JeanneCake

@Shelby that recipe looks wonderful! Slab pie sounds good for at home; I will try to see if I can find some disposable pans to do them for the shop..... I like the sour cherry idea! Thanks

Our Super Bowl menu rarely changes in terms of the main course - the Havana Moon Chili from epicurious.com with some modifications (golden raisins, extra olives, no almonds); chicken wings, probably nachos, and other snack/munchy dip type things. This year at work though I'm wondering about putting together a dessert platter with team logo cookies, chocolate dipped gingerbread football cookies, bars of various types (and this is where all of you come in....) and teaming up (pardon the pun) with local carry out places to encourage impulse sales. You can buy a la carte or choose a small/medium/large dessert platter of 12/24/48 pieces. I'm thinking chocolate cheesecake brownies (because it's been years since I made them and they are fantastic; from Maida Heatter's book of great american desserts); cocoa brownies, a brown sugar fruit (apricots, dates, cherries, pecans) bar and .... what else? What would be your choice for a bar-type dessert for this kind of gathering? We are a peanut free bakery so nothing with peanuts What's on your Super Bowl menu this year?

I just opened a package of the dark chocolate oreos. YUM! I'm going to have to put these in the freezer so I don't scarf the whole (small) package at one sitting. and I now realize I'm going to have to buy more of these.

I too am grateful for your recall reports; thank you for thinking of us and helping to keep us informed. I learned about more recalls from your posts than anywhere else

This base cake is already available from the local supermarket, in a specific size and flavor. Most grocery stores are buying in frozen, pre-iced cakes that they put the finishing touches on in -store. So they will just sell the customer one of those cakes and the customer does the finishing. And personally, it's the finishing touches that separates the amateurs from the professionals. If you are going to provide a simple iced cake, you have to account for size and flavor and at that point, now you're into customization and that's what gets expensive - the substitutions and changes from the established menu. In the last 15 years, I've been asked only a handful of times (less than 10) to provide a client with a plain buttercream cake that they can finish the decorations on themselves.

the instructions have you using only 9 ounces of the dough for the crust; not the whole amount for one 9inch pie pan.... are they rolling it or pressing it into the pan?

I've had excellent products and service from Sunnyland Farms over the years; they have macadamias but they are roasted/salted SunnylandFarms Macadamia Nuts

YES YES YES! I just signed up and got my neighbors a gift subscription too Thank you for the heads up @Rotuts! So excited to join

Yes, fondant (or the modeling chocolate) will give you a smooth surface to work on and it will be less frustrating to work on; There are new edible paints available you might explore - there are a few different manufacturers making ready to use edible paints, this is one example: NYCake edible paint If you go with fondant, you have more options in terms of a painting medium - you can use straight color like the paints, airbrush color or tinted royal icing (look up brush embroidery techniques, Colette Peters is a master at this. The key with brush embroidery is the right brush shape, the right consistency in the royal icing and having the brush just damp enough but not too wet when you start making the petals.) The right brush will help make the job easier too; I've used as many as four different brushes before figuring out which one gave me the right look. Definitely give yourself as much time as possible to keep practicing to get the technique down which ever way you choose to go.

what @pastrygirl says! If you are thinking of making chocolate a long term career, consider the fact that a depositor will help preserve your hands over the long haul. Don't wait and buy one in three years after the damage is done to your wrists. Valentine's Day is coming, followed closely by Easter and Mother's Day... if you are able to do enough business during those holidays, target some of your revenue toward equipment purchases that will make your life easier and you more efficient in your production.

I'm a baker/cake decorator and have had carpal tunnel problems for years; during the worst of wedding season I wear the splints faithfully at night and it's a huge help. If I don't, I find that the pain/numbness can wake me from a sound sleep. I've also been told that Aleve works better on the extremities but I haven't had to use that yet.....

The wedding was Sunday, we had to deliver the cake Saturday evening. I wasn't working as a pastry chef at the time (I was still in high tech but I took the week off before the wedding to handle stuff. This was before the WWW, cell phones and the consumer use of email (yes, dinosaurs roamed the earth then too 🤣). I started baking on Thursday, assembled the cake on Friday then covered it in fondant on Saturday morning. It was a four tier vanilla/raspberry design from The Cake Bible; I bought the marzipan roses but still. Not being in a commercial kitchen with lots of space to spread out, I basically emptied out my fridge so I had room for the cake and despite having practiced all summer long, things still took me longer than I estimated. If you are working out of your friend's commercial kitchen it won't be as bad; if she covers the cake in fondant and stacks it for you, you're in great shape. Plan 2 days for the decorating so you have extra time in your schedule already built in; if you don't need it, you have time to relax. If you do need it, the additional time you built into the schedule doesn't force you to choose between finishing the cake and doing something else. I don't know how much experience you have in cake decorating so please don't be offended by my long decorating time recommendation. I would especially recommend you doing the painting on dummy cakes covered in cheap fondant to practice. You can buy styrofoam dummies and yucky fondant at the craft store (Michael's, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby, etc); for the good fondant you can buy from AUISwiss, get their Massa Grischuna with white chocolate (it's firmer than plain fondant, it has a slight ivory cast to it compared to the Americana, which is paper-white in color or the Neutral, which is more like a soft white). This is the only brand of fondant I use; it is easy to roll out (use cornstarch, not confectioners sugar, sugar will dry out the surface of your fondant more than cornstarch will); it tastes good as far as fondant goes, and it handles well.

I think they are using the immersion blender to mix the color and cocoa butter together; it's "emulsifying" in the way that you combine oil and vinegar for salad dressing and they want to spray this through an airbrush to color the chocolate molds. You can also use an immersion blender to make mirror glaze (which contains chocolate and gelatin as @pastrygirl mentioned above) so that's what I was thinking you were covering the cake with too!

A glaze is poured over the cake's surface (usually you put a coat of buttercream or even ganache on it first), while fondant or modeling chocolate is rolled out to drape/enrobe the cake. Some people use the paneling method to cover the cake - you cut a circle to fit the top, then you cut a band to go around the side and then you finesse the seam where it meets. I myself would not use glaze on a tiered wedding cake; there is no room for error when stacking it, and you pretty much have to have border of some type to mask the seams where each tier meets the one below. I've done it enough times over the years with ganache (as a glaze) to know that it's a headache I don't want to deal with (so the price would be in line with the aggravation factor 😁). If this is your own wedding cake you are working on, you don't need or want any extra stress before the big day. (I am admitting to a bias here: I made our wedding cake and my husband - to this day - will tell you it ranks right up there with one of the dumbest things I've ever done. There's so much you're dealing with in the few days before the wedding that you don't really have the luxury of taking your time with the cake. And that's when something will happen and you will be frustrated and stressed, which you don't want to be!)

I've used vegetable oil to hydrate colored dusts to paint on wafer paper....

I would seriously consider using a white chocolate fondant, or a white modeling chocolate as a means of covering the cake. You will be less likely to have problems as you paint on the sides, you can fix errors far more easily on those than you can on a glazed surface. You might also want to consider exploring a new trend similar to impasto, that is uses a painter's palette knife to apply buttercream (it could also be a colored ganache) to form impressionist-style flowers. If you are going to paint on fondant or modeling chocolate, you can use airbrush color (it will dry better than thinned gel color; which always remains a little bit tacky if you go in that direction). If that video showed using an emulsifier, maybe it's to make the "edible paint" more pliable, like paint? Does it show what it looks like before and after they mix the emulsifier in? Can you post a like to the video (I'm curious about the technique myself!).

Late to the party but I see that little nook as a place a couple might become engaged... you might want to consider having that area available for reservations in case someone wants to!

well, first I'd bake it in the 9" pan and use the thermapen to see what it registers since you know it is fully baked in that timeframe in that pan. I'd probably buy a second pan to be honest; there are so many variables to consider when you are doubling the recipe. And just to make it easier, weigh the final batter amount so you can still double the recipe when you prep it but scale it correctly into two different pans.

😢

Let me ask my AUI rep if she can get me some samples. Which ones would you want (in order of preference)? I can send them to you if she can get them.... will PM you with my email address. For compounds, I've used the orange, triple strength espresso, toasted coconut, Irish Cream, Amaretto, Frangelico, white chocolate (years ago, that was a big waste of $ but it was only a sample so not really a lot of $ wasted!), champagne (it's just sweet wine so what's the point); I used cotton candy once, and it was quite good - not fake tasting at all!; and mango. The mango compound was excellent and I'd buy it again if I need it. Over the years I've used banana (meh), gingerbread (very good) eggnog (also good), chai (ok) raspberry (also good), wild strawberry (good), strawberry champagne (good but I hate the way it smells). Amoretti also makes extracts - water soluble and oil soluble. Of these I've tried toasted marshmallow (don't bother with this one), maple (these are good, I've tried both OS and WS), Rose (I don't really care for Rose flavoring so I was neutral about this one); Hibiscus (which was good)

@Jim D. something like this? Chef's Essence Flavors https://www.aftelier.com/category-s/1820.htm I've never used them so I cannot say if they are good or bad; and I don't know anyone who does use this brand, but they look like they are cheaper than the Sosa essences from AUI though so maybe worth a try?

Yeah, you do have to buy 12 at a time for the puree. The Ponthier stuff is wonderful; I remember when Swiss Chalet brought them in; the blueberry and the coconut blew me away with how flavorful they were. The other thing is that Ponthier comes in tubs or in pouches and I always got either one and they always came in frozen when I was buying them from Swiss Chalet. AUI on the other hand, sells the pouches as refrigerated and the tubs frozen.

Thank you everyone! I already buy lots of things from AUI (Felchlin, Ponthier purees, tart shells, hazelnut paste - the Akacakoka is amazing; fondant, gum paste... sometimes my rep refers to my kitchen as her second warehouse ) but I'd been using Amoretti compounds before AUI introduced their compounds. Compared side by side; the AUI orange turns whatever you add it to a bright, day-glow orange that visually is not appealing; whereas the Amoretti orange is a more delicate color, a truer orange flavor and has little bits of zest in it for texture. I'm using compounds mostly in cheesecake batter, in amaretto panna cotta (so I don't have to use alcohol, although at the price Amoretti is charging it might be cheaper to use the booze!), sometimes in italian meringue buttercream (when I need a strong coffee flavor but I don't want to use so much coffee syrup that I end up changing the texture of the buttercream; or for when I want to boost the caramel flavor but don't want to add so much caramel sauce that the buttercream becomes too soft). I did get the OSA fillings from Felchlin when they started carrying them; I liked the coffee one and we still have some of the strawberry. I've never used the OSA fillings before so I'd love to hear what other pastry peeps do with them..... besides melting them and dipping the tops of cupcakes in it, or using it as a drip edge on an occasion cake (which is popular now!). I got some of the kracklin filling (with the feuilletine in it, so good!) but it contained nuts and I didn't want to start adding it to everything and then having to worry about nut allergies...

Update: On a whim, I emailed my former Amoretti rep, who is now located in Germany (I've been buying from them for at least 12 years). I told her what was going on and asked if there was someone I could talk to because I wasn't getting anywhere with the social media "messages" (they were polite but it was canned answers). I was able to speak to a management person in CA who agreed that the promotion should have had clear guidelines and was able to help me get the order processed AND to my shock and amazement, the shipping (for at least 30 pounds of stuff) was only $25. I was almost on the floor when she told me that. I fully expected shipping to be at least $150 for that much stuff (I had at least 13 2.2# jars). They will be clearer about promotions in the future so I won't have to worry about this next year LOL! I'm happy to say they did their best to resolve the issue and it worked out to the benefit of both of us (I am still a loyal customer and they got a big sale from one person

That's good to know about Sosa; AUI offers a 10% discount on orders over $750 and shipping is free with orders above $300 (I think. It could be $250, I'm not sure). If I don't go ahead with the Amoretti order I might just start getting the Sosa compounds from them. Amoretti's compounds are very good, but the arbitrary application of rules after the fact more than annoy me. It makes no difference to them, I'm a small business and my $1700 isn't appreciated and the lack of an order won't faze them in the least.