DiH
-
Posts
186 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by DiH
-
-
Another, real easy way to do writing on the side of the cake is by using alphabet cutters and gumpaste or a 50/50 gumpaste/fondant. There are some nice cutters avaiable. Hereare some examples of some cakes (blue baby cake and anniversary cake beside it) with writing done using the cutters (although the examples are not on the sides
)I've seen that site before somewhere. I remember it cuz none of the pictures enlarge for me when I click on the thumbnails. It must be using some pretty fancy schmancy coding that's written for the minority rather than the majority of computer users.
All this to say that if it doesn't work for some of you, it's nothing that you're doing wrong.
Di
-
These have become my husbands favorites. Funny story... not looking forward to a 13-hour flight from Dallas to Saipan, he took some of these cookies with him. The guy seated next to him ate nearly all of them. When all the cookies were gone, he asked for the recipe!
Di
-
I tried making a double batch of PH's Lemon Cream. It tastes great but I stirred over a double boiler for almost 2 hours and still never got the mixture to 180 as the recipe states it should. I think I managed 170 and by that time I'd had enough. The recipe says it should take 10 minutes. I figured it would take a bit longer because I doubled it but what's going on? I used a digital timer and a candy thermometer. The candy thermomter actually never read over 150 but it could be because it was on the edge of the pan.
I used half of it in a mousse which tastes great and the other half is in my fridge to be used in tarts. It is very thick and I'm wondering how I get it into tart shells now. I'd like it to have a smooth top so I can finish it with apple jelly and berries. Can I heat it up until it's fluid enough or will this negate the effect of the time spent in the blender? Any ideas from someone who's used this recipe?
K8's right... next time crank up the fire. My arm would have fallen off long before two hours' time! The only time I have problems with non-climbing temperatures is when the a/c comes on and the overhead vent blows directly downward and into the pan, cooling off the contents.
I would think that you should be able to fill your tart shells after allowing the lemon cream come to room temperature, then giving it a good stir. With all that butter in there, it should chill up nicely for you.
Di
-
Not yet. I did order Roland Winbeckler's Airbrush Techniques booklet and have looked through it several times. My goal is to be up and running by the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas)
I hope to purchase my equipment next month. I have a big cake order in the wings that will pay for it.
What brand, model and where did you purchase your equipment?
I hope you plan to give a demo on the use of airbrushing for newbies....
That's right, you've been a busy girl in recent months. I totally understand how you wouldn't have time to mess with "yet another" piece of equipment right now.
The airbrush I got is a Wagner Spraytech System... yep, the whole kit and kaboodle in one box. $90 at Lowe's... as big a hit as my bank account could stand right now. Later on, if I decide I like it or am any good at it, I'll shell out the Big Bucks and upgrade to a "cake decorator's" airbrush.
And yes, of course, I'll be demo-ing -- on how NOT to use an airbrush.
Di
-
Bumping this up... cuz I finally bought an airbrush yesterday -- Yay!!
I have a couple elementary questions. How to mix the color before filling the gun's container, specifically what do you mix with the color... in what ratios?
I'm brand new to this so no one is allowed to laugh except me.
Di
P.S. Lydia, have you been able to get into airbrushing yet?
-
I'm curious. Those of you who confess to being "shortening snobs", what type of icing do you use for piping?
-
What's the deal with buttercream? (bear with me, I'm Dnish and have not grown up with the stuff) Most of the recipes I've seen in run-of-the-mill cookbooks look disgusting (lots of shortening and artificial flavouring), so I stopped after one attempt, because a mouthful of sweet, chemical tasting grease does nothing for me.
/Mette
I agree with you Mette...buttercream is absolutely my least favorite. As far as CC's cakes...I've had it four different times and 3 different cake flavors. All got and A+ for visual appearance and about a D for taste. To me the layers were dense with not too much "fresh" flavor and the mouth feel of the icing is just totally wrong for me. It tastes exactly like you have described...a mouthful of sweet, chemical tasting grease
They are wildly popular though, so I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to this sentiment.
JeAnne
Gurl, I guess we're a 2 member club then...
uh... make that 3 - when it comes to Italian Meringue BC anyway. French Buttercream on the other hand is to die for. Ooh la la!
I would love to know how to create a pipe-able French Buttercream. Any ideas, anybody?
Di
-
PB Awesome Blowouts (recipe link above) fresh from the oven...
Using a 2 oz. scoop, the recipe yields 19 big, fat cookies plus a little extra dough to nibble on.
Oh -- and I added one extra egg.These are probably one of the best cookies I've had in a long time... their name sez it all (more so than my photography).
Di
-
-
-
Hi there~
I agree with the other member who suggested the Martha Stewart Cake Decorating video. I have it as well and Ann Warren does have a segment where she briefly demonstrates how to do some of her flowers as well as making and tinting the icing for them. She pipes them directly on the cake. The cake is on a turntable that allows her to spin it at will. I also have her book "The Cupcake Cafe Cookbook". She gives her recipes as well as cake decorating instructions for various flowers. These include: roses, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, dahlias, chrysanthemums, tulips, various lilies, wisteria, lilacs, hydrangeas, poinsettias, pine needles and pine cones. Each flower is also provided with recipes to achieve various shades.
For her daisies, she uses #4 and #59 tips. The centers are done with the #4 and the petals are done with #59. Roses are made with a #103 or #104 tip. She instructs to use a tip #103 and pipe the base with which should be about 3/4 inch in diameter, preferably circular. To make the rose center, you should pipe an "O" which consists of two overlapping "U"s. Then you add petals around it, which are getting bigger and at a more "open obtuse angle as you go." (Dang! Can't run from that math, ya'll!!!
) FYI... Petals are made by positioning bag so that short base of rose tip is against the cake and the "long sides are almost vertical or flange out at an obtuse angle." Press out icing about 3/4 inch to one inch at a time in a random formation.Hope this helps... if all else fails, go to the library and check out her book in addition to her video. I still couldn't catch on to her roses after seeing the video. That chick moves fast!
I got the book. While I've done a couple of her other flowers, the roses still give me trouble... then again, it's not like I've been practicing!!! Naughty me! Swept up in the wonderful world of gumpaste!JamericanDiva, you have been such a help... thank you!
Is the icing recipe (shown in her book) the right consistency for piping? I don't want to spend the money if I'm still gonna' have to tweak 'yet another' recipe.
Di
I know, this seems rather stupid to be replying to my own post... actually I'm just expanding on it.
It just occurred to me that Cupcake Cafe's buttercream icing is almost identical to the recipe that I use... I believe chefpeon (?) was the original poster. The only difference is that CC uses whole eggs whereas "our" French Buttercream recipe calls for 1 whole egg and 5 yolks -- and is way too soft for piping.
My question now is... (if the CC recipe actually is thick enough to use for piping) does their addition of eggwhites make that big of a difference in the consistency? That is, using whole eggs as opposed to using either whites or yolks. If so, I much prefer the flavor of French buttercream to Italian or Swiss.
Di
-
Is this what they're using? $35-40 for one 9x16" sheet.
Di
-
Hi there~
I agree with the other member who suggested the Martha Stewart Cake Decorating video. I have it as well and Ann Warren does have a segment where she briefly demonstrates how to do some of her flowers as well as making and tinting the icing for them. She pipes them directly on the cake. The cake is on a turntable that allows her to spin it at will. I also have her book "The Cupcake Cafe Cookbook". She gives her recipes as well as cake decorating instructions for various flowers. These include: roses, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, dahlias, chrysanthemums, tulips, various lilies, wisteria, lilacs, hydrangeas, poinsettias, pine needles and pine cones. Each flower is also provided with recipes to achieve various shades.
For her daisies, she uses #4 and #59 tips. The centers are done with the #4 and the petals are done with #59. Roses are made with a #103 or #104 tip. She instructs to use a tip #103 and pipe the base with which should be about 3/4 inch in diameter, preferably circular. To make the rose center, you should pipe an "O" which consists of two overlapping "U"s. Then you add petals around it, which are getting bigger and at a more "open obtuse angle as you go." (Dang! Can't run from that math, ya'll!!!
) FYI... Petals are made by positioning bag so that short base of rose tip is against the cake and the "long sides are almost vertical or flange out at an obtuse angle." Press out icing about 3/4 inch to one inch at a time in a random formation.Hope this helps... if all else fails, go to the library and check out her book in addition to her video. I still couldn't catch on to her roses after seeing the video. That chick moves fast!
I got the book. While I've done a couple of her other flowers, the roses still give me trouble... then again, it's not like I've been practicing!!! Naughty me! Swept up in the wonderful world of gumpaste!JamericanDiva, you have been such a help... thank you!
Is the icing recipe (shown in her book) the right consistency for piping? I don't want to spend the money if I'm still gonna' have to tweak 'yet another' recipe.
Di
-
Interesting observation. It is possible that the green cake with the writing is in fact white chocolate ustilizing a transfer sheet and is not the edible paper/frosting sheet stuff. although it looks very thin.
I think that the cake artists were supposed to produce normal edible decorations and cake coverings but I am almost positive that in one case I saw someone 'fluffing' up a flower that I had assumed was gumpaste and in the case of the I Do I Do cake - I suppose it is possible that the cake artist did use normal paper - that would be a big dissapointment. But - it is a possibility I guess.
It just seems that it is disingenuous because it looked like alot of the attendees were brides out 'shopping' for their future cakes and if you did indeed use real paper...
I think probably they're not using "real" paper, per se... it's just that "a wrinkle here and a seam there" does allow a certain amount of mystery to creep in.
Maybe Stev Klc or someone else "in the know" will catch wind of this thread and shed some educated insight.
Di
-
So which vendor have you tried?
PhotFrost
"Not rice paper, potato paper, fondant or anything like that. They DON'T have a strange texture or taste. They are NOT hard to cut through. They DON'T add an extra layer or "skin" to your cake.
They really are frosting, specially blended and pressed ultra-thin onto a backing page to pass easily through our printer. Your images print out sharp & clear, just like a photo. "
Edible Expressions
is there a difference between the brands or are they pretty much all the exact same thing packaged and sold by different companies?
...scanned-in images — using food coloring — onto thin, edible sugar sheets. The sheets get placed atop cakes, blending in with the frosting.
Other than cakes, here's an example of how I've used this particular type of edible image:
I get mine from DecoPac.
The paper that the image is printed on completely dissolves into the wet surface on which it is applied. In this case, it was dissolved in only a matter of minutes because of the wetness of the whipped cream. There is no detectable residue left behind.
As you can see, there's a remarkable difference between this type of edible image and the transfers as shown on the above cakes. The bottom two strike me more like something that is "glued" on... like a sheet of wallpaper, for lack of a better comparison, and look almost paper'ish to me.
Di
-
"Also the Cupcake Cafe pipes the petals of their roses straight up and just curves them around each other instead of piping them angeling out." That's definately one of the finer details I want to observe.We obviously can't tell you exactly how they do their cakes, only what it appears like to us. Unless of course we worked there or saw them working.
Wendy, maybe you could contact Ann Warren/Cupcake Cafe and extend a personal invitation for her to join the eGForums... and give us a photo-tutorial. YESSSSS!!!
Di
-
That's as good as any art museums exhibition! ......I wish this exhibition traveled from city to city, it should.
Ditto !!
Di
-
Maybe I'm alone on this, but I see a diifference between Cupcake Cafe's flowers and Wiltons. They each pipe out flowers, but the length/ height/structure/3D depth of Cupcake Cafe's buttercream petals are exceptional to Wiltons.
I've been practicing piping flowers dirrectly on my cakes and I haven't figured out how they do this so well. I can't seem to contort my tip and bag to achieve the angles they get on the backside of their flowers. Making a rose with-out being able to turn the rose in your hand is pretty difficult. I can't make my right hand work in every angle. It's really hard for me to believe they pipe all their flowers right on the cake..........maybe only the 2D ones?
MkFradin are you saying dry buttercream flowers in shape?
No, you're not alone... CC's flowers and Wilton's are worlds apart. I'm intrigued by them too so I've been squeezing in a bit of playtime during the past couple of days.
I know what you mean by not being able to achieve all the angles in order to pipe the flowers next to each other. The first flower goes on just fine... but piping the next flower smooshes the side petals of the first one, and so on and so on. There's gotta' be a way. Then again, if it was that easy we'd all be doing it.
Have you tried the CC recipe yet that BKeith had posted? Is it's consistency stiff enough to get the height of CC's taller and more slender petals, like on their zinnias? To me, that's the mystery... how to keep the height without having to turn my a/c down to 32 degrees.
Di
-
I got inspired to make a cake similar to theirs. I used a recipe that is on Sarah's Baking 911 site for Italian buttercream that has some powdered sugar worked in and it worked great for the flowers, the cake sat in my area for about 4 hours before it was taken out to the party and it held up great, no drooping petals or anything.
Did you get a picture of it that you can post? I'd love to see it!
Di
-
Here's the buttercream recipe from the Cupcake Cafe cookbook (Their directions go on and on -- I've "tersified" them to save typing and avoid copyright issues):
Here's a link to the entire recipe. There are also some interesting links at the bottom of the page.
Di
-
I got an error message with your link to KA catalog.
How weird; it works just fine for me.
I wonder what the deal is. Thanks tho' for posting the backup link.Di
-
How do they do those gourmet muffins you get at bakeries and restaurants where they are huge, giant mushroom tops with crispy / crunchy / sugary tops? And they stay that way even after sitting on your counter overnight and going into the microwave the next morning.
Any suggestions?
Crown Muffin Pans... and Coarse Sugar, available in Brown Demerara, Sparkling White or Pearl.
Covered, muffins should keep for several days. I believe the additional butter that you're adding after baking is the culprit of your problems.
Di
-
I had a bunch of Hershey's Miniatures left over after last Halloween. They made great chocolate chunk cookies and some halfway decent ganache too.
Di
-
Thanks Elie! I'll give it a shot.
Di[Moderator note: This topic continues in "Chocolate Desserts" by Pierre Herme (Part 2)]
Cake Decorating help
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Oops
, sorry. I didn't mean to offend you; I know firsthand how much work goes into a website. Unfortunately, I can't offer any suggestions... I stick to plain ol' HTML.
"I find if I click on the cakes from the top left corner and go "in order" from left to right, top to bottom, the pictures open up."... nope, that still didn't do it for me; however, your old site operated just fine. Your cakes are terrific. Nice work!
Di