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CanadianBakin'

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Everything posted by CanadianBakin'

  1. I have been asked many times in past years if people could buy their Christmas baking from me. I finally have access to an inspected kitchen so this year I can do it but as I begin to plan I'm not sure which is the best way to go about it. Has anyone done this before? Should I be selling items by the pan? Or should I offer mixed platters/boxes? I'm thinking of having only a few options, taking orders till a certain date and then deliver them or have them picked up on one or two days in late November. Any thoughts? **One more question....how many options is reasonable?
  2. Our daughters had their 6th birthday last month and each requested a very different cake which was neat because what they chose reflected their personalities quite well. Here's Lauren and her whimsical cake. And here's Katie with my second attempt at fondant. As well as a front view: Not perfect by any means but I was quite happy with the result.
  3. I've made my usual banana chocolate chip muffin but using left over mashed sweet potato that has crushed pineapple and pineapple juice in it so it's closer to the consistency of banana.
  4. Now that's comfort food!!! I can just imagine how amazing it was.
  5. I went to the Spring session and like everyone else has said it was well worth the money. I loved every minute of it! If you're considering it, call and sign up ASAP.
  6. They don't show pricing but Qzina is a wholesaler that does sell to the retail customer as well. http://qzina.com/pdf/LR_2008%20EAST%20US%20Catalog.pdf Chocolate shavings and curls begin on page 44 of their USA East catalogue. They will give you pricing over the phone.
  7. Welcome Darienne! Just wanted to let you know that here in BC the laws are pretty strict so it sounds like it's a province by province and state by state situation.
  8. Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I've passed them along and we'll see what he says. He's fairly innovative and well funded so it wouldn't surprise me if he tries making them or has someone else try.
  9. I have Sweet Miniatures as well and have success with most of the recipes I've tried. I'd definitely consider adding it to your collection. You must try Spicy Twin Thins. Weird name but oh my goodness, good! I'm not a spice cookie girl but these have made a convert of me. Lemon zest, black pepper, ginger, etc. So good!
  10. I'm helping a friend who is in the planning stages of opening a very cool coffee shop. He will only be selling minis but not the sort you'd find at a tea shop. For instance he loves the Oat Fudge bar that Starbucks sells but doesn't like the presentation and of course they don't sell it as a mini. I made a version for him with better ingredients and in my mini cheesecake pan. He loved the taste and look but says they are a little bit too big. He like the cylindrical look rather than the tapered look of a mini muffin pan. Another thing he'd like it for is he'd like to sell "pie holes". An example of this would be a shortbread crust topped with a firm lemon curd. If I had a silicone form I could freeze these and then before putting into the cooled displayed case they would be turned out and topped with a crisp meringue "kiss". He says 2" is too big and the petit four pans are the right size but because everything he's selling is so small he feels the height is quite important. Does this help?
  11. Petit Four Mold I have spent a lot of time searching the net in general and here but haven't found what I'm looking for. I need a cylinder/petit four mold that is roughly 40mm diameter x 40mm deep with straight side not tapered. The deepest I can find is about 20 mm and that won't work. Does anyone have a pan like this or where I can get one? Or do you know of an obscure supplier that I might not have found?
  12. You've got sugarseattle's four suggestions if you just make the first four so I'd go with that. - pistachio petit fours (genoise w/pistachio buttercream, from Flo Braker) - s'mores squares (cakey squares, again from Flo Braker -- crumb crust, chocolate, mini-marshmellow) - mini lemon angel cakes (either baked and served in mini nut cups, or mini muffin tins) - mini vacherins (from Gale Gand -- French meringue, dollop of cream, raspberry) I'm familiar with a few of the ones you've mentioned. I love the pistachio petit four and the raspberry vacherins. They add colour and neat textures. And brownies of some type are always a winner. I haven't made mini angel cakes. By this do you mean angel food cake or a type of cookie? For citrus my go-to mini is lemon tarts with PH's Lemon Cream. You can have the tart shells and cream ready and even frozen if you want. Not too long before serving, dust all the shells with icing sugar so the exposed rims are white and then pipe them full. Easy, delicious and nice to look at.
  13. All great questions to which I have no answers as of yet. I'm not officially starting until September and the details are not in writing yet. Thanks for giving me things to think about ahead of time.
  14. Wow! I really appreciate everyone's input. I have another question... How should my using her kitchen affect the pricing? She is open to bartering. From other threads I've seen that kitchen rental ranges between $8 - 20 per hour. She doesn't have a commercial oven just two regular ovens. It's a reasonable size but not huge by any means. I think I'll bring my own machines but probably use her bowls. Should I reduce my price per item slightly or give her a certain amount free in leiu of paying or should I just pay rent and keep it separate? I am also allowed to use her kitchen for my other jobs after hours. (the tea shop closes at 3 pm) Any ideas or advice?
  15. A very timely topic... I've just got my first customer to supply mini's for the sweets tier of their afternoon tea service. I am able to use their kitchen but will supply ingredients. I'm not sure how the use of her kitchen should affect what my price is. I'm also not sure if each type of mini should have a different price or should I group them? We talked about pricing a bit although didn't make any firm decisions yet. We both were thinking an average of $1.00 per piece. Of course ingredient cost and time to make vary considerably. I have a meeting with another tea shop owner coming up so I'd like to figure out what I'm doing. This job was a bit of a suprise. I was hoping to start working again in September and was just meeting with her to find out about her experience, did she do catering, if she knew of gaps in the food service in our city, etc. to see where I might fit. Before I knew it she wanted to buy from me and I'm not prepared yet. I'm just at the research stage but accepted the job since it's exactly what I like best.
  16. I'd use this one: Seven Minute Frosting.
  17. I'd spray the top of your tin and fill it up! If you use a scale then you can weigh the batter to find out how much they want you to put in each cup and scoop accordingly.
  18. Was it the Fine Cooking one you used or a different one?
  19. I think there's a huge difference. I would never choose to have an icing sugar buttercream over a meringue buttercream. The MBC has a much smoother mouthfeel and can be made less sweet and like alanamoana said, it doesn't have the raw taste of cornstarch. Well worth the effort.
  20. Rob, everything looks beautiful! Especially your brioche and croissants. Wow! Momshobby - very cute!! And awesome for a first attempt. That isn't something I've tried yet.
  21. Thanks, Kim! The chocolate buttercream is from Finecooking.com. Here's the link although you might need a membership to view it. If that's the case I can always post the ingredients. They add 12 oz of chocolate to their buttercream so it is very chocolatey!!
  22. Just bumping this up. I know better than to post a question at the end of the week ,
  23. I just tried SMBC for the first time a couple days ago and I love it! I've always made IMBC because that's what I see talked about most. Now I'm wondering about ratios. I used one by Elisa Strauss from Confetti Cakes. 20 oz sugar 10 oz eggwhites 20 oz butter (2-1/2 oz vanilla) - this part doesn't matter for the purposes of this discussion. I loved that it didn't have as much butter as many others do. Now, here's CIA's Cake Art list: (17-1/2) 7 oz sugar (10) 4 oz egg whites (40) 16 oz butter (5 tsp) 2 tsp vanilla The bracketed amounts are x 2-1/2 so we have an even comparison based on the egg whites. See, double the amount of butter in CIA's recipe. I think I would gag. Is there a reason I should use more butter? What proportions do you use?
  24. Way behind on adding these but better late than never, I guess. Chocolate Oreo Cake for my niece's birthday. Orange Cake Stampin' Up Cake - this was just for fun. Due to some major medical issues I hadn't done much baking for awhile so I asked a friend who is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator if I could make a cake for her next event. She chose the stamp set and the colours and I used them to decorate the cake. I piped them onto wax paper with white chocolate ala Whimsical Bakehouse. Now that I know about acetate I could even make them shiny next time. Tarts for a Ladies Tea. I made PH's Tarte Grenobloise in miniature, meringue cups filled with cream and fresh raspberries, PH's Lemon Cream w/Italian Meringue and an Apple Tart inspired by La Brea Bakery's Cookbook.
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