Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Lisa2k]

On another note, could someone recommend a really good digital camera that isn't OTT expensive (under $400), and gives you great detail and good zoom (you know,shine, crumb..as if the plate is right in front of you..like the photos in this thread)? 

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I got myslef a Fujicolor Finepix F30 a year and a half ago and am really happy with it. I haven't done lots of food photography with it, but you can see some pictures I took with it in my food blog (I was just learning to use it then). I also have lots of closeup botanical stuff at http://picasaweb.google.com/dolichos. It cost about 325 then, and there was a 50 dollar rebate. The way things are going, there is probably something even better for the same money.

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sazji, thank you for your recommendation, and your photos are beautiful. After much research, forays into photography forums for advice.. I finally decided on the Canon Powershot G9. An SLR with all the lenses would be too much for me, since I'm not into photography enough, outside of taking photos of what I cook and bake, to invest the money, extras etc, FOR NOW..as I did catch myself trying to take a decent photo of some hot pink roses with my current 'not that good' camera. I'm easily lured into many hobbies, but I don't want to get serious about it now! I just want clear, detailed, well lit images of my food

[Kim Shook]

Verjuice - I loved your napoleans! Years ago, I used to do the same thing with deep fried wonton wrappers and strawberries and you just reminded me how good that was!

Rob - the chocolate apricot tart is gorgeous! The apricots and the chocolate just glisten - I love when desserts do that!!! And the balloon cakes are perfect and adorable and sound delicious, unlike most cakes that are that cute!

CanadianBakin' - my jaw dropped over every single item in your June 8th post! I know that it all tastes wonderful! What kind of icing is that on the Oreo cake? I love the smoothness. And the assorted sized dragees on the orange cake are just starry looking. The Stampin' Up Cake is so adorable that it made me laugh out loud when I saw it. And the adorable little minis made me want to sit right down with a cup of tea and indulge in baby talk with my favorite little girls! Such wonderful work. Thanks for sharing them.

Kerry - I agree with Mark - chocolate is always appropriate! I'll ask you the same question I asked CanadianBakin' - what kind of icing is that? I really like the looks of that light colored chocolate!

Mark - oooooh! That beautiful, pristine cake! I would like to make a pig of myself on that for lunch today and not touch my low fat cheese, crackers and banana ! I can almost taste it!

Some Father's Day desserts:

Don't know why the picture is so yellow . These are my very best peanut butter cookies and some Lucky Charms Treats. Very silly, but good. I made them for the kids, but they were a hit with the grown ups, too. We all set around and had a 'Treats epiphany' about all the different cereals you could make treats with!

Thanks to DesertCulinary who introduced us to this cake somewhere here at eG, I served this, too:

This cake is truly amazing! So incredibly good!!! That filling is made of a thin meringue, chopped peanuts, peanut butter, chocolate and RICE KRISPIES!! Everyone at the party loved it and was really impressed. But it is so much easier to make than it looks or 'reads'. Thanks, again, DesertCulinary!!!

[alanamoana]

Kim, is the recipe for the cake on recipeGullet?! it looks amazing, moist and delicious...i like your cute use of the swirled chips as garnish.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry  - I agree with Mark - chocolate is always appropriate!  I'll ask you the same question I asked CanadianBakin' - what kind of icing is that?  I really like the looks of that light colored chocolate!

It is simply buttercream. 2 eggs, 2 yolks, beaten to light, drizzle in 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar in 1/2 cup water - cooked to 240F. Beat until it cools down, add 1 lb room temperature butter then about 6 ounces of melted and cooled chocolate.

[Kim Shook]

Kim, is the recipe for the cake on recipeGullet?!  it looks amazing, moist and delicious...i like your cute use of the swirled chips as garnish.

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I don't know which recipe you're referring to. Here's the link to the recipe on my webpage: clickity

Kerry  - I agree with Mark - chocolate is always appropriate!  I'll ask you the same question I asked CanadianBakin' - what kind of icing is that?  I really like the looks of that light colored chocolate!

It is simply buttercream. 2 eggs, 2 yolks, beaten to light, drizzle in 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar in 1/2 cup water - cooked to 240F. Beat until it cools down, add 1 lb room temperature butter then about 6 ounces of melted and cooled chocolate.

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Thanks, Kerry. I'll be giving that a try!

[CanadianBakin']

CanadianBakin'  - my jaw dropped over every single item in your June 8th post!  I know that it all tastes wonderful!  What kind of icing is that on the Oreo cake?  I love the smoothness.  And the assorted sized dragees on the orange cake are just starry looking.  The Stampin' Up Cake is so adorable that it made me laugh out loud when I saw it.  And the adorable little minis made me want to sit right down with a cup of tea and indulge in baby talk with my favorite little girls!  Such wonderful work.  Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks, Kim!

The chocolate buttercream is from Finecooking.com. Here's the link although you might need a membership to view it. If that's the case I can always post the ingredients. They add 12 oz of chocolate to their buttercream so it is very chocolatey!!

[emmalish]

Pille that looks amazing! I've been wanting to make something rhubarb-related lately but couldn't decide what to do. Any chance for a recipe?

[racheld]

I'm a sucker for anything served on a teastand!!! And, of course, who ever outgrows any kind of "Krispie Treats?" Even Miss Martha made them once on her show---I think she put about four boxes of assorted cereals into a 10" square pan. She kept pressing it with her hands, trying to get all that mass into the container, and all but had to sit on it like a suitcase, just to make it all fit.

Then she cut it into NINE pieces for serving. I tried to tote up the cereal, butter, and marshmallow/sugar contained in whatever would moisten four boxes of cereal, then divide it into nine pieces---Hope it WAS for adults---they'd STILL be prying kids off the chandeliers.

The cake is, of course, perfection on a plate---kudos to you AND to DC for the recipe!!

Edited June 17, 2008 by racheld (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Awesome stuff everybody. I've been too busy to make any contributions recently but I've been having fun keeping up with what everybody else is doing.

I did a bunch of fresh fruit tartlettes for a smallish catering job (breakfast, lunch and two coffee breaks for 35) today. No pics but they were just your standard pastry cream topped with various fresh fruits and fruit combos type.

[gfron1]

Kim - how did you do the waves? Did you set something textured on the top or are you really that good with your hand control?

[Kim Shook]

Kim - how did you do the waves?  Did you set something textured on the top or are you really that good with your hand control?

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Rob, I bought this at Michael's. I could never have made those otherwise! You just draw it firmly across the top and 'wiggle' it back and forth.

Edited June 18, 2008 by Kim Shook (log)

[gfron1]

There go the tricks of the trade (You were supposed to say I drew them carefully with a toothpick).

Here are a few things I made for an NPR/PBS event yesterday:

Blueberry Brioche

Croissants & Pain au Chocolate

Maple, Pear, Pistachio Scones (they were supposed to be walnut but I made them at 5 am, so I grabbed the wrong nut)

And a little treat courtesy of Fanny the Fairy's blog - Calissons

[momshobby]

These are my first attempts with Gumpaste characters. My family had a good chuckle at the dog, (actually modelled after our chocolate lab) and my husband in his lazyboy chair.

All of your chocolate cakes looked so wonderful, I thought I better try something myself for fathers day. The cake is a banana cake (Whimsical bakehouse) covered with IMBC mixed with Nutella (1/2 cup). My son thought it tasted wonderful!

[gfron1]

Hey - great to have you posting your pics! The dog is very cute, and I love the flat-panel TV...we're so modern

[Kerry Beal]

And a little treat courtesy of Fanny the Fairy's blog - Calissons

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I love callison. How do they compare to 'real thing'?

Edited June 18, 2008 by Kerry Beal (log)

[gfron1]

Mine are the real things Okay, maybe they're not from France, and maybe they don't have French ingredients...what's your point!?

Okay, so I used to sell authentic ones at my store so I'll make a comparison. Mine were softer (which was due to freshness). My almond meal is never as fine as I would like so I guess these were Calisson Rustic. And the recipe called for orange blossom water which has that slightly off taste - maybe a different water or make my own would have been better. So to answer your question, they were good and in some ways better than the ones we sold (fresher), but not quite as delicately flavored.

[CanadianBakin']

Rob, everything looks beautiful! Especially your brioche and croissants. Wow!

Momshobby - very cute!! And awesome for a first attempt. That isn't something I've tried yet.

[racheld]

These are all just astounding!!! All the colors and flavors, and the SHINE!!!

I just cannot tell you.

I think I'd like to crunch one of the teensy puff sandwiches right now, and I do hope that I someday get to taste a chocolate tart hushed with apricot . . .

[eskay]

That fathers day cake is seriously cool.

I made little mini strawberry and rambutan tartlets. They were going to be strawberry and lychee, but the lychees didn't look very good and it's basically the same thing

Theres a layer of vanilla custard underneath a layer of strawberry-rambutan jelly, and the fruit on top.

[racheld]

I made little mini strawberry and rambutan tartlets.  They were going to be strawberry and lychee, but the lychees didn't look very good and it's basically the same thing 

Kate---these are just enchanting---I read the word "rambutan" in a novel many years ago, and repeated it to myself at the oddest moments, like a mantra, for ages. It stood for the exotic ne plus of all fruits. I still do not know the taste---is it similar in taste and texture to a lichee?

And what is the pastry? Are the strawberries baked in, or added after? They still look plump and shiny and perfect.

[Mette]

What a talented bunch of people!

Been a bit busy lately, but have made:

Website cake for the launch of our long awaited web revamp at work (chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, marmalade, rolled fondant). It is meant to mimic our website as it looked on launch day

Tortoise cake for the 4-year old (genoise, strawberry whipped cream, marzipan)

Race track cake for the 6-year old's birthday party (genoise, raspberry whipped cream, marzipan). There's a ramp from the parking to the track on the other side, but it did not want to be photographed

Wedding cake for my sister (Traditional danish ring cake w royal icing and fondant flowers)

and now there are no more birthdays or weddings for a few months.....

[DesertCulinary]

This cake is truly amazing!  So incredibly good!!!  That filling is made of a thin meringue, chopped peanuts, peanut butter, chocolate and RICE KRISPIES!!  Everyone at the party loved it and was really impressed.  But it is so much easier to make than it looks or 'reads'.  Thanks, again, DesertCulinary!!!

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Fantastic job! I loved that cake as well... it's a bit big, but well worth the effort!

Edited June 20, 2008 by DesertCulinary (log)

[Shelby]

Mette That wedding cake is so cute and colorful!

[CaliPoutine]

This cake is truly amazing! So incredibly good!!! That filling is made of a thin meringue, chopped peanuts, peanut butter, chocolate and RICE KRISPIES!! Everyone at the party loved it and was really impressed. But it is so much easier to make than it looks or 'reads'. Thanks, again, DesertCulinary!!!

Kim, that choc. pb cake is too die for. Although, honestly I like the black magic cake better( substitute for the choc. cake). The PB filling is what really makes that cake. I made it last November for Robin's Bday.

[Emily_R]

Mette -- I am stunned! Such fabulous cakes -- all of them! You've been a busy girl! The website cake cracked me up!

Emily