CanadianBakin'

Beautiful! Did you have a crust?

Annie, where is your baking being sold? Bakery, coffee shop, restaurant?

If you had a good idea of how long it takes you could always set your oven to turn off and just leave them in the oven to cool and set.

For our niece's wedding I also did 65 individual cheesecakes so I contacted bripastryguy for tips. I didn't have a silicone mold or the money to get one so I used waterchestnut cans with the top and bottom taken out. Not 65, only 12 and made one batch a night and froze them. They were about 3-1/4". A couple of his tips were to not make them thicker than 1-1/2" thick and to bake them at about 275F. This temperature worked great, even for the larger "wedding" cake. They didn't rise or puff or crack. I used a sheet pan of water on the lower shelf.

Just thought I'd post a picture of the finished cake. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I am a baker, not a decorator, so it's very simple and my sister-in-law helped with the flower on top. I used just 3 bubble tea straws to sit under the 6"cake which was on a cake board. I had no problems with stability even after sitting at room temp for quite some time. Thanks for all your ideas. One other thing I thought I should mention. The cheesecake didn't have the height I wanted for the look so I baked off one layer of chocolate cake and cut it to the right height. I just set it on top of the cheesecake, smoothed it out with buttercream and then glazed after chilling. It worked perfect.

You guys did a fantastic job on the cake and thanks for telling us it's story.

Here's a previous thread on cupcakes that should be helpful. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...778&hl=cupcakes

Beautiful job on the bread!

Something I've been wanting to try that has pineapple in it is a Hummingbird Cake. A quick search on here didn't net too many recipes but on thread made reference to recipes on marthastewart.com.

Just wondering if you've visited any of the schools or made any decisions yet?

Abra, thanks so much for the link! What an amazing site and amazing people running it. Both Sharon and Brent contacted me by e-mail and Sharon even called my home. I can't believe how hands-on they are. I don't have the money to buy a membership right now but will keep an eye on the newbie forum until I do. They've got me thinking about being a personal chef. I think I could do it but I'll have to think it through plus I've still got some medical issues that need some time. I'm excited though as this isn't something I've ever considered. Something that Sharon suggested rather than personal baking is holiday baking. If I'm feeling up to it I might give it a go this Christmas.

When I think of muffins and yeast I think, chewy. I'll be interested to read your results.

Rob, I love the look of the big random-sized chunks of chocolate in your tart.

That is a possibility. I'll pay more attention to that next time.

If someone has a recipe that would do all three that would be awesome. However looking at my recipes it looks like 7-minute frosting has a much higher ratio of sugar to egg-whites than IMBC or even safe meringue.

I tried this recipe yesterday and it didn't work out for me. The flavour and texture are great but they are flat as pancakes with the chocolate chips sticking out. I weighed everything so it was accurate. As I was making them I wondered if there was too much backing powder and baking soda in them. Would this make the difference? I couldn't taste them in the finished product.

I'm sorry to hear that but he's worked at number of places so I guess it's to be expected. Always on to something new and different. Regarding Chef Tim...I notice that he is from Dubrulle and I believe that the 2 founding chefs of NWCAV were originally from Dubrulle so there's a good chance they were quite familiar with his teaching style before he joined them and is probably excellent as well. I'd be tempted to call NWCAV and see if you could sit in a class for a few hours to see what you think. If you can't make it during the day you could probably sit in on one of the Serious Foodie Pastry evening classes.

Here's a link for the best yellow and white cakes that might help: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...&hl=best+yellow

You'll need a digital scale to halve it accurately.

I would also recommend looking at NWCAV. http://www.nwcav.com/ I haven't taken the professional course but I have taken their Serious Foodie Pastry Course as well as the advanced course. I have enjoyed it so much I am going back in 2008 for their Serious Foodie culinary course. Chef Marco is excellent! He is very generous with advice and recipes, very easy to understand and follow. The fulltime students seem to really enjoy it. Some of them even assist in the evening courses.

Thanks for your input and thanks for the links. Abra, that looks like a great site! I have signed up for their newsletter to start and we'll see how it goes.

I would second this recommendation!

I'm wondering if anyone has done this? Could it be done like having a cleaning lady who comes a few times a month and is paid hourly? Would it be possible to go into people's homes and bake all their baked goods needs for 2 - 4 weeks in about 6 hours? This is an idea I'm exploring and I'm looking for other perspectives of potential benefits or problems. I don't have a separate kitchen to use at my home but it is legal for me to bake in someone else's kitchen for them and their guests. Any thoughts?

Thanks Stephanie! I was planning to use bubble tea straws so it's good to know that it will work.

Thanks guys! I'll do it as you suggest.