HeatherM

I know that spice cake has already been mentioned, but I like it with applesauce / lemon sauce / lemon curd / whipped cream if you wanted to take it a bit further.

I found this book while I was looking for a candymaking book by a different author. I'm not sure how I feel about this... Candy-Making Revolutionized: Confectionery from Vegetables

I really like the water lily concept - that worked out really nicely!

This is great timing for this thread - I'll be in Nashville (Brentwood) in early May. I tried the website you mentioned - should that be Nashville Originals? www.nashvilleoriginals .com

I agree - Kinder Eggs. I used to get a dozen at Easter every year. I always threw out the chocolate, but loved the toys. I brought a bunch of them into work one year to share with some engineers who hadn't ever seen them before. They went over really well.

I haven't tried any of the frogs yet - they're for this weekend, but I did try a couple of the "toads" which aren't as nice looking. I really didn't notice the cocoa butter flavour on those, but I'll let you know what the consensus is about the frogs. I used a fairly strongly flavoured chocolate (cacao barry Cuba single origin), so that may help in overpowering the cocoa butter.

You're right - it's a thin layer of clear cocoa butter, then all the colour is in the chefrubber jewel cocoa butter. The spots / stripes are the yellow topaz, and then two layers of green (green crystal). I backed everything up with a layer of the white from the artisan colours, just to make sure that the colours popped. I've had some bad luck in the past with the coloured cocoa butters getting lost against the chocolate, but I don't know if that was really necessary this time around. Unfortunately I don't have an airbrush (yet!), so I used a paintbrush to paint the cocoa butter onto the molds. Thanks! I seem to be getting either one of two reactions, that they're really neat or really disturbing, but I like them.

I just used the Wilton no taste red gel colour added to the caramel as it was nearing it's final temperature (after I'd added the cream).

Well, after following this thread for ages, and re-reading the chocolates with a showroom finish thread, I finally dove in. I had bought a couple of moulds from Chocolat Chocolat here in Canada, cocoa butter from Chef Rubber, and was ready to start to play. I chose the frog mould to start with, since I've seen such great results in this thread, but I wanted to do frogs with a twist. I didn't have much luck my first time around. My chocolate wasn't in temper, so I got toads, not frogs! My second batch turned out beautifully! But for the twist... I decided to fill my frogs with gooey soft caramel. RED gooey soft caramel! Here's a toad I split open Almost everyone that I've shown them to has been quite disgusted, but I think they worked out very well!

I like this game! "toasted white bread" "four fried chickens and a Coke. "

You could also check out Lee Valley Tools - they have number of stores around the GTA or order on-line here.

Early this year I had promised to make sweets (truffles and cookies) for a friend's wedding. Things got a bit complicated when I also moved and started a new job in the month before the wedding. I guess Excel would have worked well, but since my last few jobs have been as a project manager, I headed for MS Project to schedule my time. It worked out fairly well in that I could easily see when I was going to run into scheduling problems, and was able to juggle my schedule around to get everything done. I guess that's probably geekier than Excel , but I think that I may try Excel for meal planning (which I do need to start doing).

Sign me up as a sous / dishwasher please! I'll try to bring something sweet, but I know I can wash dishes!

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Stratford, Alex. I've heard from others that South Pacific is wonderful. I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch up with you and Ms. Alex, but I'm almost moved in now, so maybe next time. I had to laugh when you mentioned Raja, as I got take-out there last Thursday. I had the vegetable samosas, chicken Madras, a mixed veg, a eggplant dish I can't remember the name of, rice and naan (of course). For some reason I always over-order when I get Indian takeout, so I was still eating it on Sunday (and it was still yummy). I agree with your assessment - I'm not an expert either, but I really enjoyed everything that I had ordered. The chicken Madras had just the right amout of heat for me, and a good flavour. I'm looking forward to trying more restaurants in the area over the next few months, and I'll be sure to reference everyone's reviews before making reservations.

I had a great time at the gathering last year, and am hoping to make it this year, but I've relocated from Windsor to Stratford, ON, so it will take a bit more planning!

Like many others, I've been following this thread, groaning with each "not quite as hoped" experiment. Congratulations on your beginning success with bread, and I admire your persistence. I would have given up on try 2 or 3 to fight another day. This thread has inspired me to try baking bread (again). Now, I just have to keep this inspiration until I've finished moving and have a kitchen!

Hi Sweetside, I should add a caveat here - I have never worked with sheet gelatin, only Knox, so this is all based on the mathematics & the formulas given. From the web: 1 Sheet Silver gelatin - 160 bloom, 2.4g to 2.5g 1 Sheet gold gelatin - 200 bloom, 2.0g 1 Envelope Knox gelatin - 225 bloom, 7.0g Silver to Gold sheets - 1 silver sheet is approximately equal to 1 gold sheet, based on the following conversion: Silver to Gold conversion 2.5g silver x 0.89 = 2.225g gold = 2g gold (rounding down) = 1 sheet Unless you're dealing with large quantites, or a very delicate application, I would think that rounding down by this amount should not be an issue. Someone with more experience, please correct me if I'm wrong. If a recipe says to use X number of sheets (and doesn’t specify type or weight), and you only have powdered, then I think you have to make a bit of a guess. For example – Recipe says use 3 sheets, & you only have Knox. 3 Silver sheets = 2.5g x 3 = 7.5g Silver to Knox conversion is: Silver (g) x 0.84 = Knox (g) 7.5 x 0.84 = Knox (g) 6.3 g = Knox 3 Gold sheets = 2.0 x 3 = 6.0g Gold to Knox conversion is: Gold (g) x 0.94 = Knox (g) 6.0 x 0.94 = Knox (g) 5.64g = Knox You would have to use about 6g (or a bit less than one envelope) of Knox. Generally from what I’ve found on the web, 4 sheets of gelatin are considered equal to one envelope of Knox, but as I mentioned, I am far from an expert.

For convenience (and probably the sanity of a few mathphobics ) I've put together a conversion list based on these bloom values: Knox powdered gelatin is 225 gold leaf gelatin is 200 silver leaf gelatin is 160 Remember - this is by WEIGHT. The first gelatin listed is the known value. In the first conversion, 0.5oz of Knox would be equal to 0.5*1.19 = 0.595, or approximately 0.6 oz of Silver gelatin. Knox x 1.19 = Silver Knox x 1.06 = Gold Silver x 0.84 = Knox Silver x 0.89 = Gold Gold x 0.94= Knox Gold x 1.12 = Silver Hope this helps a bit!

Wendy, If you are working with a recipe that calls for a specific weight of a specific gelatin (often Knorr powdered gelatin), you can use this equation to substitute a gelatin with a different Bloom value for the one called for in the recipe. Weight (Gelatin A) = weight (Gelatin B) x square root (bloom Gelatin B/ bloom Gelatin A) Or, in this case, Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = weight (Knox) x square root (Knox bloom / silver bloom) McDuff knows that it takes 0.20 oz of Knox powdered gelatin to gel 1 lb of whipped cream (based on his previous experience), but wants to use Silver leaf gelatin instead. From the manufacturer's information, we know that: Knox = 225 bloom Silver = 160 bloom For McDuff's application, to convert from oz Knox to oz silver, the formula is this: Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = weight (Knox) x square root (Knox bloom / silver bloom) Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = 0.20 oz x square root (225/160) Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = 0.20 oz x square root (1.40625) Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = 0.20 oz x 1.185854 Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = 0.237 oz Weight (silver leaf gelatin) = 0.24 oz (rounded) to convert from ounces to grams, multiply by 28.35 0.24 oz x 28.35 grams/oz = 6.80 grams To get the number of leaves required - If the gelatin leaves weigh 2.5 grams each, divide 6.80 by 2.5 to determine how many leaves are required. # of leaves = weight req'd / weight per leaf # of leaves = 6.80 / 2.5 # of leaves = 2.72 leaves So, to replace 0.2 oz of Knox gelatin, McDuff would have to use 2.72 silver gelatin leaves. He chose to round up to 3 silver gelatin leaves for convenience.

Having only ever made one wedding cake (that one a small one - 2 tiers - for a friend's brother's wedding), and just recently at that, I can't help much with internet sourcing or many of your other questions, so I only have a few points to add. Get the cake & filling & shape & decorating style & all that stuff agreed upon well in advance. Less than a week before the wedding I was not happy to hear "We've changed our minds about the shape and the filling, and oh, the decoration style too." This causes undue stress. I have now learned that I don't handle stress well. If fresh flowers are requested for the cake - get the person ordering the cake to handle them. Being rather naive (and stupid), I believed that I could do the nice swag of fresh roses cascading down the side of the cake as was requested. The morning of the wedding found me sitting on my floor next to the computer desk, trying to wire roses into a beautiful cascade as I looked up flower arranging techniques on the web. Um, yeah - the flowers weren't the only thing wired after that. Fortunately, I was not involved in the wedding festivities at all, so I only had to deliver the cake in time for the reception. In the end, the cake turned out to be very pretty, the fresh roses cascaded, and the bride & groom were happy. I think that the best thing that I did was to set a schedule for myself that I knew was generous, and allowed lots of time appropriate to my own skill level (inexperienced). Good luck and I'm sure it will work out wonderfully. It sounds like you're going into this much better armed than I was.

You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help, it was just really good timing. I have to admit that I just scanned the scientific article to try to make sure that I was getting agreement between the two formulas. I had the same reaction as you to it. I'm interested to know how your experiment goes. I hope you'll post your findings.

Exactly. As you say, in this case, your 1oz gelatin to 5oz water would be use 1.2 oz (about 34g) silver gelatin. Following your calculations further, the 1oz of solution would be replaced by .204oz silver gelatin plus 1oz water. Rounding up from .204oz to .25 and then rounding up the number of leaves to a whole number may leave you with a more solid mousse than you would ideally like, but I agree that you'll probably end up with between 2 & 3 leaves per pound, so 3 is a reasonable starting point. I'm glad that the formula didn't scare you off. I came across it by chance just yesterday in a search for something else. I hope that this works for you.

If you don't like math, I don't think you'll like my answer, but here goes anyway... From The Age (Austrialian newspaper) I found this formula: Weight (Bloom 2) = weight (Bloom 1) x square root (Bloom1/Bloom2) This is also mentioned (although not as simply) here. C1(B1)½÷(B2)½ = C2 Basically it works like this: If the Knorr gelatin is your known mass at 1 unit of mass and 225 bloom, it is #1. and the Silver gelatin is your unknown mass at 160 bloom, it is #2. Weight (silver) = weight (Knorr) x square root (Knorr bloom / silver bloom) Weight (silver) = 1 unit x square root (225/160) Weight (silver) = 1.19 unit So, for every 1 unit (gram or ounce) of Knorr that is called for, you would use about 1.2 units (gram or ounce) of the silver gelatin. The simple answer: to go from Knorr to Silver gelatin, just multiply the weight by 1.2 I hope I haven't confused you too much. I know, it's ugly.

Very cool! Beautiful chocolates!

You can find photos of it online if you do a google image search for "caul fat". Here are a couple that I found... Scroll 2/3 of the way down THIS page. Photo & definition HERE