CanadianBakin'

I don't have a link for you but I wanted to mention that with biscotti, you can do the first bake then wrap well and freeze. Then you can just cut them up and do the second bake when you need them. edited to add: If you search "biscotti" in this forum you will find a few discussions that will provide you with links.

No problem freezing. Cool it, wrap it well in saran & maybe overwrap with foil. They thaw very quickly so you can just take it out of the freezer and ice.

That's a great idea, Wendy! I happened to see them in the produce section just tonight. I'll have to keep it in mind for a future project.

I only have a suggestion for the plastic dowels. I'm not a professional and have only made one tiered cake so consider the source. On a cake I recently made with a friend we had planned to use wooden dowels as that's what the recipe called for. My friend's husband only had 1/2" dowel which was way too big so he cut up a plastic hanger for us. It was easy to cut and worked great!

Magi-strips from Wilton work wonders for the sides. Then you could either raise your oven rack or put the cake on a heavy gauge baking sheet for the bottom.

I was thinking for people that are new to using a scale for baking or for odd items that I don't already have measurements for, this link on Gourmet Sleuth might be useful when converting recipes.

I'm quite sure she meant the butter and sugar. If you beat it too much after you add the flour, I imagine it would be quite tough. You don't want to develop the gluten too much.

I am in AWE! I don't think I've ever seen that much chocolate in one place, even more than the Chocolate Buffet at one of Vancouver's hotels. I just can't imagine. What a wonderful event to put on. Thanks for sharing your photos and experience.

If you look back a few pages around here, you'll find some discussion about caramel coating.

Week 3 This week we made quite a variety of things. We began by preparing dough for Sundried Tomato Foccacia. After rising and shaping it was topped with olive oil, fresh rosemary and coarse salt. I hadn't eaten dinner and I ended up eating half of it before I left that night, it was so good! We also made a Madiera Cherry Cake with a crumb topping. It had a bit of orange zest and marzipan beaten into the batter and was much like a pound cake with a row of cherries down the center. I'm not a big fan of pound cake so this wasn't my favourite but it looked quite impressive. This is actually a picture of Chef Marco's. Ours looked done when it was taken out, but after cooling a bit and cutting it in half we found it was still doughy so it went back in for about 20 minutes. There's 2 things that stand out as unique about his teaching. We make everything by hand so we get to know how something should feel when it's ready to move on to the next step and he never tells us how long something takes to bake. He says to take it out of the oven, "when it's ready". For someone who's a bit anal about following directions this is a bit tough but I think it's a good idea. You get a better understanding of a recipe if you have to pay more attention to it than if you're just listening for the timer. His reason for this, is that ever oven is different. Next up is a delicious Vanilla Panna Cotta served with Strawberry Consomme and Caramelized Pecan Biscotti. Absolutely delicious! The Consomme was made by putting quartered strawberries, a bit of raspberry puree and sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice into a stainless bowl. We wrapped it tight with saran and then set it over a double boiler for an hour or so. Then the mixture was tied up in cheesecloth and hung over a bowl over night. It had an amazing flavour and was clearer than a puree. Well worth the effort. The Biscotti was great too! I've already made the recipe at home this week and it was devoured. Then before Tuesday night was over we prepared a poolish to use the next day for bread. The poolish sat at room temp over night and became a French Baguette, Fougasse and Cheese Bread. This is apparently nothing like what you make in the Culinary course. The Culinary course's is made in an hour, this took two days. My understanding is the difference is the taste. If dough is left to ferment, there is a ton more flavour. Not everyone has 2 days to make a baguette, mind you... And last, we made a French Lemon Tart. Much to Chef Marco's chagrin we had to use store bought puff pastry as there simply isn't time to make it from scratch in class. A very bright, tart lemon filling. I think Ling would even approve of this one. One more week to go. I'll be very sorry to see the class end. There are rumors about an advanced class which I'll be one of the first to sign up for.

Doh! The white tint from the flash threw me off. ← Pistachios it is!

I used gel colours. I wasn't able to attend the party so I'm not sure how it affected the kids, although I think there were 28 kids plus moms so the pieces weren't that big. 9, 6 and 4" I love them! I've also made the polka dot cake a couple times and as simple as it is, it always garners squeals of delight. It was a lot of fun to make. I've made this cake several times but just a single cake, not tiered. By the time you're done there is sooo much icing on it but the kids really liked it. It was my friends idea to make this particular cake, she just needed help making it happen. She's never been happy with the birthday cakes she's made so she was really excited to be able to make this one. I thought she was crazy making a tiered cake as neither of us have ever made one but as all of you who have know, it's really not that hard.

A Crooked Cake I helped a girlfriend make for her daughter's 5th birthday. It wasn't quite finished here. We also made "candles" out of white chocolate tinted pink with yellow white chocolate "flames" and they were mounted on each of the rosettes you can see. About 26 of them so each child got a candle. This is from a book Ruth often recommends called "The Whimsical Bakehouse". An awesome book of cake ideas for those of us who are amateurs at decorating.

Week 2 Sorry for the delay. I didn't have access to a digital camera for the last 2 weeks and had to wait to get my pictures developed. We began the evening preparing dough for some awesome Hard Rolls. My husband said I should have these fresh for him every morning. Come to think of it, we may have started with this next dessert first. We poached pears in a syrup that contained cassis (black currant juice) wine, lemon & orange peels, cinnamon, vanilla beans, etc. It smelled amazing! Then we made a sweet paste to use as a crust which we filled with an almond cream. It's a bit different than a frangipane as it has no flour. I found it a bit moister and prefer it. Then we topped it with the pears after they had poached quite some time. There were a few pears left over after everyone's tart was filled. Chef Marco left these soaking in the syrup overnight and we had some to eat the next evening. Absolutely delicious and a beautiful colour from the cassis. We also made Gugelhopf. It's hard to describe the texture. We made a small amount of rich bread dough with yeast and then some cake batter. We mixed these together and then stirred in whole almonds, raisins and dried cranberries. It felt odd combining the two batters but it made a very nice bread. And last but not least, Chocolate Creme Caramel. It's so easy to make and so smooth. We made white chocolate ice cream and raspberry sauce to serve with it. The cold, creamy and tart together were very good. I'll definitely make this again soon. My apologies for the presentation. The ice cream had just been made and wasn't very firm so it began melting right away. That's it for week 2. It's hard to believe we were able to make everything in only two nights with instruction and rising times, etc. The class is always on the move. Chef Marco is a great teacher and enjoyable to listen to. Although I would consider myself a fairly seasoned home baker, I learn new things every night.

Thanks for the link! They have some great flavour ideas. It makes me want to run into the kitchen and start experimenting!

I just got this issue today. Have you had a chance to try it yet? I'm hoping too but it probably won't be for a month or so. I haven't closely compared the recipes yet but the flour/sugar ratio looks similar to the CI recipe.

It might also help to know what convention center you are at so you can be directed to restaurants in the area.

I've been on a quest for the perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie, and this recipe is the best so far! I just made them a couple hours ago so I'll taste again when they're fully cool, but I really couldn't come up with a way to improve them. Thanks for sharing. ← I have found the original to be awesome by adding 1 tsp baking powder and using a 2 oz disher. It spreads a bit more but still keeps a nice thickness and good "chew".

I would try calling Scoop-N-Save. They rent out pans and have a lot to choose from. They are now in Langley.

My husband loves Boylan's soda and we've been buying it by the case from The Gourmet Warehouse but he was wondering if anyone knows who the wholesaler is and if they sell to retail customers?

As you can see, they're pretty blurry but you're welcome to use them.

What a clever idea! I would love to see pictures of the finished product.

I don't know if this will help or not but my instructor said that when making icecream the end result is better if you let the creme anglaise sit in the fridge overnight to let the proteins mature. He said that helps prevent ice crystals. It may work the same in your situation.

Thanks! I didn't think to check Qzina. I'm going there this week anyways so I'll pick some up.

Does anyone know where I can buy a roll of 100 disposable piping bags? I know SnowCap sells them but I don't know if they sell to the public and I'm not going to be anywhere near there anytime soon.