chefpeon

The use of commercial whites had been discussed at length on another thread a while ago. I believe the consensus was that when it comes to whipping them, they are very very undependable. I know in my experience, commercial whites were pretty much a disaster in whipping applications. I always always use fresh whites when I have to make meringues and such. I know it's more work to separate them, and can be more expensive, but the dependability is there, and that's what I need. I don't quite know what they do to commercial whites that makes them so squirrely.....it must be in the process...like pasteurization or some such.

As hot as I get my whites when I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I'd say they were more than fully cooked also. I think the primary difference between Italian and Swiss Meringue Buttercreams is stability. Swiss tends to deflate a little quicker and doesn't hold up as well in warm situations. Italian is heartier and a bit more dependable.

Hee hee.....you know, I actually tried. I had my camera in one hand and the sugarveil in the other. Spike, my cat was sniffing and licking the sugarveil. My plan was to drape it on his back and take a picture. But you know, cats get wigged out by the weirdest things. The minute I dropped it on his back he took off faster than I could get the camera aimed. I probably should have waited til he was asleep.

I completely agree with what Steve said. Usually when I use metallic dusts, they are on an element of the item that will probably get peeled off anyway. Also, when I'm in "cookie mode", I'm in a frame of mind that involves less labor. You want a nice looking cookie but you certainly don't want to create a design where you're going be painstakingly spending too much time on each and every one. The first 20 are fun.....after that......not so much anymore. Besides, since cookies aren't usually the centerpiece in most food events, but are rather a delicious accent to the food event, the focus should be on taste more than anything else. That's just what I've learned from experience.

In my younger days, my ex husband and I used to go to the 24 hour market in the middle of the night when we were high and had major munchies. You shoulda seen the grocery bills. One time we woke up on the couch in a pile of M & M's with the dog licking us and trying to eat the candy. Culinarily, that's when I hit bottom. I've been in rehab ever since....

I depend on the ability to hold cheesecake batter! I do it all the time. I make a big batch, then bake off cheesecakes to order. I add flavorings etc to a plain batter to make other cheesecake flavors. Usually my big batch will last two weeks. As it sits it gets a little thicker, but it doesn't affect anything texture or bake-wise.

Ok, so last night, it seemed the sugarveil thingy I made was set up by the time I went to bed, so I figure it took about an hour or so to set. After I got home from work today, I peeled it from the paper and draped it over a bowl, since I didn't have a cake lying around or anything. It came off the paper easily, and it seemed like it wanted to stretch a lot, (yeah, it's ULTRA flexible) so I was very careful with it, so as not to stretch it out of shape. I noted that since I sort of goofed it up in the first place (see above post) by not adding enough water to the mix and making a softer icing than I wanted to, it wasn't as "hardy" as if I'd done it correctly. Next, I took a taste. Tasted marshmallowy with a taffy-like texture. Pretty good, really. Then, since I had taken a bite out of it, I decided to see how it would look on the cat. I only got a brief glimpse though, since he ran like hell with it on his back. I found it hanging on the bay bush on the side of the house. It was still fairly intact. So bonus points for being able to withstand a little abuse! I think once you get a sugarveil on the cake, it's there to stay. No peeling necessary before serving. My assumption about this was based on the fact that once I got it on the bowl, it was pretty squirrely to deal with when I went to take it off. The instructions also say that once the sugarveil is placed on the cake, it eventually "melds" into the cake. I'll have to take their word for it on that one. I also don't think refrigerating it will harm it either. After all, it's royal icing with xanthan gum basically. I think this stuff could be good in instances where you would use royal icing, but are concerned about breakage. In one example I can think of, there's been a trend in monogrammed wedding cakes.....I've done a ton of them. I've made fancy script monograms with royal icing and put them on the side of either the middle or bottom tier. If the cake is square, no problem....the letters sit nice and flat. But if the cake is round, the letters stick out somewhat. If I made monograms with the sugarveil, I wouldn't have that problem anymore....they would conform to the sides of the cake. I'd also consider using it for suspended filigree work....it seems perfectly suited for that. A word of warning though.......I gathered from the instructions that humidity is it's worst enemy, and that's not really a problem if the sugarveil is completely adhered to the cake, but if it's suspended in any way, and you're in a high humidity environment, it seems to me that it would melt/stretch/fall right off. That's all I know......for now......

Ok, part one of the Sugarveil test. Step one in the instructions tells you to mix 1/4 cup boiling water with 1/2 cup of the mix. Mix with electric mixer on low for one minute, then on medium high for three minutes. What I did: I didn't want to make that much icing, because after all, it was only test. So I measured out 1/4 cup of mix and added 1/8 cup boiling water. Since that was too small of an amount to put on my Kitchenaid, I thought I would just whisk it by hand. After 4 minutes of whisking, I ended up with this...... When you first add the boiling water, the mix is very thin......as I whisked it, it got thicker. The consistency seemed ok, so I filled a parchment cone with a number 1 tip. I also took a little taste....not bad......kinda marshmallowy. Now that I think of it.......the mix basically is a marshmallow, isn't it? Sort of? I had downloaded one of the lace designs from Sugarveil's website to use. I taped it underneath a piece of parchment that was coated with shortening. The instructions tell you to use shortening on the parchment. I could have used my silpat, but had a temporary brain fart. D'oh! So then I started piping. Uh oh. Lines spreading too much. Darn stuff is too thin. Either I added too much water or I didn't whip it enough. Then it occurred to me......modified royal icing as I'd surmised upthread.....of course it should be whipped more! More than I could do it by hand. So I started over. This time I used my little cheesy hand mixer, since I didn't have enough icing to use the KitchenAid. I also used a little less water, thinking I'd gotten it too thin before. I whipped it on high for 3 mins, and here's what I ended up with....... Much better. Filled my piping bag and piped out the design. It looked ok, but even though I used a number 1 tip, the lines were still thicker than I would have liked. They were slowly slowly spreading. Upon reading the instruction sheet further, it said that using LESS water in the mix made for a wetter and softer result and would INCREASE setting time.......that would explain why my lines were spreading. Yipes, that seems like the OPPOSITE of what you'd think would happen. You'd think less water = thicker = no spreading = shorter setting time. BUT NOOOOOO. Things are slightly askew in Sugarveil Land! But since I was too tired to do it over again, I just decided to go with this and see how it sets and how long it will take to set. The instructions say dry and warm conditions decrease setting time, so that sucker is sitting inside my oven with the lamp on it. I just went to check it after about 45 minutes and it seems to be setting nicely. I'll keep y'all updated. Next installment as soon as it's set.

Yep, I third that.......when I worked at the cake shop in Redmond, at least 50% of our sales and leads were from the internet. Checking email and voicemail first thing in the morning usually took up to an hour! The internet is particularly useful for brides traveling to your state to get married. They check you out and contact you if you have a presence on the web. I think if you're really serious about being in any kind of business these days, a web presence is a MUST! Maybe even more than the Yellow Pages! We were also able to snag "Cake-o-gram" business......people would email or call us to have a cake delivered to a loved one......sort of like flowers.

Ok, ingredients from the front of the bag are: Sugar, dried egg whites, maltodextrin, cornstarch, xanthan gum So I'm thinkin'.....it's kind of a royal icing made pliable by the addition of the gum. I think that I've put off trying it, because, well, I've never needed it. However, I think it will make some pretty cool spiderwebs for Halloween cakes. Suspended lace hanging off the edge of pillared tiered cakes would be cool too. I really sort of had to laugh at the "patented" Sugarveil Confectionary Comb and the icing dispenser! Using a pastry bag is so much easier, cheaper and easier to clean. And $9.00 for an icing comb? Sheesh. As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to mix some up and pipe a design....take photos....let y'all know if it's really anything to crow about.

First, I found a site that sells the whole hebrew alphabet in cookie cutters....... here. Now, my two cents. No, make that three cents.....the oil prices affect everything. Like Jeannecake said, in that particular line of dusts, which a lot of sites sell, NuSilver is best. There's also a Moonstone Silver, but sheesh, that's like pencil lead. In my opinion, I don't think that NuSilver stuff is silver enough. It's more grayish than anything else. There's not enough luster to it at all. It's not......."chromey shiny" like I like it to be. However, Ambassador Fine Foods sells a gold dust and a silver dust that is shiny shiny shiny. It'll knock your socks off. I swear by that stuff. Not necessary to tint your icing. The dusts are opaque enough not to need any additional undertoning. I buy art brushes (sable mostly) in all sorts of sizes, shapes and stiffnesses that are reserved only for food work. It's not an expensive investment to go to the craft store and pick up a few brushes to suit your decorating needs....... Hope that helps......

I ordered some a long time ago.......it's still sitting in it's li'l packet in my pantry. Maybe I should try it so I can report back to you......that'll motivate me....... Trial Sugarveil coming up.

Just one observation......if you mix the powdered sugar and butter together first, you don't have to worry about lumps, and you don't have to sift the powdered sugar. I hate sifting if I don't have to. If you add powdered sugar to the creamed butter and cream cheese, make sure you sift first.

As a professional, I will add that restaurant cooking and cooking at home are two completely different things. I enjoy cooking both at home and at work, and each are a challenge in their own ways. At home, you have complete control over your ingredients and your preparation. You aren't pressed for time, and you don't have to get a trillion things done at once. You don't have to trip over your co-workers on the way to the stove or the sink. You can lovingly prepare your mise en place whilst drinking a glass of wine if you like. But on the other side, cooking at home can be harder because of lack of space (counter, refrigeration, stove, oven), lack of professional or commercial equipment, etc. Without a commercial dishwasher, cleanup seems harder too.... Cooking professionally......man, do you know how many things can go wrong? As well as you try to manage it, you really DON'T have complete control over everything, and disasters are frequent occurrences. Either your vendor shorted you on a specific ingredient (it's usually the one you REALLY needed, too) or your cook burns something, or the produce isn't as nice as you'd like it to be, or the refrigeration goes down, or a mixer blows a circuit, or the dishwasher throws out a pot of veal stock you've been working on for days thinking it was dirty water, and now you have to wing it for your soup that night on a moment's notice. One of your crew usually manages to call out sick on the busiest night, so you're working short-handed. The thing is, it's usually always something. A completely smooth night sometimes seems to be the exception, not the rule. Not that I'm making excuses for pros, mind you. I'm just saying that pros face much more challenges getting that meal to you, than you would making it yourself in your nice little controlled environment. Since I've worked in the food business, I've found myself far less critical of my peers in some ways , and more critical in others. I know the hardships. I'm just damn glad someone is cooking for me and I'm finally off my feet.

What I've always done is throw some butter, powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and some lemon juice in the mixer and cream until smooth. Then I add cream cheese a little at a time til it's the consistency I want. I have always found that firmer cream cheese icings have more butter than cream cheese in them. Too much cream cheese=soupy.

I think maybe to be successful next time you have to have a larger percentage of butter to cream cheese......like maybe 4 oz of cream cheese to 8 oz butter. As it stands right now, you have a 1:1 cream cheese to butter. You may have to bag the meringue thing altogether, but I hope you don't. I adore light billowy icings myself........

One thing I know about cream cheese......once you add sugar to it, it "soups out". So I'm guessing that cream cheese+sugar+meringue would be quite soupy indeed. I don't believe the meringue is that stable or strong enough to support the cream cheese. I believe you need a higher percentage of butter for it to come together. I've made light cream cheese frostings by whipping together powdered sugar and butter, then adding cream cheese to that mixture and whipping. The more cream cheese you add, the heavier and soupier it gets......so the key is not to add a whole lot of cream cheese. I've never tried a meringue type cream cheese icing......didn't even really know one that existed. Maybe there's a reason they don't....... But.......you might try to salvage what you have by adding even more butter (I don't think 2 oz was enough). That may work.

Nice splash page. But the site ain't up yet.

I'm doing a big project today. I'm going to document it in photos. I'll be sure to snap a pic....well, if I can, of the "paint masker thingy" in action......I'll see if I can hold the camera in one hand and the thingy in another just to give y'all an idea. 8 weddings in one weekend was kinda the average when I worked in the Seattle area cake shop. In the busier months it was more like 25 plus......but I had one baker, another decorator besides myself, and some part-timers that did "delivery crew". I did all the "difficult deliveries". Now, if you're doing 8 weddings in one weekend BY YOURSELF.....that's another thing! Yipes. I can't work those kind of hours anymore.

Hey man, don't knock it til you've tried it. Personally, I enjoy my Adjustable Drywall Skywalker Stilts for those really tall wedding cakes.

Ooooh, now you've inspired me! When I die, cremate me and dump the "organic Annie flour" in the Hobart and cream me with some butter.....no, make that Plugra. That way, you can whip me and beat me, but you can't make me write bad checks!

Those dendrobium orchids on your wedding cake you posted are harmless. Besides calla lilies, Poinsettias are poisonous also. Here is a site that has some listings of toxic flowers and edible ones.

I wanna know how you make that Tuile Dentelle!!!!!

Mel!! Thank you SOOO much for my personalized box of treats!!!!! I got my very own rhubarb/cream cheese danish and a croissant....from Mel herself! Yo! Yep, Mel definitely has her danish and croissant DOWN, people! Ok, so you saw my pic with the pastry before I ate it.....and I was gonna take a picture of the inside of the croissant to show how BEAUTIFULLY flaky it was, but there was no time.....nothing gets in the way of me and my croissant! I was gonna save the danish for the next morning, but I couldn't stand it. I had those pastries in my possession for about 15 minutes, and then....poof.....they were gone.....! Mel's pastries arrived about mid-way through the party, and I was just picking at food til they showed up. No way was I gonna be too full for those! Glad I saved room, and man I was starvin'! I reveled in laminated dough perfection! Ahhhhhh! Thanks again Mel......next time I get South, Criollo is my first stop!!!!

What's true for mkfradin is true for me also. I have cake dummies in my mother's garage that were decorated with meringue powder royal icing 3 years ago....still white as ever!