We are not big fans of Burger King's creepy ad mascot, The King, and we know that we're not the only ones who feel a little uneasy when his commercials come on. Burger King, and the various advertising firms that represent them, likes to take their promotions into that extreme zone, though, so perhaps we should just be glad that their advertising isn't worse than it already is.

For example, take a look at this Burger King Germany wrapper, which contains instructions for building a throne to your Whopper out of ketchup packets and french fries. According to the person who photographed the wrapper and submitted it to Instructables, the directions say that the throne is for resting your burger and worshiping it.

Let's be glad that they haven't incorporated this idea into their King-centric US advertising yet. Can you imagine how strange the commercials would get?

[via tfs]

Croissants are one of the scarier things that a home baker can consider making. The dough is essentially that of puff pastry, loaded with butter and folded multiple times to create flaky layers, but also has yeast added to it, which for all practical purposes just adds one more element that could go wrong. Fortunately for anyone brave enough to give them a try, homemade croissants are not actually as difficult as they look as long as you are willing to be patient and make sure that you don't skip any steps in the process to save time. Bea, from La Tartine Gourmande, made up this batch and accompanied her tempting photos of the delicate pastries with an excellent guide on how to make them. Her croissants are light and tender, with a crisp flakiness to them and, of course, a very buttery flavor. This particular batch is slightly sweet and has a touch of sugar and a lot of vanilla added to it, so they're not going to be the best choice for a turkey sandwich at lunch time, but they will be perfect for breakfast.

2 2/3 cup flour, divided
1 1/2 cup sugar, divided

When a recipe calls for an ingredient to be "divided", it means that the ingredient is not going to be used all at once. Instead, it will be divided into more than one portion or part of the recipe. The reason for stating this in the ingredient list is that many people don't pay very close attention when reading the recipe's instructions. If 1/2 cup of sugar is used at one point in the recipe and another cup is used later, the full amount will often be mistakenly added when sugar is first mentioned. When the ingredient list says "divided," people take notice and become more aware while they work the recipe.

Eggs are commonly listed as "separated" on ingredient lists, which amounts to the same thing. The difference is that eggs, unlike flour, have two distinct components - the white and the yolk - that inspire fewer questions from cooks.

Now that you have finished your cake, let's review the steps. You read your recipe carefully, preheated the oven, made the streusel, greased the pan, creamed the butter, added the eggs, finished the batter and baked it. It's time to taste it.

The cake is moist, rich and delicious. It isn't a light, spongy cake, but it is very tender and does not seem heavy or dense. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a cake with this much streusel on it – in fact, there was nearly as much streusel as batter in the recipe! I loved how simply pressing the streusel mixture into big chunks before spreading it on the cake resulted in professional looking and tasting topping. Aside from the hitch with the incorrect baking time being given in the recipe, I didn’t have any problems and found the recipe to be easy to follow. This cake is a little too rich for everyday breakfast, but it is a great choice for special occasions and is classic comfort food. The recipe says this serves 10-12, but I far prefer to cut it into 16 smaller slices.

Thanks for watching this "episode" of Cooking Live with Slashfood!

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Put your finished cake into the preheated 350F oven and bake. Martha's recipe says that this will take only 50 minutes, but mine took quite a bit longer, which is hardly surprising given the size of the cake. Perhaps it is not the ingredients or method, but instead the baking time that causes people so many problems when they are working with recipes published by Martha Stewart Living. It is also possible that more people enjoy raw cake batter than I previously imagined. Unless you, too, enjoy raw batter, I suggest that you always perform the "toothpick" test or simply bake until the cake springs back to make sure that your cake is finished. When a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, it is done.

After the cake has cooled slightly, you need to turn it out of the pan and onto the cooling rack. Run a sharp knife around the around the outer and inner edges of the pan. Remove tube portion with cake attached. Run knife over the bottom, loosening the cake. Gently replace cake in pan high-sided pan, which will support it as you turn it upside down. Place a clean dishtowel on top of pan and a baking sheet on top of that. Carefully flip pan over, turning cake out onto the baking sheet. Reinvert onto wire rack. Allow to cool completely.

 Once the cake has baked at 350F for 60-70 minutes and a tester has come out clean, you're almost done. Move the cake to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. After loosening the cake with a knife, carefully turn it out onto a baking sheet and reinvert it onto you wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

There is only one more things to do.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Once your eggs have been added, alternately add the yogurt (or buttermilk) and the flour mixture. Adding ingredients alternately allows for thorough and even incorporation without over mixing, which can make the resulting cake tough, not soft. In any recipe that calls for you to alternate or add ingredients in multiple additions, you should make sure to end with an addition of dry ingredients. This is the easiest way to tell that you have mixed well enough, because you are finished as soon as all the flour has been incorporated into the batter. Don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you mix.

Add the yogurt and flour alternately to the creamed butter/egg mixture. Scrape half of your batter into the greased, 10-inch tube pan that you prepared earlier. Smooth batter with a spatula and top with 2 ½ cups of streusel mixture. Scrape remaining batter into pan, on top of streusel, gently spreading it to the sides of the pan with your spatula. Use your fingers to squeeze remaining streusel together into large and small chunks, then top batter with all remaining streusel. It's time to bake the cake.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Once your butter and sugar mixture is light and fluffy, it's time to add the eggs. Eggs should always be added one at a time because fats and liquids do not mix together well. While egg yolks are fatty and blend in relatively quickly, egg whites are not, and when you add them to your creamed butter and begin to stir them in, you will see that they resist incorporation. A minute of vigorously whisking the whole egg into the batter will break up the egg and allow it to be properly mixed in. It is also simply much easier to work with the eggs one by one, rather than having a huge amount of liquid sloshing around in the bowl. The batter will look smooth and shiny once the eggs are added. If it curdles a bit, don't worry about it. That can happen because of the wet to dry ratio or because the ingredients were at slightly different temperatures. Just keep going.

Break all your eggs into a small bowl and add them to the creamed butter one at a time. Then get your bowl of dry ingredients, because it's time for the next step.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

With your dry ingredients set aside, you can begin work with the butter and sugar. It is important for the butter to be at room temperature when you begin to work with it here, as soft butter will be mixed more evenly with the sugar than cold butter. Creaming the butter allows for the creation of tiny air bubbles. These bubbles will trap air and expand when the cake cooks, creating a lighter texture than a cake made with oil or melted butter, neither of which will create air bubbles when mixed with sugar. If you butter is cold, not at room temperature, it will result in uneven creaming and you will probably see air pockets in your cake when you slice it.

When creaming, look for a smooth and fluffy consistency, not granular. I recommend using an electric mixer or some sort for this. It will take about 3 minutes on medium-high speed. Once your butter and sugar are creamed together, continue on.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Before you get started on the batter, you'll need to grease your pan. We're using a 10-inch tube pan, most often used for pound cakes and angel food cakes. I used nonstick cooking spray to grease my pan, but butter or shortening will work just as well. Use your fingers or a paper towel to get your grease into every corner. Once the cake has been baked, we'll need to turn it out onto a cooling rack and it's important that the cake does not stick, as it could cause the cake to break when you flip it over.

Once your 10-inch tube pan is greased, put your dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt - into a medium bowl and whisk until well combined. Set this bowl aside and continue on to the next step.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Place all your streusel ingredients, except for the butter, in a large bowl and stir together. Cut the butter into 10 or 12 large chunks and add them to the bowl. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is crumbly. Some pieces can be large - the size of an almond or pecan - but they shouldn't all be that big. Notice in the photo how the sizes of the lumps in my mixture vary.

I wasn't thrilled with the recipe's instructions to have the butter soft for the streusel, since it is much easier to work into flour when it has been chilled. What this really means is that your hands will get dirty during this step. Just keep working until the streusel is done, since it only takes 4 or 5 minutes. And don't plan on answering the phone.

Rub the ingredients together to create a nice, sandy streusel. Set this bowl aside and go on to the next step.

The first thing to do, once you have your ingredients list, is check your recipe and preheat your oven. This gives it time to come to the right temperature. There is no "right" amount of time, as all ovens vary. Some will heat up in five minutes and others will take twenty. It's best to be on the safe side and give it more time, rather than less. Next, gather your supplies. You'll need flour, sugar, butter, etc. I find that it is helpful to have all my supplies on the table in front of me when I start to work, because you can always grab a spoon if you need an extra one, but if you forget an ingredient, it could be a disaster for your cake.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grab a bowl and the streusel ingredients and head over to the next step.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

While I enjoy many, many varieties of homemade muffins, from light and moist to heavy and healthy, I have always found the bakery-like muffin difficult to recreate at home. Who doesn't love the fluffy interior, crispy ledge and high, domed top of muffins from a coffee shop or bakery? With the help of The Best Recipe, I compiled a few tips to picking a recipe and recreating these at home:

• Choose a muffin recipe that uses yogurt or buttermilk as a liquid, which will make a thicker batter and support the muffin in a high rise.
• A thick batter will allow you to heap the batter into muffin tins without it spreading all over the pan. This will ensure a high rise and create a small shelf around the base of the muffin.
• Even when using an acidic ingredient like yogurt or buttermilk, a muffin leavened mostly with baking powder will achieve a higher rise than one with baking soda alone.
• Using butter instead of oil and creaming it with the sugar will create a fluffier texture, not to mention that butter will give the muffins a more delicate (and delicious) flavor than oil.

Here is a fuller account of making bakery-style muffins, as well as a recipe for the Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins pictured above. Or, you can check out Elise's Blueberry Muffin variation of the same recipe.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]