Bad kitchen Karma

It is all your perspective Kate. I have a friend that only does cake mixes and ready made icings for cakes at her house. Yuck. They love my home made cakes but she laughs and says they need the mixes for birthdays and traditional stuff because it is a taste they are familiar with. I don't make eclairs. Maybe I should start? Probably not a good plan. LOL Taria

I don't make eclairs. Maybe I should start? Probably not a good plan. LOL Taria

Rather like the difference between those elongated hexagons and the regular ones >ggg< . In message , J* writes

uh, yup, thats the one. now i'm trying to work out how exactly to draw up the elongated hexagon. seems to me its just squishing two opposite sides of a hex in til the end points reach the 90 degrees. so the sides all remain the same size just the different shape makes it work. ...but knowing me, i'm not getting that right. are they really elongated or just appear to be longer? are there measurements or some easy way to draw this one up? as you're the queen of geometrics here, Patti, how about some assistance for those of us who are less clever in that area. j.

"Patti" wrote... Rather like the difference between those elongated hexagons and the regular ones >ggg<

They are just unnecessarily short eclaires... ;)

I can't make eclaires. Choux pastry is one of my few constant failures, along with Yorkshire pudding.

This is deeply annoying because if I make Toad in the Hole, the Yorkshire pud bit comes out perfectly. And I can make pavlova cases but not merringues.

I come from a family that apologises for bought cake and in three generations has never used a cake mix.

The nasty secret about meringues is that you need absolutely no humidity for guaranteed success. I don't know for sure but would guess that your chances of no humidity are rather slim. Polly "Kate XXXXXX" This is deeply annoying because if I make Toad in the Hole, the

you told, ack.

hmmm, choux is easy to make. even i can do it so has to be. tell your method and ingredients or the recipe you use and maybe someone will see where you're having probs with it.

toad but not yorkshire, something aint right there, for sure.

i was born/raised in california during the 50s. we had both cake mixes and from scratch. here i dont think they even had cake mixes when i arrived in early '77. i still prefer making cakes from scratch tho. someone told me when i came here that making good scones wasnt easy. they have to be kidding or were never taught right cuz i find them no prob at all. go figure. could just be me tho. j.

"Kate XXXXXX"

Sometimes our dry heat is good for something! Taria

The easiest way to get a 90=B0 hex is to cut 2 opposite corners off a square.

Pati, > uh, yup, thats the one.

Katie Stewart Recipe, done EXACTLY as the book says, in lots of different places over the years... My pal Alex the mad Scotsman says he takes great comfort from finding something HE can cook that I cannot, using the same recipe and method! :D

I'm not too fussed, as I can't eat them anyway. Yorkshire puds and cream filled cakes turn my innards into spasming knots. James just has to make do with eating them when he's out.

Yes, well!! .. on one school report, when I was in primary school, the teacher said (and I've clearly never forgotten it, nor improved >gThe easiest way to get a 90° hex is to cut 2 opposite corners off a