JeanneCake

You could... the fondant will stay fluid for a while when it's still warm, but you'd have to work quickly and the cake (already crumb coated) would have to be well chillled. But I'd probably use a white choc ganache instead, come to think of it. The thing with the poured fondant is that it can wrinkle if you were to move the cake, it can crack at the edges and you'd lose bits here and there (that happens with my petit fours if I am sloppy with them. I ended up switching to coating chocolate for the petit fours, it tastes better and I get better coverage with them, but you couldn't use that on a cake!)

Poured fondant is most likely what they are referring to, not rolled fondant. This is the stuff you use to coat petit fours, the tops of eclairs... If you were to purchase poured fondant, it would come in a tub or block; you just melt it over hot water for use. If you are looking for a recipe to create the poured fondant, the food processor poured fondant recipe in the Cake Bible is a good one to use and easy to make. Waiting for it to cool is the most time consuming part of the process.

I asked about this a few years back, we had a thread on it that might help you: Sugarveil thread

I have better luck with liquid candy colors than the powdered ones (I always get tiny beads that are noticeable, especially with the red, when I use powder) and the color is very true. I'd almost rather color chocolate than color buttercream!

How big is the logo? What about using chocolate to create it? Use a piece of acetate, get the logo in reverse, outline the black and red areas, fill in the colors and then "flood" the back of the whole thing in white. Since you're tracing the logo, you're not really piping freehand so no worries there. I find that the bigger I make these chocolate things, the more prone I am to breaking them so coating the back helps with that. Another trick from the Amazing Annie There's also something I've heard of called a frozen buttercream transfer, which is similar to the chocolate technique, only using buttercream instead and freezing it as you create it. I don't have any experience with this so I can't comment on whether it is easier or harder, but maybe it is worth looking into?

If you don't already have one, here are some cutters for Japanese maple leaves: Tinkertech Japanese Maple Leaf Cutter

I was about to suggest lemon extract, but that also contains alcohol. There's a new sprayable luster dust available from the UK company PME. I've bought it from Pfeil and Holing, but it's also available from CalJava. In fact, CalJava sells a silver airbrush color and maybe that would work....

I'm with the ancestors Are these being passed or are they a stationary display? Or a little of both? Depending on how easy it is to get the desserts, that could make a big difference in how much gets eaten. Is this at night or a brunch? I'd go with 6 pieces per person too.

The method SugarSeattle is describing is for a Swiss Meringue (versus Italian Meringue and French Meringue). In a swiss meringue, you heat the whites and sugar (usually to about 160) and then beat until it increases in volume, usually about triple. With italian meringue, the whites are beaten (sometimes with sugar) and then a hot sugar syrup is added to the beaten whites. With french meringue, you beat the whites, sometimes with a little acid (lemon juice or cream of tartar) to help protect them from overbeating, (to me, this also gives them a little more stretch but I could be imagining that) and you add sugar (sometimes a combination of granulated and confectioner's, sometimes just one or the other) and beat til the whites are glossy. So, the short answer is yes, you put some water in a pan, bring it to a simmer and then put the bowl with the whites and sugar over it. The water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl, and it shouldn't boil (at least not furiously!). An active simmer is ok What about just making your niece's cake again, but vary the flavoring. What about a strawberry version? You could still use the Grand Marnier with it (Strawberry Grand Marnier is a hugely popular combination in my neck of the woods), maybe some fresh berries for garnish? I thought your original idea was pretty terrific.... If you are still thinking along the lines of meringue because your family so loves that Vacherin cake, what about a marjolaine? It's similar - meringue layered with buttercream and ganache. I have a cinnamon coffee version on my dessert menu - chocolate cake, layer of coffee buttercream, then an almond dacquoise and a layer of chocolate ganache with a little bit of cinnamon. Then the whole thing is glazed with ganache, decorated with coffee bean candies and either sugared almonds or chocolate curls on the sides.....

I don't like to make buttercream roses because with our house buttercream, they don't look like the same type the veg shortening icing produces. Plus, festoons of various colors of buttercream roses are the type of decoration the supermarkets around here produce, which is something I do not want to be. So early on, I decided that I would make a fresh berry garnish "my signature". So my all occasion cakes have berries on them, usually a few strawberries depending on the size of the cake, with some raspberries and blueberries to fill in between the strawberries. It's the same for a cake finished with white buttercream or chocolate ganache. I also use chocolate curls (white, dark or strawberry) or choc cake crumbs to mask the sides of the cake, which no one else around here does. I make sugar plaques or chocolate plastique "banners" with the message so a cake already made can be personalized as needed. This works for the gourmet stores I sell through, it gives them a chance to respond to an impulse purchase. For custom orders, I write directly on the cake. But one of my "signature" cakes is a basketweave with a top covered with berries (and the plastique banner on top of the berries with the message). People around here recognize this as a Jeanne Cake, and it works for most occasions. Eventually people will want something different though, and that's when having some extra fondant decorations at the ready can help. When I am cutting out stars, or flowers, or making bows, I make extra - way more than I need so I can use them on the spur of the moment if I need to. For baby showers, you might get a carriage or onesie cookie cutter and use that for the message, or use that to cut out fondant decorations for the sides as a way to personalize it without having to color frosting (you can color fondant in advance and as long as it is stored airtight, it will last a year). Use a colored fondant or fabric ribbon to bring in color if you like that look better. You might want to look around at what your competition produces so you can make your cakes different from the rest. Have a range of pricing (e.g., a 10" round cake, serving approximately 20, ranges from $55 to $80 based on how elaborately it is decorated) so people can tell you what they want to spend. I don't think customers are deliberately taking advantage of your kindness; they're asking for personalization (which is what they want). If you are charging more, it won't feel like you're being taken advantage of.

CanadianBakin: Are you leaving your equipment there when you are not there? Will you have a locked area to put things away? Will you be keeping anything there? If so, you need to think about the possiblity of them being borrowed or broken and how to handle that. As well as what would happen if something breaks while you are using it....

I wonder if there would have been a different outcome based on viewing the "pilots" and audience voting. Of the three pilots, Lisa and Adam seemed most natural and at ease, Aaron less so. It's too bad they won't just put them all into production.

Here's a thought... let's lose the Neelys (I haven't watched their show, just the horrible horrible teasers) and give Adam and Aaron on their own BBQ show. Lisa has potential, and I like her much more than I did at the beginning. Any of the three of them would be fine as a winner; they all have different strengths and compared to what's on now, all three of them should get their own show. It would dramatically improve the lineup.

The Cake Bible is a good resource as well for recipes (buttercream, cake and fondant). There are other books that deal with decoration and not so much recipes. You might want to check the library before deciding which book to buy - there are a lot of them on the market. And, you might want to do a few small test cakes before the big day. Do some 9" and 6" practice cakes to get the feel for it.

Well, given the track record of past winners, it seems that the FN leaves the winners high and dry after their 6 shows. Guy Fieri is the only winner who we hear from .... far too often IMHO. So maybe A&A can capitalize on a win with the restaurant? It would be a smart move....

what kind of buttercream? A meringue buttercream? Adding (quality) white chocolate increases the fat content by the addition of the cocoa butter in the white chocolate, but it also adds milk solids. It makes a meringue buttercream a little sweeter to my taste. As for helping it to hold up in warm situations, I don't think it gives you as much as a liquid shortening would. This past weekend, two of the wedding cakes I did were buttercream and I didn't have access to the refrigerated truck. Temps hit above 95 in the afternoon and I was concerned about transporting the cakes. For one, I didn't add anything to my usual merinue buttercream and it was ok. The other one, I added some hi ratio shortening (about a cup maybe? Scant cup) to about 5# meringue buttercream for the final outside frosting layer. I noticed it was easier to smooth to perfection without the usual tricks because of the added fat. But since both of the cakes were fine, I can't say one is any better than the other for regular use. For shipping a cake, can you do something like a white chocolae ganache as the outside frosting? Just pour it over the crumb coat, you might need a second coat of glaze. Maybe this would be an alternative?

Maybe you should create an inventory of equipment, just for your own use so you can refer back to it. It doesn't help with things that have already walked away, I know, but equipment leaving with staff isn't a new thing and Chef may feel that if she purchased the equipment for her own use, and was letting the store "borrow" it, that's something you need to know. Kind of like when you buy a house, you need to know do the appliances stay or go - the lighting fixtures, etc....

Congrats! Can't wait to hear the details and see the food!

Check out some catering web sites that you know and admire, look at their menus. (they don't have to be local vendors. You could find hundreds of caterers just looking at online wedding websites like Brides, The Knot, Wedding Channel; most of them will have sample menus online and that's where inspiration can strike). Even Martha Stewart's Hors D'oeuvres handbook will give you lots of ideas! Pulled pork? BBQ? some kind of smoked meat on small sweet potato biscuits (who needs those little tiny hamburgers!) Love the gazpacho idea! The always and ever present tortellini on skewers. Do wedding cake cookies as favors and encourage them to do a selection of desserts rather than a cake (she says irreverently, being a baker!) so you can show off your dessert style. (this is minutae: Most of what you would be offering could be transported in insulated Cambro units in hotel pans. Wrap everything in plastic wrap before you put it in the Cambro; this way if it tips, nothing spills beyond the plastic. And pack a panic bucket of extras - paper goods, silverware, serving utensils, etc) Wishing you and Tyler all the best in your new adventure! ETA because I can't spell

Completely, wholeheartedly agree. This train has not only wrecked the station (pun intended), but took the entire track with it. Maybe they are the reason so many of the chefs that made Food Network something to watch in the early years are gone. They aren't in touch with the viewers in any way, shape or form. I'm glad the child goes to camp next week and I don't have to sit through it.

I had to fill an order earlier this year (it was for a pastry chef who was on vacation, the remaining pastry cooks didn't want to attempt it) for chocolate beggar's purses - a molten chocolate recipe (thank you again Marilyn!) scooped into the center of a bric round, brushed very lightly with butter, and twisted the top closed. I froze these, delivered them frozen and they were baked to order (so the center would be appropriately "molten"). To help hold the shape until they were frozen solid, I used a square of foil drawn up around it. Originally I thought I'd do phyllo until the chef said it was a crepe, the crepes were too small so the feuille de bric was it. And it is so much easier to use, I would never consider using something else. The bric was flexible and easier to handle than phyllo, so if there are things you are doing with phyllo, you might give the bric a try instead.

the straws are cut with the angle of the cake, they don't really stick up. Annie was in a hurry to draw the pics because I was just about to build the cake (as in, it's Friday night and this is going out the door on Saturday). When you assemble the tiers, you watch for the angle when you're putting the next tier on top. This is where I find that the narrow bottom helps with the overall illusion - if you don't narrow the bottom, it looks odd (to me at least). I have been doing it this way for the last year, and this is very, very stable. I like building it this way because it's faster and just as stable as the other methods (BKeith's and Colette's use of styro)

You know, at first, I wondered if that was what you meant! You need the boards to support the weight of the cake tiers above. Otherwise you'll have a collapsing cake on your hands If you have a recent Colette Peters book, it has some diagrams and illustrations which will be helpful - but the Annie Method has served me very well over the last year. Especially through today's adventure - lots of Boston roads are closed due to the concert today, and my three tier Mad Hatter Birthday got bounced around pretty well on those cow paths we call streets ....

It was a powdered, instant type of drink that she was using as a coffee replacement - it might have been made from freeze-dried chicory or some other root. I don't remember anything else about it except that I tried it and didn't really care for it. But I was 12 at the time so that's not saying much It came in a jar, not a can, like ground coffee; it was probably more like instant coffee than anything else. I remember she always made it hot, as opposed to coffee which she had hot and iced. And in the summer, there was always a pot of tea cooling on the stove for iced tea. Her mother, on the other hand, always had hot water after dinner. Not tea. Not coffee. Just hot water, which I never understood. And still don't!

This made me remember the time my mother switched from her usual instant coffee to Postum in the morning. She had just won a microwave in a contest at work - the thing was enormous!! - and would use a glass mug to heat the water and add the Postum to it. I remember that smell. I wonder if they still sell Postum, I'll have to look in the supermarket for it just for old times sake! Eventually she went back to coffee. For the longest time, well into my twenties in fact, I could not stand the smell of freshly ground or brewing coffee, it would make me physically ill. Somewhere it all changed, and now I am addicted to espresso and the dark roast at Starbucks!