JeanneCake

CLUE for #73: Can someone hand me my Evian? They're outside. It's daylight. There are two kids, and two adults.

well.... I found a source for Kosher for Passover gelatin - and its $20 a POUND!!! Minimum order is 5 pounds. They say it is made from kosher slaughtered animals at a plant specifically designed for this; and it has circle UP (for passover) certification. Supposedly the shelf life for powdered gelatin is something like 5 years, which means if I buy this, I will be making marshmallows ... forever! Would you buy flavored marshmallows for Passover? I'm thinking raspberry, strawberry and passionfruit flavors.... I'd have to order this tomorrow to get it early next week so I can market this.... whadda think?

Is this Ghostbusters, where Signourney Weaver comes home and begins to unload her groceries. The eggs in their carton start jumping out and cooking on the counter while her refrigerator starts making noises and when she opens it, she hears the word "Zule!" and goes racing out of the apartment. Cue music!

I thought maybe the mycryo would work, but it's pricey for this particular application. I'll see about finding some kosher gelatin - it seems like there are more and more products that are KfP every year. Pam R, do you know about Pomona's Pectin? I used this years ago for jams and jellies, so it's really a pectin, but I wonder if it would work for marshmallows. Provided I can even find it!

I brought up your idea today in religion class with my 11-year olds and they loved the idea. Next week I am going to give them a recipe for beans and rice that they can help make at home; and even the Rel Ed director thought it was an inspired idea that she will work to incorporate into next year's curriculum and help us with getting it off the ground for the remaining weeks of Lent. This is completely off topic, but I went a little further on the topic of "giving up something for Lent" and told them their assignment was to do something nice for someone, without them asking and they are not allowed to tell why they are doing it; we will talk about it in class next week so they have somewhere to share their accomplishment. Maybe by the end of Lent, it won't be so much assignment as force of habit. Thanks!

there was a thread looking for black cupcake liners that mentioned the confectionery house; I know that you can get brown ones from Cake Deco in Australia, but maybe they can tell you where they get them. I can't get the link to work, so if you do a search for: cupcake liners in black http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=76536&hl= you might find it.....

Since I don't celebrate this holiday, pardon my ignorance in asking: Is there anything in the popular nightscotsman's marshmallow recipe that makes it inappropriate for Pesach? Maybe that's the new and different for this year....flavored marshmallows dipped in chocolate. Or present them as long traditional french ropes rather than the square shape?

Would you be willing to share the recipes for the biscotti? That carrot cake looks amazing! I offer macaroons (four varieties: choc chip, cranberry-pecan, plain, and topped with a bit of rasp jam and drizzled with choc), a flourless chocolate cake and meringues (some filled with ganache, but most of them have chopped unsweetened choc chunks in them- the RLB recipe from her cookie book) and it would be nice to offer more choices!

ask the restaurant if if they'll take care of that detail for you - remind them it should be a surprize so they don't mention it if anyone confirms details.

Is this from My Cousin Vinny?

Who keeps filling up the stupid candy bowl?! The grandparents feel they are being criticized; the parents are getting free day-care (it's a pay me now or pay me later situation - the pay later will be higher dental bills and medical expenses - the pay me now is paying for an un-related care giver) so I can't imagine this situation will change any time soon. If the parents don't care, there's not much that can be done about it. I feel badly for the kids. An older generation of child care-givers can be a tough crowd - just think about the re-education process with the "back to sleep" campaign to cut down the incidence of SIDS - this is similiar because they're using the same "we did it to you, and you're ok" rationale. Regardless of what we think, these kids are still going to be force fed junk. I'm surprized they have any appetite for their regular meals after hours of candy snacks!

Here's another movie: "Can someone hand me my Evian"

You can refrigerate it for 7-10 days; you could also freeze it. I typically use ganache as a glaze or cake filling, so your mileage may vary. You can remelt it and let it firm up again the next time you use it, but be careful about reheating it or it could break and not come back.

Is this from Real Genius? Val Kilmer and a bunch of teen geniuses at a school for the uber-smart figure out how to circumvent a professor's planned theft of a laser type of weapon. They aim it instead at the professor's house, which has been outfitted with a giant Jiffy Pop popcorn sort of thing. When the laser fires, it cooks the popcorn and there's so much of it that it pours out the windows and doors, and the kids in the neighborhood play in it like it's snow!

This is exactly the technique Maida Heatter uses for her triple layer cheesecake (it's a vanilla/hazelnut bottom layer, chocolate middle layer and vanilla top layer). The first layer freezes for about an hour (the rest of the batter stays at rm tmp) the second layer freezes for about 20-30 mins and the last layer goes on and the whole thing goes into the oven to bake. It takes a little longer because the first two layers are frozen but it's great. Hope this works for your recipe.

reenicake, did you use regular gel color (I have Chefmaster brand) or candy color? Or do you think it doesn't matter?

I usually start off by filling out a form with the bride and groom's name/addr/phone and email. You want to know the event location (address). Whether the ceremony is held there as well as the reception (for delivery time) and what time the ceremony and reception start. How many guests will be served? Is the cake going to be the only dessert or part of a larger selection? (And if the custom in your area is to provide the top tier for later, keep that in mind.) Ask about colors in the wedding - what are the attendants wearing? What sort of florals are being used (are there just bouquets or floral centerpieces for the guest tables as well)? What color flowers? What does the invitation look like? They may even bring dress pictures to the meeting, which will help. Since inspiration for design can come from any element (floral, the design on the invite or embroidery on a dress) it helps to see all of this. Find out if they have pictures of cakes they like; if you don't have a portfolio of your work, get magazines for them to look at during the meeting. Find out what they'd like to sample for flavors during their meeting. Once you have all the design info, and they are looking at pictures, bring out the samples. Sometimes people send out a "take away box" of samples, but I don't like this since you don't know what they'll do with it (leave it in the car for hours while shopping?) and you want your cakes presented in the best possible way! Offer a glass of water, it is always appreciated. Once you have a design worked out/agreed on, you can either give them a range for price and then follow it up a few days later with a firm proposal; or give them the proposal at that time. Decide on what you want for a deposit and is this refundable or not (if they change their mind)? When do you reconfirm all the details (one month prior?) and then when the balance is due. If they are using items (stands, pillars, etc) are you going to require a deposit on them? You need to spell out how those items should be returned - will you go to collect them (charging for your time) or does the family need to return them within a week of the wedding. You want to make sure that you're covering your costs and ingredients, so don't sell yourself short! Good luck! You'll do great!

What she said I wanted to be able to cut out the cookies and package them up in a window box so you'd see these pastel pink bunnies, pale yellow chick shapes, pale lavender easter eggs, maybe a pastel orange flower. Something not as "expensive" as a whole cake, for example, and not another box of chocolate easter eggs (not that there's anything wrong with chocolate easter eggs - I just want to provide an alternative!). I didn't want to have to go over the shapes with anything, just cut, bake and box! Last Christmas I made tiny gingerbread men, stars, trees, boots and packaged them up and people loved it. It was the perfect hostess gift, a great impulse sale. I saw these cute mini Easter shape cutters and thought it could work. Will try next week.....

Peggy Sue Got Married The main character (Peggy Sue) tells her sister who's eating from a bowl of M&Ms not to eat the red ones. The sister asks why, and I wish I could remember the reply!

I'm thinking of making tiny cookies in pastel colors for Easter and Mother's Day. My tiny gingerbread shapes at Christmas were a huge success, so I started to think about how to do something similar for spring. I've got enough cookie dough made to last me until next week, so adding color now would only make the dough tough. I'm toying with the idea of adding some liquid/gel/candy color to the creamed butter/sugar (before adding eggs, flour, etc). I wondered if anyone else had done it and whether or not I'd be wasting ingredients. Otherwise, I'll let you know how it turns out in a couple of weeks!

I have this wild fantasy.... You should go there again as customers. But bring your own bread to eat at the table. Just like you can bring your own bottle of wine if the restaurant doesn't have a liquor license or however that works.... send the leftover bread into the kitchen with your compliments. That's when they'll put two and two together.... where's the icon for smiling wickedly?!

If it's any consolation, one of my first restaurant clients (for desserts) first contacted me in June; then invited me in for a tasting in September and started to use me in November, after Thanksgiving. Sometimes their timeline is not what we want it to be and its hugely frustrating for a new business. And sometimes they just don't have the courtesy to say they can't do anything at this point in time. I wouldn't call them again. It's hard not to take it personally, but I don't think they intended to be mean about it, or as thoughtless as they have been (they wouldn't have gushed so much if they didn't truly enjoy your product). If you go there on a regular basis, you could stop by but they know where to find you and how to get in touch. Next time you meet with a potential new client, find out what their intent is (replace their current supplier? fill in gaps from their current supplier), how they order (daily? weekly?), when they want delivery, how to handle returns (they have to call same day of delivery or within some amount of time) and at the end of the meeting, find out what their timeline is for the next step.

Mine are clean from spatters, etc; but I do write notes in the margins and tips for the next time I make it. Recipes from childhood are copied from my mother's onto index cards and are in a steno book. I've had to tape the index cards down a few times because of aging.... My recipe book at work has each recipe typed (some have notes handwritten in) and each one is in a plastic sleeve kept in a binder. If there's ever an emergency, first grab The Book, then exit quickly I do have a second Book at home, but sometimes I have been teased about keeping a third one in a safety deposit box in a bank!

For those of you who have the book, is the second baking of the creme brulee necessary or just part of the recipe for the molten cakes? (the website link refers to instructions the author provides - it says to make the prune armagnac brulee without the prunes) I'm wondering about using the technique to bake/freeze the brulee mixture in shaped flexipans as part of a mini-pastry....

Many years ago in one of my first specialty baking classes, someone said "I never freeze anything!" And the chef rolled her eyes and said "freezing something does not make it bad". It was a lively discussion! I think the consumer at large has the perception that freezing means you are baking a ton of things on one day and selling those very same things a month later. I have people ask me on a regular basis "do I freeze my cakes" - and what they are really asking is "how far in advance are you making my cake and are you keeping it fresh by freezing it until I come to collect it?" I've also had people ask me why I am baking their cake on Wednesday if they are coming to get it on Friday and I explain the process of baking on day 1, assembling on day 2 and they pick up on day 3. They ALWAYS ask "will it be fresh?" to which I reply "what?!" and that's when they say "won't the cake be fresher if you bake the day I pick it up?" And I tell them they'll have to pick it up after 9 pm if they want it the same day. No one has ever taken me up on that - which reinforces my opinion that they're really asking how old something is. Maybe because in the food business we're trying to eliminate waste so we're trying to push stuff out the door - first in, first out. How many of us will bypass a sell-by date on perishable things for a later one when we're grocery shopping? The issue is the general public's perception that freezing is bad or is trying to mask an old product. They forget that they buy chicken on sale or prepared food and bring it home and freeze it themselves. I'm not advocating lying or being deliberately misleading. If the customer wants the brownies on the day they're baked, that's when they can pick them up. If they want them a different day, they'll be frozen first.