K8memphis

But all that to say these regulations do get tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter. I can see them saying anything that gets heated. They draw some peculiar lines.

Wow. Really? Oh maybe so. The codes might be state wide but the interpretation thereof is so local it's individual to each inspector. Hasn't that been your experience? That's so been mine! I mean requiring a chocolate tempering machine to be placed under a fire suppression system--just simply defies gravity and every other law of mankind. But I saw the chocolate room at The Peabody once and it is the coolest room with this chunky marble top counter and neither a hood nor a grease trap in sight. and I mean cool--they keep the temp low in there, yah think? Although come on chocolate is a fat. What are they thinking?

I think Domino's is wandering feverishly in some OCD minutiae.

You are so cool to do that pictorial! Lot of painful brain work all the way around. I couldn't be more grateful but I'm still laughing my head off about the balloon blowing. Yay!!! That's so cool. Thank you, Kerry My (hurting) brain thanks your (nearly blown out) brain too.

Oooh, birthday cake! That and 'the old husband' part are where I can relate. What a great new shiny pretty kitchen you have. And Many Happy Abundant Birthday Celebration-al Wishes to you all. Yes I say bake and freeze. I double triple wrap in plastic because I am a freak for containing all the aroma in there and keeping all other aromas out. Plus it reduces my ice crystals on the surface of the cake. What will you fill it with??? Seems blueberry might work better than raspberry but...maybe a mocha flavor? Or peanut butter mousse? I like to fill before freezing so all the flavors can get all comfy and personal in the dark. Then ice before serving. Thoughts for cake? Always! He probably maybe would not want it spiced up a bit, but here's another chocolate idea that even milder paletted folks enjoy. Just a chocolate thought for you. I would guess that the RLB Devil's Food recipe is a nostalgic favorite though. If he was my customer I'd fill the devil's food cake with Hershey's chocolate icing recipe from the can or maybe some whipped cream, maybe both. What kind of white icing are you using? A possibility for the list of names: Fough Dough? Plus I also vote for Clousseau, KweenAhmeen* picked a good one there. *I'm going phonetic.

Oh oh oh I gotcha now! Dip the outside of the blown up balloon or condom which is now your mold into the properly striped choco that's sitting on the counter or in a bowl. Ok I got it, but I would love the demo. So you gonna put the dark skinny racing stripe type chocolate stripes directly onto the mold first? Then dip? How do you keep everything from spreading too much as you dip? Practice practice practice? But then still how do you keep it solid white and solid brown through out. There does not appear to be any layering. It seems solid white and solid brown. This is making my brain hurt. I can't wait for a demo.

But still I think the choco stripes are somewhat drawn on because of the beautiful lineage where they are so dramatic and not completley gravitational like a real lava flow would be y'know? A real lava flow would be all straight and those lines are twisty and pretty, have character.

Hmm, but how the heck do they get it out of the form? Hmmm... A paper mold? That they can tear away? Well it could be poured over a mold. No? A silicone mold? A jointed mold?? This is a real spin the straw into hay-ish cool puzzle. Egg carton something or other???

Rob, they are hand made. Besides I can bs it. C'mon think! Kerry, that would not work because you can't keep the western stripes perpendicular and pour the north the south & east ones first y'know? This is a great puzzle. I mean maybe they just are so dang good at it they've got it finessed to a fair thee well. I mean even if you get past the white w/stripes being poured individually, you gotta discern how the tops got scalloped so evenly and there's no layering it appears solid white and solid brown all the way through from what you can see in the picture. Ok maybe they are made in four pieces that are then joined at the lowest part of the scallop. Put the stripe juju on the form, put enough white*, pipe on the rest of the brown choco for that one quarter piece. Do that three more times and join them at the dark brown choco??? Maybe??? I don't see any seams but they had to do it some way. *I mean it appears that the stripes and white are indeed poured because the stripelettes seem to grow from the bottom if you look closely it's not all equal from top to bottom like if you just striped it in one stroke it looks to have been a moving lava flow at one time. I think it could be done on a form where you make four petals and join them but I don't think they did it on a form. But I can't figure any other way to do it. Oh oh oh how about upside down OF COURSE OF COURSE --do each white section with the accompanying choco stripes (which probably at birth the choco stripes are choco dots that grow when the white is applied and allowed to run down that is in an upside down petal shaped form. Allow each section to set, place enough brown choco to fill in the gaps one section at a time. And Viola. Or maybe they do the brown choco sections first then the white and I can just imagine as you sit and do that three or four hundred thousand times you get a grip on just how much stuff to pipe in to make it look like that. Think maybe?

I'm not sure where to ask this question so cut me some slack if this is not the right spot. How do you suppose these dessert cups were made? My girlfriend asked me and at first I thought Oh well that's easy bladeeblabl--ugh well I don't know. I mean they are scalloped on top and they seem to look cupped like tulips and the chocolate is the same color all the way through--it doesn't seem layered. Y'know for a minute I thought the scalloped top edges were from pouring the melted chocolate up each side--but it's two different colors of choco and then the striping. I mean the striping is the easy part actually. How did they marry the white and dark and keep it all the way through like that??

OneTough, If I eat enough cake I'm gonna get a nutrient I'm sure just any minute/year now. It's a quantity thing I'm thinking. I'm glad that so many people do not get sick from leaving these products out. I've said that almost 100% of the time no one probably would get sick. I make Swiss Meringue buttercream and leave it out no worries. I do not use pasteurized eggs. But Ladies and gentlemen, I have had food poisoning twice and lived to tell about it. I have a touchy freaky tummy my own self. I would not ever heat my cream cheese before using it. Fear and pain are stunning great motivators. Y'all go right ahead and proceed full steam ahead. I can't do that though. And I agree with Chris that it's a personal decision and that as a professional, I would/could never recommend to anyone to do it that way. Those are my cream cheesiest thoughts.

I've never heard of that program so I could not comment except the obvious that that's muy expensive. Over $3000 a year. Another idea for you is to contact your local fellow wedding vendors. Target your market through them and vice versa. Contact florists, caterers, venues, churches, wedding coordinators and etc. Do a swap, where you'll provide thier names if they provide yours. List them on your web page. Eventually you'll distill a list of wedding buddies and get and stay booked up. A nice little wedding cake cookie or a little mini cake, some kind of goodies couldn't hurt in the exchange with some business cards and brochures. Me I would avoid any kind of discounts though.

Here's some food for thought. The gist of one of the articles is that three elderly men died and one lady miscarried her baby after a listeria outbreak from contaminated milk ingested in some way at a wedding reception in 1983. The article states the problem was at the milk plant. It states that pasteurization does eliminate listeria but this milk was re-contaminated after pasteruization. "Most of the positive samples at the dairy were found in flavored milk products. Public health investigators believe that the sugar content in the flavored milks may have provided an environment conducive to the growth of Listeria." It says listeria grows slowly in refrigeration which is unlike other bacterias which actually flourish in cooler temperatures. There's another article if you scroll down that states that food borne illnesses can cause longstanding and intermittent health problems for those afflicted with them. And these are the people that professionals should be aware of and protect with the highest standards. Most of us would not have any symptoms from food that might be off a bit. And while it's a fewer number of poor unfortunate souls that could be afflicted they/we are out there. So my personal motto is don't push it. If everybody wants to leave ingredients out overnight that's your decision. Almost 100% of the time nothing untoward will happen. If your ingredients are all healthy and produced properly and there's no cross contamination from spinach or anything else the people who eat your stuff will be happy and healthy. But...

There are different schools of thought about this. I think most of us would be horrified if a commercial outlet did this. The Health Department would be writing some reports. While no one* probably will get sick, your ingredients will loose some flavor and some nutrients especially the milk. It only takes a half hour to an hour to bring milk and eggs and butter and cream cheese to room temp enough to use. If it were truly fine to leave these products unrefrigerated, suppliers would not hesitate to do so and save the extra costs involved. *(But different people have different thresholds for what can sicken them too. If someone gets a tummy ache they may not even mention it.) No for sure no one's gonna probably suffer if highly perishables are left out overnight before baking. It's just not the best way to do it. For butter, I will often shred it over a sheet pan to have it come to room temp in a snap. Or if I put the sticks of wrapped butter on my marble top, they can be ready in 60 mins easy peasy. I turn them over on the other side/s, the marble pulls the cold out. The hair dryer makes short work of soft butter. Milk, if you measure and pour it into another container it would be fine to use in 30 - 45 mins. Eggs placed in warm water and used right away are fine. Cream cheese left out in opened packages will be ready in 30 - 45 mins or an hour. And then you can put the cream cheese into the mixer first and on slow speed, mix the lumps out where it is all consistently smooth and proceed. There's no need to stretch the limits of your food safety handling just because you're baking at home. Your products will taste better and last longer this way. Why wouldn't we want to be as close as possible to the side of safety? Rather than see how far we can push it? Aren't the freshest ingredients the best ones to use?

Pork loin? Just posted today in another thread.

I'm the odd man out and I'm very comfortable here. Make it tonight if you have to but please don't heat the cream cheese unless it's heated properly like in the oven baking it. No I mean I have friends who leave cream cheese out for days before using it. The point is not how close we can get to avoiding spoilage it's how safe can I make this for the people I am serving. If you are going to frost the cupcakes tonight why can't you keep them in the frige? Surely no one will die, but for example when I make something to share with others, I want to make sure that if a tender baby got a bite (picture someone giving a baby a lick of frosting on their finger--happens all the time) or a fragile elderly person had some, or a friend with an illness you don't even know they had that they would all be as fine as possible because I made my product that carefully. Cream cheese is listed in Tennessee as a potentially hazardous ingredient. Peanuts are not the cleanest of ingredients... "Potentially hazardous food" are those foods which consist of meat, poultry, liquid eggs and partially cooked egg products, fish, milk and milk products, shellfish, partially cooked bakery products and/or other ingredients capable of supporting rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxigenic micro-organisms when stored at temperatures in excess of 45 degrees F, if a cold food or below 140 degrees F, if a hot food. Also included as potentially hazardous food, are low acid canned foods (vegetables, fish, meat, etc.) and acidified foods (pickled vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, etc.). I feel if you're feeding others you have a responsibility. Eliminating the possibility of any tummy aches for the weakest of us is a definite plus. But again erring on the side of safety can't hurt. I tell yah what really ruined me for taking short cuts. What if someday somebody gets sick at a wedding reception and they start questioning me and my methods. I wanna say without equivocation or embarassment that I kept my stuff as pure as possible. That peanut butter mousse I make goes bad fast and I keep it refrigerated. But I'm using cream and not cream cheese. Overthink much, Kate? Yeah but I sleep good.

What about funkie? That'd be food + junkie = funkie Foodie sounding better now???

I make a peanut butter mousse kinda filling that is just cream and peanut butter and powdered sugar, probably some vanilla too and you just beat it all up. I kept it well chilled. I was very surprised that it had sucha short shelf life even though refrigerated. The leftover went bad so fast. So with that in mind, if I were making your delicious sounding spread, I would make it day of. You can't really go wrong erring on the side of safety. No sweetener in there? Definitely do it last minute.

Yes egg whites with granulated sugar until the sugar melts, then whip them up and add soft butter & vanilla. Did you try to re-whip your first batch in the mixer?

I think you made an Italian bc and I use mostly Swiss but they are very similar. But it can be left at room temp for several days in a coolish environment. I mean not in a commercial kitchen or anything where it's hot and steamy, but a home environment. So I never refrigerate my buttercream before I've iced my cake. In fact, I use brand new fresh made buttercream for all my projects. I might use some leftover after it comes to room temp and I refresh it with a tad of vanilla just to make a dam between layers if I was using an oozing kind of filling like a fruit filling. I would use a tad of leftover, fill the cake and then refrigerate the cake for later icing it with brand new fresh made icing. Butter has such a delicate flavor and can pick up other aromas so easily, I would not recommend making big batches to store. Just made to order. That's how I do it. Congrats on your first buttercream! And if it was grainy maybe watch the cooking next time and be on the lookout for any errant sugar crystals which can re-crystalize the batch. I would add a half drop of honey or corn syrup to ensure success. But each sugar crystal has to melt and stay melted. So all that blather to say, don't refrigerate it before using it.

Aged potatoes from the frige make the best potato salad I think. And yes this would no doubt be the sweet tooth leading us astray like so many sugar glazed lemmings.

I'm not sure what you mean by cereal bowl exactly, but my husband will even make these. I've never added marshmallows. And you can eat them out of the pot if you want to. An hour to set up? By the time you're finished dropping them you can eat the first one or a few minutes in the freezer works wonders.

Big really cool cupcake pan. So someone was talking about a making/sculpting a big giant cupcake and this is the only cupcake thread I can find but what about this cake pan! And as I recall I sagely <cough choke sputter> recommended not diddling with the flutes aroung the bottom of the cupcake. I suggested accomplishing that look with the piping. And of course that's still true. But I love this poppa-bear cake/cupcake pan flutes and all.

I think this is a good reminder for kitchen staff that has access to more fish than is the usual case for the mere mortal amongst us. I know someone who strikingly resembles the Mad Hatter because they ate so much canned tuna over sucha long period of time that through the looking glass they appear kinda mercuried. It happens.

Just as kindly as I can, I want to say that weddings are a celebration of love. It's not about impressing folks. She's working off a negative premise where she wants to be sure 'people' don't think her reception is tacky. Whosoever amongst her guests who will think that way will think that way whether there's a sweet course or a cheese course or a gold plated caviar truffled flaming fois gras course. She's lost in limitless currents of minutiae, riding out on one rip tide after another. The only way out is to give up that line of thinking and celebrate. French and English and all will celebrate the love.