K8memphis

I'd like to recommend that you go with foam core as opposed to particle board. There's no slivers, easier to cut, lighter in weight but will stand up to the job. I use the extra thick stuff or maybe double layers of the thin stuff - I use hot glue to adhere my stuff to it. And I do the same as emilyr, scour the fabric aisles. I love crepe back satin - for weddings though -- it's so effortlessly, instantly dramatic. I make my plateaus and separations to be disposable on purpose because I deliver the goods and make my getaway. If I were staying on premise I wouldn't mind recycling. But I rarely stick around. Brides don't ever have to return anything and deal with deposits & stuff. They like that & it works for me.

My pro 600 sucks and I've had it replaced once because it gave up the ghost. I baby it. I would never make bread in it. Good luck with your purchase. Yes overbuy is better. Maybe currently manufactured 600's are in better shape than mine although it's only a few years old.

Get some mylar from the craft store to pour out your chocolate on and cut it to the size of your pattern Or cut the mylar into the size of your pattern, lay those onto bigger sheets of mylar spread the choco all over and then at the right time pick up your pattern pieces. Maybe somthing like that? I mean there's chocolate molds for houses though at cake and candy stores and sites.

These that BekkiM referenced could be mounted on a piece of foamcore board or something with double back tape. Since the pattern runs over the edges there. Or you could just line them all up on the gingerbread and use a rolling pin for even pressure. Just re-use the pattern?? You get 5 for ten bucks. If you got two sets man you could imprint some mansions.

This is so where I'm going, trying to go ...if all goes well. I have a huge learning curve on my one big deal that I wanna do. Then the other items will be compliments to one big deconstructed glass of glistening clean clear "iced tea"...

Shalmanese, Oh geez my little cake decorator heart skips a beat on the tea cup cream puff idea... can't yah just envision the little handle on the footed cup--a few delicate flowers painted on with a gold rim????? ! A 'waft' curling up out of the cup made of poured sugar...but that's hot tea....but... Mette, I agree that tea flavors are very underrated. Special "S" Bread is the bombshabomb. I often used weird stuff in the liquids when I baked bread. More flavor in the pate a choux--wow we really thought of somethin' this time! Yeah, all that liquid just begs to be chicken stock or something Oooh, Shaloop, swweeet potatoes! Ah hah ha --ding ding ding ding I think we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!!! A wonderful foil to iced tea, Southern-ish uber welcoming and thankfully there's no sweet potato tea to compete with. What's funny is that my killer sweet potato mini-muffin formula uses ... are you ready for this?? Coffee!!! But I promise I had women stalking me for the recipe when I had my tea-room. And yes the cleanness and clarity of iced Southern tea is key. Pecan pie is sooo much more Southern welcome than baklava too. Hmmm great point. I mean baklava is great because of the liquid and how good tea would be in there with those crispy nutty sweet buttery layers but it's not exactly Southern. Ooh, you've really turned me in a much more Southern direction. I was so concentrating on the tea and keeping it clean that I was neglecting the Southern part. 'Course nobody said I couldn't do a pecan pie with phyllo dough. High five!

Tracey, Tearamisu! too awesome--what an idea. I've totally been toying with tea gelatin ideas. If I can't pull off my one big idea I'm definitely falling back on gelatin. Ludja, yeah I'm totally grieving the death of cream & milk possibilities. sniff. But it's opposite of iced tea while still being one of the best counter points to it. Pate choux is still on the table though. Thank you, Nina, yes that fried coke or fried tea sounds intriguing. I'm gonna check out that website, thanks again. Jasie, pearl tapioca never thougth of using that, cool. As far as loosing flavor while baking, I've got powdered unsweetened tea to charge it up a bit. That's why I liked the pate a choux because it has so much nice liquid. Angel food cake has under a quarter cup. I'm looking into tea jelly for a linzer type sandwich cookie. If there weren't already jasmine tea, jasmine would be a great addition--it's like cream or orange flavor. Tea has some very close relatives, it's easy to get this wrong. the more I think about it. Tea-filled red velvet is appealing though. Kouign, " little creampuff tea cups - tiny handles on the side." Brilliant! I can so see that in a heartbeat. Southern Comfort is a bourbon I think I'll go with that since it fits major criteria and will blend so well with tea. emilyr, yes I'm gonna do lemon somethings--either candied peel and/or lemon candy. reenicake, would love to add some orange but that's real close to Constant Comment tea and not ususally found in iced tea. But perfect complement to tea flavored anything. Yes, great idea about the floating islands. That's a back up idea too. Chiantiglace, I think I'm gonna balance the diner's blood chemistry out with some pecans and other nuts in the linzer cookies and bakalva. Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to do some experimenting.

I think I gotta nix the cream/milk. I can just see Chairman Khaga's happy face because all the taste testers keep saying yes it's perfect for a British cuppa tea, not classic clean clear crisp Southern sweet iced tea. And of course he'd be happy because his Iron Chef would 'win' over me. Cream used as a teensy tiny accent maybe...

You all, I have to confess, last night I read Anthony's intro to the challenge to my husband. He blurted out "You're not a Southern woman You're a Northern Yankee." Geez I felt like a Civil War spy. Well, yeah, I've lived in Tennessee for about a quarter century but you need to know I was born & raised in Chicago area. So I'm blending the best of both iced tea drinking worlds. Mom was from the deep South though so that counts too. Anyways...and now back to our regularly scheduled global challenge, North, South, East and West. Shalmanese, y'know I had all but discarded the idea of cream because I was originally thinking that that quickly takes you to a British hot cuppa rather than the clear sweet southern tangy iced tea. (So why did I mention clotted cream? To answer: Because it so contrasts the tea.) Bu-ut, it's milk that makes an English cuppa so I'm thinking cream is fair game after all kinda sorta. I mean cream puffs beg for cream. Gotta use it carefully though. Classic things paired with sweet tea are fried chicken meals, bar-b-q, picnics, any Southern especially summer lunch or supper meal. Michelle, I'm digging the tea syrup over a baklava...ginger yes good idea! That will cut that sweet. Black pepper maybe?? Lavender maybe too?? Light light light though. Rose water??? Cheryl, Oh for sure, I did take a trip to The Sweet Kitchen and looked up the angel food cake but neglected to peruse the flavor chart Thank you thank you. Then I checked The Making of a Pastry Chef and tea wasn't listed. I just wanna be careful to keep the tea flavor clean because that's the rub--I'm thinking iron chef-y where the tasters say if the flavor is pronounced enough or if it's over shadowed by the other stuff. Now a thing or two can be seasoned up but I'm trying to keep it clearly cleanly tea flavored for the most part. But the bourbon and pecans is good good good. Dates hmmm,,,HONEY meade maybe no no no Southern Comfort You nailed it there! And I have some leftover lemon cream. Love Pierre for that stuff. But I'm thinking gentle gentle flavor accents because the tea kind of restrains you -you not only can't make it too strong 'cause it would suck you can also overpower it pretty easy. Gelatin I think is coming more into focus too because it can be made so quintessentially tea like then toss on some cool accents, gently though. And I have a really cool idea for the presentation of a gelatin thing. Wow this is cool. I have my presentation ideas coming together and they are perfectly iced tea. I need some back up plans though. One is for sure no problem-o. The others are definite maybes. Cake decorators always have back up plans. Do plated dessert gurus??

Wouldn't you want the filling infused with tea? It seems to me the flavour would be lost in the pate choux. ← Maybe it would be lost. But there's all that great liquid in the puff. I can make the tea stronger being careful to avoid the bitterness. I just wonder how it will taste. I gotta get to experimenting. The Special S bread I used to make that I referred to earlier was pretty good. So we'll see...hmmm, tea flavored filling...maybe both?

I know that our Dinstuhl's famous cashew crunch candy, native to Memphis, was made with a brand shiny new state of the art rolling pin, teflon or whatever and they noticed a change in the taste of the candy so they went back to the old wooden unstate of the art one they had used since the beginning of Dinstuhl cashew crunch time. I love that story. And besides that, I have a few silicone pans & things. The ones I have make poor poor muffins. There's no carmelization--it's all mush, no crust--ick. Makes great tart crust but just say no to muffins. C'mon, they make muffin top pans so there's more crunchy stuff. Nobody's marketing muffin inerd pans. Are there any that bake a nice crust on things?? Not like a french bread crust but y'know what I mean.

Good ideas all. Thank you! Shalmanese, umm I've been kind of thinking of doing something with angel food cake. It's kind of a blank palette--very sweet. Or those floating islands that Julia always loved--we're on the same thought wave with the marshmellows, meringue-y something. Kouign, yes tea cakes have crisscrossed my mind. I probably will incorporate them in some way. Ludja, hmm, phyllo dough...interesting. I have some plans underway... But I really wanna try to get completely out of my element in some ways--we'll see. What would be good balance items to balance out the uber sweetness? I'm having trouble there. Sour cream-y something??? I have some clotted cream...(clotted is such an unfortunate choice of words for most American women, nevermind) Candied lemon peel for garnish? Too obvious?? Too powerful?? And what flavors go with tea like for a gelatin or sorbet??? Where y'know I can have the orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea flavor (which is the tea used in Southern iced tea--but it doesn't taste orangey) in some items and have an item or two zipped up with what spice or herb or fruit or what??? Iced tea is a blank canvas in itself--it doesn't take much to smother the flavor so I have to be careful. I mean if I add orange flavor and spice I will be highlighting Constant Comment and not Southern fried tea. Oooh, what about cream puffs made from tea???!!! There's such a great water base there yay!!! What kinda fillings???? Besides lemon cream--but lemon cream might be too strong???? Oooh, that sounds cool!!! Wonder how it will taste??? White chocolate ganache filled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????? Hmmm, wonder if the tea flavor will rise to the top or be hidden under the chocolate. Wanna keep the sweet tea flavor on top. Need a light creamy filling for possible tea infused pate choux. Ooh, this is getting fun.

That's an intriguing idea, Swisskaese, thank you. Cheryl, Shalmonese, gfron1, thank you.

Iced tea--sweet with lemon. You've had iced tea? That's it.

Anthony, gosh, wow, what a beautiful introduction. You're so kind, a Southern gentleman for sure. Thank you I appreciate your thoughtfulness. And I'm really glad you elaborated on the definition too. So umm, sweet tea and feeling welcome hmmm. This is a brain buster. But I will prevail! I just now completed an order that I was real excited to get to do. My husband started freaking me out because he kept going, "Man, they are all over the place advertising this event on the radio." And I'm like, "Shu-ut u-up, you're gonna freak me out." And I kept making more and more decor for it. It was Ardent Recording Studios 40th birthday and I got to do the cake. So I've spent the last coupla days 'in the zone' and now I'm winding down. But let me be a name dropper Not that any of these people attended the shindig this evening, but Ardent has recorded for Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, (I decorated the cake groovin' with Stevie Ray) Travis Tritt, Lynard Skynard, Elvis, BB King, Bob Dylan, Gin Blossoms, etc. etc. So it was very cool gig tonight. But about 2:00 today when I finished the cake for Ardent & sat down at the computer & accepted Chiantiglace's challenge I started thinking about this sweet tea thing. Now I tell yah, I used to make Special "S" bread. Geez what was in that stuff? Soy flour, sassafras tea and sunflower seeds. So there's a bit of a leap to a Sweet Tea plated dessert from Special "S" bread but I'll be there by next Monday Thanks again, Anthony. And all ideas welcome!!!

I love the stack of apples with the nougatine--rather pagoda like peering over the other occupants of the plate. What is the little purple or rose colored petal type thing on the gelee?? All the wildly different textures with the smokey (meaty) apples must have been amazing. Excellent --apple pie on steroids plus plus plus. Plus lemon for balance and the clove caramel for autumn--and the sorbet (was it tart?) balancing the sweet gelee. And walnut praline??!! Wow. Over the top, really impressive. --dang but you worked your can off, dude!

Clo-ove caramel!!! Oooh mmmm!!! Whoever thought of that??!! Too cool. I like curliques of any size and shape for any garnish. Since I am cake deco oriented and not plate dessert oriented I think smoke looking curliques are an idea. Wafts of smoke cooked sugar maybe? Pour some cooked sugar onto a silpat, take a fork and pull it out on the top like smoke wafts and then when it cools a minute pull and twist the rest of it to look like curling smoke. Or use chocolate. Just an idea...

Geez, whenever I've been at a rehersal dindin, it's been at a restaurant. Basically whatever restaurent the groom's family wants to afford. When we got married we had our rehearsal dinner at a nice but not at all pricey place--very low key but it was great. Another family member used a chinese place. When my daughter got married we had the best pizza and Italian food on the planet at the groom's family's favorite place--not fancy at all--but great food and a very good time. Umm, I just delivered a birthday cake for a bride's dad to an interesting rehearsal dindin. The groom's dad actually owns a restaurant but the rehearsal dinner was in a nice more upscale restaurent in town, not his own place though, interesting huh? And the next day his dad catered the wedding to perfection with some truly inspired cuisine. But anyway, you can have it anywhere you want it to be and where you can be comfortable with all the arrangements. As nice a place as you can. I think renting somewhere & having it catered is too much fuss since weddings always are wrapped up in a bunch of fuss anyway. Restaraunts are nice because all you have to do is call in advance & reserve the room for that date and walk in. If you get it catered, you gotta sweat the details. Above all, have fun! I've done weddings forever and one thing I was real proud of my kid for is that at a certain predetermined point she just started having fun, let all the plans go whichever way they were going and let all the chips fall wherever they may and they partied and danced and frolicked and played and had a huge and wonderful time.

Oh there's several things you can do. This is a laundry list of possibilities. Use wet toweling or 'magic strips' around the outside of the pan during baking. Use one or more rose nails or a baking core in the center of the pan. Some people bake at 325. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, smoosh it level, like with a cardboard circle or something that to flatten the hump. It will re-arrange the structure of the cake but only right as you take it out of the oven. In a few minutes it will have set up and this will not work. When I use a thick cake batter, I smoosh the batter up into the corners and smoosh it up the edges some so it is thicker on the edges, thinner in the middle. It levels out in the oven. For big momma cakes, near the end of the baking I lay a piece of aluminum foil over the middle to help facilitate the bake. I leave it on after I remove it from the oven too. Sometimes, I bake a larger cake than I really need so I can cut off the edges. Especially if you are baking a large cake--you know you risk frying the edges.

Looks very interesting.

It's like bringing your own popcorn to the movies. It's not wrong to have popcorn or make popcorn but when you're at the movies you're supposed to buy their popcorn if you're gonna eat it. When the lights are out and everybody else is eating popcorn, probably no one will notice. So if you want to give liquor-filled chocolates to me for example in Tennessee, you need to buy Tennessee booze, and make it here within the borders. Gift or no gift. The state of Tennessee is rabid about the collection of taxes. Probably no one will inspect your package but...I mean I cannot legally transport a bottle of Arkansas wine and bring it home for my own consumtion much less give it as a gift. edited for clarity

Geez, give 'em an inch...

Pot grates the throat as you swallow like dry parsley. Hashish in brownies goes down much smoother. But that's just what I heard...

I am certain that I am the only person that did not know what vegemite was (isn't that what Lucy and Ethel were selling?) but anyway, this is what I discovered.

Those look mouth wateringly delicious. So much work! You totally outdid yourself and several other people too. [clapping wildly smile face] Wow and there's another one?? [faint dead away smilie face]