OK, I looked it up in On Food and Cooking, acid will stabilize an egg white foam (why you add cream of tartar), BUT here's what I don't get - the fat in the yolks counteract that, and there's no mention of acid + albumen producing gas, so still not sure why the lid just popped right off (explosively). Plus there wasn't a lot of foam (in the container or on the floor). But the last ime I may have also added the oil to the shaker before closing it and shaking, that would have reduced the volume too. Sounds like we need to do some volcano experiments for Halloween! Using just the whites and lemon juice, see if there's a visible reaction when stirred gently vs shaken or beaten...

I made 16 in cakes, 12 in & 8 in cakes for a wedding All Duncan Hines & all looked perfect. I went to flip them over unto cake boards & 1 after another they turned into pile of crumbs.(1970's I think) I called DH & they sent 6 pages of stuff on how not to have a flop with their cakes. I told them to go back to their old dependable receipe. They refused even tho cake bakers were writing "Maid of Scandinavia's national cake decorating magazine complaining. Duncan Hines flatly refused to change it back. They lost a lot of valuable customers. I've never bought another 1. Later Coke tried changing their formula & quickly saw error of their way & changed it back. I've had oven full of cakes, most bakers do can't get cakes done & have them fresh if only doing couple at a time. 1 reason your cake might have fallen, well 2- 1. did you try to move them around in oven or even pull the rack out(don't have any racks in oven but 1 cakes are on so you can test with toothpick by reaching in with hand) when part way done- that will cause a flop with any cake from scratch or otherwise. 2. did your toothpick come out clean as a whistle, with the water & that many eggs if it isn't done it will sink!! That would be my assessment!!Jan

If you think this is getting me "worked up" and all that, you're wrong. I pop on this site a couple times a day to break up my work day, it's not an important part of my life. But when I see one of your typical "anti-men" rants, I feel obliged to reply, as one of the few male regulars around here. Besides, how can I "hate" you when I don't know you? You're probably a very nice person, with a very different opinion on one subject than I have....not a big deal really. I don't hate the friends I have that have completely different political views than I have.... And I would hardly call my posts "inflammatory" or "attacks" on you. I am simply stating my strong opposition to the position you take in the majority of your posts. Please show me where I treated you with "hostility & venom toward me personally"....to my knowledge I haven't. I just think some of your advice and positions are way over the top....that's all. I've always welcomed further discussion when I reply to your postings, that's pretty much why all of us are here, right? To see what people have been thru, see how we can relate, and sometimes offer opinions that we think might be useful to others in some way. And I think I've generally kept the discussions on-topic and civil....but if I see someone offer an opinion on something that I consider to be either wrong, unfair, dangerous, etc....I am gonna say something. I have chimed in on many posts here, stating my opposition to what someone is doing, or thinking of doing, like living together when there are young kids in the picture, or a step-parent assuming a disciplinary role with a child, etc. Again, don't take it personally...my replies are more targeted at other people, not you...you have your opinions on men and nothing I will ever say will change that. I just feel like I need to represent "the other side" after I see some of your posts.... Have a great day, and I mean it! I have nothing personally against you. Just disagree with your opinions, that's all..... :)

At least to me, it's more about science than just randomly making a change or two out of curiosity. When I develop an original recipe or "improve" an existing recipe (mine or others), I keep a record of each change. I used the same method to develop a "base" cookie recipe using sorghum flour from a local mill using a set ratio of ingredients, then adapted the base recipe into different kinds of cookies. This method has a lot of practical uses. I have a form sheet I've pre-printed with the original recipe on the left half of the page and places on the right half for: -DATE -INGREDIENT CHANGES - with reasons why I chose them. -RESULTS -NEXT TIME - changes to make yet again and why or what results they will make or expect. Changes can include the pan type or size as well as ingredients or mixing methods. -NOTES Some recipes take many iterations. I remember reading how Sara Phillips, author of "Baking 9-1-1" and web site formerly baking911.com now http://www.craftybaking.com/?baking911=true made 100 changes before she got her recipe for low-fat white cake the way she liked, so if I make 4 or 5 alterations I figure "good enough"..... I'll live to bake another day with or without this recipe. ;-) This isn't America's Test Kitchen after all, but I do keep notes from things they have tested and how they worked so I don't have to make the same mistakes. Chris Kimball's books are also full of this information. I even send foods out to work with hubby with the ingredient list (not amounts) and critique sheets his office staff can use to judge or compare a recipe (believe me - these wonderful folks will eat ANYTHING and criticize EVERYTHING - so I'm not afraid of their honesty). You can always tell who was in 4-H because they are familiar with the judging process and do a good job - and I'll dismiss the critique "I don't like coconut." in a recipe with coconut in the title and on the ingredient list. After all those years as a Foods Judge, I also use my "Fair Judging Standards" (you can find lists of these on-line) as a guideline and I use terms used in judging for things like general appearance, shape, condition of top/crust, exterior color, volume/size, lightness (in weight for size), crumb (interior portion), texture, color (appropriate for the product, pleasing to the eye), moistness, tenderness, flavor (which is really a combination of taste and smell). Most recipes will follow the tried and true baking standards and ratio of ingredients, others are an anomaly - a "one off" - so to speak, that doesn't follow traditional baking or is a complete fluke. "Flukes" also have reasons they work. An example of that is a Molten Lava Cake, which was supposed to have been an accident when a sponge cake was under-baked, and now it has a number of different base cakes including flourless cake or brownie types. And who the heck decided adding a 4-oz. bottle of red food coloring to a Red Velvet Cake (which can be deadly to anyone who is allergic to that particular dye color) was a brilliant idea? Or, add a drained and chopped canned sauerkraut to a chocolate cake recipe - both are examples of taking "creative" license. --When developing gluten-free baked goods I have an entirely different set of guidelines because there are different ingredients used. --You can successfully make changes in recipes but it helps to be aware of some guidelines, such as established ratio of one ingredient to another for each type of baking. This is also how we judge recipes when we read them in books. Will this list of ingredients in a Brownie recipe make cake-like brownies, chewy brownies, or something in between? If you know the attributes of certain ingredients, the ratio between ingredients, you can make that determination by reading the recipe. When I was a member on another message board, a member who was a competent baker, complained about a Banana Bread recipe they made unsuccessfully several times and wondered if there was a mistake in the recipe. The recipe was from Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" (on the book jacket it says "MASTER FORMULAS FOR SERIOUS BREAD BAKERS) -- that is until he got to the ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients in his Banana Bread recipe wrong, which were completely off (and even with the correct ratio was at best an insipid banana bread recipe). --There are some things that are just standards in baking, so if you fiddle with them too much you may need to adjust in another area. It's also where you may want to make sure you have a scale for weighing ingredients. The crystals of granulated sugar are large and there is a lot of space between the crystals when you measure it in a cup. There is very little space in powdered sugar. Therefore, you would find weighing the amount of granulated sugar and substituting it with the equal amount - BY WEIGHT - of powdered sugar would mean you have the same amount by weight, but it won't be the same amount of "sugar" if you substitute cup-for-cup. The same goes for salt. If you normally use a fine crystal salt product (like a fine sea salt), there will be more salt per teaspoon (by weight) of the fine crystals than if you use a teaspoon (by measure) of a chunky crystal salt product (Kosher salt) because it's off-set by voids of air between the larger crystals. Therefore you really should weigh the salt for accuracy rather than by the teaspoonful otherwise you may find a finished product is too salty or not salty enough just by changing the type of salt crystal you used. In other words, it pays to measure accurately, and accurately means using a scale rather than a dry measure (cups, spoons). --Know ahead of time when you reduce fat and sugar without adjusting other ingredients, you will be sacrificing some tenderness, and it may dry out much quicker. It helps to make low-fat items in much smaller amounts - an 8x8-inch pan instead of a large 9x13 - so leftovers don't dry out quickly and are unappetizing. --If you increase the sugar and fat you may find it's TOO tender and falls apart when sliced. If this is something like a quick bread you are altering ingredients in, you may find it will work best baked in a small loaf, or a long narrow Danish Loaf Pan, instead of the traditional 9x5-inch quick bread loaf pan. Smaller slices will hold together better if the crumb is a little too tender. --You won't always get the same results by using 100% whole grain flour in a recipe that was made with bleached or unbleached flour. Bran in wholegrain flour will require an increase of hydration because it soaks up more liquid, which makes for a heavier finished product. --Don't make too many different changes at once, change one or two things each time you work on the recipe. --Other things that can change a recipe is using the muffin method of mixing ingredients instead of the cake method. Using liquid fat instead of solid fat, or vise versa. Separating eggs and beating the whites and adding the yolks (or even an extra egg yolk) when beating the sugar and fat until pale and thickened, then fold in the whites. --If you've increased the sugar content it could delay how the baked good "sets" and the original baking time could be off. There is logical established baking temperatures for baked goods high in sugar, so you may want to switch to a lower temperature and a longer baking time if you increase the sugar by a large percent. -Powdered sugar right from the bag will work differently than powdered sugar that has been finely sifted. Powdered sugar once came in 10X, 6X and 4X, and those numbers indicate the size of the mesh used to sift it, with 10X being the smallest and is sifted much finer. You can make some of these small changes to recipes yourself. --It also helps to know the internal temperature of different baked goods to test accurately for "doneness". AHHHHHHHHHHHH, the science of food. -Grainlady