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Everyone's always looking for something new and different for their special event; and I've seen these push pops at JB Prince; wondering if any of you have used them on your menu or had them at a party... what did you think? What did the guests think? what works best in them (less messy looking)?

Hi everyone, A friend has requested a Rolo cake for her birthday, basically she just wants chocolate and some gooey caramel. I've decided to make it a mousse cake, and construct it upside down like some of those fancy layered cakes, so you turn it out and get a nice even top and sides (although I guess it could be done in a springform as well?). Here's a recipe that I have looked at for the general concept (not flavours though). What I've thought of is the following (top to bottom) : Choc mousse caramel layer (more choc mousse) choc sponge choc ganache (thin, mainly for an intense choc bit and nice texture contrast) choc sponge. So I like the idea of this, but I'm wondering if there's something crispy or texturally different that I can add in... something like a disc of chocolate with feuilletine or similar. But i'm not really sure what that might be. I'd also like any thoughts on the overall thing, since it's something I've come up with (structurally based on the recipe mentioned earlier). Does anyone know if I'd be able to do the final construction 24 hours before serving and keep it in the freezer or fridge? I figure that since it instructs you to chill the mousse in the freezer, it might be ok to keep it in there as long as I thaw it before serving? Cheers, Stuart.

Hi everyone I have not been here forever. Anyways...please give me some good advice. Bobby Brown has a fantastic looking Red Velvet cake in his book. It calls for... Creaming 12 Tsp butter and 2 1/4 c sugar ( no problem)...and 3/4 c canola oil together. I kept reading the direction...really? It specifically states the oil adds the cake's moistness. I sighed and tried. It came out ok, but there were grease spots on my parchment. I even reduced the oil to 2/3 cup. So.... (1) would u cream butter, sugar, and oil? Would u do that all in one? ( I creamed the butter and sugar, then slowly dripped in the oil while praying) (2) Or would u dump in the oil with the wet stuff (1 1/2 c buttermilk in this case)? Any other suggestion on RV cake more than welcomed.

I just got back from a trip to Italy where I acquired some candied peel -- really good candied peel, lemon and orange. I want to do something with this peel to really set it off, I don't want to bury it in a fruitcake, particularly not a dark fruitcake. Panettone is one possibility, except that one of my Christmas traditions is the purchase of a particularly good one. I have made Craig Claiborne's Black Walnut and Ginger Fruitcake with great success and am considering using this recipe with the peel and perhaps pecans and golden raisins. I've also thought of sugar cookies with chunks of lemon and orange in them. Anyone have ideas?

Both my local grocery store and wholesale produce supplier have fresh kaffir limes right now, only $2.50/# retail. Seems like such a rarity I'd like to use them somehow, but have no experience with the fruit just the leaves. I'm thinking the zest could be used to flavor curd or syrups, or I could make marmalade. What else? Anybody have experience with fresh kaffir limes? Ideas?

Hello: I am looking for a glaze that dries opaque, rather than one that is clear. The cake is flavorful (pumpkin, ginger, etc.) so the glaze does not have to be strongly flavored, but I would like it to "drip" effectively. Thanks!

I need some ideas and suggestions on some quick, yet good and fancy-looking dessert components. I'm participating in the finals of a dessert and baking contest for amateur bakers this coming Sunday. We are being judged on two different desserts. One should be a chocolate based dessert that we should make at home and bring to the venue. This is not a problem and I know what I'm making for that. The second one is something that we make on-site. We will bake this on the stage during a chocolate festival, and we have a time limit of 60 minutes. This is from when we start until the desserts have to be plated and served to the judges, so we are under a bit of time pressure here (it also means that anything that involves things that need to set for a longer time is out of the question). I obviously have some ideas floating around in my head regarding different components that I want to incorporate (thinking of a hazelnut daquoise base, a chocolate chantilly at some level, and some other things that bring out different textures (and to some extent flavors). One thing I've been considering is using the "40-second microwave cake" technique from El Bulli, which is good in terms of time, but I'm not sure how to include this in the final dessert in a way that is visually appealing. We can't really decide on a final recipe yet though as we will be given a "secret box" the evening before the contest with some ingredients that we have to use. In addition to this, we will have access to base ingredients, but are not allowed to bring any ingredients of our own. Anyway, if anyone has suggestions of good components to add to a dessert like this, please feel free to let me know. I'm not really looking for complete dessert suggestions, but more on a component level... Now I'm rambling again. Mostly looking around here for inspiration, so I'll just shut up now. Anyway, any

Has anybody tried to do this? I assume that the cheesecake should set after refrigeration if all of the egg proteins have coagulated, which according to this site, can happen slowly at 78 C for a custard... so if I put my pan into a big pot with 78 C (or 80 or 82) water such that the level is just under the rim of the pan, in about 3 hours (randomly selected time) I should have a thoroughly-done cake. Ideas? EDIT: Crust can be blind-baked, of course.

I recently took on a side gig cooking a congregational dinner for a church once a week. It's about 50 ppl and needs to be fairly simple. It's been a long time since I've done this type of thing and need some dessert recipes done in full hotel pans. Anyone got anything tried and tested they really like?

i've seen a few different opinions on this topic...many people agree that these freeze well: cheesecake creme brulee (or any baked custards) mousses curds cakes (undecorated, just the layers) key lime pie bread puddings (i'm guessing that one) fruit pies (just add extra starch/thickener to absorb the liquid from freezing) and that the following don't stirred custards custards without starch/flour split: pumpkin pie cream pies what else can be added to those lists of freeze/don't freeze? i like to try and get into the science of the desserts and why/why not in regards to freezing/thawing, and then every now and then i like to bake/freeze some stuff and send them to family/friends out of town

For my daughter's first birthday, I made a basic chocolate sponge cake with chocolate frosting. The cake crumbled, but it was not a complete mess with her covered in it. Her grandmas are about to have birthdays so I want to try this again and let Abby wish her grandmas a happy birthday with a skype call and a small cake. I want a disaster of a mess for the grandmas to enjoy. Any thoughts on what type of cake to make that will suit these needs? What about frosting or buttercream? thanks! Dan

I saw a recent post on the MC blog of a pumpkin pie recipe they created using iota and kappa carrageenan. http://modernistcuisine.com/2010/12/a-modernist-christmas-feast/ I decided to recreate the pumpkin pie component using a different blend of carrageenan. Much more convenient for me since I have it laying around. Here is a link to the recipe in my blog. http://playingwithfoodandgel.blogspot.com/2011/08/oh-hello.html

Alain Passard served -- maybe he still serves -- a dessert at Arpege called "tomate confite aux douze saveurs" -- tomatoes braised in caramel and stuffed with fresh fruit and spices. I've been playing with the idea, which can be very tasty indeed! But is the original dish served hot? Or cold?

Did anyone watch the premiere of Season 2? I gave up on Season 1 after 3 episodes but it looks like S2 is going to be significantly better. Once Melissa (the dour black girl) and Craig (the guy with the annoying voice) are gone, everyone else looks to have some serious chops.

Last year due to some friends and family going gluten free I made some changes to my Christmas baking list. Most of it was a success, with the notable exception of my Christmas cake. It was a fairly standard recipe for a dark, dense fruitcake, but when I substituted in GF flour and xanthan gum for the all-purpose wheat flour I ended up with a grainy, crumbly mess which fell apart when I tried to cut it. It was tasty and moist due to a healthy soaking in scotch, but it was necessary to eat it with a spoon. The grainy consistency, I'm hoping to get rid of just by removing the rice flour from my mix (rice flour, sorgum, millet, tapioca). What I really need help with though is to get it to properly stick together. I'm including the ingredient list below. Putting it together was pretty standard - creaming butter, eggs and sugar, soaking the dried fruit in the liquid ingredients and then combining them in parts with the dry. It was cooked at 300F until done. Ingredient list: 1 cup dried apricots, chopped 1 cup candied pineapple, chopped 1 cup chopped dates 1 cup cup pecan halves 1 cup dried cherries 1 cup candied cherries 1 cup raisins 3 1/4 cups GF flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp xanthan gum 1 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 1 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup molasses 1 tsp salt 6 eggs 2 tbsp grated orange zest 2 tbsp grated lemon zest small can of crushed pineapple (with juice) 1/2 (plus more for soaking) cup scotch Does anyone have any inside, or outside the box suggestions on how I might make the texture a little more like a non-GF fruitcake? Thanks

Hello. I would be grateful if anybody could advise on buying a book. It is a present for an Italian friend. He is not a novice baker but I wouldn't call him experienced . I'm pondering buying Rose's Heavenly Cakes for him, I don't own it myself (I'm not into cake baking), but I think she is very detailed and it could be a very good resource for him to learn. I'm just worried the flavors in the book are too far from the European taste. But I don't own the book. Any thought? I was thinking as an alternative Baking: From My Home to Yours by D. Greenspan or Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by D. Lebovitz Thanks

So I wanted to keep a meringue in a isi to have thru service to torch on top of a dessert. Is there a way to keep a basic meringue in an isi, or a marshmallow-y fluff in an isi. I really looked around but couldnt find a thing. thanks in advance for the help.

by David Ross I was pushing my shopping cart through the aisles of Yoke’s Supermarket on a recent “Fresh Friday,” when a spritely-sounding young woman announced over the public address system, “Attention shoppers, attention shoppers, two minutes until the next Cakewalk, two minutes.” Frozen with suspense and the anticipation of winning one of Yoke’s chocolate crème de menthe cakes, I stood pat on the number 36 yellow flower pasted on the floor in front of me. I wasn’t going to budge off that number 36 -- I wanted a cake. While I waited to hear my number called, I was overcome with a sense of nervous anxiety --the same emotion I had felt as a young boy waiting to win a cake when I was seven years old. I wondered why a boyhood fascination with winning a cake still left me with such a deep, lasting hunger some 47 years after I first danced a Cakewalk. What was it that tugged at my heart, telling me to delve deeper into the meaning of the Cakewalk? Why did I sense that there was an underlying truth I hadn’t discovered as a child? The only way I could unveil the mystique behind my relationship with this odd little dance to win a cake would lie in retracing the footsteps of my childhood, setting forth on a quest to discover the history of the Cakewalk. + + + We moved to Salem, Oregon from The Dalles, in the Summer of 1964, when my Father, Edgar Ross, accepted a position at the Oregon Department of Agriculture in the Commodity Commissions Bureau. My parents settled on a ranch-style, three-bedroom home on the corner of Ward Drive and 46th Avenue in the new community of “Jan Ree” Gardens. Our lot was bordered by new homes on two sides and to the East was a field of Blue Lake bush beans that would soon be consumed by the encroaching development. Mother and Father shared a few details about our new home. It had a second bathroom, a wood-paneled living room and an unfinished family room that my father promised would have a metal wood stove. But they kept one little secret from my sister and me until we were a block from our final destination on the day we drove to Salem -- our new house was next door to the grade school. I didn’t know whether to feel good or sick at the thought of living next door to the school where I would spend the next five years. Hayesville Elementary School was typical of the architecture of grade schools built in the early 1960’s-an L-shaped, non-descript building painted in drab green and grey. The assembly room, cafeteria and administrative offices anchored the building with the classrooms jutting out from the principal’s office. I started the school year in Mrs. Rhonda Sample’s second grade class. She was young, blond and attractive, totally unlike the spinster vision I had of the teacher that awaited me at my new school. The highlight of the school year was the annual “Open House at Hayesville.” Students showcased their talents, dazzling parents with displays of frogs and snakes in aquariums, samples of cursive writing on paper chains hung over the blackboard and paper mache busts of historic American figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Mothers and fathers could take a tour of the gleaming, stainless steel kitchen where Mrs. Fox prepared our hot lunches each day-warm, billowing cinnamon rolls dripping with powdered sugar frosting and her buttery, oven-fried chicken. But the most anticipated event of Open House at Hayesville was the annual Cakewalk Raffle -- a silly fun dance around the classroom. The winner won a cake and the proceeds went to fund other activities at school. We cut footprints out of colored construction paper and pasted them in a large circle on the spotless, pink vinyl-tiled floor. Each “foot” was given a number from one to twenty. Red, white and blue streamers were tacked on the outer walls and then brought to the center of the ceiling to define the center point of the cakewalk circle. When the room was ready, Mrs. Sample turned on the lights and opened the door, welcoming a parade of Mother’s who pranced into the room carrying Tupperware cake caddies, Pyrex baking dishes, glass cake domes and disposable aluminum trays coddling their precious cake creations. Three long tables were placed against the wall and covered with proper linen tablecloths. The tables served as the stage upon which the cakes would strut their stuff. The chorus line of cakes went on and on through the annals of cakedom-Chiffon, Angel Food, Devils Food, Sponge Cake, Pound Cake, Marble Cakes, Chocolate Torts and Jelly Rolls. There were cakes garnished with coconut, dusted with nonpareils, frosted with peanut butter, sprinkled with peppermints, and dotted with spiced gum drops. I entered the Cakewalk over and over until I won, seemingly always at the end of the evening when very few of the best cakes were left on the table. While Mother’s “Burnt Sugar Cake with 7-Minute Frosting” was good, it would be a total embarrassment in front of ones classmates for a kid to choose the cake made by his mother. No, should I win the Cakewalk and should it still be available, I would choose the Spiced Praline Crunch Cake made by Bernie Bennett’s Mother. The historical importance of the Cakewalk wasn’t a part of Mrs. Sample’s second-grade curriculum at Hayesville in 1964. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we were insulated from the racial struggles of the South at that time. I was a young white boy in a middle-class American family. I led the colorful life of a kid, yet I lived in a country that saw only shades of black and white. Only three years before my second grade, in the Spring of 1961 the Freedom Riders set out on a campaign to test the Supreme Court Ruling that upheld the segregation of blacks and whites at bus depots, waiting rooms, lunch counters and restrooms throughout the South. The Freedom Riders were met with ignorance and violence. African-Americans couldn’t drink from the same water fountain I drank from. I never knew. + + + The Cakewalk played an important role in the history of America -- a long-forgotten chapter that tells the story of the struggles forced upon the enslaved, who in spite of their burdens rose above the oppression of race and found a new form of the expression of freedom. The seeds of the Cakewalk were sown in the segregated deep South sometime around 1850, as a parody of the way plantation owners escorted their ladies into a formal ball. The women wore long, ruffled dresses of silk and glass beads with long, white gloves that reached above the elbow. The gentlemen were outfitted with top hats and tail coats. Couples pranced and paraded into lavishly decorated ballrooms, arm-in-arm in high-stepping fashion, marching into the center of the party, often to the music played by a banjo-strumming fiddler who worked in the fields. The winner of the dance contest sometimes won a cake presented by the master of the house, leading many to think this is where the name the “Cakewalk” comes from. African-American slaves who watched the proceedings took the dance on as their own in the yards outside their shacks, mocking what they saw as the frivolous customs of the plantation owners. According to the oral histories of slaves and their descendants, the Cakewalk was a marriage of traditional African tribal dances and rhythms combined with the dance steps of the upper classes. When the land barons and ladies saw the slaves dance, they missed the satirical element entirely, but the popularity of the Cakewalk had been established among the elite and it now transcended the boundaries of class. Wealthy farmers went on to sponsor competitions between plantations and the dance moved to large cities in the South and then to the East where it became a staple of traveling minstrel shows and ultimately to Vaudeville, the lights of Broadway and throughout Europe. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation with these humble words, “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Inspired by the renewed freedom gifted to them through Emancipation, a freedom that allowed them to express themselves openly through dance and music, African-Americans led a creative revival that would usher in new forms of dance and music that had never before been seen or heard. The artistic contributions of former slaves and their descendants would forever change the creative landscape in America. From this humble beginning in the sweltering, humid heat and back-breaking work of picking cotton, African-American artists penned the notes of a new from of music called ragtime that would eventually evolve into jazz. It was the Cakewalk, unintentionally and ironically, that crossed the bounds of race and class status as it burst into the popular consciousness of America By the 1890’s, African-American actors, dancers and musicians had started forming their own production companies and staged versions of the Cakewalk became all the rage. Scott Joplin, (1867-1917), was an early musical pioneer of the Cakewalk style of music. Known as the “King of Ragtime,” Joplin wrote and performed in the style of rag—a combination of dance and marching music entwined with the “ragged” rhythms and soul of African music. One of Joplin’s most famous pieces was “The Ragtime Dance,” (published in 1902), that included a Cakewalk: “Turn left and do the “Cakewalk Prance, Turn the other way and do the “Slow drag, Now take your lady to the World’s Fair and do the ragtime dance. Cakewalk soft and sweetly, be sure your steps done neatly.” The vaudeville team of Mr. Egbert Williams and Mr. George Walker were two of the first African-Americans to take their musical show on the road in a grand scale. Crowds packed into The New York theatre in 1903 for 53 stunning performances of song and Cakewalk dances in William’s and Walker’s new production “In Dahomey” -- the first all-black musical to be performed on a grand scale in a major Broadway venue. After its raging success in America, “In Dahomey” crossed the Atlantic, performing for seven months of standing-room-only audiences at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London before returning to New York. By the turn of the century, Americans were moving off farms and into towns and cities in record numbers. Ragtime music transformed into a new genre called “Jazz,” with emerging talents like Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington playing at the Cotton Club in New York. By 1930, the public fascination with dance theatre began to fade as America was lured by the intrigue of other forms of entertainment like talking motion pictures. But the early concepts and the heritage established by the Cakewalk endured throughout the twentieth century and into the 21st, namely, as a contest to raise money at church socials and school functions. The Cakewalk also delivered new words into the American vocabulary-“take the cake,” and “it’s a real cakewalk,” are terms used to refer to something that is “the best,” or a job easily done. Cakewalk software is a cutting-edge firm today that produces award-winning digital audio and recording software to the music industry. + + + I’m nearing my 54th birthday in November, some 46 years removed from my second-grade class. I had been lost until that Cakewalk at Yoke’s, yet now I’m found. I’ve learned a lesson in respect through the Cakewalk -- a lesson that taught me how emancipation allowed the enslaved to express themselves through music and dance. A lesson that freedom is an unalienable right bestowed upon all Americans. I’ve gained a deep appreciation for the place that this little ditty we call the Cakewalk plays in the history of America, opening our eyes to a world that was color blind. I found my personal truth in the Cakewalk -- a truth far richer and deeper than the dreams of a boy winning a cake. * * * David Ross lives in Spokane, but works a one-hour plane ride away. When he's not tending to his day job -- or commuting -- he writes about food and reviews restaurants. He is on the eGullet Society hosting team.

We've seen cupcakes rise and come to the fore; the same with macaron, marshmallows, dessert pops (cake pops, cheesecake pops).... what do you think is going to be the next hot thing in desserts?

I don't mean to be cocky but I think the cheesecake I make is the best TASTING cheesecake I have ever had. I didn't invent the recipe and making the stuff is extremely easy and difficult to botch. The recipe comes from my girl Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa. It's basically 90% cream cheese with a little sour cream to lighten things up (plus all the rest of the standards) with a raspberry topping. Being from NY, I have had all types of cheesecake from the most well known of bakery's (been in the closet S&S calls their headquarters), and in terms of taste nothing beats Ina's creation. Now on the topic of S&S: you can't beat their texture, I can't figure out how they do it. Kind of like of feels like a keylime pie going down, velvety smooth throughout. Does anyone know how they accomplish this? What do you guys count among the best cheesecakes around? I am obsessed with the stuff, and gained 7 pounds the week I made 2 of them.

I'm having 10-15 people over on Wednesday and need to make some good food. I have a desire to make a dessert of sweet pastry on my charcoal grill. Does anyone have experience with this? Any thoughts on what to make? Dan

I have been approached to cater a dessert reception for around three hundred people. I need some advice on how many 1-2 bite items I need and what to charge per person. While I have done wedding cakes and other items before, I have not done smaller items. Thanks.

I'm spending the week in Sydney. I'm visiting 14 restaurants all up. Seven days' worth of lunch and dinner. Sake Sake is obviously a Japanese restaurant. The menu runs from the standards--the boiled soy beans, the tempura, the selection of sushi and sashimi you'd expect to find at a traditional sushi bar--to some oddities, such as pieces of fish poached in yuzu or tuna 'tacos' that include chunks of jalapeno. Sake lives up to its name with its drinks menu. There is a very large selection of sake (avaliable in sets of three 30mL tasting portions, 60mL glasses, half bottles and full bottles made from a range of grains in a range of styles at a range of price points). There is also a decent selection of regular wines, plum wines, beers (mostly Japanese but with a couple of poor quality local offerings for some reason), cocktails (many based on sake) and other Japanese alcohols. Seaweed salad. Five different seaweeds. Nice if you like seaweed, I guess, but I was kind of glad this was a shared plate--I wouldn't want *that* much. There were two sake 'flights'. One showcased a sake made from three different strains of rice. The other, seen here, showcased three different styles of sake--a 'dry' one, a 'fruity' one and a 'floral' one. This was a reasonably priced way for me to sample sake seriously for the first time. Overall, I wasn't offended by any of them. I thought they were all very drinkable although I can't imagine myself putting in the effort to track down bottles of these sakes for consumption at home. This was the deep-fried tofu. It doesn't look like it in the picture--and it didn't look like it in the restaurant either--but the batter was very crisp. It was spiced somewhat with chilli. The boiled soy beans and the sushi platter. I've had tuna tartare and other raw fish dishes in a lot of fine dining restaurants, but this was the first time I'd paid for high quality sushi. And wow. I understand where the money goes. Beautiful quality fish. The perfect quantities of vinegar, wasabi and soy. Pickled ginger that has actually come from a root vegetable. I don't like the taste of straight eggs that much but even they were pretty good. Some discarded soy beans can be seen in the background--we didn't get a photo of the platter they arrived on. The soy beans were simply boiled then seasoned with sea salt which had been laced with chilli and garlic. Everyone seemed to love them. We only got a dodgy photo of my favourite dish: hand rolls filled with deep-fried soft shell crab. Incidentally, it was the first time I'd had soft shell crab. Until I had these I was at a stage where I could take or leave crab but now, finally, I get it. A couple of dishes. The 'popcorn chicken'-looking bites are in fact deep-fried chunks of bay bugs. Bay bugs are essentially smaller, uglier lobsters sans the large claws. I'd go so far as to argue that bay bugs are superior to lobster. You can also see 'tonkatsu cups'--essentially a lettuce leave containined a deep-fried cube of crumbed, soft pork belly with cabbage. I thought they were okay. I didn't order these. Scallops in what I think was a yuzu sauce with shiitake mushrooms and some different vegetables including, obviously, baby sweetcorn. I didn't taste the scallops but the sauce was, er, interesting. Some people liked it but I found it a bit overpowering. More akin to something I'd fill a tart shell with and serve for dessert. I had to run away at this point to go pick up a trumpet, so I'll leave you with photos of two dishes I didn't get to see or sample. I think there's grilled eel and chicken. Overall, I was very happy with the food. The service was a bit patchy--it was really quiet when we visited but things took a while to happen in the front-of-house. Either they get a lot of waiters in on busy Saturday nights or things would just fall apart. Guillaume at Bennelong Guillaume at Bennelong is located in the Sydney Opera House. Yes, there are world famous landmarks that contain nice restaurants. Guillaume at Bennelong is a modern French restaurant. You get the odd Asian ingredient here or there--some soy sauce, maybe--but you get lots of classic French techniques. Classic in the sense they're described in Escoffier's guide to cuisine and Larousse Gastronomique. It was very difficult to get decent photos at this restaurant because of the lighting. A Pacific oyster with a cucumber jelly. The mouthfeel of the jelly made the oyster even saltier than usual--purely because, I guess, jelly sits on the tongue whereas the oyster juices normally roll right off. Seared tuna steak infused (that's how they described the technique) with basil. The flavour of the basil came on really strong. There was a soy and mustard seed vinaigrette. All I could taste in the vinaigrette was the soy, though. A crappy photo but a nice dish: royale of global artichokes with mud crab. At the bottom of the plate there was a fish mousse topped with the jellied artichoke soup and the mud crab flesh. Scallops with Sterling caviar, a lemon emulsion (I found it bit a strong but by no means overpowering) and a watercress veloute (unseen: it's underneath the lemon froth). Until this dish I could take or leave scallops. I'd only ever had undercooked scallops or scallops of dubious quality. These were lovely. Another crappy photo. A seared piece of John Dory with a carrot and ginger puree (tasted so strongly of ginger we decided that the carrot must be there to provide colour and texture and a hint of vegetable sweetness). The potatoes had been roasted (presumably to dehydrate them), sliced on a mandolin and then cut into those tiny, see-through straws by hand. I imagine that job is the chef's way of giving his workers a bollocking when they get on his rotten side. One of my favourites. Truffled roast chicken, sweetcorn puree, a Brussels sprout, a yabby (native freshwater crayfish), morels and a 'yellow wine' reduction. A simple dish you could replicate at home, if you really wanted to, but few things can match a perfectly roasted chicken. I normally don't care for the beef courses on degustations. In Australia, at least, everyone seems to throw in a beef course (usually wagyu but sometimes a nice piece of grass-fed beef) just because, according to some unwritten rule, you need to. This one was actually nice. A piece of poached beef tenderloin with picked vegetables, a beef consomme and an English mustard emulsion (the foam). A soup of 'seasonal' fruit with lime marshmellows and pineapple sorbet. It was pleasant enough, although I'm glad the portion was small. It was a childish, playful dessert. Possibly by design. I could imagine children consuming this in great quantity at a birthday party. A large passionfruit souffle (with my savoury leanings I found it too rich and sweet to comfortably finish), passionfruit sorbet and a banana and vanilla creme chantilly. The chantilly and sorbet were nice. Petit fours. From the left: macarons filled with a milky caramel, passionfruit jellies, raspberry and creme chantilly tarts, tiny madelines. A friend of mine ordered two extra desserts. Someone else ordered a cheese platter. I enjoyed Guillaume at Bennelong. I liked finally seeing some of the old school French techniques I'd read about in Escoffier (sans the flour and obligatory garnishes of caviar, cockscombs and kidneys). There were one or two elements, here or there, that weren't so hot--they were a bit generous with that strongly flavoured carrot and ginger puree, I think--but I wouldn't say there was a single dud dish. The service got off to a rough start when we had a bit of an issue with the sommelier not asking everyone what they wanted to drink (one person was neglected until a complaint was made--we saw the sommelier get taken aside and given a bollocking over this) and the first couple of dishes only being explained at one end of the table. Our comments about this must have been overheard as very soon a waiter capable of projecting his voice emerged. After explaining each dish he'd ensure everyone at the table had heard his speech. After the shaky start the service was excellent. A wonderful meal spaced out well over the course of four hours. Afterwards I sat outside, looking at the bridge and Tuesday's destination--Quay--across the harbour, and tried to get a consistent note out of the trumpet. It might've been easier to cut a kilogram's worth of potato straws.

Realized the other day while at breakfast that all pancake toppings are not created equal. Now i pose the question what do you put on your pancakes? Personaly i load up with butter and either fruit flavored syrup or jam.

I have taken HOT CAKE for breakfast in the elbow beach hotel in Bermuda years ago and it was really nice. I wonder anyone have the recipe? Thanks you.