JeanneCake

The Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Food Arts mentions this technique (as well as the Ideas in Food chefs) in an article about hydrocolloids written by David Arnold of the French Culinary Institute; it gives an overview as well as comparing and contrasting the use of low acyl gellan gum, high acyl gellan gum, methocelF150, gelatin, and xanthan gum among others. Now I feel like I'm ready to experiment with this too!

My mileage is definitely different. I don't get this reaction between the buttercream and the cake's surface. I think it would happen if you weren't leveling the top of the baked cake and put the buttercream on the baked top crust (Margaret Braun does this will all her cakes, btw. Her recipes bake with a crispier top crust and she likes that textural element.) I notice that the top crust is sometimes sticking to the top of plastic wrap after an overnight stay in the cooler or after a day or two in the freezer so maybe that's what you're seeing?

One way to add a flavor is to use a spiced syrup brushed on the cake. You could steep some cinnamon sticks in a sugar syrup along with other spices (maybe use a bouquet garni bag if you are using bulky spices like star anise) or just mix the spices with the sugar before you boil it. If you might be diluting the syrup before applying it to the cake, you can make the syrup spicier than if you use it straight. I would use an already good chocolate cake recipe and tweak it with spices than trying to re-engineer it; I'm sure if you posted the recipe people would be willing to offer suggestions but my initial inclination is to double the spice amounts you're currently using and see how that works. Also, see what happens to this cake after you chill it overnight. You might be pleasantly surprised!

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I'm intrigued as well. I googled "white chocolate consomme" and came up with a few sites that might give you more inspiration: The Power of a Passion blog and this NY Times article discusses gelatin drips to clarify NY Times article Sounds like fun!

You could do it yourself - or you can bring in the plumber to do it. Do it often and it isn't as gross as letting it go. The last kitchen I was in (I sublet) didn't do it for two years and when they finally did, I couldn't stand to be in the kitchen. My current kitchen is a much larger facility with a huge trap and the plumber comes in every 3 months.

Anytime I've used pasteurized whites, they collapse when I add the sugar syrup. I've figured out through my own trial and error that I can get away with about 1/3 of the total quantity of whites as pasteurized, more than that and they collapse. What kind are you using? It would be a whole lot cheaper than all these shell eggs I'm going through... Thanks!

We are doing the hosting, and I'm making (by popular request) the Havana Moon Chili (from epicurious). It's got olives, golden raisins, slivered almonds along with the usual suspects and people can't get enough of this (I also have to make rice, and one - there's always one! - in the crowd who wants spaghetti for under the chili.) It's different but boy is it good. Then so far we having coming: a cheese and fruit board; teriyaki wings, buffalo wings, someone is sure to bring a crudite platter and the kids will get Annie's Mac n Cheese. The caterers I share with made a crab/artichoke "bechamel" (I can't think of a better word for it, and I forgot what they were calling it) last week and it was fantastic. I think I might have to make some of that, too. Then for dessert, it's that oreo mud cake thing with chopped oreos, whipped cream and I don't know what else is in it, but everyone loves it! ETA: I'm told that this is called "dirt cake".

Kim, I would agree with Alana... make it tonight. If you don't frost the cupcakes, cover it with a barely damp paper towel (what I hate about cream cheese icing is the way it crusts over. I don't know that your filling will do that but just in case, the paper towel can't hurt until you use it.) And, one of my chef instructors had a trick to make cold buttercream workable quickly. It was broken up into smallish chunks and put in a mixer and then we'd put no more than one third the total volume in the microwave until soft (NOT melted) and added it to the mixer. If you go too far with it and it melts, the buttercream will have a "too buttery" consistency and lose a lot of the volume.

I've heard of "Deco" brand (from Swiss Chalet/Felchlin) which had on the label "european rolled icing" but not Euro brand fondant. I tried it many many years ago, and found it to be very stiff - it was more work to roll it than other brands. Sometimes it's not just price that makes it worthwhile to switch. Get some and see how it handles for you; if it works for you and you like it, it's worth it. I agree with Annie - Pettinice and Albert Uster are my preferred brands, and I use Satinice only when there's a loaded pastry bag held to my head.....

I made our wedding cake; still married after 18 years. But it was stressful to be doing it the day before the wedding with a lot of other details to attend to. There are a lot of superstitions around weddings, aren't there ! Ignore this one, and congratulations!

Thank you for the great ideas! The sweet croutons are a nice touch. As it turns out, the event has printed menus because people are expected to vote for their favorite soup and the winner gets a plate or some other sort of trophy. The organizers weren't sure what to do with a dessert soup - no one had ever approached them about it before! I told them I didn't need to be on the ballot.

We have six of these at work; they all open 180 degrees.

When my husband first moved in with me, he would awaken to the smell/sound of garlic sizzling in olive oil as I started the usual Saturday morning routine: making gravy (what we called tomato sauce when I was growing up). He said it was the hardest thing to get used to. I married him anyway. I too, hated the smell of coffee when I was in my twenties. I don't know what changed, but now I have to have dark roasted coffee or it isn't a good day. Remember that old OJ jingle - a day without oj is a day without sunshine? Change that to coffee for me, please. I also used to hate olives with a passion and now I can't get enough. So maybe there's hope for your husband that his palate will change ...

Well, if you don't have any white coating chocolate (which is what the Felchlin Ultra Gloss is), you can use poured fondant. Do you have the Cake Bible? There's a recipe for "food processor poured fondant" in there, and it would work. It takes a while for the sugar to cool down (an hour), though so plan ahead. That's what I used until my friend told me she used the white choc with better results and far better taste. Poured fondant is similar in texture and taste (sweet!) to the icing you make with confectioner's sugar and milk or water - it's a fluid icing that will eventually firm up like ganache does. If you freeze your petit four squares, you can dunk them in the fondant with fewer crumbs. Keep it over a water bath or double boiler so it stays fluid and doesn't crust while you're using it. If you use the white choc, you can dunk them too; either way you might want to dunk twice for better coverage. Strain whatever you're using because you will get some crumbs in it no matter how careful you are. How many of these little darlings do you have to make? If you go with a half-sheet size, with 3 layers of sponge; you can get about 45-50 out of it; very probably more if you are making them dainty little 1" squares. Trim the edges all the way around before you start making your little squares or cuts.

Yep, they're thin when you make them in the jelly roll pan. But when you put them in a brownie pan (sold in supermarkets) or a 9x13, they're thicker. Takes a little longer to bake, but they're the right thickness for when I want to overload them with fruit or make the pecan-only version. I can't get enough of this when I make them with apricots, cranberries, and pecans!

Do you have any of Maida Heatter's books? There is a huge selection of bars in her books. My favorites are the California Fruit Bars (basically a blondie with assorted fruits like figs, apricots, cranberries, dates.... ), Palm Beach Brownies, the York Peppermint Brownies and the Katharine Hepburn Raspberry brownies. And there are other non-chocolate bar recipes, but you can take the California Fruit bar recipe and add chocolate bits or heath bar, or coconut, and bake it in a brownie pan rather than a jelly roll pan to make it thicker. I think you should stack the bars in a tower..... You can bake and freeze the invidually wrapped bars ahead and transport them in a box or milk crate....

A friend sent that photo to me; I remember the text saying that the bride had a model-maker create a "mask" for the face and the baker built around it. And what do you think the kitchen staff was thinking as they cut it!!!.....

A creme anglaise doesn't have starch in it to thicken it; it has the same components albeit in a different ratios (creme anglaise will have yolks while creme pat calls for some whole eggs and yolks) but the main difference between the two is the lack of a flour or cornstarch thickener. I think of custard as a broad category - they can be cooked on the stovetop, or in the oven; purists might say that custards are only thickened with eggs (no starch) but creme pat is very definitely a custard and it has flour and/or cornstarch. So your mileage on this definition might vary.

Hey Brian- I caved and bought the Hero stuff (paying for shipping aack!), waiting for it to arrive. I ordered the cherry jam because I'm doing variations on the linzertorte - using the hazelnut dough from RLB's Pie and Pastry Bible (it's very sturdy, you don't even have to roll it, just press in pan and go). So I have three variations: cherry, raspberry and the apricot jam from Agrimontana. You can store the linzers for a week at rm temp wrapped. For the lattice, I just make up another batch of dough and add egg white until it is a pipe-able consistency - use a small round tube (ateco 3) to pipe it with or the lattice expands too much due to the increased egg white and doesn't look good. I always figure that people are going to get a box of truffles anyway, and The restaurants I sell to are asking for "fondue" for V-day and I'm suggesting flavored ganaches with different marshmallows for dipping. But marshmallows are definitely catching on here, and the marshmallow thread has lots of good ideas. You could create another "dessert box to go": half-dip heartshaped marshmallows, truffles, cookies or mini tarts ..... Last year, I did broken heart cookies for anyone who was a grinch about V-day...it was not a huge seller but the new gourmet store is really interested these.

I like the cutters from Copper Gifts because they're sturdy and don't lose shape after years of use. But there's another place I've bought from that might help. They don't have a corset, but maybe you could modify this nightgown shape to suit: Kitchen Collectibles Cutter There's another place called The Copper Cookie Cutter Store that looks good, but I've never ordered from them

How much can you concentrate the celery juice? I'd rather see you add it to the finished buttercream to get more oomph out of it. I have no idea how much (if any) natural sugar would be in celery, but if you use the microwave to reduce the juice, you won't caramelize any of the naturally occurring sugars in the celery. But if you come up with a sort of celery concentrate, the flavor will go much further than if you used celery juice to moisten the sugar. Plus, if you don't get all the impurities out, you'll crystallize the sugar as you make the syrup..... this sounds pretty cool..... second thought: can you make a celery "curd"? Use all yolks a la RLB's lemon curd recipe to get the most celery flavor (fat carries flavor and using all yolks will help capture as much of the elusive celery flavor as possible).

O.M.G. these stories are funny, and I'm embarrassed right along with you who were there to see it firsthand. I can't even handle the noise of nail clipping when it's done in the bathroom at home. I cannot even comprehend doing that in public. Why? Why?! Katie, please, let's hear your stories! Start a new thread and keep the laughing going.....

I was talking to the caterers today; they did it last year so they remember that no one had a dessert soup, and everyone did hot soups. They were busy with corporate lunches so they didn't have a lot of time to chat about it, and they are considering doing a crab-tomato bisque with some type of crouton. They're still playing around with the idea too. So. I have a lot more options with a cold soup than a hot one, but I'm still playing with the idea. I haven't decided anything yet! The advantage of the cool/cold soup is I can serve it from small clear juice cups (which I have thousands of) and not really need spoons. I guess I can do that with a hot soup too; even a hot soup isn't going to be boiling hot when it's served. I love passionfruit and the idea of thinning out passion curd with creme anglaise (or doing a swirled soup a la the Silver Palate) with the champagne gelee. I was also thinking of a cherry soup and one of the cooks said there was a traditional Danish cherry soup but she couldn't remember the name. I also like the idea of the vanilla soup with brownie "croutons"!

Or maybe you call it pastry cream when a pro makes it and pudding when your mother opens the box?! People don't know what I mean when I say I fill a cake with pastry cream and chopped fruit, but when I say it's like a vanilla pudding, they get it. I don't know the technical difference, either; but I bet the Jello company couldn't sell "pastry cream" but they could sell "jello pudding". You know those marketing types! I attended a seminar years and years ago, and the chef (whose name I can't remember) said - there's not much new in the world, but you can put a spin on it and call it something else. He was talking about deconstructing tiramisu (the ultra popular dessert at the time) and saying that if you called it tiramisu everyone would think they knew what it was and may not order it, but if you called it something else, they'd be intrigued and you could sell a lot more of it.....