Slashfood

• The best groom's cake ever
  

  Filed under: On the Blogs, Bakeries, Meat

  
  Having worked in a bakery setting since I was 18, I've seen my share of groom's cakes. Actually, I had never heard of the groom's cake until I started working in a bakery. Most of them are chocolate cake with a golf or foot ball theme. My best friend's groom went with a caramel cake, which was very delicious. This one really takes the cake, though.
  
  The Black Widow Bakery came up with the best groom's cake I've ever seen. There's not even any fru-fru cake to ruin the manliness of it. It's a meat cake. The layers...
  



• Mrs. Field's may be filing for bankruptcy
  

  Filed under: Business, Bakeries

  
  It appears that right now is not a good time to be in the food business. First Bennigan's closed the majority of their stores and now Mrs. Field's Famous Brand is planning on filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
  
  According to Forbes, the cookie maker won't be able to make a scheduled debt payment in September. The company is currently "soliciting votes from creditors for a 'prepackaged' bankruptcy reorganization plan." That means that the people in charge at Mrs. Field's are talking to creditors to see if they'll agree...
  



• What would you do if you found rocks in your raisin bread?
  

  Filed under: Business, Bakeries, Bread

  
  Imagine for a moment that you went to a local bakery and got a loaf of your favorite raisin bread. When you get it home you find small rocks are in the mix. Would you accept five bucks as compensation from the bakery?
  
  That's what one customer in Somerville, Massachusetts did. As reported by The Consumerist, Michael Snyder originally asked for five more loaves of the raisin bread, but the bakery offered $5 and he took that. Apparently the raisins were from Chile and used an older production method that makes it easier for debris...
  



• Some good tips on storing bread
  

  Filed under: On the Blogs, Bakeries, Bread

  
  If you like bread, chances are that you'd like to stay away from those national brands with lots of preservatives. I know I prefer the artisanal loaves that are free from shelf-extending additives. My problem is that I don't go through bread fast enough and it invariably gets moldy if I get good quality bread. I generally turn to freezing it, and throwing frozen slices into the toaster when I want to eat them.
  
  Wasted Food has posted this article about storing and keeping bread fresher, longer. It's a question and answer...
  



• People respond: There are great macarons all over the United States
  

  Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Lists, Bakeries, Artisan Foods

  
  
  Last week, I wrote a post asking why I cannot find decent macarons in the United States. Apparently, I'm not looking hard enough. Comments from all over the country revealed people's favorite shops where they buy them. Although I have not yet tried the macarons at all these places, I thought it would be useful to create a U.S. macaron directory.
  
  So far, it looks like most of these places are located in California. Feel free to comment with new shops to add to the directory!
  
  Columbus, Ohio:



• Millet muffins from the Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook
  

  Filed under: Breakfast, Recipes, Books, Bakeries

  
  Several years ago, I spent some time working at a medical school. It was the kind of job where there were lots of morning meetings and at least once a week I found myself trekking to other schools for some planning powwow. One of the few benefits to these meetings were that the host school often served breakfast-y treats. Most of the time it was just an assortment of dough-y bagels or supermarket donuts, but once, someone was feeling generous and picked up muffins from Metropolitan Bakery. And it was at that meeting that I discovered the millet muffin.
  
  These...
  



• Why can't I find decent macarons in the United States?
  

  Filed under: Stores & Shopping, America, France, Bakeries

  Ever since I returned from my school year abroad in Paris, I have been on a quest for delicate luscious creamy macarons. Unfortunately, every time I purchase them in the U.S., I am disappointed.
  
  Why is it so hard to find decent macarons in the United States? The ones at La Maison du Chocolat are not bad. But, they're overwhelmingly chocolatey. Many times, they even taste too greasy.
  
  Yesterday, I went to Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in Manhattan and was jumping up and down with...
  



• Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Bakeries, Artisan Foods

  
  I have a co-worker that has the ability to find some of the most amazing cakes on the internet. Knowing that have an unhealthy obsession with anything edible, he is nice enough to send links to those cakes in my direction on a near-daily basis.
  
  The cake you see above is another creation of Zoe Lukas (the woman who was also responsible for the Robert Indiana cookies, the Battlestar Galactica cake and the patriotic wedding cake). She has was charged with making a sushi-themed cake and so came up with a spiced...
  



• Sliced bread turns 80 today
  

  Filed under: On the Blogs, Bakeries, Bread

  
  You know that saying, "The greatest thing since sliced bread?" It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to those of us born in the last few generations since we've always had sliced bread, but the invention of the slicer sure had an impact on the world when it debuted 80 years ago.
  
  The first loaf of pre-sliced bread was sold on July 7, 1928, but its inventor, Otto Rohwedder, had been working on it since 1912. Invention Dimension profiled Rohwedder, who was a jeweler until 1916 when he decided to work on this idea...
  



• Luscious macarons at Pierre Hermé
  

  Filed under: Snacks, France, Bakeries, Artisan Foods

  
  
  My obsession for those heavenly creamy, crispy, sweet French pastries, called macarons, began when I lived in Paris. I would go to the Ladurée, the pastry-shop and tearoom, almost every week to sit down like an old woman and drink tea and snack on a macaron. Ah, the wonderful gastronomic moments spent at Ladurée! It deserves its own blog post.
  
  Recently, I discovered another incredible pastry-shop in Paris, Pierre Hermé, where you can try some interesting flavored macarons, such as caramel with fleur de sel and passion fruit with chocolate. The tiny...