alligande

Be carefull of pasteurized egg whites in the grocery stores, most do not beat well and will state on the box that they cant be used for soufel or meringue. I have yet to find the type that does in a local market. On the subject of food safety I will feed myself and husband uncooked egg products but will not for a paying customer (or even a dinner guest) I guess writng those liabilty insurance checks made me paranoid. karen

Anne loved your wedding pictures, what a great way to get married, I still have not figured out why you would want 300 people at your wedding! Karen

Just throwing my 2cents in, I think your reception sounds fun and manageable, but to prevent stress I have to agree the cup cakes are the way to go, those couple of days before your wedding can be pretty stressfull and icing cup cakes could be a fun undertaking. I iced my own wedding cake, but did not make it (a tradtional fruit cake made well in advance). I got married in Tortola BVI in june where my mother lives, and had to get up at 5.00 am to handle the fondant as it was to hot any later. Oh and I discovered you cant refridgerate marzipan, my mum had bought it at xmas when it is shipped to the island and kept it in the fridge, as it crumbled the tears almost started, fourtuanetly there was a small amount left in the supermarket, but those cakes had the thinest layer of marzipan you could imagine. I had to do the icing myself as there was no one the island that did english style cakes, my only commercial option was crisco fluffy!!! Have a fun Karen

My marriage surived 6 years of restauraunt ownership, just My other half has never worked in the industry and came to the conclusion every one that did (including me) was nuts. In the season the only reason we saw each other, was that if he wanted to eat he had to come to the restaurant no food in our house. Although to be honest I do not know if I still had the business how long it would have surrived as it put a tremendous strain on us. I do think that if you have a great friendship then it works out, did for me. karen

Just to say I am jelous of every one who can easily buy none UHT cream, since moving to the states it has been my most hated ingredient, I live in a town where even the gourmet market only carries UHT. Ugg. The nearest whole foods is a 45min drive and involves bridges tokens etc. If any one thinks I am slightly obsessed with dairy products I am. I grew up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, where guernsey cows reign supreme and the cream is yellow and can hardly be whipped before it turns to butter.

Anne, I am with you on the unsalted/salted butter taste issue. I am going to throw this out as an idea, and it is just an idea. In pastry as in most aspects of cooking we all have a strong french bias, in the way we were trained etc, so as french butter is unsalted is this why we beleive recipes should be formulated with unsalted. Just a thought. Karen

Thanks Allen, I have always wondered why american butter was tastless to me, I have tried everything I can get my hands and always end up being disapointed. Now I know its not my imagination there is a real difference. Karen

kerrygold does come in a gold wrapper, but I dont think it has creme de la creme on the wrapper. Kerrygold is a salted butter that is imported from Ireland.

Just want to clarify usage of the "Euro butter" Irish/British butter such as Kerrygold is very diffrent from french butter as is Danish butter such as lurpak (spelling could be wrong). As I child I used to horrify french waiters by adding salt to my butter as I thought it was tastless. But I am very happy the Kerrygold is now readily available in supermarkets, as I find it much tastier on toast, potatoes etc, than most american butter but I would not bake with it as I think it has to distinctive a taste.

Thanks for the advice Anne, having you of work for a few days has been great for me! thanks again karen

Anne a question for you, when you paint on choclate do you have the problem of the color rubbing of? I have tried this a couple of times and although I was pleased with the way it looked, I was very worried when I saw fingers approaching. It also made placing the item on the cake a little challenging. thanks Karen

Anne, I love the idea of using modelling choclate, but how do you get the variety of colors? and what recipe do you use. You are right this is a great time of year to try, unfourtuantly in the summer I think it might be a problem!! mind you as far as I can tell there is no sugar product that works well in heat/humidty maybe every one should have their parties in A/C. The idea of styrofoam core is great and I think will work with gumpaste/fondant as well. Thanks for jumping in I am looking for all the advice I can get. Karen

has any one tried building a larger sugar figure using a pre-hardened core? it sounds like an intresting idea.

I like the idea of the corn starch bed, I do not have a problem with thin shapes, like a beach umbrella, it is with figurines drying unevenly (i think) I will try blending fondant and gum paste together, and see if that helps. I knew this was the place to come for some other ideas. thanks for the input. another question how long do you allow for your figures to dry, I am always pushing the envelope on time.

I think the problem is the outside drying before the inside, and I do add tylose to the mixture. It is very frustrating to have made a figure and then come back and found that it has a new texture! Most of the figures I have made have been animals and have not been wearing clothes so I have not been able to cover the wrinkles. I will try adding holes to aid drying. thanks Karen

I know there are some great cake artists on this board, so maybe some one can help me. Every time I make figures for a cake using sugar paste they end up wrinkly, on some like the pug I made it works really well!!! others the effect is not what I am looking for. I have tried lots of diffrent recipes for modeling paste, sugar paste etc the same thing happens. Just so you know this is a problem only with figures, ribbons, flowers etc do not have this finish. Hope some one has some advice Thanks Karen

I know this is an old thread, but as a card carrying country Yorkshire woman (from the North Riding) I have to stick my nose in. First re: post moderm yorkshire puds, they have been making these dried out imitation YP in hotels restauraunts pubs etc for at least the 40 years I have been going out for sunday lunch (yes it did start as a baby!) 2: YP are not always made with dripping, or other animal product because: 3: the crtical ingredient in YP is gravy, made of course from the beef drippings from the roast. 4: YP is cooked in square/round tins that are handed down from generations my gran inherited hers and my cousin has them now (she still lives in yorkshire I dont) cake tins work well as a sub, what you want is crisp fluffy sides and a soft bottom to hold the gravy. 5: service of YP, YP is served first, before the beef as an appertizer with lots of gravy (noticing a theme) 6: the family secret for light fluffy YP is not to use only milk water was also used to mix the batter no percentages just guess!!! although this was based on real milk if you use skim like I do you propably dont need this step, the battter doesn't need refridgeration (this is an old recipe and refrideration is new) well thats my 2cents on a very important topic to all yorkshiremen

Sinclair, what I was asking was really two questions, what books had taken your work to the next level and what books do you continually refer to when you need a reminder of the basics. I have a reasonably large collection of books and find now when I pick up a book at the store it doesn't offer me anything new, and when you go online and look at the options there are so many that deciding where to spend your money is difficult, and without being able to phisically play with book you dont know what you are getting. So I thought I would throw the question out on Egullet so I would have some great referals for online shopping.

I was enjoyed the Pierre Herme thread so I thought it would be fun to find out what books people regard as indispensible and what books have taken their pastry knowledge to the next level. I have a lot of home/basic pastry books and very few advanced books, when you go to the bookstore (which is one of my favourite places ) the choices are rather limited so I am hoping egullets would have some great ideas.

the only thing that seems "off" is letting the egg yolks sit on top of the choclate. Try mixing the two together slowly, mixing a small amount of choclate into the egg yolks which will help even out the temp, then add the rest. Hope this helps

I could not understand the fruit cake jokes when I first moved to the states. My own family took great pride in the making of rich fruit cakes for weddings and christmas, of course well in advance so they could be well fed. But there was also a whole range of "daily cakes" (cakes are still consumed daily on my familys farm) such as date and walnut, tea cakes etc that were not as a rich but still moist. I to had a tradtional fruit cake for my wedding, although my future american husband was a little worried about it.

Abra, would you consider sharing with me your experience of becoming a personal chef, I have been following this thread and have spent some time exploring this area as my next move, but I do not know anyone doing it. my email is kjbenjaminatyahoo.com thanks

I fully agree, but it also depends on the item, you dont notice crappy (sorry)choclate as much in a regular cake, but use the same choclate in a mouse and it is vile

My favorite subject choclate. I think you also have to take into account what peoples "base" taste is, I am English and have lived in the states for 15 years, and still find Hersheys gross, it is not what I grew up, I really do think it makes a diffrence. (I was also a strange child and loved Terrys dark choclate over cadburys dairy milk which tastes entirely diffrent here). On another note I was working as a PC at an Inn that was developing afternoon tea (no guessing why I was hired) and I had been getting grief for my expensive choclate habits, untill we had a travel writer from the New York times stay and rave about the fact the choclate eclairs had real choclate on them, end of bitching about ingredient costs.

Try using a SS spakling knife, the type hard ware stores sell for filling holes in walls. dont try to apply the icing in one go, build up the layers and of course the hot water trick works very well.