Blog Category Archives: Announcements

Maple Syrup Season 2016

Maple Syrup Season 2016

maple-syrup

 

The Bakepedia Test Kitchen is in New England and this time of year brings us thoughts of everything maple syrup related. Even though we had an unusually warm winter, maple syrup season 2016 is on tap (get the joke?) to be one of the best ever. Apparently once the taps were in the trees the weather was really optimal. Burr Morse, owner of Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier, VT explained that ideal weather conditions for sugaring hover around daytime temperature in the 40s and nighttime temperatures in the 20s. He also said that having more winds from the west and north help the maple flow since “the sap flow has to do with atmospheric pressure, and the pressure inside the trees has to be better than outside.” The weather has been just so. Another producer in Bennington VT, Keith Armstrong, in the southern area of the state has said that this year “was the second-best season we ever had.”

Now, we love pure maple syrup on pancakes as much as the next person, but we also like baking and cooking with it. Here is our take on a gluten-free Browned Butter Maple Nut Bar. It is soft and a bit cake, with pure maple flavor and crunch from the nuts.

To learn more about Vermont maple syrup production, check out vermontmaple.org.

The 50th Annual Vermont Maple Festival will be held April 22-24 in downtown St. Albans. For more information, please visit vtmaplefestival.org.

 

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Celebrate National Pie Day January 23rd and Win Big with Emile Henry!

Emile Henry Contest Celebrates National Pie Day

 

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Get your rolling pin and camera ready! Now through January 28th, 2016 Emile Henry, the makers of that gorgeous pie dish in the image and a favorite of bakers all over the world, is holding a contest for the prettiest pie!

The winner of the contest will receive $250 Gift Card for Emile Henry product and Five Essential Pie Baking Tools: an Emile Henry Modern Classics Pie Dish, a Lékué Baking Mat, a Rösle Egg Whisk, a Rösle Kitchen Spoon and a Duralex Large Glass Bowl.

Entry information HERE.

Not bad for a day baking and enjoying using quality products like an Emile Henry pie plate and snapping some pics. We cannot wait to see what pretty pies come out of your kitchen!

If you don’t have an Emile Henry pie plate – you need one! Or two…

 

emile henry

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Martha Stewart Living Turns 25

Martha Stewart Living is 25

DecemberJanuary Cover

 

I remember the first issue of Martha Stewart Living, being a fan from way before. It was a cake, a wedding cake to be exact, from Martha’s book Entertainingthat got me hooked. How fitting that she herself is festooned with icing for the cover of the 25th Anniversary Special Edition of Martha Stewart Living. And the timing for us is nostalgic. I don’t think there has been a winter holiday in the last 25 years where we didn’t look to Martha for inspiration.

Take a look at the hind the scenes video making of the cover.

 

 

And here is the cover in all its sugary, winterland glory. The issue is on sale at newsstands or through Amazonnow.

 

DecemberJanuary Cover

 

 

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Make Coffee Shop Cakes with Dédé at CRAFTSY

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Dédé Launches First CRAFTSY Video Class

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Ta Da! If you have seen our mentions on social media and here on Bakepedia, you know that this class has been in the works. I am thrilled to bring you my first Craftsy class – Coffee Shop Cakes: Good to The Last Crumb. Check out the trailer. I am telling you, the Coconut Filled Chocolate Bundt cake is to die for!

 

And, I am offering a $20 discount available if you follow this hotlink for my class, Coffee Shop Cakes: Good to The Last Crumb until Friday June 26th midnight EST.

I cover all the classics, and then some! Pound cake, marble loaf, mini lemon poppy seed loaves, streusel ring cake, a decadent Coconut Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake, a rich and decorative Almond Tea Cake, a Blueberry Bundt to name just some.

Chocolate Bundt

As with all CRAFTSY classes, the video is very detail oriented. Learn how to get that glaze on the cake so that it is shiny and gorgeous.

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And see my frozen butter trick…forget to take your butter out so that it is at room temp? Don’t worry! I am here to help (hint: it involves a box grater).

I look forward to meeting you in class. The CRAFTSY platform allows you to interact with the instructors and once you buy the class, it is yours for life to re-visit again and again. You can interact with me as well as fellow students and I can’t wait to see your versions of Coffee Shop Cakes: Good to The Last Crumb.

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CONTEST! Create with Colorful Candy Crumble!

Get Creative with All New Candy Crumble from SweetWorks

candy crumble

Are you familiar with Celebration by SweetWorks candies and decorations? If not, then it is high time you got to know them! Their newest product is Candy Crumble which are vanilla flavored crushed hard candy that complement so many baked goods. Make dazzling decorations, line the edges of drinking glasses for fancy cocktails and mocktails, top cupcakes and cookies, all the while color coordinating with your party themes and flavors. Sky is the limit!

As you can see in the picture they come in Lime Green & White, Lavender & WhitePowder Blue & White and Bright Pink & White They are GF and Kosher and I don’t know about you but the possibilities make my head spin!

 

CONTEST RULES:

We want to see what YOU make with your Candy Crumble. Simple Upload Your Recipe with Image Using Candy Crumble up until midnight April 30th EST. Be as creative as you want, just make sure the entry is either a dessert, baked good or sweet beverage (either alcoholic or mocktail) and that it features one or mores of the colors of Candy Crumble. You must include both an original recipe and image. The prize is all the products shown in the image below as well as a FEATURE article on you (and your blog, if applicable) on Bakepedia where we will pick your brain about how you came up with the winning entry! Winner picked at random from entrants. All appropriate recipes will be posted.

candy crumble prize

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“A Fine Dessert” Celebrates Women & the History of Desserts

Celebrate Women’s History Month

A FINE DESSERT Cover

March is National Women’s History Month and it is a perfect time to celebrate all the amazing recipes and baked goods that women have handed down and preserved through the centuries.

In A Fine Dessert, author Emily Jenkins takes us through four centuries following four different families and we watch how they make a special dessert and pass down the same recipe to the next generation. This was a task so often relegated to women and thankfully recipes have been taught, absorbed and passed on again and again so that legacies continue as so beautifully depicted in this book.

A perfect gift for very young children – an enjoyable for the adults reading aloud – A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treatis a joy and comes alive with illustrations by Sophie Blackall.

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Allrecipes.com Launches Video Cooking School

Learn from Allrecipes with New Video Classes

AR Cooking School_2

Allrecipes.com has launched a video based Cooking School and we were lucky enough to get a peek at their Baking Basics video, which includes lessons for both pie crust and quick breads. We sat down to a chat with Sonja Groset who was the project lead for the cooking school. Don’t miss the discount offer at the end of the article.

 

Dédé Wilson: Sonja, thank you so much for speaking with me about this new Allrecipes feature. I suppose the last big, new launch was the print magazine…was this the logical next step?

Sonja Groset: Yes, exactly. Allrecipes is 17 years old and over these many years of feedback from our over 11 million home cooks we have heard what they want. Many of them can follow a recipe and get dinner on the table but they lack basic cooking skills…we see this across the board but with younger people, they want to eat at home and eat healthier and they don’t know where to start. They want knife skills for instance. There are things we take for granted like roasting a chicken or making a great spaghetti sauce and they want to learn!

 

Your user base is so broad; whom are the lessons geared towards?

What we have found through surveys is that it is across generations…there are people of all ages who lack the fundamentals. There are the younger generations as I mentioned, there are empty-nesters who now have time to refine their baking skills or families with kids who find that they use an abundance of convenience products and now they want to make pie crust from scratch…and then there are people who just want to advance their cooking or baking skills.

 

So it is mostly geared towards basic skills?

We launched with 13 fundamental courses…we do have plans to add advanced skills and specific cuisines down the line…but you know the basics are needed. Our intent is to help them build knowledge and then have the confidence to move forward. Once you master the basics then you have the confidence to try other dishes. These initial classes are ones that you can build upon.

 

How did you decide on the production values…the look and flow?

We have thousands of videos on Allrecipes.com and people can really find anything that they want. With the Cooking School we wanted to offer a more curated experience. Just like a cookbook where you can dive into a recipe and return to it, log back in, whether it is from your desktop or your tablet in the kitchen, and refer back.

We used Pathwright out of South Carolina for the production. They are experts at on-line learning…they are great at helping people down the path to learning…watching a 3-minute video is great but how do you reinforce what you have just seen? With our Cooking School we have a quiz element that reinforces what you just learned. It isn’t hard, it just helps solidify the information for you. It’s not like homework; it is built in as part of the process…then there are snippets of the videos broken down into several steps so that you can take your tablet into the kitchen and work on parts of the recipe at a time. The videos are designed to teach, not just demonstrate. In our short videos we sometimes assume you know how to chop an onion, but for some home cooks this can be a barrier…then they ask, why didn’t the recipe turn out? We have people write us and tell us that while they cook on a daily basis that they didn’t know how to make sunny side-up eggs!

We even have a video on how to read a recipe.

 

Really? That’s great…we are constantly telling beginner bakers on Bakepedia that reading the recipe through and thoroughly is key…

It’s in the Ready, Set, Cook course, which also has knife skills and lessons on measuring accurately, food safety, what mise en place is…

 

What’s coming down the line that addresses baking and desserts?

We are really hoping that the people currently enrolled will help us decide and tell us what they would like to see. Personally I think yeasted bread would be great…artisan pizza…people need a lot more guidance with baking…it’s a barrier for people…it would be nice to get into gluten-free baking as well. Cooking can be so straightforward but baking is more particular and when you get into gluten-free and all the specialty flours it is even more complex. But yes, those are on the wish list.

 

What has the feedback been?

Very positive. Some are experienced cooks and they write to tell us that they never thought of adding water to eggs and now their scrambled eggs are lighter and fluffier than ever.

 

Are most of the currently enrolled students from the community already?

A little of both…we find people who want to cook more and with more confidence. You know for so many cooking is a daily chore – they have to feed their family – and when you aren’t comfortable in the kitchen it can feel hard. We want to help people have more enjoyment in the kitchen and that happens with knowledge and confidence. We don’t want cooking to be the big challenge in your day…and we have a big social feature to the classes. You can chat with others, see what they are making…it makes it a connected, interactive experience.

 

Sonja, thank you so much for introducing the new Allrecipes Cooking School to us.

Allrecipes has been gracious enough to offer all of you a 20% discount if you sign up before through 2/28. Once you have purchased the course, you have access to it forever! Select Buy the Complete Fundamentals Package” and use Promo Code BAKEPED20

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Pumpkin Recipe Contest Winners Announced!

Thank You to All Our Participants!

And the winner is

The votes are in and our winners have been chosen.

Congratulations to Dominique Fasano with her Paleo Pumpkin Streusel Muffins who takes home our Grand Prize.

2nd place to Shauna Havey with her  Spiced Pumpkin Soufflé

Nicolette Matt will receive our 3rd prize for her Maple Mushroom Pumpkin Rounds.

 

We are thrilled with all of the participation and will be running some more promotions after the new year, so stay tuned.

 

Thank you to our sponsors. Be sure to check out and use their products. They are all used here in the Test Kitchen!

 

THE GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 2 Quart Oval Casserole (perfect for cobblers, crisps, bread puddings and gratins); Oliver Farm Pecan Oil and Pumpkin Oil and a package from Lane Southern Orchards including Georgia fresh pecans, pumpkin butter, spiced pumpkin syrup, pumpkin bread mix and pecan cinnamon bread; and a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Baking Chez Moi and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Baking Bible, both courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries to enliven your holiday baking.THE SECOND PRIZE

winner will receive a book package from Harvard Common Press:The Flying Brownie, Dédé’s books Cake Balls, The Red Velvet Lover’s Cookbook andDesserts in Jars and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries.THE THIRD PRIZE winner will receive: LorAnn Bakery Emulsions in Pumpkin Spice, Red Velvet and Peppermint and Dédé’s book A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookiesand a selection of infused Nudo olive oils: garlic, lemon, rosemary and coffee.

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Vote for Your Favorite Pumpkin Recipe!

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Our three winners have been chosen; read about the bakers and their recipes and then it is time to vote!

Finalist Dominique Fasano and her Paleo Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Finalist Nicolette Matt and her Maple Mushroom Pumpkin Rounds

Finalist Shauna Havey and her Spiced Pumpkin Soufflé

VOTING RULES:

1. You must be registered and logged in.

2. Vote only once.

3. Votes take the form of comments beneath the recipe you want to vote for. Your comment is your vote (one comment = 1 vote). DO NOT VOTE BELOW THIS POST. Go to the recipe you want to vote for and vote there, please.

4. We encourage you to use the Star Ratings feature as well

5. Voting opens immediately and goes through 11:59 pm EST on Sunday 12/14/14

 

THANK YOU to our Sponsors.

THE GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 2 Quart Oval Casserole (perfect for cobblers, crisps, bread puddings and gratins); Oliver Farm Pecan Oil and Pumpkin Oil and a package from Lane Southern Orchards including Georgia fresh pecans, pumpkin butter, spiced pumpkin syrup, pumpkin bread mix and pecan cinnamon bread; and a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Baking Chez Moi and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Baking Bible, both courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries to enliven your holiday baking.

THE SECOND PRIZE winner will receive a book package from Harvard Common Press: The Flying Brownie, Dédé’s books Cake Balls, The Red Velvet Lover’s Cookbook and Desserts in Jars and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries.

THE THIRD PRIZE winner will receive: LorAnn Bakery Emulsions in Pumpkin Spice, Red Velvet and Peppermint and Dédé’s book A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies and a selection of infused Nudo olive oils: garlic, lemon, rosemary and coffee.

 

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Our Pumpkin Contest Winners!

We Have Chosen Our Winners

pumpkins

Our three winners who will enter the final round of judging have been chosen and alerted. We received dozens of recipes for everything from ice creams and soufflés, muffins, savory baked dishes, cookies, cheesecakes – even a baklava and a liqueur – all pumpkin of course! There were GF and paleo options, desserts for 2, baked appetizers…the creativity was astounding.

Thank you to all who entered. I have emailed each and every one of you but want to publicly thank you here. Our intent is for Bakepedia to be a leading resource for baking and desserts and we also want it to be lead and formed by YOU – our community members. Please continue to use the Add Your Recipe feature. When we aren’t running a contest, those recipes are put up live on the site rather quickly – and we cannot wait to see what you have for us. Here at Bakepedia your recipes are side by side with our Test Kitchen recipes as well as those of Rose Levy Beranbaum, Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Molly Katzen, Alice Medrich and so many others. We all share a joy of baking and want to create a deep and resourceful site for others.

Thank you to our sponsors:

THE GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron 2 Quart Oval Casserole (perfect for cobblers, crisps, bread puddings and gratins); Oliver Farm Pecan Oil and Pumpkin Oil and a package from Lane Southern Orchards including Georgia fresh pecans, pumpkin butter, spiced pumpkin syrup, pumpkin bread mix and pecan cinnamon bread; and a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Baking Chez Moi and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Baking Bible, both courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries to enliven your holiday baking.

THE SECOND PRIZE winner will receive a book package from Harvard Common Press: The Flying Brownie, Dédé’s books Cake Balls, The Red Velvet Lover’s Cookbook and Desserts in Jars and $25 worth of Driscoll’s coupons for berries.

THE THIRD PRIZE winner will receive: LorAnn Bakery Emulsions in Pumpkin Spice, Red Velvet and Peppermint and Dédé’s book A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies and a selection of infused Nudo olive oils: garlic, lemon, rosemary and coffee.

Come back on Monday to see the voting rules and help your baking brethren out!

 

 

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THANK YOU BAKEPEDIA COMMUNITY!

Who Will Win Our Contest?

canned-pumpkin

The deadline for our Pumpkin recipe contest has passed and now we are going through the dozens of entries – and boy do we have our work cut out for us. There are cheesecakes and muffins, cookies and appetizers (baked of course), paleo recipes, GF, breads, even a liqueur!

We will be choosing three recipes to post very soon and will be contacting the recipe authors for interviews. Then it is time to vote! All three will win prizes but the Grand Prize Winner will have the most ratings and comments on their recipe. We want this to be a community pick! The voting will be open for one week, at which point we crown our winners.

Thank you to everyone who participated – and of course our sponsors: Lodge Cast Iron, Driscoll’s, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Harvard Common Press, LorAnn Oils, Oliver Farm and Lane Southern Orchards.

Look for the winners soon.

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Bakepedia Debuts on The Better Show!

Bakepedia Launches a Weekly Baking Segment

JD and Dede at better

It’s official! Today debuts our weekly Bakepedia baking and dessert segment on The Better Show, a nationally syndicated, Nielsen rated lifestyle program produced by Meredith Corp. We tape at the Meredith studios in NYC and every week we will be bringing you a televised segment as well as two web-exclusive Tips at better.tv. Look for recipes and associated content here at Bakepedia every Monday.

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Above JD Roberto and I are getting ready for a Do-Ahead Thanksgiving Desserts segment. (It features one of my favorite do-ahead crust Tips). He and Kristina Behr co-host the show and you will be able to see us playing and learning in the kitchen every week.

I would love to hear your ideas for segments. Write dede@bakepedia.com and let us know what you would like to see come to life.

We couldn’t be happier with our Meredith association. This month Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia also entered into an agreement with Meredith who acquired the rights to Martha Stewart Living and marthastewart.com in a 10-year licensing agreement. Allrecipes is part of the Meredith family as are Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle and Every Day with Rachel Ray and Eating Well. All we can say is that MEREDITH KNOWS FOOD!

 

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Baking & Dessert Contests: How to Win!

How to Win a Baking Contest

winning coconut pudding

I judged a pudding contest yesterday. I am still full – but such is the plight of the judge. What I wanted to do here was write about how you, as a contestant, can have a better chance at winning. Of course many contests are for fun and/or charity, but who doesn’t like the bragging rights? There are some simple things to follow that all judges appreciate.

Make it Look Good – Different contests have different rules. Some say evaluate on taste only; most say taste is paramount but consider creativity and presentation. Even if the rules say judge on taste only, we see your dessert before we eat it and even on a subliminal level it can affect how we feel about it. Fancy dishware can add, but I am most interested in the actual food looking good, even if it is in something disposable. (Of course if your contest has a focus on presentation, follow the rules!)

flan

Make the Presentation Clear – If your dish goes with a sauce or whipped cream, have the extra presented in such a way that we can’t make a mistake. Have clear labels. We want to taste your dish the way you intended it. Yesterday there was one dish where the pudding was in a soufflé dish set in a basket. Also in the basket was a small pitcher of sauce. It was obvious that they went together and made for not only a pleasing presentation, but it also helped the judges taste the dessert as intended.

frost on the pumpkin

Temperature Counts – If it is meant to be cold, make sure we get it cold. If it is meant to be warm, it better be. Also, if it is meant to be room temperature, don’t make it the day before, refrigerate it and bring it to us expecting that it will be at its best. Yesterday I had one pudding in particular that was obviously made that morning and brought to the judges table without stopping by way of the fridge and I not only appreciated the better texture, but also the effort that went into it. It made a huge difference.

Creativity Can Backfire – Read the rules. Stay within them. Pushing the edges of the boundaries are fine but judges want something that tastes great! A simple double-crust apple pie can win a pie contest. A stellar, creamy stove-top chocolate pudding could sweep the others at a pudding contest. It’s a funny a balance but you have to find it. Creativity is great if you can execute it. Otherwise, make a classic and make it perfect.

corn pudding

Taste Your Dish! – When we cook and bake one needs to taste, taste, taste as we go along. Of course there are variations in palates but every now and then I taste something that seems so unbalanced that I wonder if the creators tasted it themselves? Now before you think I am being judgey let me tell you that I once went to a book signing and presented chocolate shortbread cookies from the book I was selling and no one was eating them, which was odd. I finally tasted a piece near the end of the signing and realized that I had used salt instead of sugar – I kid you not! I had made them so many times that I hadn’t tasted this batch as I went along. Lesson learned.

Ask Questions – After – Some contests reveal judge’s comments post judging, others don’t. If you want to improve, go ask the judges! I love to talk about what I just ate and would love to answer any questions you might have. Curiosity is a great trait in a baker; ask away! I also love to hear about your creative process. This is all about baking and dessert making and…

pearl barley portobello pudding

Have Fun! – Yes it is a contest, but this is all about sugar and flour, butter, chocolate and eggs and creativity! Nothing is more fun than that. Thank you to all of you who enter contests and make the world a sweeter place.

The images are all from yesterday’s Pudding Hollow contest, which you can read more about. It all began in the 1700s in a little town called Hawley, Massachusetts…Thank you to Tinky Weisblat and all of the volunteers. This was a perfect slice (or scoop) of Americana and it was a pleasure to be involved. The winner was the Luscious Coconut Cream Custard Pudding in the top image. There was a caramelized, crunchy, candied coconut topping, a rich, smooth, creamy coconut filling and a bit of a caramelized sauce way deep down at the bottom. Also pictured a highly ranked corn pudding in a basket – warm and so delectably rich; a very creative pearl barley, portabella mushroom pudding, a Mexican flan (loved the shape), and the most creatively named dish, Frost on the Pumpkin, a pumpkin based pudding served in a pumpkin ceramic bowl, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar “frost”. Kudos to all the contestants!

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How Dropping Something on the Floor Cemented My Friendship with Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s New Book, The Baking Bible, is Coming Soon

the cake bible

All the buzz is about Rose Levy Beranbaum‘s forthcoming book, The Baking Bible. We received our advanced copy, took it into the kitchen, baked and played with it and will be reporting all about it in late October. But for me, my relationship with Rose and her recipes began in 1989…

The The Cake Biblehad been published the year before. I had my first edition in hand, already stained and dog-eared. I was about to meet Rose in person and was quite excited.

I was living in the Northampton, MA area and was part of a volunteer group who were putting on a Books and Cooks event where we paired authors and their books with local restaurants and chefs for a night of eating and schmoozing as a fundraiser for the United Way. Julia Child was also one of our authors and her alma mater, Smith College, was excited about her visit. I had my sights on Rose.

After the event we had a swanky dinner for the guest authors and about 20 of us were seated around a huge table in a private dining room at our town’s most upscale restaurant. The night had been very busy and now was the time to corner Rose.

Cake bible dedication

I approached her and asked her to sign my book, which she did graciously. I then started to tell her about one of my experiences baking out of the book.

pine cone cake

At the time I was working at The Black Sheep Deli & Bakery in Amherst, MA. Nick Seamon, the owner, was very generous with my time and allowed me to experiment with whatever caught my fancy. One look at the Chocolate Pine Cone cake in Rose’s book and I knew I had to tackle it. Yes, I said tackle, because it just looked like one of those “project cakes” that one gets immense satisfaction from completing and I was up for the challenge. The exterior of the cake is time consuming and frankly a pain in the butt. Rose called for dipping a small offset spatula into tempered chocolate and making neat, oval dabs on clean parchment, chilling, and then using these oval petals (as she calls them) to create the texture and look of the pine cone. You can see the well worn and even torn page in my book copy, above.

I explained to Rose that I had spent many hours on the components and the finished cake was gorgeous. We put it in the cake case and it sold for some crazy amount of money because we had to cover my time. I didn’t think it would sell due to the cost! Well, apparently it made quite a visual splash in the display case; several people had seen it and ordered it for the holidays. The front-end workers didn’t realize this was supposed to be a one-time deal and had taken the orders! All of a sudden I had to create an assembly line to make several.

We had a large commissary kitchen at the time and I worked alongside some fabulous bakers who helped strategize. Eureka struck. We dumped a bunch of large chocolate drops out on a parchment lined sheet pan and placed them all upright and spaced apart. Then we placed the pan in the oven for a minute or two until the chocolate just softened. Upon removing the tray from the oven we dropped it flat on the ground from a height of about 4 feet and voila! All the chocolate drops spread into perfect ovals, ready to be chilled and used to create the pine cone!

So here I was recounting this to Rose. Her eyes grew wide.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “You made that cake several times?”

“Yes,” I responded.

“I’ve only made that cake once! My editor had wanted me to come up with a real showpiece so I created it for the photo shoot. I didn’t know if anyone would actually make it,” she exclaimed!

“Well, I think we ended up making it half a dozen times, “ I laughed.

Rose pulled out a small pad and started taking notes.

“Tell me again what you did. Exactly. This is brilliant,” she asked as she scribbled down details.

That was it. It sealed the deal. A friendship was formed that night that has continued to this day. We don’t speak or see one another often but when we do every few months or so it is as though no time has passed. We have our own approaches and niches but there is a huge base of shared perspective. And our taste buds are very much in sync. We always have something to chat about – usually some nerdy baking nuance – and the conversations always dissolve into laughter. If you only know Rose through her work you probably envision a very serious person – and she is, when she needs to be. But Rose also has a wicked sense of humor and joie de vivre that I cherish. Her new book, The Baking Bible, is about to be released and is available on pre-order. Order it now. This is destined to be as beloved (and butter stained) as The Cake Bible. Check back on October 2nd, 15th, 27th and November 11th for more articles about Rose and The Baking Bible.

Baking Bible Jacket

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Bakepedia Celebrates Our One-Year Anniversary

Bakepedia Turns 1

Rainbow candles

Time flies when you are having fun and keeping busy! Bakepedia formally launched on August 15th 2013 and here we are a year later having surpassed our initial goals of building community. Great things are ahead: very soon there will be an Add Your Recipe button on the Home Page – we cannot wait to see what recipes you have in store for us – and we will be adding Star Ratings. A small group of dedicated team members have brought us to this point and I wanted to introduce you to our current Bakepedia Team.

 

Dede Dédé WilsonBakepedia is led by Dédé Wilson, who developed the concept and writes much of the original content. She envisions Bakepedia as eventually being the biggest, most comprehensive baking site on the web with community participation led by a crackerjack editorial team. She sees Bakepedia as being of and for our community members and would love to hear from you dede@bakepedia.com. Dédé is grateful to her team for believing in our potential and thrilled with every single community member who has signed up. She promises there are exciting things ahead.

 

amy Amy Devore Foster – Amy and Dédé worked together at Bon Appetit where Amy was Executive Director for Brand & Business Development. At Bakepedia Amy is part of our marketing team functioning as a brand strategist and leading the way with partners and sponsors.

 

Ted Ted Nelson – Ted originally came from advertising, eventually landing in PR and marketing and was an early observer of online communities. He is part of our marketing team focusing on brand articulation, general business development and analyzing user behavior.

 

AprilApril Francis – The third key person in our marketing team, April is not only handling day-to-day SEO, social media and marketing directives but she is also a WordPress rock star where she is currently working on some new design aspects. She also has e-commerce experience, which we hope to put to good use in the future. April helps oversee our interns and can be reached at April@bakepedia.com

 

lauren Lauren Chattman – Lauren is one of our editorial team and specializes in Recipes and Tips that are super user-friendly. She knows the home baker and makes sure that you can make her recipes easily without worry or fuss. She has authored 14 books (and counting) including an IACP Award Winner, rocked out QVC with her titles and has been a spokesperson for many major brands including JIF and Pillsbury. Write her at Lauren@bakepedia.com

 

Sarah Tenaglia 2 Sarah Tenaglia – Sarah recently joined us on the editorial team, creating original Recipes and Tips. She and Dédé had worked together at Bon Appetit magazine where Sarah was head of the legendary Test Kitchen and functioned as Senior Food Editor. She is a cookbook author and began her illustrious career years ago at Chez Panisse as a pastry chef.

 

Murray Murray Cohn – Murray makes sure everything runs smoothly on our WordPress site. He oversees our technology and is currently working with April on new design aspects that are coming soon such as Star Ratings, an Add Your Recipe button and more.

 

greenberg1-3 Cory Greenberg – Cory lives on Dédé’s street so he gets to visit the Test Kitchen regularly. Cory is our general business development partner working with Dédé and our marketing team on business strategy, development and execution.

 

stephen Stephen Brand – Stephen met Dédé the very day she introduced the Bakepedia concept publically to a mentorship group back in 2012 and has been a champion ever since. Stephen teaches entrepreneurship and is passionate about fostering creativity and innovation in the workplace. He has worked with many different groups from the US Olympic Committee to WGBH to Jim Henson. We’re not sure which experience prepared him best for Bakepedia.

 

Paige-Triplett Paige Triplett – Paige is our senior intern, having been with us for many months. She has performed behind-the-scenes duties such as analysis of fellow sites and blogs but recently she has been single-handedly creating our Newsletter so you get to see her handiwork every week.

 

peter muka Peter Muka – Peter gets to come to the Test Kitchen regularly but we make him take pictures before he gets to eat. You will see Peter’s name on many of our posts as our team photographer. He walks in every time with a smile, easy demeanor and on special days he surprises us with props, bringing huge tabletops and backdrops and even tiny antique utensils to the shoots. Somehow he has managed to get the work done with Dédé’s two bull terriers hugging his feet.

Alexa CostiAlexa Costi – Alexa came to us via our friends at Harvard Common Press where she had been a kick-ass intern, so we lured her over hereJ Alexa is our Round-Up queen and works with Dédé on popular content topics. You get to hear her voice in her Round-Ups, adding another flavor to our articles.

 

BessWalsh Bess Walsh – Bess is a recent CIA (Culinary Institute of America) grad with a BA degree in Hospitality and Business Management but she is a huge baking enthusiast! She believes there is nothing more rewarding than taking the time to measure all ingredients precisely (Dédé loves her just for this alone). Bess is also interested in food writing and illustration. Bess will be overseeing Pinterest and we hope to get her writing and drawing soon.

 

Cray Novick Cray Novich – Cray is our Hampshire College video intern. We had just started producing videos together in the spring and we hope to pick up again when he returns in a few weeks. Our marketing team is assessing how video will play a part in our future, so look for changes.

 

sofia Sofia Maroulis – Sofia is entering the 8th grade and has been helping us all summer with recipe testing and photo shoots. She has gorgeous hands and nails and we keep trying to use her as a hand model! Her favorite thing to do is learning how to make things that she has never made before. Just yesterday at a shoot she learned to make crêpes and a caramel frosting and how to formally taste chocolate.

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Nestlé Toll House Introduces DelightFulls Filled Baking Morsels

Get Baking with Nestlé Toll House

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2014 is the 75th anniversary of the classic semisweet chocolate morsel and Nestlé is celebrating in style with a new line of products. These slightly larger sized morsels come in four flavors: Milk Chocolate Morsels with Peanut Butter Filling DelightFulls, Milk Chocolate Morsels with Caramel Filling DelightFulls, Dark Chocolate Morsels with Mint Filling DelightFulls and Dark Chocolate Morsels with Cherry Flavored Filling DelightFulls.

cherry delightfulls

Dédé got a sneak peek in the Nestlé kitchens and was surrounded by delicious baked goods featuring the new morsels.

dede at Nestle

Each morsel looks like a traditional chocolate morsel from the outside, but then inside is the flavorful center, clearly delineated when you bite into one. They will be available mid-August nationwide and the 9-ounce package will retail for $3.49. Imagine the cookies and other baked goods you can come up with in your kitchen!

Bacon delightfulls

Dédé got to put them to use with a team of journalists and chef Amanda Rockman of Nico Osteria of Chicago. We came up with a take on the classic clafouti, but instead of fruit we used the Milk Chocolate Morsels with Caramel Filling DelightFulls. The clafouti had the morsels baked within the batter and then we topped each individual portion with a smidge of dulce de leche, honey vanilla bean whipped cream, and crowned it with chopped Marcona almonds spiced with cinnamon and ginger. ClafoutiNestles

It was so freakin’ good! And we made it in less than 10 minutes! Maybe I will re-create the recipe for Bakepedia

clafouti closeup

 

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Sarah Tenaglia Joins Bakepedia

 Sarah Tenaglia Has a Way with Chocolate!

Sarah Tenaglia 2

If Sarah’s name sounds familiar perhaps it is because you read about her in our interview a few months ago, or maybe you know her from the masthead of Bon Appetit magazine. Sarah was head of the legendary Test Kitchen there for many, many years. The reason why Bon Appetit recipes have such a great reputation is due to her amazing attention to detail. We are thrilled that Sarah has joined our Bakepedia team. She will be bringing you recipes, tips and tricks a few times a month so make sure to check out her posts. Today we present her colorful and seasonal Red, White and Blueberry Chocolate Bark. This might just be the easiest, tastiest and prettiest 4th of July dessert ever. Enjoy!

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What’s Hot! What’s New! Report from the Summer Fancy Food Show in NYC

Dédé Eats Her Way Through the Summer Fancy Food Show

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The Summer Fancy Food Show is the premier specialty food trade show in the country. Every year about 2,400 vendors from 80 countries present over 180,000 products and they converge with thousands of attendees at the Jacob Javitts Center in NYC and basically eat and drink all day and talk about eating and drinking all day. Sounds great, right? And it is, in terms of learning about all the newest and best food items, but let me tell you my feet and stomach are having a recovery day today.

Every year some food trends come to light and I will do my best to focus on the sweet side of things, but will also pepper my blog entry with some general info as well. Here is the general overview of flavors and items that will be rocking shelves near you this coming year:

  • Coconut everything: flour, sugar, oils, butter, chips, etc. – even chips with savory flavor profiles
  • Lychee as a flavor
  • Matcha
  • Toffee
  • The sweet and salty trend continues
  • S’mores as a flavor incorporated into other desserts as well as s’mores kits
  • Frozen desserts: ice cream, gelato, sorbet, pops
  • Granola is hot again!
  • GMO-free food labels
  • Popcorn sold as prepared, as kernels and incorporated into foods
  • Smoked salt and smoked items in general
  • Flavored salts, sweet and savory
  • Pickled and fermented things in general from sauerkraut to kombucha
  • Small batch, artisanal beverages, alcoholic, non-alcoholic and mixers
  • Snacks in general but many with a healthy focus
  • Also many crackers
  • Seaweed was everywhere!
  • Use of chili peppers, especially Hatch and Ghost, sometimes combined with chocolate

I’ve included some specific highlights below. Not all of them are available now, but will be soon:

  • Smoked Chocolate Chips from Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery: I was most excited about tasting these! They are, well, very smoky! No subtlety here. “The process for creating this distinctive product begins with organic semi-sweet chocolate chips that are cold-smoked over alder wood for more than 10 hours, with the chips moved every 30 minutes or so to ensure even smoke. The result is a unique and inviting flavor that uplifts ordinary chocolate chip cookies.” These will be fun to play with. (See image above).

whisk_sugar-M

  • Jansal Valley Flavored Sugars: Almond and Vanilla; Key Lime; Lemon; Strawberry; Raspberry, and Whiskey Smoked. Produced by Sid Wainer. The applications for these are endless. Sprinkle on top of cookies, rim glasses, and incorporate into batters to name a few.

Confection_OliveSniclairChocolate_BourbonNibBrittle

  • We love cacao nibs around here and Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company has made a Bourbon Nib Brittle that “was a happy accident that occurred when friends and neighbors of Olive and Sinclair’s owners offered the use of their spent bourbon barrels. They filled the barrels with a high-fat-content cocoa, which blended with the barrels’ subtle notes of apple, cherry, and oak, and combined it with caramelized cane sugar and butter for a delicious brittle with a classic Southern bourbon finish.” This, my friends, is an addictive munchie.

Confection_MauiFruitJewels_HannaCollectionPatesDeFruits

  • Maui Fruit Jewels presents pates de fruits with the flavors of Hawaii. These jelly candies, a classic French confection, have made the transition beautifully, featuring flavors like coconut, guava, lilikoi passion fruit, mango, papaya, and pineapple. They contain no artificial fruit flavorings or colorings and are natural, vegan, and wheat free. A delightful, slightly chewy texture, packed with fruit flavor, we love seeing little brands make a splash – they were nominated for an award!

Chuao

  • Seven years ago Chuao Chocolatier premiered their Firecracker chocolate bar that contains Pop Rocks candies. This year we tasted their Pop Corn Pop Bar. We visited with their chef, Michael Antonorsi who advised us to take a bit of this chocolate and then let it melt in our mouths. Indeed, just as described, there was a popping sensation in our mouths that never ceases to entertain. The company describes the bar as “A nod to our favorite movie theater treat, we’ve mixed puffed whole grains, toasted corn chips, popping candy and a sprinkle of sea salt in creamy milk chocolate. Take a bite, close your eyes, and experience ‘popcorn’ popping in your mouth! Surround sound not included.” Their new flavors include the Oh My S’mores! Bar with honey graham crackers, mini marshmallows and milk chocolate.

BG_AtalantaCorp_PivettiSkuraNeraBlackPizzaFlour

  • Pivetta Skura Nera Black Pizza Flour from Atalanta Corporation: this flour intrigued me from the get-go. I was not able to taste anything made from it, but I am looking forward to working with it. Have any of you tried it? Dying to know more. Apparently it “originated in the 18th century when peasants of southern Italy’s Puglia region would collect the ‘burnt’ grains that remained after the harvest was complete and the soil charred. These grains were combined with semolina to make grano arso or ‘ash flour.’ Pivetta Skura Nera Black Pizza Flour replicates this famed flour by slow-roasting the wheat to impart a similar mouthwatering, smoky flavor and grey-black hue.” It has a smoky color and a toasted flavor. I asked if it absorbs water differently due to the toasting and they said no.

zombie cookies

  • And last but not least, zombies have invaded the sweet kitchen. Check out this Zombie Dance Party Cookie Kit from Brand Castle. Why are they dancing? I guess to make them palatable to the kids; and they just look cool. Look at the cookie cutter shapes! Love them. They also have an Ugly Sweater Cookie Kit, a Cotton Candy Cupcake Kit, Gingerbread Ninja Cookie Kit and Crayola Happy Hanukkah Cookie Kit. I love their humor; their products make me smile.

 

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