Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
Sale! 20% off cake decorating impression mats on the Etsy store – the single mats and the mats sold in sets. DESIGNS: THESE 5 DESIGNS ARE SOLD BY THE EACH: Sold individually. Mats are 7 5/8″ X 5 7/8″ X 1/8″ each. Clear stiff …
I’m celebrating National food holidays this summer and apple turnovers was last week. But if you think apple turnovers are things us Americans made up, Bernard Clayton Jr. has something else to say about them in his The Complete Book of Pastry, Sweet and Savory: …
Christmas is finished and now it’s time to gear up for New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve is one of my favorite holidays, if not my favorite. Since I had my first baby 17 years ago, that holiday has been spent at home toasting in …
There are quite a few beginning baking books new but the Get Started series by Doring Kindersly takes the approach of starting small and ending big. Get Started: Baking begins with this note: Build Your Course: This book is divided into broad sections that allow …
Sugar Baby is a comprehensive cookbook revolving around sugar. It all starts in the beginning with the first chapter ‘A Brief History of the World (As It Pertains to Sugar)’, and explores the world of sugar from there. It is written by Gesine Bullock-Prado and if …
Juliet Stallwood’s hobby making novelty cakes for her kids turned into a career in pastry and cake decorating. She went from creating fun themed cakes to cookies and ‘fondant fancies’. Stallwood’s website Cake and Biscuits and her book have the same feel, only the book …
With all the talk of the Hostess company in bankruptcy, I wanted to know what the term ‘stalking horse’ meant to the financial markets as in recent news from Food Business News, a stalking horse bidder was named for the Hostess company. The plain definition …
Looking for a little stocking stuffer this year for the baker in the house? Pop.O.Licious Cake Pops by Joey Dellino is the perfect book. This book is a hardback, pocket-sized cookbook packed with over 40 different cake pop creations. The spiral binding makes it easy …
I love madeleines. So does everyone else in the family, too, so when I make a couple of batches I use every pan I have (I have three) to keep up with demand once they are finished. What is a madeleine? It is a tiny …
I do lots of reading for all my pastry writing and I recently found a little gem, Foods and Food Adulterants on Baking Powders, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It goes into detail on the “investigation into the character and composition of baking powders.” …
I’m a candy fan. I’ll admit it. There is something decadent about spending time in the kitchen sans flour and yeast and just create something un-wholesome, just for the comfort and love of candy. Unless you argue that chocolate is a power food, then, well, …
Macaroons – those little sweet cookies with the hamburger-like appearance. If you’ve ever tried one, you know how tasty and addicting they are. But if you’ve ever made them, you can appreciate the work that goes into them, and savor them as they are eaten. …
Flour Water Salt Yeast isn’t a basic bread cookbook but rather a recipe and guide book for artisan breads. I’ve been hoping for a book like this, and Ken Forkish explains and shows in detail how to make gorgeous breads. While he uses professional terminology …
I’ve always had a soft spot for old recipes. Thumbing through dusty piles of vintage cookbooks always brings something new to my baking and usually leads me to explore new flavor combinations or techniques. Julie Richardson brings old recipes to new life in her book …
Yes, there is more than one way to mix a cake, and depending on the recipe and the resulting cake, it could be firm and dense, light and airy, or coarse and crumbly. Choosing the right recipe will enable you to choose the right cake for …
I get this question a lot, so I figured it would fit with the June theme for this blog – What is a dariole mold? A dariole mold is a small, round mold, and can be found by different retailers by the name of ‘aspic mold’ or ‘baba mold’. These …