u/Happy-Adhesiveness34

For Pride weekend here in the Bay Area, I attempted the Rainbow Cake from Cookidoo, paired with some homemade lemon ice cream.

If you're planning to tackle it, I recommend having plenty of small bowls and spatulas on hand to manage all the different colors. Having multiple 8-inch cake pans (thankfully I have three) also helps speed up the baking process.

One tip for anyone trying this: The recipe's estimated breakdown left me short on batter for the final two layers (I didn't have enough to hit the 9 oz mark for those last colors). Next time, I'd recommend weighing the total batch of batter first and dividing it equally into 6 parts, rather than strictly aiming for the 9 oz per layer the recipe suggests.

Overall, it was a lot of work, but worth the effort!

I'm new to the Thermomix ecosystem (after years of sitting on the sidelines, researching and waiting). I've now spent one full week with the TM7. It's early, but I thought I'd share my initial impressions and how it's affected my kitchen habits so far:

I’m cooking more frequently, at least 2x a day (even more when I work from home).
I’m actually using the ingredients I have on hand in my kitchen.
I’m having a ton of fun making staples & condiments - vegetable stock paste (my first preparation), apple butter, sweetened condensed milk, apricot jam, vanilla sugar, ghee, cashew butter, and tamarind chutney, to name a few.
I haven’t eaten out once in the past week.
I've been able to ditch my coffee grinder, food processor, rice maker, and ice cream maker, freeing up space in my kitchen.

With that said, there are a few downsides:

Constant cleaning of the bowl. I splurged and got a 2nd bowl, which feels like a must if you plan to cook multiple recipes in a single cooking session.
It's intimidating to use at first. I spent about 27 hours give or take watching YouTube tutorials to get a feel for the machine before it arrived. I don't regret investing that time, as I was ready to get started right after the unboxing (and whoo-boy, was there a lot of packaging to get rid of!).
It can get loud. The cleaning cycle and high speeds (above 5) can get somewhat loud.

Favorite recipes, so far:

S'more cookie bites (these got RAVE reviews at a party I baked them for)
Rhubarb crumble (paired with honey ice cream) - excellent!
Creamy tomato soup
Chicken salad
Milk bread
Salmon and dill sauce over basmati rice
Honey almond coffee cake

Misses:

Lemon tea cakes (not enough batter to make two layers)
Orange juice (texture is off; I won't be getting rid of my electric citrus juicer anytime soon)
Chocolate chip cookies - these were fine, but inferior to the ones I make using my stand mixer

So far, I do not regret shelling out for the Thermomix. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but if these patterns hold, we should be in for a fun few years together.

Rhubarb crumble

Summer party trio

Rainbow Cake

Pistachio Macarons

Week one with the TM7