JeanneCake

I think the original poster is STILL looking for a recipe; bad, good or otherwise. I would imagine that there are a lot of handwritten recipes on cards or in community cookbooks. Maybe your local historical society has some cookbooks in their library that might be helpful in your search.

I was looking at pastrychef.com for colored sugar pearls and they have a macaron mix from Patisfrance. It's $80 for an 11 pound bag.

Nicole Kaplan is the other name I recognized

Check it out ... Pastry Scoop Awards List

I think as soon as they gave you a delivery date of June 8, I would have said, we're closed on Mondays but if you give me a window for delivery we'll be here. The aggravation of dealing with them just isn't worth it. They seem to be jerking you around and they know they can get away with treating you poorly because where else can you go? I'm a small (tiny!) business myself and yet the reps from each company I deal with treat me well; as if there is no difference between the small amounts I purchase and the accounts who buy $5K every week so it isn't just that your business is small, it's the integrity of the people you're buying from. What are the chances that X and Y are in cahoots?

Ok, so how did you make this watermelon cheesecake?

I've been asked by a chef to help with a dessert to be prepared in a kosher kitchen. He doesn't have a pastry chef on staff but needs to prepare a strawberry shortcake dessert for 130 people for this weekend. We're going to be at the temple kitchen on Friday afternoon to prep. My preferred recipes for biscuits for strawberry shortcake contain dairy in some form (butter, light cream, heavy cream or buttermilk) or another. I can replace the butter with margarine, but what can I replace the fluid dairy with? The chef is suggesting soy milk, and I'm thinking that I'd need to increase the fat in the recipe somehow in order to get it to work. Has anyone tried this? He's ordered some non-dairy stuff that you just whip in a mixer for the whipped cream; I don't know what brand he got, but maybe that's an alternative? (I've never used that so I don't know.) Any ideas, helpful hints or recipes (please!)?

It looks like there's a thin disc of white chocolate at the bottom. From the first glass in the front, it looks to me like three different layers - the chocolate (or something white, and it looks like it smudged a little going in), then the raspberry panna cotta and then an opaque gellee type of topping.

It drives me CRAZY when someone comes into my part of the kitchen and sticks a finger into a bowl of buttercream (or cheesecake batter or whatever I'm making - especially something that isn't going to be cooked again). I have one person who helps with deliveries who does this all the time and if I say something (or raise an eyebrow), it stops for a little bit, but the next time she comes in, it happens again. She's an experienced culinary person and just finished a ServSafe class but it doesn't stop! I'm going to have to whack her hand with a ruler the next time. Get your fingers out of my food!

I have clients taste cake when we meet for a consultation, but sometimes I make cupcakes for them to pick up if they are from out of town and have a limited amount of time on a weekend and we can't meet because of that schedule. What works for me is to have the client choose from a list of flavors or provide some ideas for things they want to try that aren't on the menu. I used to assemble square cakes, cut them into individual pieces and freeze the slices so they'd be ready at a moment's notice but it got to a point where I couldn't have one of everything available and if someone didn't want a particular flavor it might go to waste. So now I do it more like Annie's; I have the client choose what they want to taste, and like Sylvia Weinstock, I give them a plate with scoops of flavored buttercreams and circles of cake so they can mix and match and put together a flavor they like and will work as their dessert. I have a sheet that gets filled out at the meeting with date/ceremony start/reception start/guest count/venue name & contact/florist name $ contact as well as the photographer. There's space for me to write notes about colors, style, etc and on the back of the sheet I sketch the design ideas we come up with. I make a copy of the front sheet for the client which includes a description of what we've come up with (e.g., 3 tier round, white fondant, embroidery design, fresh flower top), an estimated price, delivery charge and utility cake price. There's a paragraph describing the policy (dates are held at no obligation for 30 days but no date is secure without a deposit, payment must be received 5 days in advance, when to confirm count/flavor/details, etc.) and the reason I don't give them a copy of the sketch is because I've had clients take my sketch to a competitor and there's always someone who will do it cheaper. Once I get a deposit, I make a copy of the entire sheet and send it to them as confirmation.

She talks about Madame Brassartin the book (My Life in France) and the hard time M Brassart gave her during her education; I'm kind of surprized she didn't deck her in that scene, she would have deserved it!

I got a more intimate sense of Julia Child's personality after reading My Life in France; and some of that spark and spunk that came out of the book I can see in the movie clips. Sometimes I worry about seeing a movie adaptation of a favorite book - will it change how much I enjoy the book? I didn't read the Julie/Julia book so I have nothing to compare it to and I don't think it will diminish my respect and admiration of Julia Child. It's not meant to be a documentary so I will enjoy it as entertainment. And wouldn't it be nice if Meryl Streep gets another Oscar nod for the role!

In my last ServSafe class, the schedule of classes showed a specific HACCP course offered to help people write plans that pass muster. Our instructor mentioned in the course of the day that she consults with companies who want to be HACCP certified. You might not need the official certification but the plan would be the same. Maybe your local ServSafe instructor can answer your question, and certainly your local BOH could.

I usually crumb and final coat the same day; I find that the second buttercream coat doesn't adhere as well when I chill the crumb coat overnight. I notice that it "smears" (for want of a better word) as I'm applying it; it happens more when the final coat is thinner than usual. I also use Italian Meringue but I'm not using lemon juice or salt in mine. I build the cake, wrap in plastic and let it sit overnight; then the next day apply the crumb coat and final coat. Usually about an hour apart, depends on the work load. If it were happening to all of your cakes, all the time, this might be the culprit.

That made me think of Great chocLakes for some reason!!!

can you give us more info on the kind of buttercream (swiss? italian? veg shortening based?) and how you assemble the cakes (two layers cake/ three layers cake). Does the bubble happen only on the same kind of cake (variety) and not on others? My first thought was it was an air pocket in the filling layer and as the cake settles, the air pocket pushes on the outer layer of buttercream.... and that's what makes me ask about whether it happens on all kinds of cakes you make or just a certain type.

Caraman - Albert Uster just started carrying this brand. The containers aren't too sturdy, though. The corners are susceptible to breaking/cracking in shipping.

bring them some Guinness cupcakes

OMG I have the opposite happen. We get invited somewhere, everyone is bringing something and I really don't want to bring dessert; but no one else will bring dessert because they are afraid of making a dessert when there's a pastry chef on the guest list!!! Sheesh. Usually I just smile and ask them where they got the recipe and then comment on how I like that particular magazine or food page of the newspaper and say how I wanted to try it myself and start asking them about how they made it and pretty soon they're off on a different tangent.

the one from Roland Mesnier in Dessert University - he has a Champagne version and an orange version. I've done the Champagne one as tartlets, works great, as long as you don't burn the crust when bruleeing PM me if you are interested in the recipe

So Food4Thought/Mr Roberts, I can't help but wonder what your goal or intent was in starting this thread. The Cafe owner doesn't give you permission in her response to post her words on other internet sites or to use it in any other way or form than a response to a posting on your own site. I agree with TheFoodTutor, there's more to this than meets the eye....

The reality is that people are going to copy a design they see in a magazine, another wedding, whereever the photo happens to appear. So regardless of how the original artist feels about his/her design, the ability to enforce an intellectual property decision is impossible. If you are near the bakery who created the cake, it would be nice if the customer went to that bakery and got their "signature" design. But if people are shopping on price, there is always someone who is willing to do (try) the design for less money. Some places ship cake, and there is one bakery in Portland (I think) who encourages people to buy from the original artist and will ship nationwide. I know this artist contacted a competitor and told him to remove a picture from his site as it was an exact copy of one of her copyright designs. There is one organization who makes fake cakes. When I asked them if they copy designs from bakers, they said that they put their own spin on any design someone asks them to copy so it's not really an exact copy. What would be nice is if bakers and cake artists acknowledged a design was inspired by or came from someone else on their web sites.

passion for making people happy with good food that creates a taste memory. I also like creating art, out of cake. There are people who travel a long long way for the Chocolate Decadence cake I make; and every year at Passover, I hear from people who say they have to have the macaroons we make.

Tell her you'll pay her what SHE paid for it.... zip!

If I could get a word in edgwise here... I agree that Michelle's cake was beautifully done (clean work), and it's also the kind of thing she's done before (the swirls, the squares with mini separations). The sentiment was nice and I could see how it "spoke" to her and why it was important. But even she said - when she looked out over the other cakes "We're going home." I also think the editing is done with an eye for the dramatic - they're all tired at the end of the day and BAM! (sorry ) another twist! now they have to vote someone off the island. I think they came across as surprized and stumbled over their words. I don't think they intentionally meant to hurt Michelle's feelings (as opposed to some of the judging comments on that show - and not just this episode's commentary. I wonder if they give them "good cop/bad cop" direction before they start each show!!). Remember the tag team cakes? When the first one ran, and they paired Margery with Lisa and Margery tore Lisa to shreds (now that was mean)? And FN did it again - and paired the two of them together again!! And then when the Pink Cake Box lady did the tag team bride episode - that bride was mean (notice how they completely cut the bride from that portion of the judging comments?.) I wonder if this is going to be the end of the Cake Challenge shows.