I've lost my book with the old Wilton buttercreme icing recipe. The one I'm looking for is, I believe, not in the current coursebooks of anyone who's taken one of their decorating classes in the last 10 yrs or so. My version of it was in a staple-bound softcover the size and shape of a yearly calendar, if that helps any.

The recipe I'm looking for uses Wilton's meringue powder, 1 1/4 C shortening (Crisco), clear vanilla extract, and 1/4 tsp butter flavoring. I don't recall how much meringue powder/water to whisk up first, nor do I remember how much powdered (10x) sugar gets added. I think there's a bit of salt in there somewhere, too. If anyone can help you'll be a real lifesaver... I have gypsydragon's lemon rosemary cake sitting on my cooling rack, smelling delicious, and nothing to frost it with. =( I promise to post pictures of the final product and 'fess up to whether my slight changes to the recipe messed it up.

While I'm begging for help, can anyone tell me if it's safe to pre-shred Napa cabbage and store it in a ziploc baggie in the fridge, to be combined with other coleslaw solid ingredients and sauced right before eating? I'm trying to do as much ahead of time as possible for this weekend's Labor Day bbq, but brown and wilted cabbage would not be a time-saver. TIA!

ETA- both answered!

I've been trying to get the hang of homemade (not from a box) cupcakes. I think I've finally gotten it down. My first attempt resulted in a sweet sort of almost cornbread tasting muffin. Hooray for mastering my favorite dessert. They are so simple to make, but oh how I love cupcakes!

It's a lovely cool day in Boston, perfect baking weather. Have a cupcake!



MOCHA CUPCAKES








Just about any old chocolate cake recipe is fine for this. I dissolved instant coffee in a few tablespoons of warm water, making a strong concentrate to add to the batter. You can also use powdered espresso. I added the same coffee concentrate to a vanilla frosting recipe, because I wanted a lighter colored frosting. But you can do the same to chocolate frosting if you love chocolate. Those are chocolate covered espresso beans on top.

I need cake decorating advice. I'm considering baking a cake for serving after son's BABY'S birth... Edit: What was I thinking? LOL!!( Potential TMI )

Well, I have been having fun recently with chocolate cake!



This is 4 layers of chocolate cake (I made 2 and split them), with whipped cream and sliced grapes between the layers, and chocolate coated strawberries around the outside.

(The one in the icon also had melted chocolate coating on the top!)

It was delicious!

(For chocolate cake I use standard victoria sponge recipe but put in 1oz green & blacks organic cocoa and 3oz SR flour, rather than 4oz SR flour)

USEFUL TIP: Make sure the cake is cool BEFORE you try and put it together! On my first attempt at making one of these I melted all the cream!

(xposted to cake_decorating)

My kid sister's birthday cake this year was a strawberry mirror cake. A four-hour long process, but the results were well worth it going by the smile that was on her face when I brought it out :) Read more about it here :)

So today, I made a cake and decorated it. It's a Harry Potter themed cake, for the release of the last book, for Harry Potter's birthday, and to bring to my Harry Potter book club. It's not the most amazing Harry Potter cake out there, but I'm pretty damn proud of it :)

It's made entirely from scratch, and it took /forever/ to get the icing that color red. We used almost the entire bottle of no-taste red, and still managed to keep it no taste. And it won't stain your teeth!

It's just a simple yellow cake with homemade butter cream icing with a light almond flavor.

( Fake cut to my journal )

Edit: Sorry, I had a dumb moment! It's unlocked now :)

I like birthday cake.

I don't eat cake very often, but birthday cake is the exception, because I think that a birthday cake is more than a cake. I think it's a wish, a spell, a work of art...

I try to make birthday cakes special.

( This is the one I made for my mother this year... )

It's a gorgeous cake, and the honey and brown sugar give it a different kind of sweet than regular chocolate cake...

And the bees were lots of fun to make!

K, this is more of a gadget post than a recipe post!

I'm one of those idiots who could never make an omelette. Mine always seemed to turn into scrambled eggs when I tried to flip it. Yesterday I was at an outlet store, and saw a mini omelette maker that was sized for two egg omelettes.

So I bought it, and wouldn't you know, even a moron like me can now make perfect omelettes! Just a regular omelette with spinach, onion, green pepper, tomato, and cheese.



In terms of plating... what else could I do to this omelette to make it more appetizing. I was thinking maybe some kind of herb between the strawberries but I wasn't sure if mint was appropriate?

I need some help for a birthday cake I promised my mom for her birthday.

( Read more... )
(cross posted to several baking comms)

So here it is. Click here and you'll see more pictures of the helm then anyone could possibly want to. But do it anyway - the pictures are worth seeing. It was based on a helm that frederich found on the internet and I think it's passed the Pennsic cake as my favorite cake we've done.

Several people last night said "Hey have you seen the helm on the commercial for Ace of Cakes?" To which I talk about the fact that we paused Tivo and frederich commented on problems with the helm (i.e. it should be longer here and more bowed there etc). Of course we had the advantage of a professional armorer to tell us the order that the pieces should be put on and where the rivets were supposed to go etc.

Believe it or not this delicious cake is vegan. To boot it is one of the best cakes I've ever made, period.

Recipe is from the tremendously brilliant Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance which is a cookbook everyone who loves food should own IMO. For the full recipe, click on my LJ (c'mon, you know you want to).

( One more pic )

Chocolate mousse cake from Scholar's Inn Bakehouse in Bloomington, IN


Top layer is a chocolate ganache, middle layer is moussey goodness, bottom layer is a dark chocolate cake. Mmmmm...

Not had time to bake much lately because of the little one, but I just had to make some strawberry cupcakes.



Strawberry cupcakes with whipped cream frosting

( one more )

So at the end of my cake decorating class I had some leftover royal icing and decided to practice my rosebuds. It wasn't until the next week that I realized exactly what I was doing wrong- so they're not perfect... but not too bad. What to do with over 40 rosebuds??

Before:

*photo courtesy of my awesome roomate
(x-posted few places)

( After: )
Now for the question. I bought spaghetti squash but don't have any ideas what to do with it (I've never made it before). The basic cooking is simple enough- how to season/flavor it up?!?

I just made some buttercream icing. The recipe said that if you aren't going to use it right away to refrigerate it. I did that and it was in the refrigerator for about 3-4 hours. I just went to frost my cupcakes and found that it is a little runny. Any suggestions or help? :( I had to put some sprinkles on top to cover it.

Thanks a bunch :)

HELP!!! my friend's 21st bday is tonight and i just finished making the frosting. i used this recipe: http://community.livejournal.com/food_porn/2936271.html.

the problem is that its still runny. i've let it run in the stand mixer on high for 10 minutes or so, and its still fairly runny. any help on how to make it frosting like would be appreciate. do you think it will thicken up more as it sets?