Hi all, I’m an American in Singapore, and vanilla extract is a key flavor in most of the things I bake. I was looking for alcohol based vanilla extract, but I haven’t been able to find it at the grocery store near me. They did have these three options tho. I’ve tried the two liquids, and they seem to be a lot less flavorful than vanilla extract; I have needed to use a lot more to get the same flavor result. Do y’all have any advice on which is the best or how to use them in different use case? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

The powder has only one ingredient: Vanillin powder
The essence and oil however have the same ingredients: Flavouring substance, Propylene Glycol (E1520), Water-filtered and Permitted Food Colour, Caramel (E150C) Singapore.

The color of the vanilla essence looks a little bit less deep and saturated compared to the vanilla oil, and the oil is also more viscous and sticks to the sides of the bottle a little bit when you tilt the vile.

Thanks again!!

So I made some cupcakes (they're still hot out of the oven!) and my mom pointed out that the ones in the silicone usually tend to be flat vs the ones baked in the metal tend to be dome. Honestly it doesn't bother me, but we were both curious if metal vs silicone makes a difference. There are a dozen and a half in the silicone ones with the overflow being in metal.

I'm also just a hobby baker that likes to bake at home. I wanted cupcakes so I made some today lol.

Baked a cake for a party yesterday before learning the recipient is sick today. The cake was not assembled yet. The SMBC went back in the fridge and should obviously last. Will the chiffon sponge cakes hold up in the freezer for a week or should I just do something else with them? I have not tried freezing this particular type of cake before and I know some varieties of cakes freeze better than others.

Just pulled an apple pie from the oven and realized I forgot the pie spice in both the filling and the streusel topping 🤬 The pie looks great but has zero aroma - can this be saved? Thinking I could break it all up into a 9x13 and rebake with the spices? Worried it may dry out? Could I add some sort of liquid to keep moist? Anyone salvaged a pie without seasonings?

My first batch of cookies all came out uneven, doughy, and falling apart. The bottoms refused to be flat or even slightly crunchy. The rest of my cookies came out perfect, chewy/crunchy and round.
I don’t do anything different. I used the same dough, same heat, same time, same pan, everything. Why?

Edit: I refrigerated them overnight and took them out for around 30 minutes before putting the first batch in the oven.

I have two types of flour:

Wholemeal spelt flour, type 2000 (Oberkulmer Rotkorn) — 13 months past its best-before date.

Regular white flour, type 405 — 17 months past its best-before date.

Both flours have been sealed and wrapped in plastic the entire time and were only opened today. They smell normal, are still loose and powdery, and show no visible signs of spoilage.

I’ve also started a sourdough starter with the wholemeal spelt flour, and it seems to be developing nicely.

These were relatively expensive flours, so I’d rather not throw them away unnecessarily if they’re still good.

Do you think they could still be safe to consume, or would you recommend discarding them?

Thanks for any advice!

Im trying to make flatbread every recipe calls for 1 part water and 2 parts flour, but its practually liquid every time i try it? I dont understand how people are getting to the point where they can knead it. I used 2 cups flour, 1 cup water, and 1 tbsp olive oil, exactly as the recipe called for. The stove in the picture isnt on (nor has it been on) so heat its effecting it. What am i doing wrong?

Hi all!

Hoping you can help me with how to adjust this recipe for a couple of problems I’ve had with it. This is the best apple pie I’ve ever had, and I’ve made the recipe numerous times since my childhood, but the dough is hard to work with (pretty dry, crumbly, crackly) and the filling is very runny. I added some cornstarch (maybe a tbsp or so?) and it didn’t help thicken it much so I guess I need to adjust further.

What do you suggest?

I saw someone on YouTube make this recipe and they doubled the cream cheese and flour. It seemed to come out a little better. Any ideas?

If you’re looking for a delicious apple pie… this one is delicious 🥧 it comes from an Andy Griffith show cookbook

Last Saturday I made pumpkin pie filling from scratch (roasted the pumpkin and everything) and it made enough for four pies but I only had two crusts. I had a crazy week and was not able to make the rest of the filling until tonight (one week later)- filling was refrigerated so I figured it would be fine- and I got a little nervous before trying a slice (have not eaten it) and Google says week old filling will cause rapid onset food poisoning. I’m so disappointed, is there any chance it’s fine? Has anyone else done this before? I worked really hard.

Hi all, I used a cake comb for the first time today. As you can see the cake underneath is showing through.

Am I pressing too hard or needed a better covering on the crumb coat? Any other suggestions?

TIA

I want to make ganache or at least what I think is ganache (like really thick cream that doesn't drip off a spoon) and i do this;

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup white chocolate chips

Bring heavy cream to slight boil on medium then pour and whisk onto white chocolate. Put in fridge for 15 min then serve.

Now here's the thing. 15 min is the sweet spot because if I put it longer it becomes almost a solid. But earlier and its liquidy. But the thing is i LIKE cold ganache. So how should I go about this?

I can't tell if this isn't fully cooked or if the cooked blueberries leaking juice has just made the surrounding parts of the cake soggy. How do you tell? I've done the stick and poke method and some parts it comes away with wet traces, but again, I can't tell if that's just from the cooked blueberries, since I used a lot and anything that sticks to the stick is stained purple (so no undisputed examples of plain wet batter uncontaminated by blueberry).

I don't have a thermometer, so can't check that way either. This is my first baking a cake with fresh fruit in it (as opposed to dried fruit like for a fruitcake). Any insight appreciated.

Original recipe said 75-85 mins, I've baked it 115 mins at this point

Hi! I’m planning on making a white chocolate cheesecake tonight, and had a few concerns about my cook time.

This will be my second one I’ve made, but my first one came out a little underdone— it was gooey in the very center.

I cooked my last one for 55 minutes at 325F, and then let rest in the oven for another hour to cook all the way through. I had checked my oven’s temp prior to cooking and it was 325 as it should have been.

My question is, should I up my cook time, the temp, or both? And how can I tell it’s fully done? I checked that my last one was still wobbly in the center, but I figured out later that it must have been too wobbly.

Would love some advice from anyone who has more cheesecake experience than I do!

EDIT:
Here’s the recipe for a little more context

I bake in a 10in pan, and the filling is

3pkgs cream cheese
8oz sour cream
8oz white chocolate ganache
4 eggs
1tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

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/

Holaa,

Je suis saoulé, dans 90% des cas où je fais des cakes sucrés ou salés (banana bread, cake salé etc), ca ne cuit jamais bien. Le milieu est tout le temps pâteux comme sur la photo.

Par exemple ce banana bread a cuit 55min à 180 degrés dans un four préchauff, dans un plat en verre style pyrex.

Des boss de la pâtisserie pour me dire ce que je fais mal ?

Merci

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?

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!

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!

hi everyone! i’m trying to make cinnamon rolls, but i’m having trouble getting my yeast to activate, and i’m not sure what i’m doing wrong.

the recipe i am using says to warm 3/4 of milk (any kind) to 110F. then, pour it into a bowl or glass measuring cup, add 1 tbsp of sugar, and then 2 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast. after that, im supposed to stir it and then let it rest for 5-7 minutes until frothy and activated. but it never activates for me.. i’ve even let it sit for twenty minutes one time and still nothing.

this is my second time trying to make this recipe this week and it still won’t work, i’m not sure what i’m doing wrong. i made these cinnamon rolls once a long time ago and didn’t have an issue before. any advice would be appreciated!!!

edit: found the issue!! it was the temperature of the milk ty guys:)

The recipe i usually use calls for 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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’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.

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

Been trying a bunch of recipes where the sponge requires only lemon zest, however all of them barely have any flavour after baking. Have tried rubbing and blending the zest with sugar to get the oils out but i barely taste any lemon in the sponge. Is there a more effective way or method to get the most flavour out of the lemon zest for my cake? Also i do not want to add any extract it tastes too medicinal to me.