, what is the custard filling? So far I've made vanilla pastry cream (Herme), bavarian cream (Freiberg) and the vanilla cream filling posted on the Boston Cream Pie thread (sugar, flour, salt, scalded milk, eggs, vanilla). Nothing's turning up quite right and I haven't had much luck on search engines or the major recipe sites. Anyone know specifically what the filling is and able to share a recipe? Thanks!

Ok, you've all convinced me to make the time to get the real thing. Whole Foods by my work claims to have it so I'll make a point of running out to grab some. Thanks again!

There's a TI not too far from where I work. If I can get the chance, I'll try to swing by there. Thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks everyone. I'm in the far northwestern suburbs of Chicago. So close, yet so far away. If it were any other time of the year, I wouldn't be putting in 70 hour weeks at work and I'd have time to check out some of the stores downtown. I know there's a Whole Foods not too far out of reach and hadn't yet called them. The last time I called looking for an ingredient proved a waste of time, so I don't have too much faith in calling again. And there's Trader Joe's, but even farther away. <sigh>

I haven't had the time nor the luck finding orange flower water locally and I need it for my wife's birthday dessert. I've seen the following substitutions: - grated orange zest soaked in sweet white wine for 24 hours; strain and use liquid - grated orange zest (plain) - orange extract I'm not too keen on the first option since nowhere could I find how much wine to use. Second option seems least likely. Third option is hopeful since I can get my hand on extract, but I'd guess I need to dilute it somewhat. I've never tasted orange flower water first hand, so wouldn't have a way to know if any sub I tried was worthwhile. If it helps, the recipe calls for 1.5 T of it to be incorporated into about 4 cups worth of filling (whipped cream + pastry cream + vanilla buttercream). 1.5 T of kirsch goes into that as well. It's Herme's Tropezienne dessert. Of course I procrastinated (plus I've been very busy with my REAL job, leaving no time to play or surf for ingredients) and her birthday is this Saturday so I need to make the cream Friday night. Thanks!

I've made a few batches recently and each one was left to set at least 12 hours before cutting and coating. I'd guess there's some residual heat/moistness in your marshmallows.

My favorites are from epicurious and Emeril. Since they're not mine to post, I can't. But I've yet to try one that I didn't like.

For non-sweating, subbing out a little of the cream with corn syrup (as suggested in the Cake Bible) really makes a difference. I just did some cakes last night that set up really well. Without the corn syrup, mine always sweats.

I agree wholeheartedly. I bought the 5kg block of 70% and no matter how gently I tried to melt it, the fat ALWAYS separated out. Using it in a ganache was out of the question. Enrobing...forget it. I resorted to only using it in mousses, where the taste and texture could be sufficiently masked. Never again.

Neil's strawberry marshmallows are outstanding. I also tried a raspberry version of that which was also really delicious. I love the idea of using the purees to flavor the marshmallows rather than extracts. Very clean and bright taste.

A thin layer of raspberry coulis (or any berry) topped with a thick layer of 50/50 pastry cream/whipped cream mixture. This as a filling for a white cake.

Wendy, nice tip about folding with a whisk. I would have never thought of that one. I do a good job with a spatula (I've seen my genoise more than double what it used to be since I first started) but I'm definitely going to try the whisk approach next. Thanks!

Breathtaking work Neil. Thanks so much for sharing. I especially loved the fire and ice sculpture.

Ok, I can't resist. This is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard! I know I ate snow as a kid, but now that I'm an adult (and think I know better ), and the fact that I live in the Chicago area, I'm pretty certain the snow is never clean enough to eat. Blades of grass? Dirt and metal??? However, I do think it's cool that there's a group of you that do this, and I mean no disrespect. Just fascinating...

I also ran out of time and only did four out of the nine types I had planned on making. But a couple from the December Gourmet magazine were really, really good. Specifically the pine nut tassies and the caramel pecan cookies. I tried the chocolate cookies from the same issue, freezing the log ahead of time. But then I was never able to cut them without them really breaking apart...even after having the log in the fridge for several days. They weren't all that great, but that could have been the result of standing so many days in the fridge. If I were to try them again, I'd form the cookies by flattening balls with a glass and then chilling them layered between sheets of wax paper. They were really good right out of the oven, but on the dry side after fully cooled.

I loved the eggnog tiramisu trifle too. I did the original recipe as a test a week before Christmas. For the actual run, I made genoise to replace the ladyfingers and it was a huge improvement in both taste and texture. Plus, my Christmas Eve version was with store bought mascarpone and the cream texture ended up a bit grainy. The Christmas day version was with homemade mascarpone which was soooo smooth and creamy. That one really shined. Didn't have time to make the chocolate leaves for either, but it didn't suffer one bit. I also did the Schwarzwalder torte from December Gourmet and I have to say that it only works if you double everything. There's no way the photo represents the printed recipe and that really bugs me. I didn't have time to test that one so I was a bit upset. I doubled the chocolate and cream on the fly because there was no way it would be enough, but the meringues were already baked and thin as crackers. That said, it's a great dessert...not too sweet and nice presentation. I'm putting together another one today for the last of the Christmas dinners and the doubled meringues look much better.

Glad to help Dejah, and tan is absolutely right...make it the day before. I've found that eggnog recipes especially need some extra time for the flavors to really become pronounced.

Well, the cookies were a huge success. Here's a pic and thanks again:

If you search for eggnog creme brulee on epicurious.com, you'll find their recipe which has time and temp for a large creme brulee. I made it last year and it was amazing. I can't recall the size any more, but it may be close to what you are looking for.

Claire, thanks for that idea. I've gone back and forth and it looks like that's what I'll be going with (the Rudolph cookies). I just baked off some test cookies and played around with different options for the decorations. Poor old Rudolph needed some ears, and the photo on the site looks a bit triangular. I took a large circle cutter and reshaped it a bit for the head and used the tip of an oak leaf cutter for ears. I also made the shape of the whites of the eyes more oval with the M&Ms at the bottom...he shouldn't look like he's staring down some headlights. And I swapped out the red hot for the nose (do kids even eat those?) with a red M&M.