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I tried making a cake-in-a-pan in a jack-o-lantern mold one year, I used lots of spray and it still stuck badly.
If you line the pan with parchment, it usually peels off fairly well. My wife used that trick and several small loaf pans to make a chocolate circus train birthday cake for our son one year.
This is a replacement to my earlier reply, since the situation has changed.
One of the plugin tools I'm using has been updated and it now gives me the ability to exclude a category from the 'recent posts' list, so the recent posts list in the sidebar now ONLY shows the categories other than recipes, and I've added a separate list of recent recipes (and replies to them.)
So you can upload recipes from the old BC to the recipes category without them drowning out the discussion.
The top menu item still shows all forums, so I renamed it to 'Latest Goodies'.
I'd hate to guess the number times I've hit the wrong key and wiped out a post I was writing. I've taken to writing them in stages, saving them every paragraph or two. That's one of the reasons why I allow posts to be edited for several days.
I have exchanged several emails with Greg on the subject of Boston Cream Pie, he's one of the experts I was referring to. He and I also had a lengthy email discussion on Hawaiian white pineapple, which is, sadly, becoming hard to find, even in Hawaii.
Here's another good article on the history of Boston Cream Pie.
I've made my own confectioner's fondant several times, and a couple of years ago I made at least six Boston Cream Pies over a two month period to test various types of cakes, pastry creams and toppings. The fondant-topped ones actually got the poorest scores from my testers, I think it's because at least around here a thin ganache coating is what everyone expects.
I don't know how many regulars there were at the BC, but I do have access to Google Analytics data for my site, and we've got fairly steady group of around 60 regular visitors, though only perhaps about half of have posted more than once. Not a lot of newcomers yet, and a number of BC stalwarts don't appear to be either here or posting on Zen's site yet.
Based on my experience with other sites, that's about a third of what we need to be a self-sustaining community. I figure it's my job over the next several months to work on building user counts and traffic, starting with getting into the search engines and doing some promotional work, which probably means working the social networking sites.
I've got some notes and a few outlines for about another dozen blog posts so far, I just need to start making time to write them. I will be taking a chocolate class this fall and plan to write a series on that. (And that doesn't count the time I need to spend working on the site itself.)
If they're unopened bags and are a product that store stocks, I think nearly any chain store will take them, receipt or not, if only because it creates good will with customers. (I'm pretty sure they get reimbursed by the manufacturer, too.)
Without a receipt, they might only issue you a store credit, I think that would be reasonable.
I've been making and freezing my own chicken and beef stock for years, and use little or no salt when making it. (None when making beef stock, I do use a little in chicken stock, I think it helps extract flavor from the bones.)
I also have turkey stock, duck stock and goose stock in the freezer, and also rendered goose fat. I've never made my own vegetable stock, but I don't use it when cooking anyway.
I think most canned/boxed stocks taste awful, why would I want a soup or sauce made with them?
There's a Zoup restaurant in a nearby mall, they sell beef, vegetable and chicken stock in jars, and advertise that it tastes good enough to drink. But as far as I can tell, all 3 have garlic in them. 🙁
