JeanneCake

I've used rolled fondant on a few occasions for cookies; if you can apply it while the cookies are warm, it adheres better and is less likely to come apart from the cookie later. If the rolled fondant becomes an issue, I'd suggest using the food processor poured fondant recipe from the Cake Bible to cover the cookies with. (You can buy this stuff ready made but it comes in a huge bucket.) You might need two coats for better coverage - it would depend on how thinly it goes on.

It's a little pedestrian, but I've sent the California Fruit Bars from Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts pretty much all over the world. It's a sort of blonde brownie but with your favorite dried fruits (I've experimented with just about every type of dried fruit: apricots, figs, pears, plums, cherries, cranberries, golden raisins....) and nuts (I like to change the nut depending on which kind of fruit mix I'm using). It also works with just one type of fruit and nut (like cherries and hazelnuts or cranberries and walnuts) or only all nuts/no fruit. The other recipe that I know travels well is the Golden Grand Marnier cake from RLB's Cake Bible. Ditto for Maida Heatter's Best Damn Lemon Cake (from the New Book of Great Desserts).

Well, there's cookbooks which are full of wonderful recipes and then there are books for inspiration when decorating cakes (these books also provide recipes, but I think it is only because the author feels obligated!!!) All of the ones mentioned above are good baking resources (I love the Art of the Cake, Great Cakes, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking - which has lots of other recipes not just cake recipes - anything by Maida Heatter and I have a few British cookbooks too) that will serve you well if you get them. Re the Cake Bible... it has a couple of good recipes that are useful for when someone wants something unusual... like the pistachio marzipan for making green apples and pears; or the food processor poured fondant, an eggless milk choc buttercream, a nice pound cake recipe that I've spiced up a little for autumn, a few good chiffon cake recipes that have never failed me. I think you should borrow a copy from the library and see what you think. For decorating inspiration, I'd suggest some of Colette Peter's later books, Margaret Braun's Cakewalk (just to oggle the pictures), anything by the British authors Debbie Brown or Lindy Smith for children's cake ideas.

This reminds me of something that happened when I first started out on my own.... I was converting the carrot cake recipe from volume to weight for large scale: 3 cups of sugar (21 oz) and 3 cups of flour - and I mis-read the chart in the Cake Bible and thought it was supposed to be 4 oz per cup, so I routinely used 12 oz of flour. The cake never came out the way it did in class - the top crust was always very crisp but I never put it together that it was because it was too much sugar and not enough flour. It wasn't until I was reading a Cook's Illustrated that answered a mail-in question about flour weight and it said that cake flour was 4 oz/cup and all purpose (scooped) weighed 5 oz per cup that I realized I had been using the wrong amount of flour. When I went to 5 oz/cup = 15 oz flour, that's when things went back to normal. So with this thread (and the one about to sift or not to sift - AKA the Eighth Circle of Hell), I checked the Pie and Pastry bible (because I need to make a tart for tomorrow and can't decide which one I want to make), and there's all purpose bleached/all purpose unbleached, bread flour, cake flour and pastry flour! All of them have different weights based on how they're measured, with the biggest difference between sifted and dip/sweep. The range for a/p bleached is sifted 4 oz, lightly spooned 4.2 oz and dip/sweep 5.2 oz - so that's quite a swing and enough to make a difference in what you're making....

I've been using a probe digital thermometer - and I've gone through one a year for the last five years. The problem is if the "thread" part (which attaches the probe to the base) gets exposed to an open flame, or bent (the new ones are flexible silicone of some sort; the older ones are wire). I set the alarm at 244 or 246 so by the time I get the pot off the stove top and over to the mixer, the temp rises to 248. (My instructor had one for years because we had induction cookers in class so no risk of open flame.)

I have good luck finding Kaiser and Nordicware pans at Williams Sonoma; you might try Ebay. Does it have to be springform? Have you tried the removeable bottom pans from Parrish's (the Magic Line brand)? I use these and they're great - they hold up pretty well as long as you don't drop them right on the side !

It would probably help to find out what's causing the crystallization, too. When you boil the sugar, keep the thermometer in the syrup, don't pull it out and return it to the syrup - it's this agitation that can cause crystallization, or if there are deep cracks or pits in the pan you're using, that gives the crystallization a place to start forming (try using a nonstick pan if you are at home). The wet pastry brush tip is a good one. you could also keep a cover on the pot for a little while to use the condensation to wash down the sides. With a french buttercream, the temp of the butter is also important. I have better luck with cool (not ice cold, but not soft either) butter - the buttercream is firmer and handles better. You want the yolks to be fluffy - I usually start the mixer at the same time I start the syrup (at least with RLB's neoclassic bcrm. I use pasteurized yolks which always handle differently than shell yolks) so I know the yolks are ready. Depending on the batch size, it can take 15-30 seconds or so to add the syrup.

Or, you could just tell us more here!

What Annie said! Get a pasta machine with a motor and use that to roll the fondant - the blocks aren't going to be large - maybe you can even size the cakes to match the largest square Ateco cutter. If you have two people helping, one can knead/roll the fondant, the other can cut it. Use a very lightly dusted sheet pan to hold the cut out fondant squares and set up an assembly line. Maybe even a third pair of hands to put the fondant squares on the cakes. For 60, it would definitely be worth it. I'd use royal icing to make the edges - you can color it, it will dry (and not smudge like buttercream would and is less labor intensive than trying to make a fondant rope or something like that). Are you putting these on individual boards or? ETA: typo

Laurie, I like that you included his message about the wedding industry (and I'm in it, so I'm not flaming anyone and don't want any thrown over here either!). It's so true that any where someone can add on a dollar, they will. I've had people cancel their orders with me because the venue is charging them $3.50/person to CUT THE CAKE! (they get the cake from an outside vendor rather than use the inhouse pastry chef, and this is how they're penalized. As if spending $140 per person isn't enough...and the room rental on top of that). I also hate doing cupcakes because people think that they should be cheaper because they're small. Anyway, this show is sort of like reality TV for the baker - what they say isn't anything you or I haven't said (out loud sometimes!) at work. Mary Alice and that "c. u. t. e." comment about the delivery guy - hee hee. And the woman who's check bounced and begged them to take her order (this was the $3K Spiderman cake), she was pretty funny telling Duff every time she heard from her.

You could also just paint it on - mix the copper dust with lemon extract (I like that better than vodka) and paint it on to white or colored fondant. You could play with it first - use a pink, orange or yellow base and see how the color comes up. The downside to painting is the brush strokes (but that might be a plus if you need that silk duiopponi look) - the only way to avoid them is to make the paint a very watery consistency but that might dilute the color you want. You'd probably use a little more dust that way but the color would be just as intense...

Or a marbeled orange/brown and airbrush the copper luster dust

Well, they make a RTU choux puff and eclair shells and those are just kept in a box at rm temp... so maybe Patrick you're on to something. Those are probably made way in advance of shipping, so I agree Annie, this could be a way around the dipping at the last minute. Thanks for the idea Patrick!

They can have the caramel puffs next time! Too much to deal with on Sunday, plus it's supposed to rain here on the weekend and we all know what happens to caramel in the rain. I'll get my caramel fix some other way...

One of my favorite mini-pastries is a caramel dipped cream puff. Usually I dip them an hour or two before they go out for delivery. This weekend, though, I'm pretty swamped and have an order for minis for delivery on Saturday evening but they are for Sunday brunch. This is my first order for this restaurant so I am just curious to know whether any one else does this, and how long have you been able to keep it in the walk in before the caramel melts. I know I've seen other dessert companies' produce this and their caramel isn't sticky so maybe I am doing something wrong? I'm just rubbing a heavy pot with a cut lemon and melting the sugar dry. No water, nothing else. Otherwise, just maybe I will get up an an ungodly hour on Sunday and deliver their stuff Sunday morning at the crack of dawn just to make a good impression. Or pick something else and not these. Just because I'd like to have a few extra to eat myself is no reason to get up at that hour.

I do the same thing with carrot cake fillings - the buttercream dam and the outer coat of icing being buttercream. I do have an issue with the weight, though; these cakes are very, very heavy and if an entire wedding cake is carrot cake usually someone else has to carry it for me. Three tiers stacked is my limit for what I can safely carry on my own - if the cake calls for more tiers, I build the remaining tiers on site. I've found that a lot of chefs can be very accommodating on the delivery side (taking it out of the truck) but there are just as many places that will tell you their staff cannot help you lift a cake because they don't want to be the cause of any damage. One of my competitors whom I run into sometimes at the bigger country clubs routinely carries in a four tier, stacked buttercream cake on his shoulder and the thing doesn't even bounce or wobble or anything. When I see that, I wonder how they put it together. The few times I've stacked four tiers, I hold my breath every time I hit a small bump and see it shake and repeat constantly "just let me get there with this in one piece and I'll never do it again!!"

I can get white and dark chocolate quills from Sparrow Enterprises in Boston (local distributor), or from Primarque (Worcester) - online at www.primarque.com - they'll ship UPS. These are the rolled quills, not the tubes though.

And all this time, I've been making ganache and freezing it (don't ask me about the logic of using the cream and chocolate just to "save" the cream - there isn't any logic in this thinking)! Thanks for the tip, Annie

I didn't see the TV show, but after reading the other posts, I wondered about what kind of information the contestants were given (rules, regulations, etc) to prepare for the contest. Everyone knew they were going to be in Denver, but that doesn't mean they automatically put it together that their recipes needed to be tweaked for the high altitude. It would have been considerate for the organization to have mentioned it or suggested the contestants arrive a day or two before to practice - it isn't as if they could have practiced for high-altitude baking while at home at sea level...

Um, pardon me... what is Dream Whip? I've never heard of it before. I gather from K8's post that it is a powder but is it a pudding like Jell-o pudding mix? Or like Bakewell Cream (which is something like a cream of tartar mix that you use to "boost" biscuits)? Just curious....

Congrats on the good news!

I think if you used 6-8 straws around the perimeter of the bottom tier, and one or two in the center, you'd be ok. It depends on what the tiers are above it - I know my carrot cake and truffle cakes are very heavy and when I'm stacking those, I use more straws to support those because they're just heavier than my regular buttercream cakes. I love using the tall green cold-drink straws from Starbucks for the smaller tiers (under the 5" and 6" tops). Like K8, I once considered the stainless support system, and if I were doing some type of outrageous design, I'd seriously think about it. But the thing is getting all the pieces back - as it is, I have trouble getting my cupcake stands back unless I charge a fee to go and get them (which is what I do now, I don't give them a chance to suggest they'll return them.) I was kinda surprized that Duff uses wooden dowels, and even more surprized that he uses them with the plate system. Did anyone notice in the latest episode how the finished cakes went onto the wire shelving and not into the walk-in (speaking of what they're not showing yet - other than a few shots of removing cakes from the oven, we haven't seen a mixer in action or the walk-ins....)?

these are great suggestions! The ballpark is Fenway and I was watching Ace of Cakes tonight - one of the teasers was a ballpark cake with lights! I might just watch and see what he does.... after Bripastryguy's post on that thread I was considering emailing Charm City and asking what he would do - now I can watch and see if I pick up any tips. I was thinking that maybe the keychain light (minus the key ring) might work because I could make it part of the base of the light, use a bubble straw and fashion something for the top (I hadn't gotten that far yet). I like that I could just press a button and have the lights work. No electric cables, etc. But I'm still thinking about it. Well, after next weekend. 7 weddings and various other event cakes. I'm already tired just thinking about it.

I use this filling in a chocolate pate sucree tart shell (either RLB's or Sherry Yard's recipe). I also use the choc tart shell spread with straight (creamy) peanut butter and top that with a ganache. A few chopped peanuts around the edge and you're done!

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