JeanneCake

Hmmm. Filling from the bottom would mean that you are either puncturing the paper liner the cupcake is baked in, or not baking them in liners but putting them in papers after you fill/frost.... Usually when I do filled cupcakes, I use a wide, plain tip and poke it through the top of the cupcake to about halfway to the middle of the cupcake, twist and then pull the "plug" and use that space to fill, then I pipe the topping on. You could smooth the filling level with the top of the cupcake and then dip them into the glaze and then do the squiggle. ETA: I like using jumbo/large/Texas size cupcakes for filled cupcakes - the standard size ones are harder to fill because they're smaller.

If you can get some pate a glace in a bucket, this will work better than the coating chocolate although it is probably a similar product. I use the pate a glace for my cheesecake lollipops and cake pops because of the convenience. When an order comes in, I put the bucket in a pan of water and when it is fluid, I dip right in the bucket (because I only dip the lollipops in it; if I am dipping other things, I pour some out into a smaller bowl. The brand I use for the pate a glace is Shokinag, which is now under a different company name; I've also used the same stuff from Swiss Chalet (the Swiss Chalet product is also available in coins called Ultra Rondo).

This summer I have a new hire who is a recent graduate of a pastry program taught at a local college by a well-known French pastry chef. We needed to make a lot of swans for a new account and she jumped at the chance. I was ok with her using her recipe from school, although she said that she hadn't gotten it to bake well at home. Anyway. The school recipe called for a different technique than I'd ever seen before. It was 1 qt water, 14 oz butter, pinch salt, sugar optional, 21 oz flour, 14-15 eggs. Bring the water, butter, sugar and salt to a rolling boil and pour into the 20 qt Hobart mixer bowl. Add the flour all at once and mix on speed 1 until the pomade is at 160 degrees; then add the eggs gradually. The puffs were ok; personally I much prefer Pinchet Ong's recipe... I asked her what the chef said about this technique - why he used it or perhaps this was his development; and she had no idea. She thought it was the traditional French method and I said no - the traditional method was what my recipes were (dump the flour into the boiling mixture, stir until it becomes a ball and leaves a film on the pot, then add the eggs...) so... anyone else use this type of technique?

I think you have to acknowledge what people are paying now for cakes and then be realistic about how theirs will compare. If they are buying their ingredients retail, versus wholesale (from a distributor or even if the local warehouse store is cheaper) that will make the difference in their pricing. Don't forget to factor in labor, overhead, advertising, packaging .... all of that contributes to the price of goods sold.

I use the Cuisinart Power Strainer - which is no longer manufactured - which is an attachment on the regular food processor. But you might be able to find one on eBay or something like that; that's how I found mine. It works beautifully to remove all the seeds. Perhaps there is something similar for a robot coupe if you have one of those in your kitchen already?

If you are looking for rolled fondant, The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum has recipes for both plain and chocolate rolled fondant (she also has a recipe for poured fondant in there too); Kerry Vincent's wedding cake book also has a recipe in it

Now that you bring it up, it's been a while since I've seen dried pears at the market. You could get them mail order at Sunnyland Farms - I have always had great products from here.

what a pain these were! I bought some imported greek feta this morning, but when I tasted it, I didn't like it with the watermelon (it was really bland, not sharp or tangy and I was surprized and then I had to improvise, because I'd already used goat cheese with the figs/proscuitto and I was using a sweet gorgonzola in fresh apricots). I'd already cut the watermelons (the watermelons tasted ok, the yellow wasn't as sweet as the red) into coins and I ended up alternating the red and yellow colors on the skewers - four "coins". The irony was that the event was outdoors, under a colored tent. A red and yellow striped tent. Which I didn't know until I got there and then the event planner was wondering why I couldn't stop laughing when I arrived. The photographer was in seventh heaven, though; he got some shots of the skewers with the tent in the background. But it had the desired effect - people loved them and the presentation. Sometimes the pastry gods have a sense of humor! And I think ricotta salatta would have been good; I wish I'd seen it in the market this morning. I still have a whole yellow melon left so maybe I'll try it ....

A Brazilian friend tells me that her family makes a dessert with it, sweetened condensed milk and Nestle's Media Cream. These are her instructions: Empty the can of condensed milk into the blender. Fill the can with passion concentrate (it comes in a glass bottle) and put that in the blender. Drain the water off of the media cream and put that in a blender. Mix to blend, pour into containers or glasses or whatever and refrigerate for 30 minutes minimum. Sounds like a key lime pie kind of thing but with no eggs....

Ok, I have to say that I am not someone who indulges in cocktails and mixed drinks (mostly because the only thing my husband remembers to get at the liquor store is *his* microbrews and I'm too tired at the end of the day to make my own) but the use of the word "artisanal" makes me wonder if you can have artisanal spirits like you can have artisanal bread and chocolates..... Yes?

On Monday, in preparation for a "high end tailgating party" for this weekend, I was looking online for different ways to present fruit skewers (the party is also doubling as a photo shoot for an event planner's portfolio). So in the search, I came across a photo I cannot find again. It showed red and yellow watermelon, cut with a round cutter with some type of white cheese ball in between and perched on a clear cocktail stick (I ultimately bought some sticks and a platform from jbprince). It gave me the idea to use yellow watermelon, which our produce guy was able to get in and looks/tastes great. I have been looking for this picture for the last two days and no luck, no matter what I search on. I've looked at the jbprince site, the Swiss Chalet site (because I was going to order some verrines but didn't), on epicurious but no luck. I was hoping to see what kind of cheese it was (I don't want to use feta; I know feta and watermelon is a nice combo but wanted something else). It was a fairly close up photo (it was easy to tell the watermelon had been cut with a cutter); nothing in the background (that I can remember) but I can't find it and the party is tomorrow so perhaps someone can suggest a cheese to use with it or is way better at finding images than I am!

What about a cherry ganache filling in the devil's food cupcake (hollow out a bit of the cupcake, fill with the ganache), top the hole with a brandied cherry and swirl the top with kirsh-flavored whipped cream....

While you could learn a lot in two weeks, it's not going to really register as a place where you gained a significant amount of work experience - even if you picked up things that will serve you well in the future. Consider presenting your resume with skills listed first. Ask your present employer what you're good at (speed? multitasking? organizing) or if that's too blatant (it looks like you're fishing for compliments!) be honest with yourself about what you do well at work and where you need to improve. Then go from there. Lead with your strengths. Many times a fast food operation by its very nature teaches you how to organize yourself and speed - as well as how to clean as you go and this kind of experience can be a good thing.

We love breakfast for dinner! Usually it's scrambled eggs or an omelet, toast, melon and berries if we have it, bacon on occasion (none of us has any willpower when it comes to perfectly cooked bacon!); I'm the only one in the family who likes french toast so I don't make it just for me. Husband and son like apple sausages on occasion..... Usually it's once or twice a month, but it's been a long while since we've had breakfast for dinner so maybe tomorrow.....

I think every business has a model they will use in pricing; some people are looking for a specific margin and some are looking for a markup. When the customer can articulate what they want (e.g., each of their 260 locations gets a package of 6 or 12 cupcakes), chocera could use that to begin to calculate expenses and price (for production and packaging). Shipping should be a separate line item and then together they can figure out whether the venture is profitable for them both (for chocera to do the work and for the customer to get all the goodwill that those delicious cupcakes will bring them!)

About the containers: you can buy the clear plastic clam-box cupcake holder (your supermarket probably has them) with compartments for various quantities (12 mini, 6 regular size or large size, etc). This is what I'm thinking of: cupcake box Would you be responsible simply for dropping them off to their shipping department or to a carrier (like FedEx or UPS)? It might be worth investigating that angle first - because the shipper is the best person to tell you about what will work and what won't as you start down this path. It's one thing to bake all these cupcakes and package them; it's another to deal with shipping. Your expertise is baking and what you learn from the shipper may give you pause, or at least give you the info you need to say here's the flavors (and whether you do American buttercreme or a meringue buttercream may well be a factor of how these are shipped). Or give you a chance to go in a different direction - like cookies shaped like cupcakes and decorate to look like cupcakes... At great expense to yourself, no doubt, you could get yourself a box of sample cupcakes from Perfect Endings in Napa Valley and see how they do things....

You could do home made pretzels (chocolate ones! they won't melt because the choc is in the batter) and dust with cinnamon sugar and maybe experiment to see if chopped walnuts would stick to them...? I know that Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts has a recipe for sweet pretzels (I made them one year as Christmas tree decorations) so that's a possibility... and there's another recipe in that book called Joe Froggers which are huge gingersnap-ish kind of cookies (they're marvelous) - they are meant to be shipped. When my friend's brother was stationed in the area, I made her California fruit bars and California Pecan Bars - basically a blondie with dried fruits (apricots and walnuts were my favorites in that recipe, it is the only time I like walnuts; which brings me to the very addictive version called Pecan Bars.) PM me to let me know if you need the recipes, if you do not have the books.

I'd not heard of Josh Ozersky before this thread. I thought the piece was a little show-offy in the sense that he is bashing caterers as a whole and crowing about how wonderful the food was at his wedding because it was prepared by restaurant chefs. He could have taken the approach that he and his bride were very lucky to have such loving and generous friends who made their wedding day that much more special but the article doesn't come off that way at all. That was his choice when he wrote it. He didn't anticipate the flames that the article has generated, or maybe he would have clarified the point that his wedding was a lot cheaper than most because of the gifts provided. I thought the same thing - that his wedding day is a little sullied from the backlash of the article but he chose the topic and how to write it; he put it out there so it's fair game. From what I've read, he doesn't strike me as the kind of person who is going to let this bother him the future, though. Having said that, it was a pretty eclectic menu. Lasagne at a wedding is a first for me but then again, I've never had *that* lasagne!

I wonder if this would work in a muffin tin? You may not want cupcakes but the batter may bake better in the small cups instead of one larger pan..

I have lately been using the refrigerated/frozen purees from Ponthier - they are, quite simply, excellent. Some of the flavors I've tried are so clearly superior to what I've been using that I gave all my perfect puree and some of my caramanfruit stuff to the caterers I share with. The Ponthier mango is outstanding. The coconut has no grit. And blueberry! Wow, the blueberry. I got a taste of it when the rep came in, and while I do not have blueberry anything on our menu, I bought it anyway. I have never made sorbet before, but this blueberry has sorbet written all over it! When I use the strawberry or raspberry in our buttercreams, people swoon even more than they used to. They arrive in a pouch with a flip top (which is unfortunately easy to snap off) and can be frozen for 2 years or kept refrigerated for one year. Once opened, the standard 7-10 days thing applies but when I know I am not going to use all of something, I will just freeze it after I've opened it. OK, I will stop sounding like a walking advertisement for them. But seriously, Ponthier is just fantastic. I did not think I would find anything better than the caramanfruit coins or purees, but this is.

I noticed that the curd recipes in the Pie book are different from the ones in the Cake bible. The curd recipe in the cake bible has less sugar - 3.5 oz in the original recipe compared to 4.5 oz for passion, lime, and orange curds. You could either add two sheets of bloomed gelatin to the warm-ish curd; or use an extra yolk or two in the recipe to make it firmer.

the fact that I'm not making them. I gave up making the PB cheesecake years ago because peanut allergies are more life threatening than other nut allergies. and I can confidently say to my clients that there are no peanut products in our kitchen but there are other nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and walnuts. Many of my customers who remember this cheesecake want me to make it again but I don't. I use two containers of white (one for the heath bar pops and the other for the rest), and two containers of the dark and milk so there is no chance of cross contamination.

Admittedly, I am dipping cheesecake lollipops and not fine chocolates - but I have a separate bowl for flavors that have nuts in them (e.g., almonds, pecans) and only use that container for those flavors so I can assure people that there is no cross contamination with nut products. I have a killer peanutbutter cheesecake that I haven't made in years and people are clamoring for it to return as a cheesecake lollipop but because of the whole nut allergy thing and peanut allergies being so much more serious than just breaking out into hives, I'd need yet a third bowl just for that flavor ....

the pizza maker would probably rather have cash....

too bad you can't put a tip jar out for the pizza maker! I know, I know, it's tacky. Makes me think of all those coffee places with a jar out for tips but how else can you draw attention to the fact that you have no wait staff (presumably) but someone's making the food and getting it to the tables...