Couldbecousin will answer all, without fear or favor.

[DirtDawg]

I just posted about cakes, but I want to ask about sex.

(just kidding. I am not McJagger.)

I am curious if you can make confections as well as cakes.

I am a baker. I make all kinds of really cool shit, but I can not seem to get the hang of creating confectionery goodies.

Any clues to share?

  I've never made candy at work, just baked goods, and those often involve mixes. 

Yeah, I get mixes to produce things from flour. Does not matter what, I get all the chemistry, done it for half my life, baking is a piece of cake, mostly, all the hard work, all the touchy feely stuff that sets one mix different from or than another.

WHAT makes one recipe work one way and a similar recipe (mostly the same but needs to be kneaded differently or left half not mixed and shit, or what ever - I get it as far as the chemistry changes things and I have done it ALL, but what THF is with space/time considerations in baking? It should only be either one or the other, but NOT both or all three, five, seven, eleven or thirteen, if you are counting! There are just too many ways to make it right, but there is NO ONE way to make it actually work !!  dude!!

I, well we - had successes and failures and fucking ATE every one regardless of success or failure-   biut why in fuck does it sometimes work another way when all else was done the same?
While I Love baking, it sucks  and I also HATE it!

The question remains unanswered.

I am with you. I do this as well.

Not sure If I ever want to work through this again, but I still have recipes that I want to try!!

["couldbecousin"]

  One of my frequent mistakes is over-mixing, which causes the batter to fill with air, thus causing the
   cake to rise too high and spill over the sides of the pan.  Another problem is getting the center of the cake
   fully cooked without burning the edges.  Making the very moist and heavy carrot cake at work, I tried
   baking it at 325 degrees for the first 20 minutes, then turning it down to about 300 degrees for the
   remaining 20 or so minutes.  That seemed to work.  It's trial and error. 

[DirtDawg]

Yep. I have been there.

Thanks, really. Carrot cakes are fun. So are pumpkin cakes.  Ever tried a sweet potato cake or a beet cake? Beet cakes are beautiful, even if they do not come out right.

Any one else TRY to do BAKING?

[Pyraxis]

I actually do a lot of baking. Come Christmastime, I'm responsible for producing all the sweet things. Cream candy, fudge, peanut butter balls, various squares and cookies, gingerbread, nanaimo bars, and most of it with gluten-free versions.

[DirtDawg]

I actually do a lot of baking. Come Christmastime, I'm responsible for producing all the sweet things. Cream candy, fudge, peanut butter balls, various squares and cookies, gingerbread, nanaimo bars, and most of it with gluten-free versions.

Sounds cool. You must be some kind of baking Super-hero or something.

I have only just begun to explore gluten-free baking - what a night mare, chemistry no longer works!

Actually we tried a diet that was supposedly gluten-free when the kids were about six and four. It made no difference. I am thinking that we were not so good in those days at recognizing sources of gluten.  in those days we still ate rice, which as you NOW know is LOADED with gluten. Not known as such ten years ago. We were and are all just learning.

Baking? I mainly just do what my grandmother (my own mom born in 1937 - had me at eighteen years of age, never learned shit about baking, ever, until she had made several hundred pies that failed. I taught her how to bake cakes after becoming a teen and listening to my Gramma.) tried to teach my mom as I was watching as a kid. Thing is, she got some that I did not get and later showed me what I had missed. 

Of course, I have had about forty years to let go of what my grandmother tried to teach, but the basics remain. Learning how it all works came much later.

BUT, Confections?  I am no where near being able to create these, except maybe for toffee and fudges.

To create a "brittle"  from scratch is my goal!

[Pyraxis]

Wheat gluten. I should have specified. 

Xanthan gum makes everything better. It's kind of nice having GF be a yuppie fad, because the store bread is now better than anything I had tried making myself back in the days before anyone knew wtf gluten was.

My grandmother taught me cake decorating when I was this high, that's probably where the love of baking started. She used to do a different one every birthday for both me and my brother, like a train or a doll with layered skirt or a castle with actual towers.

I haven't made a brittle. Wish I had so I could tell you something smart about it. 

The GF diet doesn't seem to affect mood or digestion, it's purely for the skin trouble and congestion. For me, that is. WolFish has celiac and gets severe digestive trouble and cognitive effects if he has a wheat gluten exposure.

...Don't know what I would do without rice. 

[odeon]

Can I post here too? My postcount needs some work.

I'm sure the Weeble will be OK with that. It may help her postcount too.

CBC needs posts to respond to people to respond to her posts.

Can I post here too? My postcount needs some work.

Oh, look at that postcount
Oh, look at that postcount
Oh, look at that postcount
I work out!

Odeon's sexy and he knows it.

[odeon]

  Ask me questions, people!  Post!  Post!  Post!   

Why should we?

[Semicolon]

  Ask me questions, people!  Post!  Post!  Post!   

Why should we?

['andersom']

I need cake inspiration.
BD coming up.

A girl turning 13 deserves a great cake.

Any ideas, CBC?

[odeon]

What should we ask you about?

[Queen Victoria]

What's your favorite Winter Olympic sport?

['andersom']

What's your favorite Winter Olympic sport?

And have you ever tried that sport yourself?

[Semicolon]

I need cake inspiration.
BD coming up.

A girl turning 13 deserves a great cake.

Any ideas, CBC?

['andersom']

Html will not be appealing to her.

She'd love a cat cake like that. Bit tricky to get that yarn right.

Cake with cats, she had that two years ago, chocolate flavoured. Tiger cake a year ago, chocolate and strawberry flavoured, I think. Wasn't the best cake of them all. Looked good though.

Will go through some recipes. The cake is the most important. Decoration takes time, but that is about it.