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Iron Lung
Jul 24, 2007
Life.Iron Lung. Death.
I have a (hopefully) basic cake question. I've been baking cakes recently using a standard 8" or 9" round pan, but recently picked up two 10" round pans on a whim (and due to a giftcard!) thinking it'd be awesome to start making big layer cakes. In looking at a lot of recipes I have, they call for the 8 or 9" pans. Is there an easy way to convert up to that size? How about oven timing? I can return the pans too and get some smaller ones or square ones if its not feasible.

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TychoCelchuuu
Jan 2, 2012

This space for Rent.
Not sure about cooking times (I'd just start toothpicking it when it begins to look done-ish) but this is the conversion thingy I use for cake pans.

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.
/\/\ I use just about the same conversion. But I trust the toothpick test even more.

Made little ugly non-square Taiwanese pineapples cakes for Chinese New Year.

They were delectable. Especially when you sandwiched two together and slopped more pineapple jam in-between.

Iron Lung
Jul 24, 2007
Life.Iron Lung. Death.
Ah, thanks! I found that before but was looking for other options. Looks like that calls for about double or triple the amount of batter. Maybe I'll return and get another 8" round and something else, thats a lot of ingredients!

daniyellee
Apr 16, 2006






Super Mario cake I did for my nephew. I was lazy and just bought a plastic Mario instead of molding one.

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.
Fondant question:

I'm making homemade marshmallow fondant toppers for a birthday party next weekend. I was playing with the idea of creating them this weekend, just so I don't have to bother with intricate stuff during the week. I've never made them this far ahead - I'm wondering, if I keep the flat and in the fridge, will the toppers be okay to go on top of a cupcake in a week? I don't want any crackage.

Here's inspiration (not mine):


NarwhalParty
Jul 23, 2010
I've never stored fondant in the fridge, I've always heard that it "sweats". I've made decorations about a week in advance and just stored them at room temp out of the way and they've turned out fine.

daniyellee
Apr 16, 2006
I've stored fondant in the fridge and it does sweat when you take it out. However, after a couple of hours or so, it does dry up. You can place a fan on it to expedite the drying process, although I don't see the need to refrigerate these cupcake toppers. Marshmallow fondant is softer than the commercial stuff, so I don't think you'd have cracking issues, and you can always use a little crisco to smooth out any cracks that might form. It would probably be BETTER if you made them ahead of time because the marshmallow fondant is so soft, they'd be easier to work with and transfer if you let the dry out some.

Iron Lung
Jul 24, 2007
Life.Iron Lung. Death.
Its not quite cake, but I just made the birthday cake crumb from the Momofuku Milk Bar book, and its taking a lot of willpower to not eat the entire baking pan of it. I want to sprinkle it on everything. Its crunchy and crumbly and birthday cakey and oh man, its great. Looking forward to baking some cakes out of this book, all of their cakes are baked in quarter sheet pans and then cut out of that so I need to pick one of those up!

Kathandrion
Jul 10, 2009


My wife made lemon layer cake.

Its just a simple egg white cake base with lemon curd filling and a 7 minute frosting on top.

Nothing fancy, especially the decorating, but it was soooo good.

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.

NarwhalParty posted:

I've never stored fondant in the fridge, I've always heard that it "sweats". I've made decorations about a week in advance and just stored them at room temp out of the way and they've turned out fine.

daniyellee posted:

I've stored fondant in the fridge and it does sweat when you take it out. However, after a couple of hours or so, it does dry up. You can place a fan on it to expedite the drying process, although I don't see the need to refrigerate these cupcake toppers. Marshmallow fondant is softer than the commercial stuff, so I don't think you'd have cracking issues, and you can always use a little crisco to smooth out any cracks that might form. It would probably be BETTER if you made them ahead of time because the marshmallow fondant is so soft, they'd be easier to work with and transfer if you let the dry out some.
Thanks! I'll be making the toppers today then :)

Here's something I've been fooling around with for Valentine's Day:


Gluten free and white sugar free chocolate chickpea cupcakes with a natural peanut butter topping. So. Rich.

Edited to clarify

PezMaster fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jan 30, 2012

somnolence
Sep 29, 2011

PezMaster posted:

Thanks! I'll be making the toppers today then :)

Here's something I've been fooling around with for Valentine's Day:


Gluten free and sugar free chocolate chickpea cupcakes with a natural peanut butter topping. So. Rich.

Do you have a recipe for those?

Kimitsu
Jan 11, 2012

Bear with me for a moment.
My sister and I were trying to make icing using this recipe http://southernfood.about.com/od/icingrecipes/r/bl30222l.htm

And, well, it's not coming together at all. We're probably going to give up on it, but got any suggestions to make it actually work if we try it again?

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.

Kimitsu posted:

My sister and I were trying to make icing using this recipe http://southernfood.about.com/od/icingrecipes/r/bl30222l.htm

And, well, it's not coming together at all. We're probably going to give up on it, but got any suggestions to make it actually work if we try it again?

Is it too runny for you? It looks like it's supposed to be a glaze?

If you want it thicker, just add more confectioner's sugar and don't add any more liquid. If it's too thin, add a little bit of milk.

Kimitsu
Jan 11, 2012

Bear with me for a moment.
I think it is supposed to be a glaze (at least, that's why we picked it), but it's more like the butter isn't melding with the milk? Which is especially odd, but there are still yellow patches and we were at it for half an hour.

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.

Kimitsu posted:

I think it is supposed to be a glaze (at least, that's why we picked it), but it's more like the butter isn't melding with the milk? Which is especially odd, but there are still yellow patches and we were at it for half an hour.

Usually, you start with room temperature butter, fluff it with your mixer and add a bit of the confectioner's sugar. Then add the milk (also slightly warmed) and extract, then slowly add the rest of the confectioner's sugar. Maybe your butter was too cold?

Seriously, if you just want a glaze, don't bother with the butter. Just add flavour (lemon juice or a bit of cocoa powder, etc), a bit of milk and confectioner's sugar until it nicely covers the back of a spoon. Add more milk (or water) if you need to thin it out. I don't think I've ever used butter in a glaze? Unless it was melted completely.

madlilnerd
Jan 4, 2009

a bush with baggage
My poor flatmate was slogging away cleaning an opaque layer of grossness off the oven and I told him that I'd make him any cake he wanted if he got it back to transparency.

He wants a lager cake. Not a stout or Guiness cake, one made with lager. I know he was taking the piss, but does anyone have a beer cake recipe?

hypnotoad
Dec 16, 2007

But shakin' its all I know!
Pezmaster, not only does that recipe look delicious and a healthyish alternative to a normal cupcake, but now I just spent like a half an hour looking up recipes for homemade almond milk (and almond butter afterwards!) I had no idea both were so easy to make! I can't wait to give it a try!

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.

hypnotoad posted:

Pezmaster, not only does that recipe look delicious and a healthyish alternative to a normal cupcake, but now I just spent like a half an hour looking up recipes for homemade almond milk (and almond butter afterwards!) I had no idea both were so easy to make! I can't wait to give it a try!

Yay! Let me know how it comes out! Depending on your natural peanut butter, the topping could come out pretty thick. We make our own pb, so our topping was almost like playdough. Add the chickpea flour slowly :)

Here's the recipe for the thread:

Chocolate Chickpea Cupcakes
slightly adapted from 52 Kitchen Adventures

Makes about 15 cupcakes

1 15-oz. can chickpeas (washed and drained)
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup unsweetened, natural almond milk (preferably homemade)
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder (best quality)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In your food processor, throw in your chickpeas, orange juice, almond milk, agave nectar, and vanilla extract and process until smooth. Toss in your eggs, one at a time, and process well between additions.

2) In a large bowl, sift your cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Pour your liquid ingredients into it, and stir with a wooden spoon to create a very loose batter. Spoon three tablespoons into every lined cupcake tin. Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

Peanut Butter Topping
1 cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup maple syrup (good quality)

1) In your food processor, process the peanut butter and maple syrup together until completely combined. Add the chickpea flour, little by little, until the topping is nice and thick. Spoon on top of cooled cupcakes and enjoy.

Trillian
Sep 14, 2003

PezMaster posted:

sugar free

PezMaster posted:

1/2 cup maple syrup (good quality)

Maple syrup is sugar... what am I missing here?

Bald Stalin
Jul 11, 2004

Our posts

clarabelle posted:

If they're gone in one bite, they've been made wrong. The ones I make don't tend to fit in a person's mouth. Also, they're dense enough that you need to pace yourself while eating them. A properly-made cake pop should take the same time and give the same satisfaction as eating a slice of cake

I'm angry about substandard cake pops

Very, VERY late quote but can I ask, how do you make a decent cake pop using real butter frosting, not crisco laden poo poo? How does anyone?

Flash Gordon Ramsay
Sep 28, 2004

Grimey Drawer

Trillian posted:

Maple syrup is sugar...

So is agave nectar.

slinkimalinki
Jan 17, 2010

madlilnerd posted:

My poor flatmate was slogging away cleaning an opaque layer of grossness off the oven and I told him that I'd make him any cake he wanted if he got it back to transparency.

He wants a lager cake. Not a stout or Guiness cake, one made with lager. I know he was taking the piss, but does anyone have a beer cake recipe?

This is a good stout cake. It probably wouldn't suffer too much from being made with lager. http://www.sweetjustice.org.nz/recipes/alison-holsts-special-trade-aid-choc-cake

PezMaster
Nov 15, 2006

Though they won't admit it, women were much happier when all they had to do was bake shit and pump out babies.
Sorry - free of white refined sugar. My mistake.

Let's not have a "What has a higher glucose/fructose" argument on account of this please :ohdear:

Kimitsu
Jan 11, 2012

Bear with me for a moment.

PezMaster posted:

Usually, you start with room temperature butter, fluff it with your mixer and add a bit of the confectioner's sugar. Then add the milk (also slightly warmed) and extract, then slowly add the rest of the confectioner's sugar. Maybe your butter was too cold?

Seriously, if you just want a glaze, don't bother with the butter. Just add flavour (lemon juice or a bit of cocoa powder, etc), a bit of milk and confectioner's sugar until it nicely covers the back of a spoon. Add more milk (or water) if you need to thin it out. I don't think I've ever used butter in a glaze? Unless it was melted completely.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I think the butter temperature may have been it. Next time we'll give the sans-butter route a go - she'll certainly appreciate the lack of butter after this!

Psychobabble
Jan 17, 2006

Kimitsu posted:

Thanks a lot for the advice. I think the butter temperature may have been it. Next time we'll give the sans-butter route a go - she'll certainly appreciate the lack of butter after this!

If you still have the glaze, you can just microwave the whole thing. The butter will melt out and you can stir it smooth.

Flash Gordon Ramsay
Sep 28, 2004

Grimey Drawer

PezMaster posted:

Sorry - free of white refined sugar. My mistake.

Let's not have a "What has a higher glucose/fructose" argument on account of this please :ohdear:

No need. This thread is too awesome for a derail. I just want to see pictures of tasty cakes and cupcakes.

clarabelle
Apr 9, 2009

d3rt posted:

Very, VERY late quote but can I ask, how do you make a decent cake pop using real butter frosting, not crisco laden poo poo? How does anyone?

Given that we don't have crisco in the UK (that I know of), I'm not sure what you mean. I just make small amounts of buttercream frosting using butter and icing sugar (although there are endless variations with flavour and texture). If you have to use store-bought frosting (if that's what you mean), just use as little as physically possible to bind it (like a dessert spoon or two for an entire cake's-worth of crumbs) and add a shot of alcohol of some description(I use baileys) to help it stick together if it keeps falling apart

somnolence
Sep 29, 2011

PezMaster posted:

Yay! Let me know how it comes out! Depending on your natural peanut butter, the topping could come out pretty thick. We make our own pb, so our topping was almost like playdough. Add the chickpea flour slowly :)

Here's the recipe for the thread:

Chocolate Chickpea Cupcakes
slightly adapted from 52 Kitchen Adventures

Makes about 15 cupcakes

1 15-oz. can chickpeas (washed and drained)
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup unsweetened, natural almond milk (preferably homemade)
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder (best quality)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In your food processor, throw in your chickpeas, orange juice, almond milk, agave nectar, and vanilla extract and process until smooth. Toss in your eggs, one at a time, and process well between additions.

2) In a large bowl, sift your cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Pour your liquid ingredients into it, and stir with a wooden spoon to create a very loose batter. Spoon three tablespoons into every lined cupcake tin. Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

Peanut Butter Topping
1 cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup maple syrup (good quality)

1) In your food processor, process the peanut butter and maple syrup together until completely combined. Add the chickpea flour, little by little, until the topping is nice and thick. Spoon on top of cooled cupcakes and enjoy.

Thanks. I plan on giving these a try very soon.

yoshesque
Dec 19, 2010

I made a cake:


Kind of a ferrer rocher inspired cake. I wasn't able to add hazelnuts or wafer as I had to make this a day in advance, fly interstate for a job interview, then come back for the party. So I was a bit rushed. Didn't really matter anyway as most people didn't have a slice. :(

Also because there were pregnant women eating this I didn't brush the layers with frangelico. Cake would've been pretty awesome if I did though. Veeeery chocolatey, not enough hazelnut flavour. Super rich, too, which is why thin slices only.

Cpt.Wacky
Apr 17, 2005
That looks great, was it a sponge?

My last cake was a chocolate cappucino sponge for my mom's birthday. I never made a sponge cake before and I think I overbeat the egg whites since it didn't have much rise. It had plenty of Kahlua and some coffee extract flavoring since I couldn't find espresso powder and didn't want to buy a big jar of instant coffee. Tasted fine but it was a lot of work to make the sponge and separate recipes for the filling and frosting.

I made three of these carrot cakes for my grandpa's 90th birthday party last year:



No nuts, no raisin, no pineapple. Cream cheese frosting.

Butt Science
Sep 3, 2007

Cake! Such an awesome thing. My mom is an executive pastry chef so growing up in her kitchen I learned how to roll and shape fondant pretty early on. So, when it comes time for friends' birthdays, I try to whip something up. This was for a my best friend's 21st a few years ago. She loves Marlboro Smooths and Diet Pepsi, so hey. Chocolate cake underneath (My mom's recipe, it calls for coffee and a little bit of brandy. Don't have it on hand at the moment but it's amazing.) with rolled fondant on top of buttercream icing to make it stick all nice like. The Pepsi Can was a bit more difficult, I don't quite have the skill level, that ones just vanilla cake. The cigarette is just a bit of fondant with the end dipped in food coloring.



And, just to show the disparity between my Mom's skill and mine, this is the cake she made for my Aunt's 60th Birthday last year. She loves Rod Stewart, so the pictures along the bottom are all Album covers of his.



She just made a wedding cake earlier this month for a family friend, but I wasn't around to get pictures of that. Helped her make around 120 little fondant flowers and snowflakes for it though.

clarabelle
Apr 9, 2009
Just made a coffee cake, but the only instant coffee I had is very mild and I don't think it's going to taste a whole lot like coffee. I need the coffee buttercream to be a little less thick than normal as I need to be able to stick chocolate shavings to it, would adding some baileys to the buttercream mix be the right way to go?

Psychobabble
Jan 17, 2006

clarabelle posted:

Just made a coffee cake, but the only instant coffee I had is very mild and I don't think it's going to taste a whole lot like coffee. I need the coffee buttercream to be a little less thick than normal as I need to be able to stick chocolate shavings to it, would adding some baileys to the buttercream mix be the right way to go?

Well if you want the buttercream to taste like coffee, then no, Bailey's would not be the right way to go. Kahlua might be, but you would be better off with espresso. Although I should mention the thickness of your buttercream has no bearing on weather or not it will hold chocolate shavings.

clarabelle
Apr 9, 2009
So I made a portal cake (except it was a coffee cake as per its recipient's wishes rather than the actual portal cake recipe)

His Divine Shadow
Aug 7, 2000

I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.
I made Runebergs torte today, first time ever. It's a traditional finnish cake that we eat every 5th of february here. I decided to try and make my own this year so I had some learning todo and obstacles to get by.

All went pretty well though I guess, until the time came to make the frosting. I found out I had no powdered sugar (except brown cane sugar stuff). So I improvised by using dextrose (leftover from home brewing project) and cranberry juice for color, not a perfect frosting, but anyway I got close enough.

Now they are supposed to look like this:


I lack the forms to make them like that so I used silicon cup cake forms instead. I also didn't get it as dark as they are meant to be. The reason for this I am pretty sure was my choice of bread crumbs, based on other recipes I shall make my own next year, made in part from crushed ginger biscuits.


Anyway this was my result:




They are liberally drenched in rum as well.

Psychobabble
Jan 17, 2006

His Divine Shadow posted:

I lack the forms to make them like that so I used silicon cup cake forms instead. I also didn't get it as dark as they are meant to be. The reason for this I am pretty sure was my choice of bread crumbs, based on other recipes I shall make my own next year, made in part from crushed ginger biscuits.

No, it's just that the silicone molds prevent baked goods from getting good color.

scuz
Aug 29, 2003

You can't be angry ALL the time!




Fun Shoe
I made a macaroni and cheese cake complete with panko & bacon "frosting" that turned out way awesome. Not a traditional cake, but it was just as satisfying.

clarabelle
Apr 9, 2009
Haven't had much time for cake lately, but I whipped up these two for the day that's in it:



(Don't know how universal Love Heart sweets are, but here's a reference: http://www.lovehearts.com/ )

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Fight Club
Jul 12, 2001
I am a shitty rip off of Patrick Bateman.
Not a cake, but I made some Valentine's Day cookies.


Valentine's 2012 by leslie_v, on Flickr

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