I made a lovely vanilla cake, a day or two ago. I added vanilla essence from Blanches , and orange essence from McCormick. It was hands down, the best I’ve ever made in my life. It was the perfect mix. I haven’t been able to get my hands on emulsions as yet. I had a relative use the orange essence for sponge cake and it was so artificial scented and tasting. Are emulsions more stronger scent and taste wise? What can be done to not make it taste artificial? Whats the difference between essences and emulsions? Please and Thank you!

Hey all! My brother's birthday is coming up and I'm making him a cake. I am also on a budget atm so can't afford buying my usual bakery cakes or from scratch cakes. I bought a box of chocolate cake mix and a thing of Betty Crocker whipped buttercream. Tips on how to make it taste better? I know the extra egg trick and replacing water with milk for the cake mix. Anything else I can do to vamp it up?

Also if anyone has tips for the frosting. I have butter and I think powdered sugar (not enough to make a whole batch of frosting enough for a cake) can I just add those to make it taste a bit better?

They aren't cute but they're good....

How do I get them more golden brown? This is my second time and they are actually more brown this time than last and the only difference was an egg wash. I also baked them a few extra minutes than the recipe suggested. (It says 13-15 but I did around 18-20 minutes)

Is browning only esthetic? How do I get a super cute bread stick?

Here's the recipe I've been following (only difference is roasted garlic in the dough rather than garlic powder)

https://www.thereciperebel.com/homemade-breadsticks/

Here is the box mix I will be using. I’m reading that freezing it makes it easier to frost, but I’m not sure if that is only for professionals. I am a beginner and I am making the buttercream icing at home. I definitely want to bake the cakes today so tomorrow all I have to do is decorate. What would you guys recommend doing? PS this is a three layer 10 inch round cake.

I've been experimenting with making two bags of Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix at once. Each bag is 17.5 oz, so I'm using 35 oz of dry cookie mix total per batch.

Today I portioned the dough out as individual cookies on a large 21" × 15" aluminum sheet pan, but as you can see in the picture, they spread into each other and basically became one giant sheet of cookie anyway. This batch baked for about 36 minutes at 350°F. Oven is true to temp so im thinking the long bake time was me either over cooking them or the amount of cookies, or both.

Since I don't really care whether they're shaped like individual cookies, I'm thinking it would be easier and more efficient to just spread the dough into a pan as one giant sheet cookie/cookie bar and cut it up afterward.

I'm considering two dark nonstick pans:

Cake pan: 12.7" × 8.9" × 2"

Lasagna pan: 15" × 10" × ~2"

For context, the aluminum sheet pan shown in my first picture is 21" × 15".

My plan would be to put the entire two-bag batch (2 × 17.5 oz = 35 oz of cookie mix) into one pan, spread it evenly, bake it as one large cookie, and cut it into pieces after it cools.

Which pan would be the better choice for this?

Would the 15" × 10" lasagna pan be better because the dough would be spread over a larger area and therefore be thinner and potentially bake faster/more evenly? Or would the 12.7" × 8.9" cake pan give me a better cookie-bar thickness?

I'm mainly looking for the easiest and most efficient way to bake a two-bag batch at once. I'll attach pictures of today's result, the current 21" × 15" sheet pan, the cookie mix, and the two pans I'm considering.

Thanks!

I’m planning on making some dome mousse cakes for a party this weekend. I’m basically copying the chocolate domes at Kneaders (reference photo of their domes above) but I’m doing my own spin by making pumpkin mousse on top of a spice cake. This is my first time doing a dome dessert so I’m not totally sure how to bake the cake rounds. My idea is to just pour the cake batter into a cookie sheet and then cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter to place underneath the mousse domes. I know they will be thinner cakes that way but I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or if I should bake the cake in a different deeper pan. I don’t have a sheet cake pan (I could maybe go out to buy one but would like to avoid new purchases if I can), just some 8 inch rounds and a glass casserole dish. And if I did do the cookie sheet, about how long should it be in the oven? I know being spread that thin it will bake faster.

So I saw this cookie in a bakeshop. What is it on the side of the cookie? Is it a butter/sugar mixture that leaks out of the cookie? How does one do that?

yesterday i baked some cannelés and poured caramel on them, it was just melted sugar without water or anything. It stayed crunchy in the fridge for the first 12 hours but now it's starting to become soft, why is this happening and how to i fix it?

I was making a chiffon cake, but I used a stevia/erythritol blend (specifically natvia) instead of sugar to whip up the egg whites. I know a lot of people say that you can’t sub the sugar in a chiffon cake, but I got it to whip up fine and the batter looked the same as when I make it with sugar. I don’t think I did anything wrong.

But when I took it out of the oven, the top was crispy, almost biscuit-like. And when I cut open into it there was this weird, moist layer. It was still delicious imo, but I’m wondering why this happened. In the tutorials I followed, their chiffon cakes looked normal.

When I make regular chiffon cakes even with sugar, there ends up being this moist film on top, but I just take it off. This one that I made with stevia, though, the film was crispy with a moist layer underneath and it was thicker so I just ate it.

Any idea why this happened? What do I change? Should I try a different sweetener instead?

The ingredients I used were 2 eggs, 45g of flour, 30g of sweetener, 20ml water and a pinch of salt. (I didn’t follow a specific recipe so I’m just going to write the directions I followed, sorry if that isn’t enough! I’ll try to be thorough and answer questions) I separated and whipped the egg whites on medium high speed, stopping 4 times in between to add some of the sweetener. Once it was at stiff peaks, I sifted the flour into the egg yolks, mixed it, added the water, mixed, then finally I gently folded the egg whites in 4 parts. I poured the batter into an 8” pan and baked it at 140°c with the fan on for I’d say ~45 minutes