JeanneCake

I wasn't thrilled with the Hero paste and don't use it anymore.... mostly because the chemical smell when I opened the jar was pretty vile. In four years, I've had just one request for pistachio buttercream, so I haven't needed to replace it. But just in case, I got a small can of paste from American Almond, but haven't used it yet (I don't like American Almond's hazelnut paste - too gritty. For hazelnut paste, I only use the Albert Uster stuff, it's fantastic!). Good to know there's other options out there, the AUI prices are pretty steep.

I've tried the Hero brand - in the jar it is this neon green color, but the buttercream becomes barely colored, a very delicate celadon green. If you want more of a pistachio hit, I'd use the pistachio marzipan recipe from RLB's Cake bible - layering it on a cake layer as she describes. That marzipan is fun to work with!

Does anyone have the coconut cake recipe from The Montecito Cafe in CA? I have a client who wants to use this as her wedding cake....

ok... we're counting down to Saturday. My Paris Sweets book finally arrived this weekend and the description of the Parisian Flan with the sauteed apples is exactly what I think they're after, thank you Wendy! I'm making them on Friday for delivery on Saturday (Dorie says an overnight rest in the fridge makes it wonderfully light and especially delicious). For anyone unfamiliar with the recipe, it is a cornstarch pudding (whole milk, water, eggs, sugar, cornstarch), sieved, cooled a bit and spread over sauteed apples then baked at 350 for an hour. From someone else's suggestion, I found 11" pre-fabbed tart shells from Hafner to use. Not my first choice, but necessary for this order due to volume and time constraints. The gas ovens at work are not level so I'm seriously considering using the convection oven for this. But I don't typically use the convection for anything other than biscuit, cookies and blind baking tart shells. Is it a bad idea to use it for this tart? I've never baked a pastry cream or pudding filling like this so please excuse the novice question - do I need to worry about the pudding spilling over if I'm using ovens that are not level? Am I better off with the convection because it is faster and there's no chance of anything spilling? I'm guessing that with the convection, it would be about 20 minutes at 300... Your thoughts/advice... many thanks!

I don't know about whether it absorbs more easily, I did notice that it takes longer to dry (especially the non-edible gold ultra dust, that stuff drives me crazy when I use it for the edges of ribbons, etc.). Plus I always have lots of extract around, but not always the high-proof (86?) clear alcohol. I save that for when I need to remove color from something! Like a drop of color that lands right where it shouldn't on a fondant covered cake....

I've been buying flowers from CalJava, in white mostly, and using an airbrush to color them. Dan tells me that I can airbrush these flowers, but I've never had the courage to use luster dust in my airbrush because I don't want to damage it (I just bought it and I'm still learning how to use it, I'm not very good at it). He has started selling dust for airbrushes but I haven't tried it, I think it is only available in specific pearlized colors. So I use the regular airbrush colors and mix my own colors for whatever hue I need. Before I had the airbrush, I did a purple tulip cake last summer; I painted white tulips with purple luster and petal dust and they came out spotty and not as nice as I wanted. I don't like how long it takes things to dry when I use vodka, I always use lemon extract to mix the dusts with when I'm painting flowers. I like to make "fantasy wildflowers" from the white hydrangeas by painting them with pastel luster dusts, and I especially love the agapanthus and stephanotis from Wholesale Sugar Flowers. Anyway, one of my instructors was Ursula Argyopolous from Art of the Cake. She used to paint her flowers straight and then steam them - she had a huge collection of paste colors mostly from the UK and would mix them herself. She always made flowers white and painted them later; she would make a huge bunch of the hooked wires so they were ready when she wanted them (usually when she was on the phone!). Then on another day, she'd made the little cones for the inside of the roses or the middle of the calla lilies and roll them in yellow granulated gelatin. Another day, she'd do the first row of petals. She did things in stages. When you walked into her office, you'd see all these foam blocks with roses or other flower petals in various stages, or the pasta dryer with the calla lilies hanging on them. She would make leaves out of colored gum paste, though; and she had different colors for the different times of the year (paler green in the spring, darker in the summer). The class I took with her was 4 years ago so my memory is a little sketchy on the other flowers, some of them she did use colored gum paste for. I'm hoping someone posts the how-to on the alcohol dip method!

Albert Uster has a location in Hawaii (in Honolulu), so getting their fondant would be easy for your friend; and that's the only brand I use. Bakels is pretty good too, but I don't like the taste of the white but their chocolate fondant is good! When you're paying shipping for every little thing that comes into the island, your friend is better off with the Massa Grischuna from AUI!

You could try Novacart (www.novacartusa.com) or Unger (ungerco.com) or Perkins (local vendor, www.perkins1.com)

I'm looking for a recipe in response to a request for "apple flan" which after getting a description (apples in a firm but creamy filling in a tart shell) sounds like an apple custard tart or apple custard pie. What they're after is a tart that will hold a clean slice for buffet brunch service (for Easter, and they want 30 of them, plus 30 linzertorte and 20 flourless choc cakes) and they will probably repeat this order for their Mother's Day brunch. The linzertorte is from RLB's pastry book, it's a great recipe and they love it (thankfully it freezes well so I can get a head start on them; they want the 11" size for all of these tarts). I'm not really all that great when it comes to custards to begin with so I could use some help on this one. My first thought is to use sliced sugared apples on the bottom of a tart shell and then pour a custard over it - because I really want to avoid the top looking awful and last fall, my apple-topped cheesecakes developed these ugly-looking "separations" (for want of a better description) where the apple slice met the cheesecake. I suspect that it was probably because I used the wrong apple (granny smith instead of golden delicious) but since the apple cheesecake only had a limited engagement, I never got to try it with a different apple. Anyway, if you have a recipe or a link or help to offer, I'm all ears!

Got the new Pfeil and Holing catalog and they're showing lots of new stuff for fondant work. Among other things, there are these embossed rolling pins that imprint a design onto the fondant and there are 10 or so different designs (each is a different pin) that look intriguing. I think the one that resembles textured fabric/paper would be the one I'd go for, but I can think of a lot of other things I'd indulge in for $40!! At first glance, it looks as if the design would distort once the fondant is on the cake - has anyone tried these? Do they work?

I make a layered chocolate mousse and the white choc layer calls for cream melted with the choc (to which some dark rum is added off heat as well as bloomed gelatine) and then folded into softly beaten whipped cream. Maybe if you melt an ounce or so of the cream with the choc it might help alleviate the grittiness....

The first time I deliver to a "new" place, I bring several copies of the cutting instructions with me and give one to the function manager when I'm going over the cake details with him/her. For the regular places I go to, they're used to it and I don't have to bring it with me anymore. Of course, after I leave I have no idea what happens, but at least I know upfront that I gave them exactly what they need to cut the cake appropriately (and the bride knows that I go over this as well, because I give them the serving chart/instructions too). If something goes wrong, it is because they didn't follow the instructions. The only time I ever had a problem was one of the very first cakes I did was for a client who ordered a three tier square for 100. I'm waiting for the site to change the table linens and I'm noticing there are 15 tables of 10 (150 people) and yet the client told me she had 100 guests, not 150. I tell the function manager this, and her jaw drops - she's got to plate 150 servings of cake. But at least she knows this upfront. When I went back with another delivery the next week, the manager tells me she asked the bride's mother about it and the mother blithely told her that "not everyone eats cake and I didn't want to pay for any wasted cake so I didn't order that much!" The manager explained she still had to present a plated dessert to the guests, regardless of whether they ate it or not. The slices were paper thin, evidently, but she got enough to serve. Had I simply dropped off the cake and not gone over any details, it is very likely that I would have come off badly - as if I'd shorted the customer rather than the other way around. It was a terrific lesson - it made me revise the data sheet I use to collect information from a bride include # of guests and # of servings so I can use that opportunity to find out whether the cake isto be served as a coffee station, plated dessert, part of a larger dessert buffet, etc. But what frustrates me is knowing that for the same size cake, another vendor will charge for more servings (120 vs 100 for example) and the bride has no way of knowing unless they ask for the specific tier sizes in their cake..... so that's another reason why I asked the question!

I was really just after a reality check on the size of the serving (dimensions) and the amount for that specific size. My experience is that when people are shopping on price, they fail to compare the type of cake they're getting. One of my "competitors" does a two layer cake with one layer of filling; that is definitely cheaper to produce than my standard three layers of cake/two layers filling - regardless of how it is decorated on the outside. Yesterday's client was reacting to the size of the serving and what they are after is a bigger slice. They are planning a 5-tier cake for 40 people and want the top tiers in styro and the bottom as real cake. When I told them the 12" served 60, they kept looking at the 12" and didn't think that would be enough for the size they want on the plate. I know that this will continue to be an issue for them - and they are going to waffle on whether they want 2 real tiers or 1. I always suggest kitchen cake to clients with big guest counts; it gives them the best of both worlds - the display cake with the design they want, and enough servings for everyone and they can stay on budget. And I agree about relationship building. For any delivery I do, I make it a point to talk to the function manager about the cake size and number of servings they should get from each tier/flavor/other details (remove gum paste flowers, there are pins or tape on the ribbon border) This gives me an opportunity to become familiar to them and I take advantage of this to demonstrate to them that I am passionate about my product and that makes a positive impression and for first time deliveries, I usually get asked for cards/brochures, etc.. And I always have to explain my policy about the anniversary cake (another thing people always expect and forget to factor that somehow this has to be absorbed into the bottom line!) so they don't try to save that top tier, they can go ahead and serve it. So, if anyone else has numbers they're willing to share, I'm all ears!

Annie, you're GREAT! Thank you! My cakes are also 4" tall and I usually try to give them the same size slice as a sample (I make my samples from square cakes when it is slow from a work perspective but swamped by wedding appts, but usually I'm just pulling whatever orphan layers there are from the week's baking and making samples from those). This grid will make things so much easier. Thank you! (PS I'm really getting good with the modeling chocolate, you'd think I'd been using it forever instead of just a month )

I keep styro dummies around for people to mix/match and see what their cake might look like, and tonight's clients were incredulous that a 12" square would provide 60 servings - they thought it would only provide 35 at most. I explained that my cakes are three layers of cake/two layers of filling, that a wedding cake serving is smaller than a restaurant dessert portion since it generally follows big meal (but they can cut the 12" in any formation they want, however for pricing purposes, I'd be using 60 as the multiplier.) But they were still trying to figure out why there was such a huge difference in what I was suggesting (and charging for) and what they thought was possible. (They booked with me but I can tell this will be an issue again as the wedding date draws closer.) It made me curious about what are you all using when you do your calculations about how much cake someone needs or how you base your price per serving on? I've been using Earlene's cake serving chart. There's so much variation out there - RLB claims to be able to get 150 servings from a 12, 9, 6 round configuration - Earlene's chart shows 75-80 and Wilton thinks you could get 102!! (I always encourage people to serve the entire cake so I'm not thinking in terms of the couple keeping the top tier. I have a thing for fresh cake so I give them a voucher for an anniversary cake when they provide a professional 5x7 photo of their cake.) So how do you calculate the number of servings in a cake?

Need to buy some jackets and pants and while I've bought from ChefWear and HappyChef, in the past, I thought you might have a vendor to recommend or warn me away from. I was disappointed with the stuff from Happy Chef - seams not finished and split after the first wash on the jackets and pants (they credited it but you get what you pay for) so I don't want to buy from them again. I don't wear a jacket every day, usually just a short sleeve shirt or sturdy Tshirt. (I share space with a caterer so we get aprons and towels from a linen supplier, but I do my own uniforms.) Thanks, Jeanne

Hmm... I never thought of straight white choc for dipping/icing cookies - and I like this idea a whole lot better than dealing with the glace icing. I was wondering about adding some melted white choc to the glace icing as I was working with it (the dots and writing were colored wh choc). So, Anne, do you add any glucose or corn syrup to the choc or just use it straight? (I like to add corn syrup to my ganache when I use it as a glaze to help the shine last a little longer, I wonder if I should add any to the wh choc for the cookies...) Do you ever outline first (Josette's cookies have a contrasting outline on some which I thought was a nice touch!) or just dip and go? At least now when the Swiss Chalet rep calls, I can order something without putting him off (WHY would I want to buy caramel paste when I can have my own caramel sauce ready in about 10 mins???). He's such a nice guy, too! And I did tell him not to bother about sending me a sample of the writing chocolate, as soon as someone mentioned it had peanut oil in it, I said forget it. Josette, those are terrific looking cookies!

I made some decorated cookies for a client's baby shower - they were 3x4" onesies iced in white glace icing with pink or blue dots and a Welcome Baby message on some. After 10 hours, although dry to the touch, the flood icing didn't dry enough so when I stacked some of the cookies, the white areas got dented and marred the look. (this is a plain sugar cookie that I bake in the convection oven - keeps its edge better than when I do it in the conventional ovens - I roll it about 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick) So now I'm on a hunt for icing I can use to flood a decorated cookie that has a bit of a sheen to it rather than a flat (matte) look and will dry quickly enough so I can pack them soon after (3-4 hours maybe?) icing the cookies. Something along the idea of the cookies that you'd see at Eleni's New York or Rolling Pin Productions is what I'm after. The icing I've been using is from Toba Garrett's cookie book (Glace Icing) and calls for: 1# confectioner's sugar, 90 ml water or milk (I use water), 126 gm light corn syrup, flavoring of choice. You mix the water/milk with the sugar until competely blended, then add the corn syrup. For outlining the cookie, you add more sugar until the icing is stiff then use a #2 tip to outline the cookie. You use the straight icing to flood the outline. I like this icing well enough, except it just takes forever to dry. Even the extras I made - after 18 hours - aren't thoroughly dry. Am I just not giving it enough time? Any ideas? Tips? Suggestions?

I think unmolding from the muffin tins will make your life (or someone's life) miserable after the first week. You could bake them in ramekins (but then, why not just do a pot de creme or some other type of pudding or custard). You might just have to bite the bullet and get some rings - they're inexpensive, and they will make your life a little less stressful when it comes to cheesecake. I did buy some individual 3" removeable bottom pans, but they are a pain and I don't use them. The rings I use are 3" round and 1" high, I bought them from Parrish's years ago and they were cheap. I make full sheets of biscuit (which keep, well wrapped, for about a week so I always start the week making it - I can get about 40-42 from a full sheet). Or you could use a graham crumb crust (I use these for individual key lime "pies" and you need to have a small 3" or smaller pan to tamp the crumbs down, you need a heaping 1/4 cup of crumbs for these). I spray the rings well, use them to cut out circles from the biscuit and then fill the rings with whatever kind of cheesecake I'm making. Bake at 300 for however long you need (25-35 again depending) and let cool. You can either wait and time it right to slide the rings off (usually a minimum of about 45 mins or so) or you can stick 'em in the walk in and torch the rings to unmold. For service, you just have to put 'em on a plate and garnish and go. The downside to this method is dealing with the crust - it's a whole extra step if you use biscuit, and a little more time consuming with the crumbs. The white choc chzcake I use has a layer of chopped toffee in the middle; the most popular is a tie between caramel chzcake and the plain Oreo one from the oreo cookie site - (and I thought we were all over the cookies and cream craze...) a good source of inspiration is the book Cheesecake Extraordinare by Mary Crownover.

My favorite coffee extract is from Albert Uster, but it has peanut oil in it. So when someone orders a mocha or coffee flavored cake, buttercream, cheesecake etc, I always ask about allergies. If there are none, I use the AU product (and I always write it clearly on the box for desserts that contain it); if there are, I use the powdered espresso from Medaglia D'Oro. It is a small jar and I dissolve a TBL in a tiny bit of water. Have you thought about flavoring the milk chocolate part of that triple layer mousse with orange instead of coffee? I've always thought a touch of orange brought a lot out of milk chocolate. (and I do not particularly care for orange or milk chocolate!)

I think this is where what you're used to is what makes the difference. But as others have said, get as much mixer for the money as you (she) can get and go for the largest capacity you can afford on the budget you're working with. (for the eggfoam/flour part of your post: If I am making a tiny batch of biscuit -sponge cake in a full sheet pan - for which you beat whole eggs, yolks and sugar to the ribbon, and I use the bowl-lift 5 qt KA, I remove the bowl from the mixer and use a strainer to add the flour - when you're adding flour to an eggfoam batter such as this, it needs to be dispersed evenly and dumping it in from parchment (regardless of whether it was sifted first) would cause lumps of flour in the batter. Were I to use my unbelievably useless tilt-head Viking, I would still remove the bowl and do the same thing.)

I have several bowl-lift KAs and Hobarts and a tilt-head Viking; I like the bowl lift better, but it could be that I'm just more used to that. Depends on how often your friend will be using it; for occasional use, I'm sure the tilt head is fine. Don't stop asking questions, it isn't like you have to pay to ask them!!!

Satin Ice fondant makes a red fondant - it's available in 2# or 5# buckets. Go to www.satinfinefoods.com for more info and to place an order. I don't use this brand for plain/ivory/chocolate fondant, but their colors are ok. The other alternative is to use the chocolate plastique that Anne (chefpeon) mentioned in a previous thread. You could use the red candy melt things from the craft store or if you had powdered red coloring use that to color the white chocolate. I'd never used it before, but it was great! I might have overheated the chocolate /corn syrup because it was pretty oily when I spread it in the pan (I dabbed at it with a paper towel because I couldn't leave well enough alone) but it reabsorbed by the next day (you really want it to set overnight for best handling, I found). And it was so much fun to work with - at least for modeling! I don't know what it would be like to knead and roll out, but maybe you could do a 10" round cake and model different red hats (some berets, sun hats, sombreros, top hats, caps) and put them around the top edge of the cake. And then make a red and or purple chocolate ribbon to go around the middle of the cake....

I always have to add more oil to the white to get it to the right consistency; the dark sometimes doesn't even need any oil! And if I'm trying to color the white, it does get a little clumpy and I have to add more oil. Yeah, I didn't think I needed to spend the $, but I wondered why it (a separate product) exists and what people who do use it think of it.