chefpeon

Pics of golf cakes.....I'll see what I can dig up! I stopped taking pictures of them a LONG time ago, since I got so sick of them.....and in those days I didn't have a digital camera, so I saved my 35mm film for the more showy cakes. I'm sure I can scan a few old photos! Since I did do so many golf cakes, I had a lot of pre-made fondant greens, flags, balls, clubs, and the like......all I had to do was slap 'em on a cake and pipe some grass.....maybe add a banner and I was good to go.

For me, all I want is sharpness and nothin' but sharpness. I do agree that the handle is sort of important comfort-wise if you're doing a lot of choppin' and the like, but since I'm a pastry chef, I don't do as much chopping as the hot side, so I'll forego a comfy handle if I get my sharpness. Such is the case with my Global. Man I love it. It's razor sharp and STAYS sharp. Big points off for the handle though. It looks cool, but one wonders where the designers heads were when it comes to comfort. It's a blister-rama in the making!

Boy, you said it, chefette! I rarely make genoise for that reason. I just hate putting energy into something that really isn't that great.

Now THAT is brilliant. I just love it when an idea is great AND easy! If you don't mind, I'm going to save that in my "idea" file. It's a keeper. Hey Cherie..... howcome you didn't utilize the husband before calling the computer guy? I woulda been in a load of trouble if I'd called in outside help.....although no matter what my hubby says, I will ALWAYS call the plumber.......

I see you nixed your crossed clubs idea! But I think the swear words are way better! That was a great idea!!! Wendy, I bet you have to do a LOT of golf cakes since you work in a country club. You can probably do them in your sleep! When I worked at the cake shop, we were located in the middle of 3 different golf courses. Needless to say I had a lot of golf cake orders myself. The good thing about them is that they're really easy to do, but the bad thing about them is that I got so bored doing them. We had this joke that whenever a golf cake order came in, that one of my assistants would do it. They were happy to, but always teased me about how much I loathed them. One day they came in early and wrote up a bunch of fake golf cake orders and put them on my table....all due within about an hour of each other. So happens there was a big PGA tournament that weekend at a course close to us, so it was completely believable to me. They let me go as far as mixing up a lot of green icing and start making little fondant golf balls that they let me in on the joke. Boy did I laugh! I was so relieved that I wasn't going to spend the day on the fondant "greens"! They scored a "hole in one", that's for sure!

I have made a LOT of chocolate chip cookies in my day. I've tried zillions of different recipes. The one I love is Sarah Phillips recipe on Baking911. I'm so happy with it, I haven't even bothered to try any more recipes. To me, this is THE ONE. The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Be sure to follow the recipe EXACTLY.

Hee hee.... Did we actually help, or just confuse the hell out of you?

Think of it this way...... You can do one of three things....... You can leave the Oreos as they are, and crush them, or preferably, run them through a food processor, and you won't have to add any butter to them, because the filling in them is pure sugar and shortenin'.......and that will be more than enough to coat the crumbs so you can press them into your cheesecake pan. If you added butter to that, it would be WAY too greasy.... overkill! Or...... you can take the Oreos apart and scrape off the filling and just crush the cookie part and add butter to the crumbs. You only need to add butter to the point where you take some crumbs in your hand, make a fist, and the crumbs should stick together. It should never feel overly greasy or oily. I personally feel that this method makes a better tasting crust......I'm not a real big fan of that shortening filling. Or...... you can do it the REALLY easy way, and make a dark chocolate cookie crust by using those "Famous Brand" Chocolate Wafers. Then you don't have to mess with taking Oreos apart. Basically a crust made with Famous Wafers and Oreo wafers is virtually the same. Except for the shortening of course.

Yow.....just don't be moron like me, and just use what you have in the cupboard...... in my case, I had only Blackstrap, and I thought....."oh that'll be ok".......... NOT!!!!! *cough*hack*

Sometime that happens to me......either because I used a different brand of chocolate, or because I stirred it a bit TOO vigorously....... but I've never had to throw it away because that happened.....damn.....it's too expensive to toss! I'll do anything to fix it! Most of the time, the separations have been slight enough not to matter much, so I just wrapped the modeling chocolate in plastic, let it sit a day, and knead as normal. Never a problem. One time though, I used a brand of white chocolate I wasn't familiar with, and I'll be darned if it didn't separate out so bad it was like a chocolate gob in a POOL of oil. Surprised the hell out of me. No matter how much I stirred, it would never come together. So, thinking I had nothing to lose, I stuck it on the mixer. Slow speed at first, then a bit faster, and miraculously it came together. Still, though, I'm never using that brand of chocolate again! I'm guessing your chocolate will still be workable. I don't know how much separation you are dealing with here. At this point, since some time has gone by since you originally posted, your chocolate isn't that warm anymore. Just let it sit to "ripen", then knead it. It should be ok. Let me know how it goes.

Don't overthink it. I refrigerate modeling chocolate all the time. It all depends on what kind of conditions are outside and in your environment that determines sweating. Besides, we're just talking about a banner here. You're not going to have a sweaty sticky mess. Don't-uh-sweat it. I use banners because they look cool, and they're easy to do. I can also write directly on the sides of cakes, but not with chocolate, since it drips. I have to use buttercream or something else to write directly on the sides.

I have found that if you use the chocolate "coins" (also known as pistoles) that it's a pretty safe bet you can use them. On the other hand, white chocolate "chips", like the kind that are meant to go in cookies and such don't work so well. There is extra "stuff" in them that keeps them from completely melting and losing their shape, and this extra "stuff" is not so good when you're trying to melt it down. Stay away from the "chips". Chop up a white chocolate bar if you have to.......

That sounds ok.....preferably you want to use white chocolate.....that way you can color it whatever color you want. It's ok to use paste color on modeling chocolate....you don't have to worry about the chocolate "seizing" because the process of incorporating the corn syrup has already "seized" it in a sense. Good luck with it!!

What I do is make a "banner" out of modeling chocolate.....write on the banner with chocolate, let it set up, then stick it to the side of the cake. Easy AND cool! Here's an example..... Edited to add: You can use a modeling chocolate banner on buttercream or fondant too.

Well, gosh when chickens are cloned and start laying the exact same sized eggs every time, we'll have a definitive answer........ Nature varies, and the weight of eggs will always vary too. I didn't have any conversion charts at the time, so I just decided what brand of egg I was going to buy in, and I broke a dozen eggs and weighed each one. Then I figured the average weight, and that was my egg weight for recipe conversions. Always worked just fine. The few ounces or grams you're off is virtually indiscernable in your final product. It's important to be precise when you convert recipes, but you don't quite have to be THAT precise..... Relax!!! Break an egg.....

Gosh....... I certainly hope that having to do nearly 3000 mini's out of your home, and only getting 24 hours to do a menu isn't a sign of future things to come...... Hope the job is promising for you....

On the Bride's website it lists one of the participating bakers as Mike's Amazing Cakes, but I didn't see any photos of a possible submission done by Mike McCarey......was he a "no show"?

Don't want to "threadjack" this thread, but I will reply to the above. I do clean up their messes constantly, because I have to in order to get my stuff done. And yes, it allows them to ignore it. AND they don't feel guilty at all. So if I want to work in a clean environment I have to do it myself. Which adds to my workload. Which kinda makes me mad. I just deal with it, but sometimes I wanna blow my top. Realistically, looking for a job, finding one that challenges you and suits you, pays well, is close to home, AND where the chef is a cleanliness freak? Kind of a long shot. Especially here in Tinytown. Luckily too, the only problem I really deal with in my job is the neatness thing, so when you think about it, I don't really have it that bad. Not at all. This is also in my "Bible of Meez"! (as in Mise en Place)! I call it "Hit the Ground Running". I love the fact that I can go into work and know exactly what I need to do, and not waste a moment. Well, unless you get some bizarro order that you have to fill yesterday, so I make allowances for re-prioritizing. On my list are always "things I GOTTA do" and "things I WANNA do". The "wanna's" go away if I get that last minute emergency thing.

Another suggestion that would really work is to do a cupcake tree, which also happens to be kinda trendy at the moment. Basically, all you have to do is make a bunch of cupcakes.....ice each one, and stick a flower on it.....it can be a fresh flower, or an icing flower.....or a marzipan flower, a gumpaste flower, or chocolate flower........and you don't even have to make the flowers yourself.....you can buy them if you want to. Or....you don't even have to put flowers on them.......you could ice each one and top it with the large coconut shavings (not angelflake, the other kind, also known as "chips"). That looks really frilly and wedding-y. Then, all you have to do is put the cupcakes on a tiered stand (you can rent stuff like that at the party rental store) and voila! Cupcake tree, zero stress.....AND you don't even have to worry about cutting the darn thing. Here's a great example of a cupcake tree........

Yes! Let's start with that one, shall we? Like, how do you deal with working in a kitchen full of SLOBS!!!!! Argh. I'm at my wit's end sometimes. Like today, I bleach down and flour my worktable to roll out some cinnamon rolls. I go to get my dough, and when I get back, there's a pile of raw pork tenderloin sitting on a corner. "Oh, do you mind if I put that there for a sec?" Yes, Yes I DO!!!!!!

This is Amoretti. They make awesome flavoring compounds......and yeah, they got maple!

There are more reasons to have the knives pointed down than pointed up, that's for sure. And safety is the main reason. When you think about the cycles in a dishwasher and the high water heat involved, whether the knives are pointed up or down doesn't make a bit o'difference....they're equally clean. Besides the silverware basket isn't the lowest point in the machine, it's not like the basket is anywhere near sitting in dirty water. I'm with you.....pointy side down!

The only thing I can really say about this is that I have experienced similar problems but not because of any type of color issue. I always use the Pettinice, and I swear some buckets of it don't seem to be as fresh as others. No matter if a add some glycerin or a little water....it just seems dryish and/or off-ish. Then I'll open another bucket and everything's fine. I've only had trouble with colored fondants that are deep hues....for instance when you have to add a lot of black or red coloring to get it as deep as you want, and then it slacks the fondant out. I have since found that I can offset that problem by using half powder and half gel-paste.

Can one have a culinary orgasm? Oh most definitely. That might explain my weight problem.

Not really big on eating cheesecakes myself.....although I do make them a lot!! I have the same problem with friends, family, etc, when it comes to spicy foods. I just don't like spicy!!!! Thai, Mexican......I enjoy it, but with very very very very little spice! Yeah, I'm the pansy that orders items on the Thai menu with ZERO STARS. So shoot me. It seems everyone around me just loves it......and me, with my Scandinavian palate stands alone.....usually eating the pastry, because, well, it's not spicy. Maybe that's why I became a pastry chef......