JeanneCake

In making this over the years, I've learned for this recipe, the butter should be cool (not cold) and just barely malleable, not soft. The softer the butter is, the thinner the final buttercream. You do have to let it come to a full rolling boil, and I usually let it boil for about a minute just to be sure. I use pasteurized yolks and I found that when I beat the living daylights out of them (a long time), so they are nice and thick, I get a firmer buttercream (but this could also be a function of the pasteurized yolks, because when I use them for curds, the curd is thinner than with shell eggs).

I agree. His website shows his talent and creativity. On the competition shows, he seems more interested in playing up the "I used to be a welder" angle than in showing off his skill as a cake stylist - maybe that's what he's been asked to do by the Food Network, but it isn't doing him any good. During one part of the sport show, he looked almost incredulous when someone reminded him about the 75% cake part, as if he'd forgotten the rules. Keogan Gerhardt said something along those lines (unprofessional behavior) during the Elvis show - when the two judges didn't take kindly to the blow torch in the meringue buttercream he tried to say that it's the sort of thing he (Keogan) could relate to as a pastry chef, but it had no place in the competition. The good natured ribbing between he and Colette was cute, and lightened things up a little, but I think he took it too far. The end result for this talented professional is that his design fell apart on the table. I wish they spent more (camera) time on the cakes. Like when Colette had toothpicks in the wavy fondant borders, or the chocolate head of the matador was being shaped, or when the bicycle cake was being built - that would have been more interesting to me than the bickering! The emcee didn't do much to help by asking questions and trying to get in the way when it was obvious someone was trying to concentrate. That was annoying.

I had to explain to the mom of my son's friend today that no, my child is not deranged, he really did hear someone on the Food Network say that he would stick this screwdriver into someone's neck. (He saw it yesterday afternoon or whenever it was on). I couldn't agree more that this Duff guy is tiresome, although CakeDiva could give him a run for that money. Just because you have a hammer doesn't mean everything is a nail. And after the blow torch IN the mixer bowl (a friend of mine was one of the judges on the Elvis cake thing, and he did this at that competition), I have to wonder about what else he does in his shop that isn't on camera!!! But I know I'm going to have to tell my son to stop repeating the chef and the screwdriver story. I think the cake challenge stuff is pretty contrived and very subjective, and while I love seeing what the cake stylists come up with, I'd much rather they just point the cameras on the bakers and stop with the commentary and questions while they're trying to work. The whole drama about moving the finished piece is so not real life.

I finally got to see the entire show today..... I thought the matador was incredible work. The magic castle bike ride was nice, but I missed the close up of it; I didn't get to see whether what/how the castle was part of the design. What did you all think? There was a very very brief scene that showed Colette with a tier of the cake that had blue fondant on the bottom of the cake - the top of the cake looked dark, as if the fondant had been applied only to the bottom part of the cake. I'm trying to figure out what it could have been since I thought she covered the entire cake tiers with marbled blue fondant and then marked the wavy lines. Anyone recall that part and have any ideas on what she might have been doing?

When I was visiting a friend's bakery, she used one of those 3-fold display boards you can get at a craft store to put behind what she was spraying (same set up as you with the lined sheetpan, hers was on the bench). It was a while ago, I don't think she taped parchment paper on the board, but that would keep it cleaner longer.

Congratulations! Wishing you all the best - motherhood is a blast. Although a perfect fresh peach is close.

Took me a while to reply, I was laughing too hard... makes you wonder if they couldn't find anyone else who wanted to participate.... It would be really over the top if the episode airs on April Fool's Day!!!

amoretti might make a creme brulee compound (I don't know, I'm just guessing since they have quite a range) that you could use. It seems to me the thrill of creme brulee is the cold custard against the burnt sugar - how to capture that in a cookie is definitely a challenge! It would be like a cream puff dipped in caramel so maybe you have to find a rich custard-y cookie and dip it into caramel and let the caramel harden?

does it have to be rice? Can you find/make some white chocolate "jimmies" (aka sprinkles) and mix it with just barely firm or just barely enough white choc ganache to resemble rice? I did a dessert fruit sushi for a benefit last year, and used colored soy mamenori - when they're wet, they're a pain to work with but the colors are bright. (I spread the coconut rice on the sheets, and sprinkled dice fruit on it then rolled it. Where the fruit met the soy wrapper they disintegrated.) Edited to add: I used choc quills for chopsticks (AUI has colored ones now); and lime curd for wasabi

This reminded me of a marketing jingle that I used to hear on TV and radio as a child: "Brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh!" It was definitely a regional thing, maybe even throughout New England, but very definitely Boston! And even now, sometimes the distributor I buy from will ask if I care if the eggs are white or brown and he'll start singing it....

Not being a savory side person, this is all going to be conjecture: is is possible to freeze a bechamel or mornay sauce (or a veloute?) into cubes and to assemble the eggs - use a half shell shape, and a flat egg shape. Put the frozen cube on the flat side, use egg white to seal the flat and shaped sides together and bake.... Sort of like a ravioli, I guess. During baking, the sauce should thaw and become fluid - providing it doesn't burst the seam. Sounds like a fun idea...

I use Earlene's chart exclusively - plus I give the function manager/catering manager - whomever the person in charge is - a sheet that details who the cake is for, how many servings it provides (by tier), what flavors are in it, any allergy alerts (nuts, usually) and to serve the entire cake because I give them an anniversary cake when they request it. The hotel staff tells me about the people who forget to take the cake home - it gets left at for a few weeks and usually it's the day after it's tossed that they call and ask for it. Since I changed the policy, no one has ever fussed - and they are very good about remembering and giving me a week's notice to have their cake ready. Some bakers give a gift certificate or anniversary cake when the couple brings the baker a professional photo of their cake, which given my inability to take good photos, is starting to sound really good to me!! There have been past threads about this so your mileage may vary.

What a great blog already, and you haven't yet started cooking! I'vespent a lot of time in London, so I'm also feeling a little homesick - your photos are great - looking forward to more! I've also never had cassoulet, so be careful with all us virgins....

At some point, there's too much fat and the emulsion falls apart - that could explain the curdling with the cannoli filling; and sometimes when I'm winging it with adding ingredients, I've had similar issues with adding too much cold passion curd to buttercream and the buttercream curdles. You can try to apply some heat to melt it a little and try to get it to re-emulsify. I've been known to wave the blowtorch around the bottom of the mixer bowl when the weather is cold and the buttercream is too stiff to work with. You can only do this so many times, though, before the buttercream becomes unworkable. In school, the instructor used to take a third of the buttercream out of the bowl and soften it in the microwave and add it to the mixer at low speed to bring it to a working temp.

You'll have to let us know how this tart comes out (with pictures!) - it sounds great. And maybe with a chocolate pate sucree crust....

I don't know that I'd want to call the attorney's bluff - he gets paid big bucks no matter what DCFoodie does... what's interesting to me is that the chef apparently didn't invite DCFoodie to come back at another time and take pictures ... I mean, come on... if you're gonna get some publicity, good is better than all this negative stuff! And if you're that much of a control freak...you deserve what happens next... How many others would be willing to go and photograph their meals with no intent to distribute/publish/etc..... imagine all those flashes going off in the room!!! I'm curious about what the chef had to say over dessert.....

Found my copy of the book.... Figure 7 and 8 are Cuscinetti (almond pillows), which she says uses the same almond dough as the desirs and sospiri - the pastries are just filled with different types of jam. Figure 5 could be bocconcini but in the book they are not dusted with confectioners' sugar so it might not be that. The description for sospiri has them heavily dusted with the confectioner's sugar after baking, though....and both these pastries are formed and baked the same. The bocconcini are rolled in granulated sugar before baking but not coated/dusted with anything afterwards. Hope this helps...

do you have her book (written with Mary Taylor Simiti?) Bitter Almonds? It's a great read, and recipes for some of the pictured items appear in the book. Carol Field's The Italian Baker will also have a lot of these. How lucky you were to go! What was your favorite pastry item from Maria's shop? Did you get to see any of the marzipan fruit she's famous for (among other thngs!)?

forgot to ask earlier - what's the yield for the formula? Can you reduce it by half (or increase it) and still have it work?

When I first opened, I used mousse in the buche de noel - I wanted to be different. But several people reported it was messy to serve with a whipped cream fruit mousse so I went back to buttercream. I would go with a white chocolate buttercream (rather than whipped cream if you are doing the Black Forest version) with chopped brandied cherries - use some of the kirsch in the buttercream for a little more oomph.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for an excellent demo!

I saw that! I thought it was bizarre, that she must have deliberately added far too much flour or not enough sugar or something. I didn't understand why it needed to be that firm, though. I haven't made a gingerbread house before so I'm not one to say! As for my favorite recipe for gingerbread cookies (people, etc), it comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookie book. You can roll it thin and bake it until it is firm - it will be almost like a gingersnap in terms of how hard it is; or you can roll it a little thicker and underbake it ever so slightly for a cookie that stays soft, but stands up to decorating or dipping in chocolate. I posted my adaptation in a previous thread on gingerbread....

To avoid the lumps when you add the flour, put a strainer on the top of the mixer bowl, put the flour in and then gently shake the flour through to the surface of the beaten egg. Then use a wide spatula to fold it in, moving the bowl as well as the spatula. When you're beating the eggs/sugar/vanilla, you'll get more volume if the eggs are warm (put the shells in a bowl of warm water before you start); but it's not a big thing. It takes a little less time than if the eggs are straight from fridge. But you want to beat them until they make a ribbon (the old Julia Child trick about taking the whip off the beater and writing O L E across the mixture with the batter that drops from the whip - the O should still be visible when you get to the E is a good way to know you've beaten them enough).

I love the pans made by Parrish in Gardena, CA under the name Magic Line. They're excellent; heavy weight, don't warp, square corners and no seams. They come in a range of sizes; but Cook's Dream has odd size square pans (11, 13, 15, etc..) if that's what you need for your design. Check out the demo thread for pictures by BKeith showing how to get the edges perfectly square.

The professional books I have are the Bo Friberg and Wayne Gisslen, they're great for reference, for looking up the basics before doing more research or experimentation. The others that have been recommended are all good and I second the vote for them, so now I'll just mention a few that I personnally reach for more frequently than others.. For recreational baking, I love every single one of Maida Heatter's books - and have gone through several copies of Great American Desserts and New Book of Great Desserts. I like RLB's Christmas Cookie Book. I like Mary Crownover's cheesecake book (a lot of the flavors rely on alcohol or juice concentrate but there are a few real keepers in there like the Cranberry Orange cheesecake). Anything Dorie Greenspan writes is worth having. And the Village Baker's Wife (Gayle's Bakery) is a fun book with lots packed in.