Matsu

Matcha creme brulee is good too!

How about a mini quiche with Portuguese sausage in a tart shell...make it look like a mini custard tart. If you are making eclairs you could easily make mini cream puff shells as well - maybe use a savory horseradish whip cream with a beef filling...

I used to order PCB transfer sheets from another vendor in California and had no problems in the past. Recently, I noticed that they no longer carry the transfer sheets with gold in them. Most of the other colors seem to be ok but if a multicolored transfer sheet has any hint of gold in it is very difficult to get.

If you could prep part of it before, there's a recipe in Charlie Trotter's dessert book for a roasted fig with goat cheese ice cream. It's served with an oatmeal tuile and a spicy fig sauce.

Macadamia nuts are from Hawaii so you can do a lot of things with them... How about caramel apples rolled in macadamia nuts and drizzled with chocolate... or a banana macadamia nut cream pie topped with whip cream and fresh coconut or frozen bananas dipped in chocolate and macadamia nuts... or white chocolate macadamia nut cookies... Homemade marshmallows with a tropical puree like guava or passion fruit might be different - especially since it's overnight you'll have time to let it set. Chocolate dipped strawberries are fun and they can decorate them with drizzled white chocolate or coconut too.

If you're in Southern California have you been to Surfas in Culver City? They sell many different brands of Chocolate in small quantities... This is their website... https://www.surfasonline.com/productlines/118.cfm . They also give discounts to culinary students. It's a restaurant supply type of store with both food and equipment.

Try using Yukon Gold potatos - they don't discolor even when raw

Lavosh and other savory crackers last a while...If you have room in your freezer, you could bake things like brownies, cupcakes, etc. in big batches and freeze them... then pull out what you can sell in a day and just frost them.

Here's another vote for Package Nakazawa. They have beautiful packaging. One more company with exquisite packaging is KMM Product Inc

Here's a few more... Chocolatier Pastry Art & Design Chef Modern Baking Culinary Review Cuisine at Home Art Culinaire Barista Tea & Coffee

One of my favorites is COCOLAT by Alice Medrich...Lots of pictures -and lots of cakes but more of a pastry book than a cake decorating book per say... The recipes are good too! It's not a new book so you can probably check it out at your library first.

You could use white chocolate with colored hilights...this dries quickly...use non-water based colors like the colors for tinting candy check here for a sample

There is a Japanese company called Package Nakazawa that carries bakery packaging and they will precut cellophane to order. However, they require a 4-6 week lead time because everything is shipped here from Japan. They also have minimum orders so this probably won't work for you unless you are ordering a lot.... They have some existing sizes that are less expensive because they are running them for other companies. The phone number is 818/907-9764 Fax: 818/907-9756 Email: yokuaki@americanaccessusa.com

* how many persons attending, including you - 2 * which day you would attend (Sat., Sun., or Either) - Sunday * how adventurous are you, in terms of eating (jellyfish? abalone? squid? whole fish with the head intact & the eyes looking at you?) We're game for pretty much anything except ducks feet! Whole fish is great!

For anybody in Southern California, Thomas Keller will be the keynote speaker at the Western Foodservice Expo on Sunday, August 21st at the LA Convention Center. After the session, he will be autographing copies of the French Laundry Cookbook and the Bouchon Cookbook. Click here for more info. The keynote speech starts at 11 am on Sunday.

I made an azuki cheesecake that was pretty popular. Put half the cheesecake batter in the pan then sandwich a slightly frozen layer of azuki in the middle of the cheesecake batter. There's a Hawaiian shaved ice dessert with sweetened red beans and vanilla ice cream that I really like too. There's a similar Japanese dessert with shaved ice and azuki but without the ice cream. Maybe an azuki granite?

Here in Southern California the humidity isn't too bad...florentines stay crisp for quite a while with no problem....They might get soggy in contact with the ice cream though. ...I've made small round ones and dipped the bottom in chocolate. These can be used as a garnish with ice cream without getting soggy.

I like this recipe too. The overnight rest does make a big difference. The grilled veggie focaccia sandwich at the end of the recipe is excellent. Try the leaf shaped fougasse using the same focaccia dough (from Baking with Julia as well).

If you have an electric juicer, that works great too...strains all the seeds out.

I Second That! Beautiful - truly a labor of love.... Those fillings sound luscious too! Wish I could sneak a taste!

Try this company... for gold boards for individual pastries.....(under specialty concept area)

According to the CIA Baking and Pastry - Mastering the Art and Craft, a Tart is "a shallow, usually open-faced pastry shell with filling" a Torte is "the German word for Cake. It can be multilayered or a single, dense layer." I've always questioned why a linzertorte is not a linzertart too...It looks more like a tart than a torte

Gorgeous dessert Fwed! Looks delicious too! I'd forgotten about that ice technique. I've used it with colored white chocolate for making coral but never tried it with isomalt...something new to try...thanks!

How firm is the curd after it sets up? Might try letting it set up in a bowl covered with plastic wrap so you don't get a skin, then after it's cool, mix it just enough to spread into your mold. I've done this with extra lemon curd to fill tarts, etc. but it's not a really firm set.

Albert Uster carries a powdered banana flavor which is freeze-dried. Believe it's a Fruita Prima product. Their website is www.auiswiss.com I've purchased Dreidoppel from Euro Source Gourmet but I usually buy one case at a time (6 jars of compound). Amoretti has a banana compound but I've never tried it. They're really good about sending samples though so you can call and ask for a sample.