mmlstarr

@JeanneCake Oh and 1. Yes to whole milk 2. That's interesting about the simple syrup. Never done that. Would you/could you just use unflavored (i.e. sugar and water)? If so, how much?

@JeanneCake Great info and thoughts, Jeanne. Thank you! I'll try Downy Yellow as a test! And maybe change the battery in my scale, lol. I have a recipe for White Cake that uses a a butter/oil combo. Wonder if that would lean more moist in principle? Well, I'll keep a-tryin'!

@Margaret Pilgrim The other day I made the White Velvet Cake, and I was so disappointed. I'm not a professional baker, but I bake a lot, lol, and usually it's pretty good. : ) I weighed all my ingredients (even the bp and salt!) and followed the instructions to the letter. I used her charts at the back of TCB to scale it to 2 8"x2" round layers. the batter looked AMAZING and tasted great. I baked it for 25 mins and did a visual check - not done. Checked with a wooden skewer at 30 min, a lot stuck to the skewer. Checked at 32, ditto. Checked at 34, clean skewers in both cakes. (I will also say that at 30 the cakes had pulled away from the pans even though the skewers were not at all clean.) The cakes were SO dry - not velvety at all. I don't have a picture of t he crumb unfortunately. I did put the cakes in the fridge for about 15 minutes to help set the icing, but they were fully at room temp if not above by the time we cut into them.... I'm sad. What did I do wrong?

@weinoo yes, my apologies.

Hi there! Does anyone have a good, true 8x4" loaf pan that they recommend? Looks to be a hard size to find! Thanks

@kayb Geez, I can only find 9x5 circulon pans online!

Does anyone have a favorite, true 8x4" (4 cup) loaf pan? Thanks!

@rotuts right back to 355, lol

In the meantime, anyone want to hazard a guess as to why my scale is haunted? A baking sheet weighs 355 g empty, but weighs only 350 g with a sheet of parchment on it. 👻

@Margaret Pilgrim nice! And it's strawberry season (at least here on the East coast!) A couple of questions: 1. Have you ever made ermine frosting? Thoughts? 2. Did you use cake strips? See why I worry that Woody and Rose will tire of my questions, lol?

@Margaret Pilgrim so interesting. I was going to make a different white velvet cake tomorrow (one with buttermilk and a little oil along with the butter - still using reverse creaming) - but now I think I'll do Rose's. What did you frost it with?

@Margaret Pilgrim @JeanneCake Sorry, for some reason didn't see these replies! I made Perfect Pound Cake (Cake Bible) and Cream Cheese Butter Cake (Baking Bible). They were both terrific. Neither were baked in the recommended pan size and yet still came out beautifully and to rave reviews. The Perfect Pound Cake is meant for an 8x4 loaf pan. I made it in a 9x5, so, not ideal. It got a little too brown (I forgot to cover with buttered foil) but the texture of the inside of the cake was sublime. I also baked the Cream Cheese Butter Cake in a 9x5 loaf (didn't have an 8x8 square) and it came out beautifully, but the texture of the first cake was slightly better. I'm having to restrain myself from overloading Woody and Rose with constant questions on their website, lol. I, too, love the preciseness of RLB's recipes. I weigh everything, even bp and salt with these two cakes! And I love the science behind it all. One quick question: RLB recommends baking strips. I've only used them twice before on non RLB recipes. Each time the cake was indeed flat but had a funny, thin, crisp crust on top and the sides seemed almost underbaked. Is this normal? Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hi all! I just got a copy of The Cake Bible, and I'm very excited. I have a question, though. For reverse creaming, I've always added softened butter to the dry ingredients and mixed until sandy, then added the eggs and other liquids. In TCB, Rose (who I think invented reverse creaming?) adds the butter and not a small amount of liquid to the dry ingredients and says to mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Obviously, she knows what she's doing, lol. I guess I just worry that the butter won't be evenly dispersed and in small enough pieces by the time the dry ingredients are "moistened." Anyone else overthink crap like this? Michael

@Kim Shook Did you ever this issue with your towels? Did you ever need to increase baking times or anything?

Has anyone had any issues using Wilton Baking Strips? I used them for the first time last Friday and they certainly produced a cake with a flat top, but the sides of the cake were an odd texture. The top of the cake almost had a very fine crust while the sides were rather underdone appearing and a little ragged. Thoughts? Thanks! Michael

Thanks @Anna N I missed where she said that, but assumed that had to be the right timing. The real confusion lay in the discrepancy between the video and the written recipe. I'm going to follow the video as @Alexsuggested. I'll report back. And yes - I made that comment on the site. Thanks for all the help, everyone!

@Alex It's an OXO recipe for Apple Snacking Spice Cake. I just googled it and found a video of the creator of the recipe cooking it (basically an add for OXO products). It cleared nothing up, lol. In the video, she clearly creams the butter and sugar first, then combines the apples, raisins, and nuts to all of the dry ingredients/spices so that the fruit is totally coated. She then adds the coated fruit to the butter/sugar mix and mixes by hand. She doesn't mention the 2 eggs, though I assume she added them to the butter/sugar mix after they were creamed, like a normal creaming method. The written recipe (same OXO cake) is different, with the odd method I write about above. It is A LOT of fruit. Oh - and the Miss Florence Diner is still pretty good! Great breakfast : )

Hi all: I’m about to make an apple spice cake that has, to me, an odd method. Cream 12T butter and 300g sugar but just for 1-2 mins on medium. Then add in flour, bp, spices, and mix on medium until fully combined. Then add 2 eggs. Then 4 cups of apples and some chopped pecans. It seems like a weird cross between creaming and reverse creaming. For creaming method, it doesn’t seem like long enough to beat the butter and sugar together, and it’s weird to add the flour next. For reverse creaming, it seems weird to cream the butter and sugar first. Do you think I should alter the recipe to fit one of those methods better or just give it a go? Confused in Massachusetts, Michael

I just used this yellow cake recipe for my birthday cake yesterday, and it was surprisingly good. I tweaked the method slightly to follow a reverse creaming method more precisely. The result was light, fluffy, and moist - but still held up to an old-fashioned cooked caramel icing.

Thanks @Pete Fred and @heidih It really is surprisingly delicious despite the curse that seems to have been placed on me. And yes, Heidi, it's very strong and does pair well with coffee!

Ok - here's the final product. The power went out halfway through the cooking process. Good grief! The center was not quite cooked through, so I used a cookie cutter to cut it out - crisis averted! And it tastes delicious!

@Pete Fred I've finally gotten around to making this chocolate cake again. It's in the oven. Using a 4" deep 8" round pan this time. 2/3 full. So far so good. I'll keep you posted! Michael

@jimb0 @shain Thank you both so much! I do use a scale, so the layers were almost exactly equal in weight. I'll watch which pan does which carefully next time and I'll also try the convection setting. I'll report back - but it may be a while or I'll be the size of a house.