Tag: Italian

What Tools Do I Need For Cake Decorating?

When you begin cake decorating, you can get by with a heavy duty mixer, icing tips, icing bags, cake pans, ready made or recipes for homemade royal icing, mixing bowls, spatulas, and metal icing spatulas. Later on you will want to spread your wings and expand your cake decorating and baking inventory. Below are some of the items you may want to purchase.

1. Rolled Fondant Icing White Vanilla, 2 pounds – $8.88. Rolled Fondant cake icing is a premium quality, non-stick, icing that is pliable and can be rolled out for cake decorating with a rolling pin or mechanical sheeter. This Fondant produces a satiny smooth and elegant finish to any cake. This product can also be used as a modeling paste to create decorative flat or 3-D pieces for your cake decoration.

This product has a mellow flavor and is delicious. It is very pliable and easy to handle . This product can be used over a thin layer of icing or a layer of powdered sugar so that it will not stick. Any cake will take on a beautiful, elegant look when Fondant is used. Different flavors of Fondant are available in various weights and flavors.

2. Buttercream Icing 3 1/2 pounds. Ready to use for cake decorating and icing. Price $8.95, 25 pounds- $46.89, 8 pounds- $16.01.

3. Hexagon Cake Pan- 16 gauge anodized aluminum, straight sides, Hemmed rim for durability, even wall thickness. Also available Cut Corner Sheet Cake Pan, Petal Cake Baking Pans, Heart Cake Pans, Square cheesecake pan with removable bottom, Oval Cake Pan Set, 10 x 2 Aluminum baking ring, Round Cake Pan Sets, Wedding Cake Pan Set.

4. Magic Line Round Cake Pans are made to suit all of your baking needs whether you are a professional or a novice at cake decorating. Set includes one 6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and 14 inch pan.

5. Set of 2 round cake pans from 2 x 2 inch, to 20 x 2. Prices range from $4.84 to $34.10. 3 inch deep cake pans and pan sets at lower prices.

6. Round, fluted cake pans.

7. Non-stick angelfood cake pan.

8. 3 tier Cake and Dessert Stand – $29.29.

9. French Chef Rolling Pin – $6.99.

These and many more cake decorating supplies are available at ultimatebaker.com. This site has all of the newest gadgets and tools that will help with cake decorating. This site is an excellent store for all of your cake decorating needs, whether you are a home baker or a professional cake decorator, there are so many tools at this website, you will find it hard to choose. An excellent site for those who own a cake decorating business, you will benefit from shopping here because of their reasonable prices and their large inventory.

Cake decorating is becoming a large industry. Every celebration includes a cake to share with the participants. A cake decorating business can be a very profitable and fun.

Dine in Style Every Day With a Few Simple Steps

In Italy, stylish dining has long been embraced as a relaxing way to unwind after a busy day. So before you order takeout and eat in front of the television, take a cue from the Italians and make each meal a treat.

Whether dining alone, with family or with your closest friends, turn an otherwise hurried meal into a chic expression of style with these tips from Ecco Domani Italian wines.

* Determine the dcor. Whether you are dining at the kitchen table or in a more formal setting, it’s easy to add some pizzazz to your surroundings. Candles cast a warm glow once the sun goes down. Strands of small lights also enhance the mood; string them around the room or even bunch them in a Mason jar for a funky tabletop display.

* Master the art of mood music. Mellow jazz will help take the edge off a long day, and classical music can help lift your mood. Consider tailoring the music around the type of cuisine you are serving. For an Italian meal, for instance, play an assortment of Italian opera.

If you’re dining with family or friends, get them involved by inviting them to bring their favorite CDs. Set your disc player to shuffle so that everyone’s music selection gets played during the meal.

* Create a stylish menu. To help you unwind, it’s best to keep your meal simple. Luckily, delicious meals are a snap to make with fresh, easy-to-prepare foods. And you can add flair to any basic dish with just a few additions.

For an Italian meal, a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad is always a crowd-pleaser. Drizzle chicken and fish with olive oil and lemon for a fresh, light flavor. And dust colorful veggies with Italian seasonings to bring out their natural flavors.

Whatever your menu, be sure to select a delicious wine to accompany the meal. Ecco Domani 2003 Pinot Grigio is a perfect wine for everyday dining because of its crisp, fresh flavor, which pairs perfectly with today’s light cuisine.

It is easy to infuse any setting with glamour by adding a few small touches. In the end, nothing says style like taking the time to make each meal special. – NU

Trouble Free Cooking?

Believe it or not, trouble free cooking is a common desire around the world. Even those among us who love cooking and eating almost equally will be the first to confess that being able to cook without the worry of creating a mess, spilling, or burning would be a blessing. Truthfully speaking there really is no such thing as trouble free cooking though there are things you can do that will take a good deal of trouble out of your cooking.

Most of the tips here will be beneficial to novice or beginners in the culinary arts however, there are some great refresher tips for those who are more experienced when it comes to cooking as well. Hopefully you will learn some things through the next few paragraphs or at least remember some things you had forgotten.

First of all, cleaning as you go will take a lot of the trouble out of what comes after the cooking. When asked the least favorite thing about cooking a wide margin of women proclaim without a second of hesitation that the clean up by far is the worst thing about cooking. To make things easier, clean as you go. Keep a sink of hot sudsy water ready to go the entire time you are cooking and wipe up any spills that occur immediately to avoid sticky messes that are much more difficult to clean afterwards. You should also note that if you transfer your food to serving dishes and immediately wash your pots and pans they will be much easier to clean than if the food is allowed to sit in them while your family dines.

My best friend is constantly burning her dinners. The reason? She believes in high or low when it comes to cooking and there is nothing in between. Very few meals should be cooked on high truth be told. You are much better off to begin the food preparation at a medium or medium high temperature and to adjust accordingly.

Make sure your oven is preheated. The temperature of the oven does indeed make a difference in the cooking process. While there are those that believe preheating is a simple waste of electricity it is what is required in order to achieve the optimal results when cooking. Most modern electric ovens will signal when the proper temperature has been achieved.

Select recipes that fall within your comfort zone in order to avoid making mistakes or becoming too stressed about the cooking process. Once you’ve decided on your recipe read it through a couple of times in order to be certain that you not only understand all the steps involved but also have all the necessary ingredients before beginning.

Wash your hands thoroughly and wash your hands often. Remember the sink of sudsy water I mentioned above? You’ll want to use it quite frequently in order to wash any surface, cutting board, plate, or utensil that has come into contact with raw meat in order to avoid cross contamination. The same holds true for your hands.

While to some degree these tips may seem a bit simplistic, when it comes to trouble free cooking there really is no such thing. The more you do to make the cooking process seem as effortless as possible the more trouble free your cooking will really be.

PPPPP

558

Tasty Low Calorie Recipes

There are so many websites and cookbooks focused on offering low calorie recipes, there is anything but a shortage of meals to try. However, just because low calorie recipes are healthy, does not mean they are tasty! Many of those recipes featured in various places taste like cardboard! Worse yet, they call for a bunch of ingredients that you and your grocer have never heard of! Where can you find tasty, low calorie recipes with all the ingredients you can pronounce,

The palatability of any meal is most often based on what you are accustomed to eating. If your primary food staple has been fried chicken and bon bons for the last few decades, you will likely have a hard time altering your eating habits or accepting low calorie recipes. Unless you can find recipes that call for bon bons, which is unlikely, you will have to make some sacrifices. If this is the case, you would be better off, instead of jumping headfirst into diet world, by gradually altering your diet by adding low calorie recipes and slowly removing the fatty foods. If you jump in to it too quickly, you are more likely to give up and go back to old habits. Another consideration, if you are making a drastic change, is to try to make the foods you already like in a different, healthier manner. You can broil meat instead of frying it, use fat free salad dressing, and other low calorie alternatives.

Once you ease into healthy eating, then it is time to really start making low calorie recipes. As stated earlier, there really are a lot of recipes available online and in cookbooks you just have to find some you like. You should start on the Internet and look for recipes with ingredients that sound good. Most likely, if the ingredients are good, the finished product will be good. When you are first starting out, you may not want to go out and buy a stack of cookbooks. You should get an idea of what you like before spending money on something that may very well end up collecting dust. Besides, individual recipes seem less obtrusive than bulky cookbooks that tend to always seem to big too read. No one wants to spend three hours looking through a book to decide what they want to eat. You can scan online and find something a lot faster.

Gourmet Cooking Recipes – The Basics of Gourmet Cooking Recipes

To many people, gourmet cooking seems like an inaccessible thing that only wealthy people are capable of enjoying, but with gourmet cooking recipes, this is no longer the case. There is no reason for you to feel as if you cannot take advantage of what gourmet cooking recipes have to offer, because these recipes are largely accessible and make it possible for you to create stunning gourmet meals for yourself and for your family. If you have never tried out gourmet cooking recipes or gourmet cooking before, you should not be intimidated.

With just a little bit of trial and error regarding gourmet cooking recipes, you can get a handle on this unique and enjoyable method of cooking. To begin with, you should understand what characteristics exist that make gourmet cooking recipes actually considered being gourmet. Gourmet cooking is designed to, for example, utilize ingredients that are fresh as well as of the highest possible level of quality.

For example, a gourmet chef will not call for dried or powdered garlic in their gourmet cooking recipes but rather they will demand fresh cloves instead. Herbs cannot be dried or powdered, but must be fresh and hand chopped or minced in order for the gourmet cooking recipes to be gourmet.

Another word that means the same thing as gourmet is epicurean, which is described as being someone that only likes the finest in food and in drink. Gourmet people, people who cook gourmet cooking recipes, are people that are like connoisseurs of food. Just like with an epicurean, these connoisseurs are people that understand what is good just as well as what is not good, especially in terms of gourmet cooking recipes.

The best way to learn about what makes gourmet cooking recipes actually gourmet is to go online and perform a search on the concept of gourmet food and gourmet cooking. The internet is filled to the brim with information that will benefit you on gourmet cooking and all other aspects of cooking as well. You should not be afraid to go online and ask around for help so that you can learn more about what gourmet cooking recipes are all about. There are a myriad of different communities online that are devoted to all forms of cooking and eating, and gourmet cooking and gourmet cooking recipes are certainly not exceptions to the rule.

Once you have decided to try out your own gourmet cooking recipes, you may find it enjoyable to try out specialty supermarkets and other grocers as you hunt down the unique and exotic ingredients that many of these recipes demand. Shop locally whenever you possibly can, and try an internet search for other ingredients that you cannot find nearby, like special herbs and spices for example, which can be delivered to your front doorstep quickly and efficiently when needed. Don’t be afraid to try new gourmet cooking recipes, you may find one that you really end up loving.