Topic: Baking is a craft! (Read 149504 times)

Lunchbox · « **on:** 21 Feb 2007, 22:20 »

I am starting to set up a new baking blog!
I made some cupcakes today as practice: I've never made buttercream icing before, and I only bought this piping set two hours ago. Not bad for a first try, I think.

Hi res of all of these shots are in my Flickr.

Here are some plain ones, because I grossly underestimated the amount of buttercream I would need.

Please show me your pictures of baked goods also.

thehoopiestfrood · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Feb 2007, 14:36 »

Mmm I love buttercream. Though I can't eat too much or it begins to get a bit sickly. Stupid lack of tolerance for sugar!

Beautiful photos though, you must post a link to your blog.

I love baking but I don't have much time or the stuff to do it now I've moved. I got a beautiful cakestand and cakeforks and stuff for my birthday this year, but again they're at the family home.

Here are some old photos:

Superchocolate brownies:

That's white chocolate chunks, not nuts.

Victoria Sponge - notoriously difficult!:

Not my hand though.

Pirate Birthday Cake

2 layers of cake, buttercream but no jam and then rolled out icing to cover it.

Sorry for the giant photos.

Of course it goes without saying everything was made from scratch. Well not the jam. Though there's an idea...

calenlass · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Feb 2007, 12:40 »

Lunchy what kind of icing do you use for "normal"? And how on earth do you get it on the cupcakes like that? Dribbled?

Lunchbox · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Feb 2007, 15:53 »

It is just icing sugar and water! I spooned it on there, flattened it out a bit with a knife and it sort of slumped down into the nice smooth shape. It's funny because I've had a lot of people favourite it on Flickr, but not the buttercream ones.

jmrz · « **Reply #4 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 00:09 »

Those look absolutely delicious (judging by the last lot I tried, they probably are). How did you get the two tone pink and green icing to come out like that (the ones in the first and third photos)?

I have never tried icing sugar and water, I always put milk in instead.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #5 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 00:30 »

I made the two-tone by first filling the piping bag with green, and then piping the first two. I knew I didn't have enough left to do another whole one, so I thought 'why not?' and put the pink icing in the piping bag straight on top of the green. My brother and I put bets on wether it would turn out a horrid beigey mess or something really cool (I bet really cool). Turns out it looks super nice! Phew.

Also my baking blog has gone online. http://slackadaisy.livejournal.com
Yay!

jmrz · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 00:51 »

I thought that is what you may have done! Does the swirly icing set hard? Or stay squishy?

calenlass · « **Reply #7 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 03:08 »

They favourite them because they look like something out of a cartoon, or something Disney came up with. In other words, they look cool and different and fun and, most importantly, delicious.

lb969 · « **Reply #8 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 15:44 »

Seriously, you guys need to post your recipes...

Espically that buttercreme frosting....

Jeppo · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 16:29 »

eohgboehgobdehgsogdmdkjsldndojvg
delicious.
sorry for stating the obvious ~_~

thehoopiestfrood · « **Reply #10 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 06:13 »

It's a beautiful looking blog. I adore the header, please tell me all that lovely kitchen stuff is yours!

I agree with Calenlass, it's probably because the colours of the icing look so beautiful in the photos. Though the buttercream photos have lovely sculptural feeling to them. I like both the pictures. I'm very tempted to make one my computer desktop but I can't pick which!

P.S. I friended your blog and left you a question but I've just thought I should maybe leave the question here as well.

I'm not sure what shortening is exactly. I don't think we have it in Britain - it doesn't appear in recipes over here at all. I know it's a solid fat, but does it do anything different to butter or margarine? Could I replace it with one or the other if I wanted to make these?

I am going to have a good look in the supermarket next time I go out to see if we have anything like it!

calenlass · « **Reply #11 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 17:10 »

Well, I should probably say that I actually like the "regular" cupcakes better because any icing that looks too light makes me think of the storebought stuff that is all straight whipped sugar and air (and whatever it is to make it vaguely moist). That shit makes me sick.

However, your buttercream icing looks deliciously rich and heavy. I vote you should send me some.

Oh, yes, and: How do you get such brilliant colours? I like!

Lines · « **Reply #12 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 17:17 »

Yes, the colors are amazing! Everything looks incredibly delicious.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #13 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 18:17 »

Quote from: thehoopiestfrood on 25 Feb 2007, 06:13

I'm not sure what shortening is exactly. I don't think we have it in Britain - it doesn't appear in recipes over here at all. I know it's a solid fat, but does it do anything different to butter or margarine? Could I replace it with one or the other if I wanted to make these?

I wasn't so sure what shortening was either until I had a look in the supermarket for it. The only brand we have here is called Copha, and it is a vegetable shortening. We use it in coconut ice, and White Christmas slice, whenever we need something that needs to sort of 'set'. It is flavourless and colourless and very thick, so I don't think butter would work quite the same. Have a look at the supermarket! They are sure to have some sort.

(Also, sadly, the kitchen stuff is not mine. I would be dead from happiness if it were.)

Quote from: calenlass on 25 Feb 2007, 17:10

Well, I should probably say that I actually like the "regular" cupcakes better because any icing that looks too light makes me think of the storebought stuff that is all straight whipped sugar and air (and whatever it is to make it vaguely moist). That shit makes me sick.
Oh, yes, and: How do you get such brilliant colours? I like!

I've never seen any cupcakes in Australia like this - with piles of glistening piped icing. It is only after I started looking at baking blogs that I discovered it, and decided it was the most beautiful thing ever. But if you guys have stuff like this in shops I can understand how you think the flat icing looks nicer! Also yes, my icing is INCREDIBLY rich. So much so that I have to, uh, kind of scrape off the top of the pointy extremity before I can eat it. And I am a big icing lover.

The colours are just the cheap little bottles of liquid food colouring you can buy in a four-pack. Because I only made a really small amount of each colour and put one single drop of food colour in, they came up really bright.

calenlass · « **Reply #14 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 18:59 »

I am talking about the stuff that is just icing [confectioner's] sugar and water that is then whipped until it can be whipped no more. It is the stuff employed by grocery store bakeries universally. It looks like this and this, but there is no hint of creamy or buttery flavour or any subtlety at all, just a wall of OMG SWEET. That shit is nasty.

Lines · « **Reply #15 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 19:06 »

Yes, that stuff just asks to be scraped off.

Tyler · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Feb 2007, 21:43 »

I shall most definitely get my bake on for this thread when I find the time

Orbert · « **Reply #17 on:** 26 Feb 2007, 07:09 »

Lunchbox: Those are terrific pictures! The colors are great and the photography captures them perfectly. The cupcakes look like works of art which would almost be a shame to eat. But I would anyway.

thehoopiestfrood: Yours are also awesome, but in a totally different way. They make me want to sit down and just eat, and not stop eating til they're all gone. Especially that mountain of brownies. Mmmmmm!

In either case, I'd need a large glass of milk, too. Just leave the jug on the table. Thanks.

Lines · « **Reply #18 on:** 05 Mar 2007, 17:02 »

I bought some mini cookie cutters over the weekend, so I think I shall make some cookies sometime soon and decorate them.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #19 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 01:32 »

I made cookies.
Woo.

eatyrspleens · « **Reply #20 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 17:27 »

those cupcakes look so deliciously colorful. oh god!

Edith · « **Reply #21 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 17:32 »

Lunchy, you bake beautiful foods.

On shortening, the closest substitute would actually be lard. Shortening is vegetable lard. It looks disgusting and makes baked goods fabulous. Butter and margarine don't sub for it very well.

SilentJ · « **Reply #22 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 17:47 »

Lunchy: I need to show those cookies to my mom. She always makes cookies in that shape (cookie-gun thingie we've got. Did you use one?), but it's only the top/bottom half, no filling. Those ones look, like, 30 goddamn times better.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #23 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 20:34 »

I just used a regular old piping bag with a big fat nozzle... piping... thingy.

thehoopiestfrood · « **Reply #24 on:** 06 Mar 2007, 23:26 »

Quote from: pinkgrrlygeek on 06 Mar 2007, 17:32

On shortening, the closest substitute would actually be lard. Shortening is vegetable lard. It looks disgusting and makes baked goods fabulous. Butter and margarine don't sub for it very well.

See, I thought that, but I'm vegetarian so lard is out of the question.

mberan42 · « **Reply #25 on:** 07 Mar 2007, 15:36 »

Shortening!

Ally · « **Reply #26 on:** 07 Mar 2007, 19:53 »

My friends and I made a cake. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #27 on:** 07 Mar 2007, 21:17 »

That is a pretty snazzy cake right there.
If you put sprinkles on it and served it with piles of cream, it would classify as the Best Cake Ever.

Ally · « **Reply #28 on:** 07 Mar 2007, 21:42 »

I actually didn't decorate it - we spent so long mixing colors that I had to leave before we got to that! Apparently it was originally going to be a ski scene until one of my friends just smudged it all together. So they wrote "ski team" on it. I got to eat some at the airport, it was practically all frosting. Basically, it was perfect.

Sometimes I do real baking, too (mmm cinnamon rolls). I'll try to post pictures next time I do! I want to try out the cookie recipe in your baking blog, Lunchy. Looked so good! I owe someone cookies, too.

mberan42 · « **Reply #29 on:** 08 Mar 2007, 08:29 »

I baked bread last night. It ended up delicious!

Lunchbox · « **Reply #30 on:** 08 Mar 2007, 12:39 »

Superb.

I made bread rolls once in cooking class, they turned out like little white rocks.

Orbert · « **Reply #31 on:** 08 Mar 2007, 12:43 »

Quote from: mberan42 on 08 Mar 2007, 08:29

I baked bread last night. It ended up delicious!

Quick! One of the tomatoes is trying to escape!

Eris · « **Reply #32 on:** 10 Mar 2007, 00:14 »

I made brownies!

The recipe was in the valentine's day freebies that come in the newspapers, which my Dad made a few times in a heart-shaped tin. I put more chocolate than the recipe said, which seems to be a problem of mine, if my Death By Chocolate cookies are any indication.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #33 on:** 10 Mar 2007, 01:29 »

(Eris' Death by Chocolate cookies are so goddamned deadly you can only eat one before you feel a little bit ill.)

Lunchbox · « **Reply #34 on:** 10 Mar 2007, 21:06 »

Double posting is cool when it's a day later, right?

Either way.

Peanut butter cookies covered in chocolate. w00t.

jmrz · « **Reply #35 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 03:21 »

Quote from: Eris on 10 Mar 2007, 00:14

Death By Chocolate cookies

Can I possibly pretty please have the recipe for those?

Eris · « **Reply #36 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 03:25 »

Sure! I'll tell you my revised recipe once I buy a new box of cooking choc to find out what the name of it is.

BisCoctum · « **Reply #37 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 20:26 »

This is my first post here so I thought I would make it a gooder. Today was my day off work so I decided to bake a cake from scratch. Once I was done there I decided I wanted to make some pudding and whipped cream for it as well. I the pudding didn't turn out as well as I liked it too but going to have take another run at it next week.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #38 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 21:30 »

Oh god. Chocolate cake and chocolate sauce? Am I right?
It looks beautiful. What did you use to make the saucey stuff?

Also: Why not go and introduce yourself in the 'Hi, I'm New' forum? We can talk baking there too.
Baaaaakinnnnng.

BisCoctum · « **Reply #39 on:** 11 Mar 2007, 22:03 »

The sauce is just, Milk, Sugar, Cocoa, Cornstarch, Vanilla and a little bit of salt. But it came out a little to bitter so I use too much cocoa in it.

Runs_With_Scissors · « **Reply #40 on:** 13 Mar 2007, 00:18 »

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartleyk/328499148/" title="Photo Sharing">[img width= height=]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/328499148_9480b3cd62.jpg[/img][/url]

Pancakes! And heart shaped ones too! These were from a while back though...long ago in my tummy.

Eris · « **Reply #41 on:** 13 Mar 2007, 00:30 »

Death By Chocolate Cookies (tm)
Ingredients
85g magarine
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
200g sweetened condensed milk
1 cup dark chocolate bits *note*

Method
Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and grease biscuit trays.
Cream margarine and sugar until well combined. Add flour and condensed milk and mix this smooth. Fold in the chocolate bits. Place teaspoonfuls of mixture onto prepared baking trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire cooling racks. Store in an airtight container.

Makes approx. 3 dozen.

I will make some and post pictures tomorrow, but there is the recipe, straight from the Bushell's Cookbook!

*note* I use a 200g box of "Nestle Plaistowe 63% Cocoa couverture" cooking chocolate, which is a bit more than a cup. It comes in small chunks, but you'll need to cut them smaller.

mberan42 · « **Reply #42 on:** 13 Mar 2007, 08:13 »

Why do you use margarine in that recipe, and not butter?

Lines · « **Reply #43 on:** 13 Mar 2007, 19:52 »

I made cookies!

The first one, the cookie cutters I used are only about an inch and a half big, so they poofed out a little in the oven. (I don't think I rolled them out thin enough.) And I got crazy with the sprinkles, as you can tell.

BisCoctum · « **Reply #44 on:** 13 Mar 2007, 22:25 »

No such thing as to much sprinkles or going crazy with them. They look soooo good.

Eris · « **Reply #45 on:** 14 Mar 2007, 00:11 »

The recipe said margarine, so I use margarine. One does not ignore the Bushell's cook book recipe!
Ok, so I baked the cookies today.

While they look innocent, they are far from it!

See what I mean? They are more chocolate than biscuit. Also, I have photographic evidence of why they don't last long in my house.

Lunchbox · « **Reply #46 on:** 14 Mar 2007, 15:54 »

Oh my god cookies.

Linds, is that just a basic vanilla cookie? They are my favourite. I am a vanilla kind of lady. Also the sprinkles are adorable! I don't know if we have coloured sugar like that here.
Eris, HAGLGALHAGALBLAGALHABLAGALAGH

Lines · « **Reply #47 on:** 14 Mar 2007, 19:30 »

Just your basic sugar cookie (I guess that's vanilla) and the icing on the little ones was the kind that hardens (not sure what to call it other than cookie icing). If you don't have colored sugar sprinkles, that is sad and I would gladly mail you some!

Eris, zomg chocolate. Does it stay melted like that for a while? I love it when cookies do that.

jmrz · « **Reply #48 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 01:06 »

I am definitely making some of those Death By Chocolate Cookies. I will see whether I can do that this weekend!

eveisdawning · « **Reply #49 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 09:09 »

Oh my goodness, Eris. Those look incredible. My absolute favorite cookies are chocolate chip, so I'm going to have to try that recipe.

Immediately. I'll post pictures. It will be amazing.

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Author Topic: Baking is a craft! (Read 149504 times)

thehoopiestfrood

lb969

Jeppo

thehoopiestfrood

eatyrspleens

thehoopiestfrood

Ally

Ally

BisCoctum

BisCoctum

BisCoctum