Real Baking with Rose Discussion Forums

Red Velvet Food Coloring

2013-04-24T18:15:21-05:00

I’ve been trying to find an excuse to make this cake. The sheer amount of food coloring frightens me, I can’t find the time to deal with the beets .... but the recipe has been calling my name. My hubby’s co-op is done her term and one of his coworkers is having a birthday and one of his favourite cakes is the Red Velvet…perfect opportunity! I’ve taken a look at the recipe and I’m a bit uncertain as to what food coloring to use since it is not specified in the recipe. I have a bottle of Wilton Red-Red on hand an it is one ounce in size, so I assume (b/c Rose states a bottle and this bottle measures an ounce) that gel type coloring is correct. I’ve done a search of the forum but I don’t see any definitive answers about what to use. Any suggestions?

apple cinnamn crumb coffee cake WITH BLUEBERRIES

2013-05-14T16:55:50-05:00

HI all, the directions for making this coffee cake with blueberries have confused me. If using apples, you fill the pan part way with batter, then lay on apple slices and some of the crumb topping. But for blueberries she says to sprinkle them on the assembled cake before adding the crumb topping on top. The berries will sink as the cake bakes.

I assume this means for the blueberries that you DON’T put some of the cinnamon crumb on the inside of the cake. Please advise—I’m starting to make this now!

Talk about waiting until the last minute!

Advice on recipe for chinese bakery style fluffy cake

2013-05-14T12:10:41-05:00

Hello, just wondering if anyone has anything to say about what recipe I might use to make cakes like you find in a chinese bakery. These are light and fluffy, not that sweet, usually filled and frosted with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Google turns up some recipes of people trying to recreate the chinese bakery cakes. Some people use chiffon, some use a sponge cake with syrup. I’ve not made chiffon cake before and only made genoise twice.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Holly Gates

Frasier cake

2013-05-15T09:46:35-05:00

I plan on making a strawberry cream cake using the st honore trifle recipe. Does anyone know whether roses chiboust cream recipe is firm enough to use without a trifle bowl but as a free standing desert? Will it be firm enough to slice? Any idea if I should increase the gelatin and by how much? Help! I don’t want to end up with a soupy or rubbery mess !

Making Kate flour… And failing !!

2013-05-09T07:08:03-05:00

I ve had success with this once in the past, but the past few times I tried microwaving the flour, it just wouldn’t get to 130 ! I think I must have stood outside the microwave stirring the flour every 10 seconds for at least 35 minutes ! I reached 100 degrees Celsius but it kind of drove me mental… Any reason ? Is 100 degrees enough ? Also this flour that reached 100 can I try again withy the same flour ?

Freezing chocolate mousse

2013-05-12T20:55:10-05:00

Is it possible to freeze a chocolate mousse recipe with gelatin?

Fruit Flavored Cheese Cake

2013-05-12T08:17:32-05:00

Hi,

I am trying to make a fruit flavored cheesecake - blueberry to be exact. I found a recipe and gave it a try but as I was making I knew that there where just too many wet ingredients…The recipe sounds good and looked nice in the photo, BUT the cake came out very loose even though I cooked it 50% longer than directed.

The cake only has 3 8oz packages of cream cheese to 1 C of sour cream, 2 eggs 2 egg yolks 1C sugar, 1 t vanilla PLUS the blueberry puree (worked out to almost 1.5 C)...and NO salt HUH (I added a pinch)? Anyway, the cooking time was 1 hour in a water bath at 350…Seemed way too short to me. Given all the moisture I did add 2t of cornstarch (probably could have used more but I was worried about taste) and cooked it for 90 minutes. The top did brown a little but not bad, the color was absolutely glorious and the flavor very good (though the berries could have been sweeter).

My only real complaint is texture, the cake was loose, more like a no bake cake - far to soft for me. I like a nice firm but not dry cheesecake.

Wondering if the solution here is longer baking (and sacrificing the top) or do I need to add more cheese to firm it up?? I am at a loss - anyone have any thoughts or a good Blueberry cheesecake recipe?

Thanks!

can I add flavors to a scratch white cake recipe without ruining the texture and recipe?

2013-05-09T09:20:50-05:00

I have a scratch white cake recipe that I have finally mastered and I love. It took me a LONG time to finally get this recipe just right. Many months of baking BAD cakes throwing them out reading forums like this for advice ... more testing ... more trying…more baking and finally I have a cake I think my Grandma would be proud of. Now that I have my go to white cake recipe mastered I am wondering if I can add things like fresh lemon or strawberry puree to the cake batter to make different flavored cakes. I have a sneaky suspicion from everything Ive read and all the research Ive done on what makes a perfect cake that by adding in this extra liquid or sugar it would throw off the balance of my cake ingredients and ruin its perfect velvety texture and density.
Does anyone have any experience or expertise that they would be willing to share on this matter. I really want to bake other flavors than just vanilla but I want to do it right. I have also seen people add in coffee, raspberry, carmel and other flavor liqueurs/ syrups
Can these be added to a white cake batter without issue of messing up the recipe?
Thanks so much for help. Im still learning a lot about scratch baking. My biggest regret is not asking more questions or paying attention to my grandma when she was alive because she was a fabulous baker!! I may never be that great or understand all the science behind it like some of you but I am bound and determined to bake from scratch and not use a doctored up mix.
Thanks again!!

Sicilian pistachio cake with all purpose flour ?

2013-05-08T11:02:47-05:00

Has anyone done this ? All I have is unbleached cake flour and bleached all purpose. I tried heat treating my cake flour, but i ended up standing in front of the microwave for more than half an hour and it still wouldn’t reach temperature, drove me mad !!! Would it make a big difference if I use all purpose ? Has anyone done this ?

Genoise: Can you over beat eggs?

2010-02-09T20:47:48-05:00

Is it possible to over beat the eggs for Genoise?
I’m so sad
the last 3 Genoise I made all didn’t rise.

When I first started to make Genoise it came out perfect and I was so happy, but then I took a break from making it.
Now that I started again the last 3 i made just didn’t rise :(
I don’t know what’s wrong

today when the egg was beating it looked pretty light in color so I stopped it
I scooped some of it out to put into to chocolate mixture….but as i was scooping it didn’t seem a billowy as it should be
and for some odd reason i thought it started to look darker then it did when it was beating
so after i scooped some out i beat it a bit more just in case it wasn’t beaten enough >_<

but it looks like something failed >_<
I’m not sure if i over beat the eggs or just under beat it…but it was looking pretty light just like Rose said in her video

i’m so depress that the cake didn’t turn out again and it’s for my mom’s bday :(