Cream

Cream puffs aren't all sweetness and light. Not when they go missing during a statewide high school baking competition. It's unclear if it was a case of pastry misappropriation or simply a cooling-rack mix-up. But the talented young baker who made the cream puffs is still steamed. Way back in March, Lindsey Arbogast and more than a dozen other regional baking champs were cracking eggs, measuring flour and butter, and stirring madly to create pate a choux , the pastry dough used to make the shells for cream puffs and éclairs.

Anne Arundel County, including Annapolis, led the state in tourism dollars in 2011, according to a report by the travel research company Tourism Economics, the local visitors bureau said this week. The Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau said that according to the report, nearly 5.6 million visitors to Annapolis and the county spent nearly $3.2 billion, a 7.2 percent increase over the $3 billion generated in 2010. The sum represents transportation, food, hotel and other spending.

The annual Pillsbury Bake-Off concluded today in Orlando, Fla.  The $1 million winner was annonced live on "The Martha Stewart Show. " Here is Christina Verrelli winning recipe for Pumpkin Ravioli with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream. Among the 100 finalists were two Baltimore area residents. Susann Studz competed in the Entertaining Appetizers category with Sushi-Style Crescent Crab Rolls , and Laura Majchrzak competed in the Sweet Treats category with her original Carrot Cake Tart recipe.

Marlene Millard from Longview, Wash., said that back in the 1960s she had a recipe for making a delicious sour cream cake that used a boxed white cake mix as the base. She said it was one of those cravings she had during pregnancy that she thought she would never get back, so she threw away the recipe. Now she finds herself craving the cake some 50 years later and would like to be able to recreate the taste. Perhaps back in the '60s doctoring cake mixes was something new. These days, entire books exist with nothing but doctored cake mix recipes.

Novavax Inc. said yesterday that its second-quarter loss ballooned more than threefold as it spent heavily on manufacturing and marketing programs for its Estrasorb estrogen-replacement cream, a product whose launch is on hold. The Columbia company announced in April that the Food and Drug Administration would not approve Estrasorb without additional information. Chief Executive Officer John Spears said yesterday during a conference call with investors that the company expects to submit a new Estrasorb application, including information to address the agency's manufacturing and chemistry concerns, by the end of summer.

Watch rivulets of dark chocolate sauce pour down the curves of a scoop of ice cream or over the low cliffs of a raspberry tart and you get a hint of the transformative power of a good chocolate sauce. Thick and velvety, deeply, sensuously flavorful, such a sauce can dress up a simple dessert or, just in time for the holidays, elevate a great one. It's pretty good eaten straight with a spoon, too. Years ago, chocolate sauces were made with bricks of baker's chocolate or cocoa powder, with lots of sugar and vanilla to mask the bitterness, and heavy doses of cream or butter.

The exterior of the Anne Arundel County home of Mark Rucci and his partner, Randall Franklin, provides few clues to the storybook world visitors will find inside. At street level, a Victorian wrought-iron gate stands between two large urns containing trimmed topiary. While the gate opens to the front walk, its placement and its arched carving are purely an ornamental touch — there is no fencing to keep people from the yard. At the end of the walk, four artificial pink trees sit on pedestals in front of the bi-level home with its light yellow siding and vivid, cadet blue shutters on each window.

Name: : ShaveMate All-in-One Combo Razor What it is: : A six-blade razor with shaving cream inside the handle. The Titan 6 (for men) is gray, and the Diva 6 (for women) is pink - with pink-tinted shaving cream. How it works: : Rather than travel with a razor and a container of shaving cream, you can merge the two with ShaveMate. To access the cream, turn the bottom of the handle to the open position, push until enough cream spurts into your hand, then spin it closed. The good: : Traveling with less is always better, and this certainly clears room in the dop kit. The blades are better than your garden-variety disposable razor, and the shaving cream makes a fine, creamy lather.

An icon of Baltimore's pop history goes on the block today -- a Kewpie eating strawberry ice cream that has emerged as a peach on the collectibles market.After decades in a dark basement, the artwork of a chubby, smiling baby nourished on platefuls of Hendler's ice cream will be sold at a Timonium auction house, where its presence has attracted national collecting interest.The large lot of memorabilia includes three original Hendler Creamery Kewpies, which helped promote the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors on billboards and newspaper ads in Baltimore from 1915 through the 1960s.

Whipping egg whites or heavy cream is a basic step in many recipes, but it's also one that can go wrong fast. Whip cream a few seconds too long and it breaks into unappetizing clumps. If sugar is added too quickly to egg whites to make a meringue, the mixture will collapse. In both cases, it helps to start with the right vessel: a very clean stainless-steel bowl, says Jan Bandula, chef instructor at Baltimore International College.

We get lots of announcements of new products. We mostly ignore them, but this one got our attention - "the launch of the industry's first Greek Cream Cheese. " Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese, according to its producer, Franklin Foods of Enosburg Falls, Vt., contains twice the protein and half the fat of regular cream cheese and contains live and active cultures. The Greek yogurt craze has made its way into the newsroom. You can usually spot a container or two in the refrigerator. We were interested.

Ice cream and granola bars are the latest products to be linked to widespread manufacturer recalls of some peanut butters and other nut products that started last month. In the past week, at least five manufacturers have recalled peanut butter flavored ice cream products. In each case, the peanut butter used in the product was supplied either directly or indirectly by Sunland Inc., which has issued a national recall of some of its products because of possible Salmonella contamination.

Given how quickly dogs learn by food reward, how long does it take them to recognize the sound of Tiki's Playhouse doggie ice-cream truck? Probably with one sample, since the possibilities include tantalizing banana, blueberry, molasses and peanut butter in various tasty combinations, plus fruit cups, soft biscuits, dental bones and nice cold water.  “They're actually pretty good!” says Kelvin Abrams, 42, owner of both the truck and Tiki's Playhouse Doggie Day Care in Glenelg, as he acknowledges giving the cool canine treats a try himself.

The Maryland State Fair begins on Friday, and the Midway will again be the place for perennial favorites such as funnel cake and Italian sausage. But there are a few new twists for 2012, according to Jim Ingram of Deggeller Attractions, the Stuart, Fla.-based carnival company that stocks the Midway with rides, amusements and food. Making their Timonium debut will be two new chicken booths, one selling a variety of wings with fresh-cut fries and the other chicken-on-a-stick with ribbon fries.

Anthony Allen may not have the decisive edge in a four-way battle to back up starting tailback Ray Rice, but his weight won't be an issue. The 6-foot-1 Allen said he weighs about 225 pounds, which is 10 pounds less than his weight from last season. He said the weight loss coincided with shaving five percent of his body fat - all in the name of being a better back. “I just toned up,” he said after Wednesday's practice at the team's headquarters in Owings Mills. "I just wanted to get a little faster, a little quicker.

Sweet corn is at its seasonal peak, and its abundance is a great (and inexpensive) reason to get cooking. Sweet corn has a place in every cookout this time of year, whether in a salad, a side dish or, more likely, on the cob with butter and salt and pepper (or better yet, Old Bay). Jesse Albright, general manager at Albright farms in Monkton, sells sweet corn at the Fells Point Farmers' Market for $6 a dozen and offers preservation techniques for those of us who like to have a little bit of summer during the winter months.

Fear factor Quick Takes Be Safe! Simple Strategies for Death Free Living, by Melissa Heckscher. Quirk Books. 128 pages. $10.95. Duct tape and plastic sheeting are just the beginning. In addition to preparing for terrorist attacks, Melissa Heckscher presents us with a new set of concerns. Her book outlines about 100 everyday situations fraught with danger. Flushing the toilet stirs up millions of bacteria in the bathroom. Hazardous microbes thrive in hotel room blankets. Sitting in the wrong place during a baseball game could result in a concussion -- or worse.

The subject peaks at the beach when we're all lying around on the sand: The womenfolk discuss their thighs and thigh sizes.In some genetic twist of fate, the women on both sides of our family have always been "thick-thighed."So with the recent news that a rub-on cream will reduce thighs, we all went ballistic. What? A teaspoon a day keeps the fat away? Get real.I understand phone lines buzzed across the country, and at my spa the cream was the hottest topic, replacing the new fat-free chocolate brownies.