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What did we have for dessert today? Did you make it, buy it in a store, get it after dinner at a restaurant or in a cafe? Was it good? Tasty? Interesting? Satisfying? After reading through the "making and eating desserts" thread I thought it would be interesting to take a cross-the-board state-of-the-dessert survey. My dessert tonight was pretty pedestrian--some chocolates from a tray of Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates. One of those gift assortments, and it was in fact a gift. It wasn't especially satisfying, not terrible. We ate them. I hope somebody had better.

I'm going to an 80's party on Saturday and would like to take some dessert with me. I'm a bit stumped about what fits in with the theme though. My first thought was Black Forest Gateau, but I'm a bit worried that it might be more 70's than 80's (not that anyone would be so ungreatful as to say that, but I would like to be thematically correct) Any ideas? Ideally a cake or a tart, something that can be sliced.

I am going to be making the cake for my brother's upcoming wedding (eek!), and I need a little help with the logistics. There will be ~350 people and the bride wants a 5 tier contoured, round cake with white rolled fondant. How big should each tier be? Should I have a couple of cutting cakes in addition to the tiered cake? I think that a cake of 18", 15" 12" 9" & 6" would look nice (and serve about 250(?)), but I want to get some expert advice here before I start planning. Any other advice/tips you guys have will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Does anyone have a good recipe for an ice box cake? I need to provide four of them for an event next week. I have no preference or restriction on flavors or ingredients except: --no raw eggs --preferably the whole thing can be made in advance. I've rejected a couple of recipes because they require whipping a pint of cream at the last minute before serving. I don't mind if it takes a lot of prep work before hand, but at the last minute I need to be able to unload and serve the cakes. Thank you!!!

A question for you all. I'm looking for places that make good dessert destinations in DC. As an example, romantic dinner at one restaurant but then off to another restaurant to linger over dessert and coffee. What restaurants put the thought and effort into dessert to make them dessert destinations? Do restaurants appreciate this business or do they look down upon people who show up at 10:00pm looking to spend an hour over dessert, perhaps some after dinner drinks, and a little coffee.

I know it's "classic," but what components are really really good? I've been searching for threads on opera cake, and people talk about it, but nobody ever says if it's a really great tasting cake. And if it is, how do I go about making every layer the best it can be? Any recipes for the perfect cake, creams? And any tips? I'd like to try my hand at it just for fun, but I wanted to ask you all first...since it's supposedly a "classic." I found a recipe in Friberg's book, but I thought there might be better recipes for the individual components. Is this something that is typically made in culinary school? Oh, and I bought some coffee extract in France...is this a cake that I can finally use this in? Thanks a lot in advance!

I am bringing one of the desserts ( for about 15 people, am sure someone else is bringing one). I LOVE dessert! Am thinking of the chocolate mousse cake from last year Fine Cooking Holiday. Last year I did two different trifles -- a lemon blueberry one and then a dark cherry pastry cream with almond cake -- both were terrific..but thought I should do something else this year. What is everyone else making?

Apparently, everyone has a secret to making good pancakes. One of my friends uses light beer to make them fluffy, another uses lime juice. What are your tips/tricks/special ingredients?

I need a dessert for a 40th birthday party for 40-50 people, something easy to plate, doesn't require a walk-in, and seems special and delicious. I'm looking at the recipe in Butter Sugar Flour Eggs for German Chocolate Cake with Toasted Almond Coconut Goo. It looks not too hard to pull off, as a non-pastry chef, and as if two people in the kitchen could plate it up with one person to ferry it to the buffet table. Any experience with this recipe, or other suggestions, will be much appreciated.

I have a lot-I mean a lot-of Coho Lox in the freezer-one of the benefits of being a Sportfisherman here in BC-it's been a fabulous season and isn't over yet. So I'm thinking of doing a Smoked Salmon Cheesecake for a friend's upcoming B-Day. I need Smoked Salmon Cheesecake recipes Please. What I don't need are links to google-that bottomless pit of marginal info-but real recipes that have worked for you in the past. Any/all relevant info/comment/opinion much appreciated. TIA Sam Salmon Vancouver BC

I'd love to have opinions from some other pastry people. I have an order from a local tire company (the founders 90th birthday). They want a cake the size and shape of a tire (they want me to even put a real rim on top). Michelin is paying for part of the cake! Anyway, I'm planning to do it in black fondant and paint the tread- but I am interested in ideas from others. This is going to be a very big cake!

Hi everyone, I would like to try making a dessert pasta. Off the top of my head I'm thinking a chocolate cannelloni with mascarpone mousse, a raviolli with hazelnut filling, and some other shape on a plate with some nice sauces and fruit. My main question is: Has anyone tasted this kind of dessert and what was the texture like? I don't exactly know the beast approach on making the dough, should I be looking for a cooked or non-cooked recipe. Have a nice day in your kitchens! BB

I am in the middle of baking my mom's wedding cake. So far. I have had nothing but problems. Some of this, I think, comes from using cake mixes - the cakes are too spongey and fall apart easily. I had sent my mom trial versions of the e-gullet Best White and Best Chocolate cakes, and she decided they were "too rich, dense, and sophisticated" (Bwah!? They were plain chocolate and plain white - how is that too sophisticated?) The people at work LOVED them, but my mom said she prefers cake mix cakes, so cake mix cakes it is. Unfortunately, Every single cake has fallen apart when I have tried to turn them out of the pan. Funny how the trial run 'scratch' cakes came out perfect every time! Anyway, I promised my mom I would torte the cakes and put icing between every layer. So far with my attempts (which worked beautifully on the trial run scratch cakes), if I slice a layer, the top layer falls to pieces when I try to move it to another surface. How can I keep this from happening? At what point should I slice them - when they are completely cooled? Frozen? Right now, I have the crumbling layers (my third attempt, and they are still crumbling) in the freezer, hoping that freezing them will make them stable enough for me to move the layers after they are sliced so I can fill with icing. Please give me some advice - this is my third night of trying to make these cakes, and I am losing major sleep because of this!

I should have posted this earlier... oh well. Any ideas on something I can make at home? Have access to most, but not all Asian ingredients. Any and all suggestions welcome... recipes and links to sites with recipes especially appreciated. TIA

As a personal chef without a commercial kitchen, I do all of my prep and cooking in clients' homes. Desserts are always a challenge, especially when I do a party for 30-50 people, since I normally only have 1 oven available, sometimes two, and those have to share with the other cooking for the meal. I only have the client's home fridge available, and you know how little space those have. No big Hobart, and only a limited amount of space on the counter for decorating and plating. You get the picture - it's like you were giving a party of that size in your home and couldn't make anything before the day of the event, and had to fit the whole dinner and dessert into one day's space and schedule. That said, I still want to give my clients something special in the way of dessert. So far the only thing I've resorted to buying is tiny tartlet shells from my local bakery, which come frozen, and really are just fine, even though I cringe at using something I didn't make from scratch. Well, if I used puff pastry or phyllo I'd buy that too, but both are relatively hard to work with under the circumstances I've described. I'm hoping, and even begging, for advice from the pros about tricks, tips, and even recipes that I might be able to use in these conditions to create beautiful, delicious desserts with a lot of wow factor. I can't wait to hear what you all might have to say.

Boulangers et pâtissiers often use spirits & liqueurs in their work. Yet how many of us reach for a bottle of beer – that is, to pour its contents into a dessert! Over the few years, I have become increasingly fascinated w/ the range of imported beers offered at the local liquor shops and their prospective culinary strengths. A recent statement from the gov’t-sanctioned corporation which regulates the importation & sale of beers has revealed that the import-beer category manifested a third-straight-year of double-digit growth. The current inventory sheet lists about 80 different imports, appended by the corporation’s aspiration to add another 20 labels in the near future. Many of us are now learning that supposedly de rigueur food-wine matchups may be contested and sometimes be surpassed by beers. Witness this interesting comment from Alan Skversky, regional exec. Chef for the Arizona-based Hops! Bistro & Brewery restaurant: “There are no set rules. But, everytime we try a different beer with a different food, we’re blown away by the possibilities.” (Neil, I am intrigued to ask you whether similar knowledge transpires to your guests at the great Bellagio in LV?) It was fascinating to read recently of a contest held in NYC between a sommelier (I think he was from the Gramercy Tavern restaurant) and a prominent authority on beer. The final showdown on their slate of food-&-liquor pairings was a supposedly difficult, rare cheese from France. Ultimately, the judges awarded the prize to the beer advocate. Beer has a great gustatory range. Examples: Belle-Vue Kriek, a dessert beer from Belgium, is an admirable choice to serve w/ a bittersweet, glazed chocolate-&-dried-cherry cake à la mode. Sweet stout – famously matched to fresh oysters – is delicious served with a caramelized cheesecake. (A creamy stout, including my all-time favourite dark beer, Young’s Double Chocolate, froths up beautifully beside a devil’s food cake. A doppelbock complements a spicier dessert such as pumpkin pie. And a wheat beer can be drunk happily with a raspberry crumble. I wonder if any of my beloved Pilsners (Urquell, Okacim, Frydenlund, Zywiec) would blend with anything from the sweets trolley? Hmmm…unlikely! Perusing my journal earlier today, I selected some of the beer-flavoured desserts I’ve prepared: Chocolate Cake (using Nethergate Old Growler Porter) Gingerbread Cake (using Marston’s Oyster Stout) Pumpkin Cookies (using a dark Bock) Cheddar-Cheese Corn Bread (using Mexican Sol beer); I know, it's savoury. Prudence Hilburn’s Beer Biscuits (using an India Pale Ale) On several occasions I’ve baked a large pretzel-shaped bread (using either Bitburger from Ger. or Kronenburg from Fr.) And, I’ll confess that I made an unusual Dark-Beer Sabayon to accompany a Lebkuchen Soufflé! There’s nothing highfalutin about this Green-Tomato Chocolate Cake , except that with a later-than-usual ripening season for my tomatoes this year, I expect there’ll be a huge basket of green ones to process! You’ll need 1 cup of peeled, seeded, puréed green tomatoes. Cream: 2/3 cup butter & 1¾ cups granulated sugar. Add 2 large eggs & 4 oz. melted, unsweetened chocolate plus 1 tsp vanilla extract. Blend well. Sift together: 2½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup non-alkalized cocoa, 2 tsp. Each of baking powder & soda, and ¼ tsp salt. Stir tomato purée into chocolate mixture. Then stir in half of dry ingredients. Next, pour in 1 cup of flat beer (enchances texture, moistness, & lightness of cake). Fold in remaining dry ingredients. Spoon batter into two greased, floured 9-inch layer pans. Bake for about 30 mins. in preheated 350° F. oven. Later you may cover w/ your choice of Cream Cheese Icing. And perhaps decorate w/ chocolate butterflies or marzipan ladybugs. Bon appétit – and cheers, too!

what do most folks top they're opera cake with? Pour on ganache or use a tempered chocolate sheet? TIA, danny

I humbly admit it. Of the readily available US dessert wines, I have many uses for the Bonny Doon Framboise (raspberry dessert wine). The Vin de Glaciere, which I'm sure will be discussed later, is lovely but expensive for many people. The Framboise half-bottle is an explosion of pure raspberry flavor. After an exhausting, foot-swelling wine festival I've been known to bypass every other wine and pour an aperitif glass (in my case, a vodka glass) of chilled Framboise, put up said feet, and just breathe for 10 minutes. For the holidays, Framboise with fresh, pitted dates stuffed with a fingerful of cream cheese, topped with a raspberry and tiny slivers of toasted almond, drizzled with Framboise.

Having a big party in November and the place I use to buy cakes from closed down. Any suggestions on the best place to have cakes made in North Jersey? Im particularly looking for around Nutley area and don't want to go too far out of the area. I'm talking fresh whipped cream. All fresh ingrediants. Top notch. Expense is no issue. The kind of cake that your guests have a second piece of and fight for it. Throw me out your recs! Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, Im looking for a good apple cake/bread recipe to make for my fiance(its her favorite cake). Its the kind that you can buy from 'farmers market'. Im not sure if its a bread or cake. It tastes like a cake and it comes in a small pan. banana bread is more like a cake but it is labeled as a bread??? sorry if my post is confusing. anyways, what's a good recipe? What kind of apples should I buy? etc... Thanks for the help.

I'm thinking a yellow cake, with lots of coconut. A light, coconut icing. Topped with toasted coconut. Capable of being made well by an idiot.

I hope this is the right forum for this inquiry - I've never posted here before! My daughter is turning three on November 12, and we are having a big party on the 14th. The party will be for both adult family and all of her friends. The theme is Halloween Redux, and everyone will be in costumes. All of the decor will be Halloween, and the activities will be Halloween-related as well (painting mini-pumpkins, etc.). When I asked Dylan what kind of cake she wanted, she said she wants a hot pink chocolate cake. She has clarified that the hot pink is referring to the frosting (or crossing, as she says). Here is what I'm wondering: What is the best chocolate cake recipe for 3 year olds? I want something moist but not fudgy. They are all likely used to cake mix cakes, which I refuse to do, but I don't want to fall on my sword - I want them to actually eat it. How can I decorate it? Hot pink isn't exactly "Halloween'y". Luckily, Dyl's costume is a hot pink (see a theme here?) butterfly, so I'm thinking I can coordinate? What shape is best? My friend offered to lend me her round cake pan, which makes a giant half dome. I think that might be hard to cut. I am leaning towards a sheet cake, as that will be easy to cut and serve out to the little ones. A layer cake seems too large for 3 year olds. We'll probably have about 10 kids and 10 - 15 adults. Thanks all!

Peter , Thank you so very much for your generous, sage advice. This has been the most informative Q&A I've come across on egullet. Also, thank you for all of your wonderful books. Your generous style and spiritualty instill a sense of connectedness with the prepartion and sharing of food. I teach cooking classes and have put "Sacramental Magic in a Small Town Cafe" on the required reading list for novices (pun intended). My question is about high altitude cake baking. I live at 5,000 feet and have a cabin at 7,200 feet elevation. Do you have a formula for high altitude cakes? We generally have low humidity which plays a part too, and how does barametric pressure effect high altitude baking? Many Thanks CG

Greetings I'm looking for a pancake recipe that inspires fluffiness, that is nice thick pancakes, but not heavy. Thin will simply not do. Flavor is not of quite as much importance. This recipe is for a contest that is graded on flavor, presentation, and fluffiness. Also, does anyone know of any exciting ways to present pancakes? Thanks a heap!

I LOVE Wendy's Banana Cake!! So does everyone who tries it. Even my 2 year old daughters will eat more of it than any other banana loaf recipe. That said, I'd like to use it in the coffee shop in loaf form but as you mentioned Wendy, it doesn't rise much which is fine for a cake but to sell in individual slices I need some rise. The dough pretty much fills a 9x5 loaf pan so more dough is not the answer. The first time I tried it I used cake & pastry flour which gave it great texture. Last night I tried it with AP flour and 2 tsp baking powder but other than make it a bit rubbery it didn't rise any higher. Does anyone know how I can adjust the recipe to fit my needs?