How to burn down your house and poison people

This is a page displaying frequently asked questions, inquiries and all of the recipes posted on Bake and Shake. Before we begin: All recipes, photos and words are mine, and please don't steal them (please read my reproduction policy below). All adaptations are listed when applicable and original recipes belong completely to the original mind behind them. I can only take responsibility for how they turned out in my kitchen -- the steps, ingredients, temperatures are all subjective and please don't hold me responsible for any mishaps you may have, though I am very sorry if you encounter any of them. Questions? Comments? Angry words? Send them in.

Questions

Is this a food, design, fashion or 'regular' blog?
I have no idea! At all. I've thought about starting a separate blog for Etsy posts, for posts about makeup, for those cryptic posts I make at least once a month but then I use that time to change my pants and steal from the elderly, so I just try to categorize it all. I hope that offends only a few people.

Do you respond to e-mail and comments?
I do. I get an average of two e-mails every month, and I respond to them all. I try to respond to comments, but I rarely comment on most sites I read, let alone my own. I'm working on that.

My son and I made a recipe from your site. It disfigured our hamster.
I am so sorry.


Advertising Policy
As of right now, I do not display ads on Bake and Shake. I am very open to the idea of offers for readers of the site/promo codes, etc, and I would love to consider any queries. Please send all questions, pitches, etc. here.

ETSY posts
There are no real guidelines for this, I just post things I like. I have never recieved a discount, free goods or otherwise from the artists and business owners I post about -- I would say that 99.9% of them don't even know I've done so, or visit my site. I am always, always in the mood to see something fantastic and new, so if you have a favorite shop, item, etc. please feel free to send or post the link, I would love to check it out.

Link/Reproduction Policy
- Please do not reproduce the text of any of my recipes or writing without credit/attribution and preferably advance notice.

- If you are kind enough to like a recipe enough to post about it and link to it, feel free! I'm flattered.

- Please do not hotlink any of my photos, or use them without permission. I pay money each month for my use of Typepad and their servers.

Brand List
- Gold Medal AP flour
- Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
- Clabber Girl Baking Powder
- Neilsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract
- Challenge, Tillamook or Pacific Village Salted Butter
- NESTLE Cocoa powder
- Dutch Process Cocoa powder (any reputable brand)
- Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- C&H granulated, light brown and dark brown sugars
- Straus Creamery Heavy Whipping Cream
- Guittard milk and semi-sweet chocolate
- Cage Free, Veg-Fed eggs (any local brand)
- Organic whatever, whenever possible

Props/Dishes
- The brightly colored melamine floral trays (seen here, here, here and here) are by Thomas Paul, his 'Kimono' pattern and I believe they are dead stock. I purchased them on eBay as part of a larger set that also included (eight of each) salad/dessert and dinner plates.

- The white petal bowls are from eBay -- I hunted them down after seeing some on Heidi's site. Try searching for 'lotus petal bowls', which is what I did.

- All other dishes (leaf plate, LuRay periwinkle platter, etc.) are vintage, culled from many trips to thrift stores, hand-me-downs from family and friends and garage sales by myself and my mom, who lets me steal them.

Camera/Photography
- My Camera is a Kodak P880, which is what I like to call as pseudo-DSLR. It has a fixed wide-angle lens, and 8MP. Most photos are taken in 'P' mode, manual focus with an ISO of 100-200, and the WB at 'sunset'. I never use flash (for food photographs), and almost all of them are taken in natural light on a large wooden table, that backs up against two single-pane french doors with white shades, which filters light nicely. There are so many sites that talk about and shoot food photography better than I do, but my advice would be -- don't be afraid to experiment with settings (lighting, iso, flash vs. no flash), take as many photos as you can stand, especially at first, and don't think that your camera defines either your site, your food or you.

- I edit my photos in Photoshop Elements. It has so few features compared to Photoshop CS2, etc, or even Paintshop Pro, but it was only 90 bucks.

Recipe Index
All recipes, in no particular order, are indexed here -- I will try and remember to update the page often, but if I don't it shouldn't be more than a month behind.