JeanneCake

Last year, during the PastryScoop Wedding cake chats, Susan Morgan of Elegant Cheesecakes was featured. These are my notes from the chat: uses paste color doesn't like powder b/c can't get the vibrant colors she is known for; plastique sweats, wrap airtight to minimize; uses callebaut w/corn syrup may need less syrup if humid; 8 days shelf life in fridge; use only sheeters to roll plastique, uses cookie or dough base for cheesecakes, butter in the dough releases it from pan so no parchment needed to line pan. Uses solid piece chzcake pans, if using removable, watch for water seepage. susanmorganelegantche> sometimes no base butter cream if the cake is smooth,otherwise white chocoalte cream cheese butter cream is a good one She repeatedly called it "paper" during the chat and said that all her formulas have been developed over the years through trial and error and encouraged the participants to do the same. There wasn't anything on technique.

I never had much success working with SatinIce brand, it was very stretchy, very easy to poke through when applying to a cake, it was harder to work with than Pettinice and not worth the aggravation at the time - this was at least two years ago and that's when I went back to Pettinice! So maybe SatinIce has reformulated their fondant? Do you have these types of issues with it? During a PastryScoop chat last year, Ron Ben-Israel said that he used a sheeter for this brand and he recommended icing down a table if you were going to roll it out. When my distributor doesn't have Pettinice, I use Albert Uster's Massa Grischuna. At the time I was buying it, SatinIce told me the shelf life was a year so maybe they have reworked it and it is time to try this again.

Here's a recipe for Chocolate Gobs from the Soho Charcuterie. Originally the recipe was adapted from Maida Heatter.... Chocolate Gobs 2 oz unsweetened chocolate 6 oz semisweet chocolate 3 oz unsalted butter 1/4 upc sifted all purpose flour 1/4 tsp double acting baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 3/4 cup granulated white sugar 2 tsp espresso powder (or powdered instant coffee) 2 tsp vanilla 6 oz semisweet choc chips (or chunks) 4 oz walnuts broken in large pieces 4 oz toasted pecans broken in large pieces Melt unsweetened choc, semisweet choc and butter over low heat; stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt (I just use a whisk to blend it all together). In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla at high speed for 1-2 mins; then beat in on low speed the melted choc and butter (which can still be warm but not hot when you add it) mixture and then add the sifted dry ingredients and beat just to mix. Scrape the sides of the bowl as often as necessary as you are adding ingredients. Stir in the chips and nuts. Line pans with parchment or a silpat. Use a 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup measure to scoop out cookies but do not flatten the tops - the dough is gooey so if you want to spray the measuring cup, go ahead, but you still might need a spatula to push the dough out of the cup. Bake at 350 for 16-17 mins. The surface of the cookies will be dry, but the insides still soft. You'll get about 15-18 cookies depending on the size of the measuring cup. Sometimes I liketo sub in half white choc chips for the dark chips. I don't like walnuts so I use all pecans. Enjoy! Edited to insert "remove from heat" after melting the choc and butter

I think another factor to consider is price... for some clients, it comes down to what they can afford and are willing to spend. Only because I can remember that design while I'm writing this - take the Jan Kish design. The price difference between using a print transfer for a floral cameo or to handpainting (takes longer and costs more), that might be the deciding factor for a client. (Writing that up made me think of those magazine articles that show the designer outfit costing megabucks to a similar one for a lot less!) Thanks for the close ups, they're fantastic!

I haven't used the RTU edible image sheets, I know they are a slightly different product than the KK frosting sheets (this is based on what KK told me when I got the system) but I don't know what the difference would or could be. The reason I went with KK was 1) beryl had been using it for a while and had no problems with it and 2) I could buy my own printer and not have to pay extra for the decorating company putting their name on a printer and 3) the KK sheets were easy to get. The origami cake from Beryl and the I Do I Do striped one is very definitely the frosting sheet (well, I know for a fact that Beryl's is, she told me before she left!); the others (the yellow pattern could be a chocolate transfer sheet) I can't tell (and I didn't realize that Jan Kish had handpainted the panels, I've done similar things with antique prints supplied by clients, so I just guessed that's what it was. Sorry!) The frosting sheet doesn't absorb moisture from fondant the way it does on buttercream so there's no melting/melding when you use it on fondant, but it does get soft when you use it on buttercream. And you have to measure carefully when you're trying to get it on the sides of a cake if the repeat matters! I like to print the image or design on regular paper just to get a "dry run" of what I need before I go to use the frosting sheet when it has to go around the sides of a cake. And if the cake isn't completely level and smooth all the way around, that's where you're likely to get wrinkling or it becomes more obvious that the cake is slightly off level.

I use a regular Canon printer that I bought at Staples, and use the KK edible ink cartridges in it. I use this printer only for edible images, nothing else. There's a cleaning "kit" to clean the printhead that you need to use periodically depending on how frequently you're printing images. The frosting sheets come from KK too; I buy them in bulk (as well as the cartridges and cleaning kit) from Pfeil and Holing because I don't have to pay shipping. The sheets are actually two pieces - the backing and the edible part. I don't have a package in front of me to list the ingredients but the frosting sheets are as thin as paper. I usually scan an image, import it into Word, and print it out. Over the years, I've learned it is best to cut the image as soon as it comes off the printer instead of letting it dry first (if it dries too much it gets too brittle and can be impossible to cut cleanly) then I put it back in the heavy plastic bag the sheets come in so it stays somewhat pliable until I need it. This means that you have the thin edible "paper" part on top of the fondant (it can be a separate piece of fondant or what's on the cake already - fondant or buttercream). It will "meld" into buttercream (as long as it isn't crusted, I remember the salesperson saying. I only use an IMB'cream so this isn't an issue for me. He also said you could apply the frosting sheet directly to melted chocolate, but this isn't the case (sometimes instead of melting and cooling white chocolate, I use the Ghiradelli bars and wave a torch across the flat side to barely soften the chocolate. Then the image (usually the message part of the cake) gets put onthe chocolate I'm not crazy about this method because if the choc is too warm, it will mar the design. At the time I bought this setup, the only printers that KK was supporting were Canon printers; the Lucks system uses something else. I wish I'd been paying closer attention because if you're going to do this to apply a pattern to the sides of a wedding cake (or other large size cake), you really want to use the bigger size sheet and there's only one printer type that can handle that size. Otherwise, there are lots of seams that have to be patched/planned very carefully. You still have seams with the bigger printer version, but not nearly as many as with the smaller sheets.

I've never used their software either (which could be the reason why the prepare circle and business card templates didn't work); but I make very good use of a scanner I find interesting origami paper, wrapping paper and even wallpaper patterns to scan in and use. For kids, sometimes there's clip art or a google image that works. Usually I import the image into a Word document -because I'm most familiar with how to manipulate images in Word, so while my guess is that you could probably print directly from something like Photoshop, I don't know that for certain.

I use this frequently; I bought a Canon printer (but unfortuntely there's only one model printer that can handle the large size sheets, and I didn't buy that model. I will... soon) and use the KopyKake ink cartridges and edible sheets. It took my friend Beryl about a year to convince me that this was a good idea, and she was right - she's been using it on cookies, cakes and petit fours for a while. You really want the large size sheets to do wedding cakes. They can be used on fondant or buttercream; mostly I use them on fondant. I have better results when I apply the fondant to the cake, let it start to "sweat" or at least feel cool to the touch (a few minutes at least) and then apply the sheet (it adheres better that way. Or cut the fondant to size and apply the sheet and then apply it to the cake, keeping in mind the dimensions you need. You want to go to the top edge, because it will fold and split the sheet if you try to go over the top edge of the cake). You can print the sheet in advance as long as you keep it in the sealed heavy-duty bag they come in. As I use up sheets, I keep the bags. If you leave the sheets out, even for a few minutes before printing on them, they get dry and brittle and become unusable. There was a problem with the pre-formed circle and card templates, the images didn't line up correctly so I stopped using those and just cut whatever shape I need from around the image. If you use water, sugar glue or extract under the image, it will bleed through. Melted white chocolate is useful for sticking the edges down if needed. The cut edge of the sheet will be evident (or obvious depending on what it is) but I've found you can use the shaped scrapbooking scissors to cut a decorative edge. For some things (like the magician cake I'm doing this weekend) I cut fondant shapes to the size I need and put the image on it and then put the fondant shape on the cake (think Jan Kish's display cake from the show). Depending on how frequently you use the sheets, you need to clean the print heads and change the cartridges often. This is where the Kopykake people are making their $ - the software that comes "with" the stuff is useful for things like kids' cakes and for generic images (not licensed ones - those are available pre-printed).

Each reception facility is different - usually I go over all the elements (flowers, ribbon) with the manager before I leave, when I give them a sheet with a cutting grid and the flavor(s) in the cake. Everything on a cake has to be edible, as far as the letter of the (health dept) law is concerned. But when I buy gum paste flowers, they are clearly labled for decoration only, not to be consumed, so that could technically be a violation... Just recently, though, I've received (by mail and by fax) sheets from places that state very clearly no inedible elements - e.g., dragees but ribbon was ok and they would remove all flowers from the cake for serving. I'm pretty sure that something must have happened at that one place that prompted it because I've not seen or heard anything like that before. Their instructions said they would refuse delivery if the cake had inedible elements on it...

There's also CalJava/Sweet Inspirations (www.cakevisions.com or www.caljava.com) with a line of colored fondants - they have more than just the usual primary colors that SatinIce has, but they're also more $. I've never used their fondant so I don't know how it handles. I also find that Lysol Kitchen clean up spray on your hands does a good job removing color from them...

I'm all by myself in the bake shop (well, I share space with a caterer) so coming here makes me feel connected to others who are passionate about pastry, cakes, food and the food industry. And there's always something to learn from everyone here, and people are fantastic about answering questions and helping solve problems. Thanks, Annie, for sharing. That was a great design to show, thanks for taking the time. You rock!

If the embroidery is heavy enough, you could have her send you a piece of the fabric and use that to "emboss" the fondant. One of my instructors (Ursula, from Art of the Cake) used to do that before the advent of silicone molds. You press the fabric onto the fondant once it's on the cake and then go over it with royal icing. The other method she taught was to trace the design on parchment paper, then pin it to the cake. Use a pin to mark the design onto the cake (you poke the pin through the lines, etc), remove the parchment and pipe over it. I found this method to be very time consuming. She also showed us how to use the scribe tool to trace the design onto freshly applied fondant and this worked much better for me. But I agree, the Sugarveil stuff might be your best bet because you can pipe it on a flat surface and apply it to the cake when it's dry....

I'd always wondered about the difference between Swiss and Italian meringue buttercream. I've heard that Cheryl Kleinman and Ron Ben-Israel use Swiss exclusively (because she didn't like the little specs that sometimes appear in the IM). I've always used IM - it was what I learned in classes, and I love the taste and how it handles. But what drives me nuts is the egg whites. Last year when everyone was on the low-carb binge, egg prices skyrocketed and I experimented with commercial whites. No matter what, the commercial ones would collapse when I added the sugar syrup - I tried Syso and Papetti and it happened with both. I have been able to use about a third of the weight in whites with them (10 oz out of 30 for the 20 qt mixer) , though but any more than that, forget it. Eggs have come down a lot (back to 4-6 cents each) so it's comparable to what I'd be paying for commercial whites. Has anyone else had this problem with commercial whites and Italian Meringue Buttercream?

Thanks for all the info and for taking the time to experiment. Sounds like it's worth having a bag around. Thanks Annie

I havesome left over batter from yesterday's batch of cheesecake (plain, just cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, whole eggs, vanilla) stored in a bowl. It wasn't enough for a larger whole cake, but I'm thinking it would be enough to fill a dozen or two mini sweet dough tartlets. How long can you store cheesecake batter before baking?

If you're short on time, or prefer the taste of buttercream over fondant, you can use a large tip (Ateco 7 or 8) and pipe lines of honey-colored buttercream around the sculpted cake (you could stack a round cake and sculpt the edges to resemble the slope of the hive). For the marzipan bees, if you have sheet gelatine, cut the wing shapes from that and paint them with watered down yellow color so they're a little more visible

I think the glucose or corn syrup helps to keep the icing supple, but not pliable in the way that the sugarveil stuff looks like it can be draped, etc. I'd heard of that "unbreakable gel" and wondered if this was something similar. Like Annie, I'm not about to invest big bucks in this dispenser (it's as much as an airbrush for cryin' out loud!!), but I was curious to see if anyone had used it and does it work they way they say it does. I thought that open "weave" thing draped around a cake would be pretty cool, especially studded with a few glistening fondant pearls or the infamous outlawed dragees.

Looks intriguing; wondering if anyone has used this and can share their experiences. For more details, check out Sugarveil web page

My mom got this recipe from the Boston Globe (newspaper) reader's forum called "The Confidential Chat" about thirty years ago, and it was called Texas Sheet Cake in the recipe. It was a favorite of ours for years, and made an appearance at every family party, baseball party, scout meetings, bake sales etc. When my father made it for the first time, he dubbed it "Louisiana Rock Pile" because he did something wrong (!) and it very definitely looked ... like rocks. To this day, he's never attempted it again. I haven't had the cake in years, but remember it to be dense, fudgy and the icing smooth and shiny.

The cake leveler, as a tool, is pretty reliable and very useful when I have help from someone who is a non-English speaker. But I'm faster with a knife so I don't use it much anymore. I dust it off for sheet cakes mostly - that's when I tend to "drift" and end up cutting a slant. I didn't know they had a two-level version; I think that's overkill, but I guess that saves all the time of readjusting the blade. Remember to check that the turntable/table, etc is level first. My first month in this particular rented kitchen resulted in all these not-on-purpose whimsy cakes!

I used to be intimidated by the eyeball method and at the time, bought an Agbay cake leveling knife - it is a one cool gadget and comes in handy at times. What gave me the confidence was lots of practice with the knife - it did take me a while to find a knife that I liked, which everyone knows not to touch (it's about the ONLY thing no one else "borrows"). I ended up with a 14" serrated knife. At the time, the Agbay thing was pretty cheap, but now it isn't. I ended up volunteering to torte all the cakes we were making one day in class, and that was just the practice I needed. But if you want to learn more about the Agbay thing, check this Agbay Cake Leveler

I'm about to place an order from PCB for the tube set; I'm wavering on should I get two sets? Wendy, what's the average yield from one tube? Do you feel as if the tubes will last a long time with normal use or have any crazed or cracked since you got them?

Hi there! Thanks for the link re the PCB sheets; I hadn't read that thread at all. Now I see what you mean. I had been thinking along the lines of how I do my individual buche de noel ... I use my regular biscuit, cut strips out of it about 3-4 inches wide. Then use a #8 Ateco tip with ganache or buttercream and pipe a long length of filling (I use this on half-sheet sizes, because it is easier for me to handle - the full sheet size flops around and is a hassle) and then roll the biscuit around the filling (trimming the biscuit if necessary) and wrap it in parchment and tape it. The short size also helps with no flexing when I move it. Then when well chilled, I cut them into logs about 4-5 inches long, cover with ganache or buttercream depending on what I filled it with and make a plate of Christmas goodies out of it: the buche, a square little "present" petit four, a half dipped shortbread cookie angel and a meringue kiss. No pictures because I just made the components, the restaurant plated them. They didn't do it this year because of the expense. So now I can't wait to put an order in for those tubes! This type of mini will be perfect for that chef - she specifically says no cut sheet cakes (because she doesn't want them in liner cups, she thinks it spoils the look of the presentation). Do the cookies ever come apart from the rest of it? Love the chocolate wrapped wedding cake! Did you use modeling choc for the outer wrapping? Fantastic job on the MS cake.... Report that grocery store to the BBB (they'll have to answer the complaint), or at least tell your story to the local consumer news reporter! I don't want this to end! Thanks for letting us be the angels watching over your shoulder during your day!!

wow.. my 9yr old got up in the middle of the night (kids never wake up DAD, do they!!! ) and as I was lying in bed, thinking I'd drift back to sleep, I suddenly remember I hadn't caught up on your blog, and I'm addicted! I don't want your blog to end! Please, please teach me/us to do those joconde cookie minis - they will blow away my restaurant client for Mother's Day. I usually have leftover flavored meringue buttercreams from building my cakes, so could that work for the centers? Or do you use a neutral mousse base so it is freeze stable? I'm ok on making joconde - I have a biscuit recipe that is the base of all my individual cheesecakes, but it is too thick for this; I know I have joconde formulas from classes I took years ago and this is the perfect excuse to buy one of those silicone forms that have the patterns on the back - but the reality is that I will probably just do a two tone pattern with a comb due to time constraints. Gisslen's book has a few photos I could use for reference. Enjoy your day off, you've earned it! Cue music: "you're unbelieveable" (I have no idea who sings that, it just came to mind)

You go, girl! I'm having so much fun reading your blog, thank you so much for taking the time to add this to your already-busy day. It feels like reading my favorite book; I stay up way past bedtime to read and read and read!! And, I'd love to have more details - in the P&B forum - on the tart shells and choux paste. Are you using Annie's (chefpeon) formula for the choux? I never get such beautifully round puffs, mine look more rustic and craggy. And I'm still having trouble finding a better recipe for pate sucree. And defintely I'd love to hear more details on the minis - my biggest restaurant client wants 75 dz minis for Mother's Day brunch and they really want one-bite things that don't have to be presented in cups (they want stuff in tart shells or eclairs or cream puffs, this chef doesn't want cuts of lemon bars but I think they'd love the joconde/cookie) Your work is marvelous - stunning - creative. Thanks for sharing!