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I think I'll do a comparison, same recipe made with carton whites and fresh separated eggs. See which gives bigger volume. With all the strawberries on sale, I don't think anybody would complain about being presented with the "extra" Angel Food Cake.

A pastry chef on TV was demonstrating making an Angel Food cake. She stated that you can now buy egg whites in cartons but for baking this recipe it was better to separate the eggs yourself. You'll get more volume. I've used carton egg whites for Angel Food cake and love the convenience. I didn't notice a difference in the volume or height of my cake. Anybody else find they get a different result using freshly separated eggs or carton egg whites?

Thanks for all the great ideas!! Not just one new method to try but about ten and I never realized a different type of crust wouldn't pouf.

I often make a lemon and raspberry tart recipe (Martha Stewart by way of the FoodTV site), I like to make individual tarts and the recipe makes about 26 tarts. It's tedious to put a circle of parchment in the bottom, fill with beans, bake and then get the beans and paper out of the little tart shells. Is there an easier way? Is there some kind of single piece weight you can buy to put in the bottom of tart shells, so you only have one piece to get out of the shell? I've got a pie chain I was thinking of cutting up with wire cutters into shorter lengths. Any better ideas? I tried doing the recipe by using the raspberries as weights but they got mushy before the pastry was browned enough.

I don't know if you're only looking for chocolate but this recipe for Milk Chocolate Caramel Frosting from Epicurious is my favourite. http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?...pe=and&x=16&y=7 Second favourite is this Coffee Chocolate Frosting. It's very fudgey. http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?...9&submit=submit I whip it after it cools.

It may have been the oil you used, I was getting an off taste in my chocolate cakes made with vegetable oil when I used canola oil. Then I came across an egullet thread on the subject and started using safflower or corn oil.

The top layer of the cake is covered with a crisp caramel--that one quickly cuts into the apportioned pieces with a buttered knife before it hardens.

What about the sour cream topping that's often used on cheesecakes? Maybe cut back on the sugar by half since you think it's already sweet enough. I can't recall off hand where I have a recipe for this but this recipe seems pretty standard: http://teriskitchen.com/cakes/cheese-b.html

Have you tried the Caramel Aero, the Chunky Caramel KitKat or the Dark KitKat? They're all fairly new variations and good. Oh and the Smartie bars. Kids love them.

I really want to do the fan effect on the top of this cake. One recipe suggests piping buttercream along the edge of each slice to support the fan. Then there's the hazelnut tip. A helpful hint I came across was to cut the top layer smaller than the other layers before coating with the caramel. Then the fan effect won't protrude outside the diameter of the cake.

That's the secret of this cake, it adds up to something really special. I find some cakes that have more complicated components just become "too much" as a whole.

One more fact that might come in handy, most wine and spirit stores in New York state are closed on Sundays, they can open Sunday if they close another day of the week. Had to mention that in case you were going out of your way for a wine store and were disappointed when it was closed.

They only have beer at the grocery stores in New York State. Spirits and wine are sold in separate stores. The Premier group is your best bet if you want something special in spirits you didn't find in the duty free shop. Or a really nice bottle of wine. Any of the branches would be easy enough to get to, I think the Transit Rd. branch would be closest to the Wegmans or kind of on your way back to the highway heading south. But the Delaware branch has a cafe and gourmet store attached. It's actually a decent place for lunch. E-mail Premier if you're interested, they have really good service. http://www.premiergroup.net/

Ludja, I was googling recipes and came across the George Lang one. I went to my handwritten 25 year old notebook because his filling sounded so familiar. It's nearly identical to the very first recipe I ever made for this cake. I think I'll go back to it. There's a recipe on FoodTv by Wolfgang Puck that sounds good, also on FoodTv.ca a variation with Hazelenut in the cake, and another in Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts. Hers sounds more like the New Orleans Doberge cake, no caramel on the top. I looked at the KaffeeHaus book on amazon, it looks like a real treasure. I saw the picture of the Dobos Torte and wondered how they got the fan pieces to stick up at that angle. Thanks for the Hazelenut tip. I'll report back how it goes, could you do the same if you make the cake? The current issue of Cucina Italiana has a beautiful picture of a Dobos Torte, also with the fan effect on top. They add butter to the glaze so maybe it's a little softer than the crispy caramel.

I like their sodium free Club Soda. Some of the "Memories" sauces are good, the Szechuan peanut sauce in particular. An easy way to make peanut noodles. The Hong Kong Black Bean sauce is good but salty, have to have lots of the Club Soda on hand. Also like the European Multigrain bread, it's full of sunflower seeds, if you like them. And the wood fired frozen pizzas are good, the ham with bechamel and the vegetable with pesto. Has anybody tried the French flour baguettes? They're in a bin like the ace baguettes.

Try the Dinosaur Barbecue sauce, usually in stock at Wegmans. It's usually $2.49 on sale, I bring it home by the case. My family demands it.

In Buffalo (actually Tonawanda., I think) there are two huge branches of Tops and Wegmans on Maple. It's a cross street that you can get to from the highway that rings Buffalo, the 290 or I 90 or something, you'd have to check a map to be sure. I *think* you can take the Millersport Highway exit. Both these grocery stores are fabulous, and open 24 hours a day.

I've always used a sponge cake recipe. I know the cookie type layers you mean, my mother uses that type of layer in her Vinartarta (prune filled Torte) and apparently the Icelandic cake developed from the Dobos Torte.

Here's link to the recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/invoke.cfm?obje...2BC0002B3309983 I suspect I didn't get the filling up to a high enough temperature for a long enough time. Would that keep it from thickening properly? I'm still a novice with real buttercream, after years of sticking to icing sugar mixtures.

Dobos Torte is pretty much my favourite cake ever. We used to have a local bakery that made a good one but they disappeared. I've made many recipe for this cake, the cake itself is easy enough, the Joy of Cooking Genoise works. I'm still loooking for the perfect buttercream filling, though. Anybody have a perfect Dobos Torte filling to recommend? Do you think it should be just chocolate flavoured or mocha ? The recipe from Food and Wine is pretty good but the buttercream doesn't always thicken up enough.

i am emailing the company at consumer.bakery@saputo.com to request that they re-release the maple Ah! Caramel cakes at some point in the future. maybe they are already planning to. (crosses fingers.) those sound amazing. I did that, too. After I posted. Maybe if they get enough e-mails they'll make the maple cakes again.

Eatmores remind me of panforte. One spring Vachon did a limited edition Maple Ah Caramel. I look for them every spring but have never found them again. They were the best Vachon ever.

Glad that tip paid off for you. I love the saute pan, but I paid $35 US at TJMaxx, you got a steal!! I particularily like the lid on the stock pot, it's glass and also fits the saute pan so I can use the metal top that came with the saute pan or the glass top from the stockpot interchangeably.

You need two 9 inch round pans for making layer cakes. It's good to buy the two at the same time, same brand so your cakes bake consistently. I tried using a slightly different pan for one layer and it just didn't work. I had to search everywhere to find one exactly the same as the first one.

Chococrazy, if you're still looking for kitchenware, Liquidation World is clearing out a whole bunch of Tramontina cookware, (sets, stockpots), knives, cutlery etc. I got a 16 quart stockpot with tri-play encapsulated bottom for $29.99. I'm pretty happy about the quality for the price. Chicken stock in it right now.