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Thanks for the advice and the links! I'll check them out!

Glad to see the how to section on the gelatin flowers. They've been all the rage over at cakecentral.com. And the photo of Tariq Hanna's chocolate showpiece right below Anil's picture is one that I wanted to post here but all my photos are posting black in the image gullet. I love the way they took the showpieces and cakes from the challenges and displayed them in various parts of the hotel like the wonderful pieces of art that they are. Awesome photo! It was one of my favorite pieces that week. The magazine is getting better as is goes along. Good job!

I love biscuits and gravy but I'm not much good at gravy. I did a search for prior threads and checked the recipe gullet. No luck. Anybody willing to school me a little and share your best recipe for gravy? Bacon gravy, sausage gravy...what do you love to smother your biscuits with?

I've been using box mixes recently for dummies (stand in cakes that no one will eat since the teacher insisted on us using crisco frosting ) and I've played with them since no one would be eating them anyway. I've used them to taste flavorings and to get an idea of how much to use and a little flavoring can help to hide that chemically box mix flavor. I love the soft, fluffy, "disolve in the mouth" texture. That's what I'm actually looking for in a scratch recipe right now. (Before anyone starts posting recipes, check out the "best of" cake threads. Got a list, gonna work my way through them. )

Going hunting after work today to see what I can find. Thanks for the suggestions! Since I was doing biscuits tomorrow anyway...we'll see if I can get around to a batch with each powder I find to do a side by side taste test.

Making my own from scratch? This is the first I've heard of that. Got a recipe?

I believe the term comes from the book The Cake Mix Doctor in which they take box mixes and "doctor" them up. (I haven't actually read it, I've just heard a lot of talk in cake class recently.) It's this book here. http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Cake-Mix-...infoQQprZ211183

Years ago my father worked for a food service company and we use to have industrial sized boxes of cake mix around the house so that leads me to believe that there are probably a lot of professionals out there somewhere that use a mix. A lot more than we realize.

I've very sensitive and can usually pick up the taste of baking powder. I'm going to play with the white cakes in the "best of" thread" but I'm hesitant with the amount of baking powder I see used. So I just thought I'd ask. Are there any that don't taste as bad as others? Is there a difference in brands? I should do some of my own side by side testing but I thought if there are any other highly sensitive people out there that have had this issue, maybe someone would have input.

It's on the top.

Making my mouth water! I love Fran's. The one's with the smoked salt are my faves. They have a wonderful balance to them with the milk chocolate. I love the other kind too. They're much more intense. Some odd kinds of salts to play with if anyone is interested at http://www.saltsoftheworld.com/

Haven't seen mine yet...you have me eagerly wating!

2 copies of Cocolat on e-bay right now and 3 at www.alibris.com although they are really expensive on alibris.

Very cool! Thanks for the post JeanneCake. I've just recently started getting into the Cake Bible after tasting a fellow student's cake in a class I'm taking. I'm totally loving this book. I love all the why we do what we do sections. Sooo much info.

OMG! When I heard of the theme, I had drawn out a clear guitar with an airbrushed piece of pastillage in it with Jimi Hendrix similiar to the Elvis piece. Wow. Thanks for the pics Karen!

Thanks for the ideas!

Yup!

I picked up some hazelnut flour recently because I had a recipe a long while back that asked for it and now I can't find the recipe or remember what it was. I'll keep looking but does anyone have any recipes that ask for hazelnut flour? What do you use it for? I'm sure I'll come up with something but I was curious to see if anyone here has any ideas.

Yes, there are two events going on.

That's so cool for Erika! I think she'll be great. It's good to see some new faces on the shows. What a fun theme! I've been filling my sketch book the last few days of sugar showpiece ideas for the rock 'n' roll theme. It will be interesting to see what the competitors come up with.

I have found an interesting site that is strictly cakes. http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-forums.html I've found some interesting links that are good for inspiration while bouncing around in there.

The foodnetwork challenge for this week is the spooky cake and candy competition. Should be some cute ideas there. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_sp/ep...4_40678,00.html

Thanks so much for sharing! Those are some breath-taking cakes! And it was great to see where your inspiration came from. Incredible piece, bkeith!

Wow! A lot more patterns than my local cake shop carries. And less expensive too. Thanks so much! Just in time for a wedding cake I've been asked to do. I've been looking for different ideas.

The pepto pink was something I could do without but I have to say that was a nice cake from a cook that said she's never done a cake before in her life. Very nice first try. I was glad to see Martha veto the team leader on choosing who would go home. I realize it's so called reality tv and we don't see everything but the cook didn't deserve the boot after all that work. She did her job. The thing I didn't understand is that they are supposedly being thrown into a "real world" situation to sell this cake. I can't imagaine telling a bride "I'm sorry, it only comes in pink." Was it the rules imposed on them? I have to wonder because it's just not realistic. Why couldn't they sell it and tell the bride she could get it in blue? That's the way it really works, doesn't it?