Wendy DeBord

Neil would you share who's jam you all are using? I've never come across a baking raspberry jam I've liked, this would be helpful.

I own a couple books on the topic that are pretty interesting: "100 New Bundt Ideas" published by Pillsbury in 1977 and "Pillsbury's Best Bundt Recipes" published in 1974. I purchased both at flea markets........you might find them on ebay. I also have a bundt cake file (clippings from various sources), but it's currently at work and I'm not. I recall seeing a book on bundt cakes at William Sonoma stores lately with recipes I'm familar with. This bundt recipe has always been a favorite with the men in my life: Kentucky Butter Cake, from Pillsbury. 1 c. butter 2 c. sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. soda 2 tsp. vanilla 4 eggs 3 c. ap flour Butter Sauce. 3/4 c. sugar 1/3 c. butter 3 tbsp. h20 1 to 2 tsp. vanilla or rum Bake at 325F. You mix the cake just like any butter cake. Bake, aprox. 1 hour. For the butter sauce you heat all the ingredients together adding the vanilla or rum after the heat is turned off. Prick your still hot bundt cake (in the pan) all over with a long skewer and pour most of the sauce over the cake. Cool upright in the pan then unmold and pour remaining butter sauce over the top of the cake too. This cake likes to stick in the pan, so don't let it completely cool before unmolding.

Welcome to eGullet David! I haven't tried this yet, but I understand that Dridopple has a champange emulsion that's supposed to be quite good.

Welcome to eGullet Cotovelo! Your work looks wonderful!! I hope you don't mind me asking... who do you buy your colors from? Your greens and reds are different hues then what I've purchased to date and very lovely.

Laugh at me all you want, but I can't do early shifts. I can't be responsible for early am employment over any stretch of time. Lord knows I've tried over 40 years to be an early riser but it's just not programable in my biology. I can turn off an alarm then talk to you and not even know I've done it. BUT on the other hand I can start at a reasonable hour and work endlessly without complaining. Is there no way you can juggle your scheduling? Change around a few tasks........... If you can't think of away, just ask someone like me. I can always find a way to rework schedules/timing so I don't have to wake before the birds.

I also can reccomend Chef Bernard's, it's been the best breakfast and lunch we've had at Whistler (we've been there the last 3 years). BUT and this is a BIG BUT..........his place is VERY small and 13 people would fill 3/4 of the seating. Plus we always have to wait well over 1/2 hour to squeeze two people in. Most of the more student geared (inexpensive) restaurants are very small, where 13 people would take up the whole place. You'll need to look at larger restaurants to seat you all. If your alone for the day, I'd go down to Vancouver and go to the Granville Market. It's got fabulous shopping and food! The drive really isn't bad and it's a auesome foodie market unlike anything I've ever seem in the States. Pick up some supplies there and make your freinds a SIMPLE dinner, they'll die over it! We've also eaten at the Mongolian Grill. You pick out all the components to your custom stir fried meal, including the sauces that go into it. Having a background in food I had a great meal there. But my husband who picked out his own sauces wasn't happy at all with his meal. He'd rather have someone else pick out what goes good with what. It's sort of a fun place............but you need to be a little familar with their restaurant and guide any freinds who aren't food savy. Although they do have signs telling about their sauces and how to go about dining there..........if the place is crowded (which it always is) your view to the signage on the walls is limited, plus it's not brightly lit in the room. Have fun, it's a wonderful area!!! We are heading up the Deer Valley (now they have restaurants) this week to ski and will be back to Whistler for spring skiing. I wish I could talk you into trying to ski again. Honestly some of the bunny slopes are harder to ski on then the intermediate slopes..........if your not on enough of an angle going down hill it's pretty hard to learn how to ski. Just don't start skiing at Snowbird, their beginer runs are what most places mark as intermediate.

Wonderful........just wanted you to know Boulak that Artisanbaker isn't the only one looking forward to your notes. I'm sure we can find help for you if you need it posting photos.

You can make a frozen souffle too. I can't think of a souffle hot or frozen that doesn't have whipped egg whites in it.

I still haven't gotten any Micro on hand to play with. It seemed there for a while it was getting mixed reviews..... Are any other members using micro to temper also? I wish I could think of the name (perhaps Neil will know) but there are some inexpensive heated holding containers for tempered chocolate that some of the top chefs swear by (I saw them at a demo from The French Pastry School). They advertise in PA & D, they come in half pan or hotel pan size bins (the base is black or off white).

Everyone has their standards and there's no way you'll ever find agreement among everyone. I normally do my best to make things last minute but sometimes my schedule and work demand I hold items. I wouldn't make them 3 months in advance if I could find a couple hours at a closer date. It's comes down to, just how busy are you? If you can find a couple hours a week away from your wedding-that would be ideal. I've held baked cookies for 2 months (and longer) well wrapped in the freezer (don't mix types of cookies in the same container). I've held raw dough for 2 months also, I don't see why you couldn't keep it up to 6 months wrapped well. I'm going to contradict the vast majority of people when I tell you that I think raw cookie dough doesn't hold as well as baked cookies do. I make a lot of cookies in the summer months for work and this is what happens to me at work. The frozen dough I think loses something in the intensity of the flavor after it's been frozen for a while, also they don't seem to hold as long after they're baked.......the flavor deteriorates quickly. Occasionally I'll get a couple ice crystals that mark the surface of my dough too. Whereas with baked then frozen cookies I don't find the taste fades (even though they do stale in time) and I think they hold longer once defrosted. I'd rather freeze baked cookies and refresh them in a warm oven before serving, then bake off frozen dough thats more then a couple days old.

JSkilling, I want you to know that you have a couple excellent cake artists responding to your question on this thread (not to mention several other cake artists that participate here at eG also). Perhaps these women and men would share some photos of their gum paste flowers..........or their websites??

E. Guittard line is very good, it's a great value too.

I got Collettes lastest book. I bought it through her website before it was published and she signed it (so cool)!

Wonderful. Welcome to eGullet boiled custard!

O.k.........I have to admit a bit of quirkiness in this area too. My husband and I frequent the same local diner every weekend for breakfast. Every weekend the owner shakes hands with everyone there (thanking them, which is nice, but...) spreading god knows what among all of us. We both go nuts when the guy wants to shake your hand while you in the mist of eating. We want to jump up from our seats and wash our toast holding bare hands. Anyone have a good, yet very polite cure for this? We pretend to get engrossed in conversation and not notice the poor guy, that just doesn't feel right.

Welcome Janet! Good point, I don't recall anyone ever mentioning that. Hum.........that's a rip off if the package doesn't contain the weight posted. In all truth I think you can find similar examples in many/most products..........yet I can't understand why. I'd guess that the machines that do the packaging were adjustable..........maybe they don't check the acuracy of their scales often.........

Welcome miaomee! Are you a professional cake decorator?

Welcome Legourmet! Wow, what a great beginning sharing recipes plus photos, thank-you!

Great job everyone!

I like the one in 'Baking With Julia', the best (also the danish dough recipe is my favorite). I've even frozen the raw dough very successfully. Do you have that book? I also really like all of Gisslens' sweet dough recipes in his book, 'Professional Baking'. His fillings are outstanding too.

Sorry, I meant to post on this thread a while ago. I honestly use any cakes and fillings and call them a buche de noel............so long as they are decorated that way (as a log). This year I made some as german chocolate cakes (by request) and one that was yellow cake with chocolate mousse filling.

I guess I was naughty cause I didn't get any baking items at all! Well I did get a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble which I will spend on something baking related. But I plan on making up for Santa's oversight in a big way this January. I have a HUGE list of "I wants" building in my head. mktye.........you must have been VERY GOOD this year! Annie, do tell more about your book, please?? Who's it written and published by? Is it baking and cooking?

GREAT example mktye!!

You really have to use a lot of force to roll out dough taken straight out of the refrigerator thats been throughly chilled. It probably will break up as you put force down on it. BUT, then the effort of patching it together into one mass and re-rolling should warm up the dough enough that the next time you roll it it's at the right temp.. It seems to me that you rolled it 3 times and it still crumbled, is that correct? At the third roll out your dough definitely would be the right temp. and texture for rolling, possibly too soft even. Typically a dough too cold doesn't crumble, it breaks or rips in larger pieces then a "crumble." A dough that is too dry will crumble when rolled. When you first rolled this and it broke apart you should have kneaded it back together into one mass and re-rolled it. Don't patch together a crust with h20, it's not highly effective and it's likely to break in all those places when you cut into it. If you can't roll it nicely and easily pick it up, stop and pat it into your tart pan. I pat most of my doughs into my tart shells instead of rolling them and lifting them. My tart doughs aren't as glutenous as pie doughs and I too struggle with lifting them. If your crust crumbles once it's baked, it's probably too dry. I've made some really really tender short doughs and they don't crumble when cut. The best way to handle a crust that's crumbling as you cut it is to leave it overnight to soften up from the fillings.

Brioche definitely can vary from one recipe to another. I know this might upset a few people but I found I wasn't crazy about Reinharts sweet dough's. They are decent, but I have sweet dough recipes from other sources I like much better. It's hard to address if you did anything wrong without actually seeing what yours looked like or tasted like. It sounds like it all worked out fine, but perhaps you might want to test out other recipes for a brioche you like even more. They can range from very cake like to very bread like.........depending upon your recipe. Personally, I don't have the strength or patience to mix this dough by hand. I normally mix it in a mixer for 15 to 20 minutes. You'd have to take this recipe and work it both by hand and in a mixer to see how your results varied. But since your butter didn't run out while baking I have to guess you did a good job hand mixing.