When you’re at the grocery store, take a moment to look at the flour aisle. You’ll see cake flour, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and bread flour. Not all flours are created equal for every task. You may be tempted to grab the all purpose flour so you can use it for other recipes as well, but don’t do it. If you’re going to make bread, get the bread flour.

When making bread, there are a few things to keep in mind. Choose a basic recipe if you’ve never made bread before. Plan ahead. Read through the recipe a few times to familiarize yourself with the ingredients and the process. It is important to follow the recipe exactly.

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you start. Yeast likes a warm environment. The measuring of dry and wet ingredients is of utmost importance to create a tender, tasty loaf. Pre-measure your ingredients if you find that helpful.

Follow your recipe exactly. If it says to mix the ingredients in a certain order, do it. Making bread is a science as much as an art, and if you want your loaf to turn out the same way every time, follow the directions to the letter!

When all your ingredients are mixed, it is time to knead the dough. You will need additional flour to spread on your counter and to dip your hands in so the dough doesn’t stick to you or the table top. Kneading is necessary to develop the gluten in the bread dough, mix in air for rising, and distribute the ingredients so the yeast can feed. Yes, the yeast actually feeds on the sugars in the dough, and creates a fermentation process, which enables the dough to rise properly. The biggest rookie mistake in bread-making is not kneading the dough long enough. Use a timer if you need it. You’ll want to knead the bread between 8-10 minutes.

When you are done kneading, form the dough into a ball and set in a greased bowl. Cover and let rest. Your dough will need to sit for 1-2 hours to rise. Make sure your kitchen is warm to aid the rising process.

At the end of this time, you’ll want to uncover the dough, punch it down, shape the dough how you want it be when you bake it, and cover it for another rising session. When it is done rising, it is time to bake. Pre-heat your oven before baking. Once your bread is done, let it cool completely before slicing.

Once you’ve mastered a basic bread recipe, you can make artisan breads, French bread, herbed breads, rolls, and more.

There are actually several variations of this dessert. My grandmother’s version is a variation of a traditional dessert popular in British Cuisine. It is called bread and butter pudding and is often confused with bread pudding. Cubed bread is placed in a pan and then covered with an egg mixture to make a custard. After it is baked, the bread rises to the top to form a “crust” like topping. It tastes similar to French toast. The egg mixture forms a rich custard pudding at the bottom. Of course, my grandmother added her secret spices to give this a sweet nutmeg flavor. It is absolutely wonderful!

Louisiana bread pudding is made entirely differently and is just as good. The common ingredient is stale bread, but that is where the similarities end. The bread pudding consistency is similar to a moist cake and is warm served with a wonderful vanilla, whiskey, or rum sauce. The smell is heavenly and if you get a chance to visit New Orleans, this is a MUST have dessert that is served at most restaurants.

The following recipe, a specialty of my New Orleans sister-in-law, is a requested dessert at holidays, parties or any special occasion. The secret to this recipe is the bread. Stale french bread is the best. Use the long narrow loaves, if available. No matter what size pan she uses, it is always empty at the end of our family gatherings!

Best Bread Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

6 – 8 cups stale bread, broken in cubes
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 large can fruit cocktail, drained
3/4 can condensed milk
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raisins

Directions

Combine milks, butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, nutmeg. Fold in bread and stir. Mixture should be very moist.

Add fruit cocktail and raisins. Mix well. Pour mixture into a 9×13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees approximately 1 hour or until top is golden brown. Serve warm with whiskey sauce.

Variations

You can leave out the raisins. Try adding blueberries, peaches, or apples.

Although my grandmother’s recipe is still one of my favorite desserts, I can truthfully say that this is the Best Bread Pudding Recipe – New Orleans Style!
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Which is the most perfect way to serve dessert? If very normal types of cakes require no special plates to be served, there are cases when the cake plates have to match the cake style as such. The edges, the shape, the design, and even the size of the cake plates need to suit your culinary efforts. Smaller cake plates will by no means do for serving birthday or wedding cake, but they are definitely excellent for cookies. Generally speaking, there should be at least two types of cake plates in the house, some smaller and others larger, and sometimes it may not be a bad idea at all to also have some little bowls to serve jelly, ice cream and the like.

Besides the cake plates on which you serve dessert to guests, there are also the ones on which you store it, and these items are just as important. The variety of products now available on the market allows a very generous choice of models: thus, many people go for a covered storage container. Unlike other regular cake plates, such an item will preserve the cakes fresh, even when you have to transport it for instance to a party scene. The most common materials used for such cake plates include stainless steel and plastic, and they usually have handles for your better carrying the cake.

The easy and very comfortable replacements for cake plates are dessert cups, which often solve the dessert serving problem. Usually made of glass, these cake plates substitute are ideal when it is very difficult to cut the cake into slices or chunks. Keep in mind, that sometimes, depending on the cake you serve, the cake plates or the cups need to be cooled in the refrigerated or powdered with sugar. One doesn’t have to be a professional decorator in order to add a touch of inspiration to sweets: imagination could be your best friend for the matter.

Furthermore, all sorts of funny, but exquisite arrangements can be set. Thus, you can have two or three cake plates on which you build the pieces or the slices in the most fanciful of ways so that the pile should look good and appetizing. Sometimes, there are small cards with funny messages hidden in the pile, or you can try to use an unusual decorative pattern. Using cake plates in such ways will definitely make guests appreciate your elegance and imagination, not to mention that everybody will have their share of fun.

He’s told all his friends. I thought he was over having birthday parties with his friends when he was ten, but apparently not.

In this day and age, it just seems wrong to make a homemade ice cream cake. There are beautifully decorated cakes in the freezer section of the grocery store, not to mention in the local ice cream parlor. I realize that making his ice cream birthday cake is more about reliving his childhood (I’ve made him ice cream cakes since he was two years old), and I recall baking and freezing a volcano ice cream cake that his friends talked about for years. He was so proud of that cake. (Not of his mom; of the cake.)

“How many friends are coming, Jake?” I ask him, knowing full well that he is going to tell me something like I don’t know, Mom. Can you make enough for twenty?

It was easy to make a cake for twenty little freckled faced boys with twenty pairs of dirt-riddled sneakers in the house when he was a kid. It was no problem dealing with the twenty little hands that hide twenty little boogers under the coffee table top instead of using a Kleenex. Twenty little gift bags full of plastic spiders and Jolly Ranchers. And twenty gifts that made Jake so excited that he had to run to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. Ahhh, those were the days.

A cake for twenty nowadays means two cakes in the freezer. This entails my husband taking out all the Lean Cuisines, frozen oat bread, pork chops, and something grey and hairy, and trying to stuff them into the extra fridge in the out building. (You know the extra fridge… It’s called the Extra Fridge because it costs an extra thirty bucks a month on the electric bill so he can store two six-packs of grocery store brand diet soda, an empty bottle of mustard, and two half-bottles of ketchup).

We take everything out of the freezer to fit the humungous birthday cakes for Jake. His birthday party is in the evening, so this requires appetizers as well. I pick up ten pounds of Buffalo wings for the band, and another five for the regular folk. My husband goes to Costco and purveys massive amounts of chips and soda. He also comes home with a five CD audio set of John Denver. “It’s for Jake.” I see through his bald faced lie. “Jake doesn’t like John Denver.” He smiles and takes the shrink wrap off the CD’s. “He doesn’t? Well I guess I’ll have to listen to them, then. I just hate waste.” (Guess he forgot about the Extra Fridge.)

So the cake is ready, the appetizers are in place, the soda is chilling, and there are piles and piles of chips and salsa on the table. The family begins to arrive and mill around while John Denver plays in the background.

Then we hear the tell-tale backfire. We look out the window and watch as the primer-gray serial killer van pulls up. With a little banging and coaxing, the van’s side door opens and out tumbles Jake. (The driver door hasn’t worked since the Great Wal*Mart Parking Lot Incident of ‘06.) Then the real show as the van begins to mime the capacity of a clown car; band member after band member emerges with some kind of instrument in hand. The van just doesn’t look big enough to hold them all. Yes, Jake is right. There are twenty of them, and they are all heading toward the door. (Except the one who stops by my maple tree and begins to “water” it. He must be the drummer.)

Twenty pairs of dirty Converse sneakers, twenty spiked up, multi-colored hair-dos (or hair-don’ts… depending on how you look at it, I guess…), and twenty outlandish outfits that I think their sisters should be wearing. I have to blink because at that moment I see Jake and his friends as ten-year-olds again. It just happens that these ten year olds eat gobs more and are a lot louder.

“Hey Mrs. M,” shouts Jake’s lifelong friend, Sam. “Did you make one of your awesome ice cream cakes?”

“No, Sam, I made two.”

“Right on,” he casually replies as he beelines past me for the ranch dip and the Fritos.

By night’s end, the house has transformed into a waste site filled with dip-smeared paper plates, empty chip bags, and enough aluminum soda cans to build a Toyota. There are also smashed chips in the carpet, and droopy Mohawks on these future captains of industry. I also find it amusing to see the boys listening to John Denver with Jake’s Dad. Jake actually looks interested in what my husband is saying. I think they actually like John Denver.

The band isn’t so bad; they sing and play a punk-reggae-fusion version of Happy Birthday for Jake. And as the party wound down, Jake came over to me and gave me a big hug. “Thanks Mom for making my cake. And thanks for letting the band come, too. You’re a great Mom.”

It was all worth it until next year.

Ice Cream Cake Recipe

2 boxes of cake mix (any flavor)

2 to 3 containers of Cool Whip

1 gallon of ice cream in a rectangle box (any flavor)

2 to 3 cans of frosting (any flavor)

Make the cakes as directed on the box, use two 9 x 12 pans to bake the cakes. Let the cakes cool. Put one of the cakes on a covered with foil cookie sheet. Open up the ice cream box completely so that you have a brick of ice cream and slice the brick into 6 even slices. On the top of the first cake, lay each ice cream slice on top of the cake, side by side so that it covers the whole top of the cake and pinch each slice into the next so you have a solid layer of ice cream. Next, take a half of a can of frosting and spread it over the ice cream evenly. Try to do the frosting quickly because the ice cream will begin to melt. Next, use one of your Cool Whips and spread half the container on top of the frosting and spread evenly. Now take your second cake, and lay it over the top of the ice cream/frosting/Cool Whip layer. Cover in saran wrap and stick it in the freezer for an hour.

After freezing for an hour take the cake out and completely frost the whole cake. After frosting the cake, put a whole nice thick layer of Cool Whip over the frosting as if the Cool Whip is the frosting. Then put back in the freezer for eight hours.

When you serve, pull cake out of freezer about 15 minutes before slicing.

This cake will serve 12-24 people depending on how you slice the pieces, or how big the band is!

Baking cakes and breads are not as easy as you think. If you have made one, chances are you ended up with either burnt sides or the cake is still uncooked in the inside. You see, mastering the art of baking entails a number of things: the preparation, transfer to the pan or mold and the material used for cooking. Consumers have continually been dismayed with the hundreds and thousands of bake ware out in the market because it did not give the end result most users wanted. Little did the public know that there actually existed a product, which addresses this concern.

Recently, bundt cake pans have become a popular choice for both professional and amateur bakers. This is so because aside from the wide range of designs you can choose from, purchasers are guaranteed that their cakes and bread will turn out just right. What makes it different from other baking pans is that it is made especially for the cake or bread to cook evenly in the inside and outside. Due to this, bundt pans have become a staple in every home.

A broad selection of these pans is available in the market but be sure to look for authentic Bundt Cake Pans. You may search for it in the net to ensure that what you’re getting are the original ones. Due to its popularity and increase in demand, imitations of the bake ware are being manufactured. Nordic Ware and Calphalon are two leading makers of these famous bundt cake pans. There are different types of cake pans and they cater to each baker’s needs. Mini Bundt pans are crafted so that you can produce cupcakes and miniature versions of your favorite breads and pastries. You might be surprised that non-stick pans are not only used for cooking great meals rather manufacturers have also developed some particularly intended for baking. This kind requires precision care, as they are very delicate. Keeping them in good condition will guarantee a longer shelf life for your baking equipment. Apart from boasting of its unique designs, bundt pans are 100% made from the best materials such as cast aluminum and silicone. The latter has been discovered to deliver optimum results and is now being tapped as the key element in producing more of these phenomenal cooking and baking paraphernalia.

Now that you know what you need, here are other useful tips, which you can use in order for you to impress your family and friends with your baking skills: 1. When buying your first bundt cake pan, take into consideration size and versatility, meaning to say how often and for what types of cakes and breads do you intend to use it. Choose what best for you according to your preferences. 2. Learn to take care of your purchases. Be sure to read on or ask for special cleaning instructions if needed. 3. Look for designs that you can use regardless of occasion. You can find pans, which are for specific seasons such as Christmas or thanksgiving. 4. Like most consumers, you would want value for your money. Purchasing a good quality cake pan is an investment so be sure it’ll last for a long time.

With all of these tips for sure one would have his first bundt cake at it’s best. So take the initiative to bake your very own bunt cake now.

Every cake worth merit starts with a smooth icing. The cake needs to cool completely before they are iced and decorated. To keep crumbs from ending up in your icing and ruining the look of your cake, start with a thin base coat of frosting that is not quite as stiff as the regular layer will be. Once this coat is on, set the cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. This will set the icing and any crumbs will be caught in this first layer. Now you can spread a regular layer of icing without worrying about crumbs.

Use an icing spatula to apply and smooth the second coat of icing. Once the icing is on the cake, start smoothing on the sides by running the spatula around the perimeter of the cake. One trick for smoothing the frosting is to dip the metal icing spatula in cold water, this will aid in smoothing the frosting. To smooth the top, dip the spatula in cold water and holding it horizontally over the top of the cake. Start at the point farthest from you, holding the spatula in both hands, skim the top of the icing by bringing the spatula straight toward you.

Simple Designs

Some cake decorators say learning to smooth the icing is the hardest part of cake decorating. Practice will make you a pro in not time. Once you have it down, show it off, even a cake without many decorations that is clean and smooth will make an perfectly elegant offering.

Instead of icing, cake tops can be dusted with powdered sugar. You can choose to use a stencil for a more decorated appearance, or just the powdered sugar for a clean look.

Edible decorations are a beautiful yet simple cake decorating technique. The use of sprinkles, candy, nuts, and coconut pressed into the icing before it sets, will make your cake stand out.

To apply a textured look for your cake decorating, use a small cardboard comb, available in baking supply stores.

Piping is achieved by using a pastry bag fitted with a metal tip that is held on by a coupler. This is your most important tool for cake decorating. You can make lines, words, shells, flowers, and many other designs on the top or sides of the cake. Fill the bag with no more than 1 cup of icing at a time, twist the top of the bag and keep steady pressure when piping the design. Use your other hand to guide the tip. It is wise to find out everything you can about piping before you begin.

Fondant a smooth white paste, is used in complicated cake decorating. Fondant is kneaded and rolled to cover cakes with a sleek smooth layer of icing. It is also used to make designs that are 3-D. It is less tasty than buttercream, but the cake will look sleek and elegant.

How to find out good recipe for wedding cake?

You should find the correct wedding cake recipe, a flavor that both bride and groom should enjoy. There is no need to have expensive cake but a cake which will be appreciated by everyone.

There are many areas to find out wedding cake recipe. You can ask your friends to know the details about their marriages. You can find from the internet and refer the local stores or recipe books. You should select several cakes that you want to test, based on the ingredients then you can know how your real wedding cake would resemble and what would be the recipe of your wedding cake.

How to select your recipe for wedding cake?

The chocoholic is a soft cake with the rich cocoa filling or with the normal flavor of fruits or candy. If you are going to ask a baker to make your wedding cake, bring several various kinds of recipes to him and ask for the cake piece models which are similar to the recipe that you’ve found. It is one of the best experiments of shopping for some of the wedding preparations and find out the recipe of your wedding cake. Pottery decorations in their cake or breads can create a very stylish look. Decorate the cake with a heritage lace and modern ribbons for a stylish wedding cake.You may find it exciting that the wedding cake was thrown to bride instead of eating in the past. The wedding cake slice was thrown by bride and groom on each other at the same time in formal marriages, to mean the beginning of their life as a union of husband and wife. It was thought as a sign of fertility for the couples in the tradition. It is one of the events most eagerly included in each marriage. The rice and wheat grains are also a sign of wealth and there were showed to groom and bride. Some marriages always follow these habits. Wedding cake is a part of the ceremony.

The chocoholic is a soft cake with the rich cocoa filling or with the normal flavor of fruits or candy. If you are going to ask a baker to make your wedding cake, bring several various kinds of recipes to him and ask for the cake piece models which are similar to the recipe that you’ve found. It is one of the best experiments of shopping for some of the wedding preparations and find out the recipe of your wedding cake. Pottery decorations in their cake or breads can create a very stylish look. Decorate the cake with a heritage lace and modern ribbons for a stylish wedding cake.

Cake Decorating Themes

- Fun and activity: These cakes are full of color and whimsical design. The use of different shapes, Balloons, circles, stars, clouds, and other interesting designs will help to make your cake decorating the talk of the party. With the use of animal crackers, you could make a zoo or farm cake. Your imagination can take you anywhere.

- Say it With Flowers: The use of floral patterns in soft shades, are perfect for cake decorating. The addition of a few green leaves make this type of cake decoration an excellent choice for any special occasion. Flowers are great on wedding cakes, birthday cakes, mothers day cakes, and for other happy celebrations.

- A Little Romance: Romantic cake decorating is perfect for sweethearts day, valentines day, a birthday for a husband or wife, or a wedding anniversary. You can make any color  frosting, including the favorite of the person or people you are baking the cake for. You can add hearts, cupids, or anything that will remind the guests what the celebration is about. Use your imagination and make it a little jazzy without going overboard. Just a bit of glitter or candies that sparkle should do the trick.

- “What’s Up Doc”: Younger children (and some that are over 90) love cartoon characters as much as they love cake. This is why it is a great idea to combine both when decorating a cake for the birthday of someone who loves these whimsical critters. You can either draw them in icing and color them in, or use molds and fondant to make the characters. After they are made, they can be colored before they are placed on the cake. So invite Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Taz, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Garfield, Donald Duck, or any of the many cartoon characters that have stolen our hearts and funny bones, and are doing the same to our children, to the party.

There are some supplies that are essential when you are thinking about cake decorating, these are:

- A professional icing smoother or thin metal spatula. This tool will help you to cover your decorated cake with an even layer of icing, and to make the frosting very smooth so that it can be decorated. This will make the cake look as if a pro did it.

- The use of decoration Molds is a very easy way to make figures and objects to use in cake decorating. You will probably want to start with the basic shapes like circles, squares, or triangles, until you are sure of how to perfect the process. You can move from that to flowers, numbers, and characters. Some molds also have text so you can add a message.

- Icing bags are an absolute essential if you want to do any type of cake decorating. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to use it as you would an ink pen, except it is held with both hands. One hand is used to apply steady pressure on the upper part of the bag, while the other guides the tip to make the decorations.

- The use of frosting flowers that are already made for you is a less time consuming way to add beauty to your cake decorating.

- Edible glitter and colorful sprinkles are a great way to spruce up your cake decorating design. These small additions could be just the thing to give your cake that finishing touch.

- Edible color sprays are quite easy to use, especially when you are using a template. It can be the difference between a cake decoration that is blah, to one that has everyone complimenting you on your artistic ability.

- You can also print out edible photographs of the graduate, that fish that almost got away, or a wedding photo of the bride and groom, the way they looked when they were married to place on their 50th anniversary cake. The paper these edible images are printed on is also edible, so you can place the whole thing on the cake.

A cake stand will make your creation stand out, especially a glass stand.

When considering a bread machine, it’s a good idea to get familiar with its features and capabilities. Have an idea of how much you are looking to spend, these machines can run anywhere from below $60 to over $180, according to what brand, and what features you are looking for. Some have timers and delay buttons, while some don’t, there is also the option of a crust setting which enables you to have light, medium, or dark crust on your bread loaf. You also need to know what type of breads you will be baking in your machine. If you’re a big fan of making wheat bread, make sure that the bread machine your purchase has a cycle for it. Some bread machines have an extra special cycle for baking cakes and jams. Before deciding to purchase a bread machine, make sure that it has all the features you want and have enough cycles for all your baking needs. It’ also a good idea to check for a cool down cycle, to prevent your bread loaf from becoming soggy, if you can’t be there to remove it after the baking process is over. Most machines have a keep warm cycle to prevent sogginess, but some have a tendency to dry up the bread.

There are some downsides to bread machines, some have special compartments for nuts and fruits, while although a great idea, may sometimes cause clogging, so it would be wise to watch for this and keep compartments clean. You can purchase bread machines that will produce different sizes and shapes of loaves, square, round and the traditional rectangle. Something else to look for in a bread machine is how easy it is to remove the bread ban for cleanup. To maintain your bread machine, it’s good practice to check for the build up of crumbs. You do not have to do this often. I would suggest after every use, so as not to let the crumbs accumulate.

More so than other appliances in your kitchen, you should consider the weight and size of the bread machine. It’s best to buy the bread machine suitable for your purpose and the size of your kitchen. The last thing you want is to have a huge machine taking up a good quarter of the countertop. Make sure your machine comes with a manual giving you instructions for operating your bread machine, because there are some models on the market that don’t. You can choose to go for the cheaper model or the more expensive, the choice is up to you, but just remember, you get what you pay for.

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Chocolate cake. Cakes have many variations, so as chocolate cakes. These variations are based on the ingredients that have been used. There can be the banana brownie cake, fudge cake, chocolate chip cake or chocolate cake glazed with chocolate butter cream. You can do the basic procedure in baking cake and do variations on the frosting and the flavor.

Strawberry cake. Strawberry cake is one of the worth-trying cakes. This is a special cake made with strawberries. In making the cake, you will need two cups white sugar, strawberry flavored gelatin, 1 cup butter, 4 eggs, cake flour, baking powder, milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries. It is best to let this cake sit in the refrigerator to chill before serving.

Ice cream cake. Ice cream cakes are made from cake mix and ice cream. Its cake and ice cream in two cold layers! You can try to make black forest ice cream cake, brownie ice cream cake, cranberry pistachio ice cream cake or any of your favorite ice cream.

There are still other cakes that you will love to eat and bake. If you want to learn more on how to do these recipes, try cooking at online games. In the virtual kitchen, everything is prepared and you only need to follow instructions carefully. Bake chocolate cake, strawberry cake, ice cream cake the way you like it. Experiment with the ingredients and you will be an expert pastry chef.

Cooking games can really be an exciting thing that you can spend your time with. Explore various cake recipes and other pastries and be a chef. If you are already learned in baking, you can get into real kitchen and do real cakes. For now, enjoy cooking and decorate cakes too. Put your artistic creativity in making cake and you will surely make a very special cake for a very special event for those you love.