Baking quick questions

JayJay14

I'd go with PenPen's suggestion but put the old patch back on if you can to make the top levelish. Then make a circle or star from new icing to be a plinth for the train big enough to overlap the join. If you just put a new bit on and overlap the edge it will sink in a bit.

zippychick

Hi Flis

How did you get on? Now you have hopefully fixed the cake, I have merged this with baking quick questions.

Hope you got it sorted ok
Zip

Dustykitten

How do I reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe. This cake bar I like but it is a touch too sweet.

150g (5oz) butter
2 medium eggs
300g molasses
2tsp vanilla extract
250g (8oz) spelt flour
100g oats
100g packet pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

If I just reduce the molasses (that is the sugar I want to use in this) will the consistency be wrong?

Thanks

MrsE_2

I'm making whoppie pies & using an icing bag for the first time in years.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/454572/Vanilla-whoopie-pies

It was a nightmare.

I couldn't even get it in the bag without an awful mess:o

Any tips?

I had to ice out 24, after the mess of the first 12, I did the other 12 in paper cases:p

zippychick

Hi MrsE

the recipe does say you can also use a knife

There are a couple of older threads which discuss piping bags

Icing/piping bag

How to make a homemade icing bag (the one I would go for!)

I'll merge this with baking quick questions later when you get more input
thanks
Zip

celyn90

When you fill the bag, get a large glass, put the icing bag into the glass and roll the edge of the icing bag over it so the nozzle is pointing towards the bottom of the glass and it's held open. Then add the mixture into the bag a small spoon at a time - it doesn't stick up the insides of the bag that way and it's less messy to handle. I don't fill them more than a third full either, then I can twist the rest of the bag round my hand to stop it forcing itself upwards If you can get hold of those plastic bag clips, they can help to stop that too.

I can't be bothered to use a piping bag for thick mixtures, so I either use a plastic freezer bag and just snip the corner off or I use a food piping bag (the sort you use for fancy mashed potatoes) as they tend to be much thicker than the ones sold for icing.

MrsE_2

celyn90 wrote: »

When you fill the bag, get a large glass, put the icing bag into the glass and roll the edge of the icing bag over it so the nozzle is pointing towards the bottom of the glass and it's held open. .

I wish you had been in my kitchen when I was getting it everwhere:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::o:o:o

Thank you, will do it your way next time.

MrsE_2

zippychick wrote: »

Hi MrsE

the recipe does say you can also use a knife

No it was the first bit I was in a mess with, but I see it does say to use an ine-cream scoop.

Using a 5cm (2in)diameter ice cream scoop, drop 6 to 8scoops of the mixture on to each baking tray, spaced well apart to allow for room for spreading. Or using a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle pipe rounds of the whoopie mixture 5cm (2in) in diameter onto baking trays well spaced apart

BUT in the magazine (which I was following) it doesn't suggest anything else & tells you to pipe it.

**skinnyminny**

I had my little boys birthday last week and i used a disposable cake board that was cheap as chips frome tesco, i still have it now and it is my other sons birthday tomorrow and i am making his cake now and i was just wondering if anyone could let me know if it is ok to cover the board in normal kitchen foil and re-use it?

I am not sure if it needs to be a certain type of foil or if i should have bought another cake board? is it just for decoration purposes that people recommend buying proper cake foil, or is there a hygiene reason behind it?

I am not fussed about how it looks as the cakes quite big so you'd only see a little bit of it, but i do not want to make anyone ill , common sense is telling me it's perfectly fine to use it, i mean, you'd wrap cake up in it to pack in a lunch box, but google is full of confusing and puzzling things..................(note to self- do NOT google things!:rotfl:)

JayJay14

Cake boards are made of card covered with foil - probably very thin foil. I reuse them all the time (sometimes for years!!) You can recover f you wish but I never have - you don't get the smooth finish they start with.

Foil is foil and any you could buy in the supermarket, even value, is going to be thicker than is on the board and food quality.