JeanneCake

Every so often, I think I should buy writing chocolate .... why I don't know, because usually I throw a handful of chips in a small glass cup, and zap it for a few seconds, stir, pour into a cornetta and write. The advantage is that I always have chips (dark, milk, white) and I usually only write on cakes at the end of the week (Fridays and/or Saturday morning) so I don't have to worry about keeping the chocolate filled cornetta around. So I just got off the phone with my Swiss Chalet rep and he's telling me this is great stuff, softer, he'd love to send me some to try, etc, etc. What do you all use to write messages on your cakes...? Do you use writing chocolate? Why or why not?

The Matisse raspberry seems more intense or "true" to me; Hero is good but sweeter to my taste. The texture, as I remember, is a little softer - Hero is more solid (firmer) right out of the bucket but softens up with a few stirs of a spoon or spatula. I can't always get the Matisse from my distributor, but I think Ambassador Fine Foods has it (AFF doesn't have a local presence here in Boston). In fact, I haven't used Matisse in over a year, that's how long it's been since they had it. Sigh...

Hear, hear... depending on the design a client wants, I tell them to NOT choose a mousse or pastry cream/fruit filled cake but to opt for buttercream instead. I know how long it will take me to work on that cake, plus once it is finished and delivered, it will be on display for some number of hours and I tell them I don't want the risk. In fact, just this week, a client wanted a tiered cheesecake and I told them that while I know there are other vendors out there who routinely do this, I don't. She ended up choosing individual cheesecakes for the guests and a small display cake from carrot cake. When I'm busy, I have put fondant covered cakes in the walkin, but even after the fondant/cake equalizes (and the fondant sweats, it doesn't matter what the label says, they all do it), it seems to me that the texture changes and it isn't an improvement. So now I plan my work to avoid that when possible. I have my own reach-in for my finished work (because I needed it at my previous kitchen) - a True, which is not humid, per se; but everything sweats in it (and the temp is always below 40) and I wish there was a way to make it drier. But that's beside the point... But back to the color part of the question..... You're right about the black, some have more green undertones (Chefmaster) and others don't (Sugarflair). I like the idea of the powdered color, because it is true - the more color you add, the consistency changes and the taste (especially with blue) doesn't get any better either. The client agreed that blue would be better as an accessory color, thank goodness! I am going to look into the Americolor brand, thanks for the tip. I buy the Sugarflair from Beryl's and the Squires colors from them (www.squires-group.co.uk) and they have a fuschia that is to die for.... joshalow, did you use the Americolor for the cake you shared with us? It looks great, and that color looks like it will work for my design...

A client of mine wants to use the color navy blue on her cake (it's one of those Alice-in-Wonderland styles so it will be covered in fondant). I've never been able to get a true navy no matter how much color I use (and I like the English Sugarflair and Squires Kitchen paste colors, which come in a wider variety of blue). When I've tried to color the fondant in advance, I get a purplish-blue, not a real navy. I've suggested to her that we use some other colors (sage green, yellow, salmon) for the base color of each cake, and go with blue (among others)for accents. But I know that Polly Schoonmaker and others get a dark blue in their designs, so my question is how do they do that? (Santa did bring me an airbrush for Christmas, which I wanted for coloring flowers, but maybe airbrushing is the way to go?But those designers don't look like their cakes are airbrushed....) Thanks for your help...

Personally, I like Matisse brand best, but use Hero because it is easier to get and it's pretty good. I prefer the w/o pips (seeds) because I also use this for skimcoating my chocolate cake layers for my raspberry truffle cakes. Works great for linzertortes.

Annie, you have just SAVED my life! Or at least added years back onto it! I am going to ditch the gum paste skier in favor of modeling chocolate, I've been wanting to try it (but all I have is Schokinag WC in chips, the only Guittard white I can get is the cookie drops, which are kinda waxy, but maybe that is a good thing for modeling chocolate...) and the skier's legs in all truth are looking kinda lame. I had been thinking three tiers, 11, 8, 5 because this is for a - you guessed! bar mitzvah and it "only needs to serve 40 but I want WOW" and I can stack it and use the scraps to pad out the sides. I was planning on fondant snow, but after that I was completely lost. You're my hero today! Now for the happy dance... thank you thank you thank you!

I'm modeling a (stand-up) skier for this coming Saturday, and started today so I'd be able to use it by Saturday. I'm also modeling several styles of legs/torso just in case I want something different depending on how the final product comes out - I'm not a skier myself (and have never been on a ski slope!) so designing a ski mountain cake is this week's stress for me If I am starting late (say, Friday night with the aforementioned skier!) and time doesn't allow for something to dry completely, I go for straight gum paste with some tylose or CMC added and try to make sure the figure is leaning on something or has some part of the design for support (Dumbo's ears are pinned back onto the body, for example) I have several books by Debbie Brown and Masie Parish - both are UK based sugar artists with excellent instructions on modeling figures (people, animals, scenes - now if only one of them were a skier!!

When you've modeled the figure (arms, torso, legs, whatever), how do you position it while it dries? Perhaps the wrinkling occurs if whatever you're using for support flexes? I sometimes make a thick bed of cornstarch (to protect a rounded shape like legs) in a sheet pan and leave it for a few days. Other shapes - like a beach umbrella, need to dry over a bowl and that needs to be liberally dusted with cornstarch and carefully moved over the drying period to prevent sticking to the support (and breaking). I also blend gum paste and fondant and change the ratio depending on what I'm modeling.

I think it the antibacterial stuff CanadianBakin' mentions is called Purell - I bought some when they had a little promotional bottle attached to a larger one. Keep the little bottle (like a sample size) with me all the time. Comes in handy! It just disappears into your hands, no sticky-ness after you rub it in.

Thank you for the recommendation; McGills told me they weren't able to find the magazine and it may have been discontinued by the publisher. Thanks! Jeanne

Years ago, I could buy a magazine devoted to wedding cakes called Bride to Be (a different magazine entirely from Modern Wedding Cakes and Chocolates) from a source here in the US. Since the cake decorating supplier retired last year, I've been unable to find another seller for this magazine. Can anyone recommend a local bookstore that carries this title, be willing to deal with an internet order and ship to the US? I can buy Modern Wedding Cakes and Chocolates directly from the publisher (Wildfire) but I cannot locate the publisher for the Bride to Be Wedding Cakes. Maybe in more recent editions the publisher prints email/web URL but in the few issues I have, there's nothing of the sort! Any help is much appreciated! Thanks! Jeanne

After making dozens of buche de noel this year, I'm curious about how others do theirs so thought I'd ask. I make mine with a yellow or chocolate sponge (biscuit), and fill it with a flavored (hazelnut, chocolate, raspberry or cappuccino) meringue buttercream, and pipe on dark chocolate ganache, with the little knot in the middle; with sugar snow, some meringue mushrooms and marzipan holly. I wish I'd taken a picture to show, sorry. The roll is about a half-sheet wide (I offer one size only because I don't want to deal with sizing, etc. - I'm rolling the long side) and I cover the ends with ganache to prevent it from drying out. I was at a gourmet store today, and the one they featured looked as if it were also made from sponge cake, but the ends were exposed. It looked as if there was a thin layer of ganache on the sponge cake and then a layer of buttercream. It also looked like chocolate buttercream (grained with a comb) on the outside, decorated with gum paste holly and petit fours presents. They had lots of different sizes, so I think they must roll from the short end of the sheet pan. So ... tell us about your buche de noel!

stay away from the Viking, there's an earlier thread on these mixers. I have one and hate it.

This is the same type of thermometer my instructors used. I've been through three of them (Polder) and finally bought a Cooper because I learned that if the wire is exposed to a flame, it renders it useless. The Cooper has lasted a year without incident, and I've often wished for an infrared, but I find that being able to set (and reset) the alarm on the probe type so I can start another task is very helpful.

Thank you, Wendy, I would love to try your formula. I can't afford to keep using Philly, so every little bit helps. The bottom line for the plain cheesecake is that it is too easy for someone to buy a prefab, frozen one - they come to me for the unique flavors I offer (white choc toffee, cappuccino, oreo cookie, eggnog...) but everything comes down to the bottom line when the client is a restaurant. Here's the smallest batch size I make (this makes 25 3" size or one 10" round): 3# cream cheese, at rm temp 13.75 oz sugar .75 oz cornstarch 6 whole eggs 1 TBL vanilla 1/2 TBL lemon juice Mix crm cheese with paddle until creamy, gradually add sugar and cornstarch, scrape sides down often. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, mix until incorporated and pour into crust. Bake at 300 for 90 mins, 20-30 mins for the individual sizes (or for my circumstances, I bake in a water bath at 350 for the larger cakes), turn off oven and let sit for 30 mins. Top with barely sweetened sour cream (2 oz to 1#). For the individuals, you can put the topping on when they are sitting in the oven to let the sour cream set up (if you have to get them out the same day you make them!) or you can put it on after they come out of the oven, let them sit overnight in the walk-in and then torch them to remove the rings. The original formula didn't use the cornstarch, but when I started baking the large size cakes, I used it to help firm it up a little. I mix the cornstarch with the sugar (like you would for pastry cream). Thanks everyone for all the help!

I'm baking by feel. One restaurant client gets one or more of the 10" size for their weekly brunch, and depending on what flavor I'm making, it might bake for anywhere from 90 mins to 2 hrs in a water bath at 350. I'm looking for the center to barely wiggle, because this is a big cake (I'm using anywhere from 2.5 to 3# of cream cheese for this size) and usually give it some time in the turned-off oven. That's where I first started to see the difference - the unfamiliar brands of cream cheese were taking a lot longer than usual, and since the ovens had just been recalibrated, I could rule that out as a possibility. And one, white chocolate toffee, baked to the point where it didn't jiggle in the center, and still this client said it was soft in the middle, but not as much as the others. I would really see a big difference in the batter consistency when I was making up the plain cheesecakes; with Philly, the batter is thick (like sour cream), with the other brands, it would pour like water! I couldn't figure it out, and since there's a huge swing in the price ($1.80/# for the other brands, $2.10/# for Philly) I was hoping I could use the less expensive stuff (I'm using 50# a week). But now I know I can't let the distributors substitute because I can't easily make up for whatever is in the cheaper brands. Two more weeks, then everyone is on a diet and I can get a week off!!!

With the other brands I got (Raskas, Axelrod, SommerMaid and now I can't remember the first one) the cheesecake batter was more fluid, and the centers of the larger (8, 9 and 10 inch cakes) were very very soft - to the point that one of my clients returned three of the plain cheesecakes saying they weren't cooked in the middle! This week, using only the Philly, everything baked the way it was supposed to, all the cheesecakes are "cooked" all the way through, all the clients are happy.... What could be the source of the problem? What's the function of the gums and stabilizers? The only difference in ingredients is that Philly lists a cheese culture where none of the others did; and while they all listed milk and cream, I'm curious about the cream. When I order heavy cream, I'm always asked whether I want 36% or 40% (butterfat) so, I wonder if the type of cream used in the production of cream cheese has a different amount of water and this could be it?

The "spackle" is probably something along the lines of a fake icing called PermaIce. I've never used it, though. Like Anne, I always cover the styrofoam with fondant (usually a cheaper brand for store displays, the good stuff for when the cake is due to appear in a magazine!). You need to charge a sufficient amount to cover materials and a little of the labor - consider also what the buyer intends to do with the display cake. Some area florists use my dummy cakes in their windows - they add the silk flowers to match the season, but I've given them the fondant-covered tiers in exchange for displaying my placard and a portfolio. In those cases, I didn't charge them because the exposure brought in plenty of business. Same for the jewelry store. I also don't expect to get the dummy cake back, but if you're loaning it out, you need to recognize it won't come back in the same shape it left in. Something always happens to it. So, figure out what the styro costs, the fondant, the cake drum, etc. and how long it took you to do it and go from there.

In the last month, I have gotten at least four different brands of cream cheese from my distributors, none of which have been my brand of preference (usually Philly or Smithfield Farms). Anyway, I have been noticing that my (plain) cheesecake batter handles differently depending on which brand I'm using. Sometimes it is more fluid, other times thicker and I can't imagine that whole eggs I'm using (shell eggs, not fluid eggs) could make such a difference, all else being the same (fruit fine sugar, a little cornstarch, whole eggs, lemon juice and vanilla). I finally gave up and bought a case of Philly at the local warehouse - much higher price, but at least I know this weeks' batches will be more consistent. Any ideas? Do some brands use more water (or maybe the type of cream influences the amount of water)? The ingredient list is usually milk/cream, cream culture, gums, stabilizers, although each brand doesn't list identical ingredients. Thanks!

Ice down your table before you roll the Satin Ice fondant, keeping the rolling surface as cool as possible helps a lot with this brand. (don't use one of those ice-filled pins, though!) Or you could try using a silpat or roulpat, but I don't like the pattern it picks up from the mat if you simply place therolled out fondant on the cake and peel off the mat. When I was searching for the Bakels site, I noticed that they were featuring Julie Bashore from House of Clarendon and Colette Peters- both of whom had been Satin Ice advertisers/users previously. Because it is so soft, it tears easily and that's frustrating to patch or fix. You can avoid some of this by rolling the fondant around the pin to place on the cake rather than using your hands/arms and make sure you're not wearing any rings or bracelets, a watch, etc.

check out www.qzina.com - they are a distributor in Canada. I don't know what brand of fondant they carry, but you will want to have more experience before you buy the Satin Ice brand - this is a very, very soft fondant and a challenge to work with. You can ask them directly at www.americanbakels.com and find out who the closest source is to you.

You can buy the Pettinice (made by Bakels) from Pfeil and Holing at www.cakedeco.com in pails of various sizes/prices. This would be ok with RLB's truffle cake (which is a delicious cake, especially the raspberry version). I've made the cake many times, and in my experience, it handles best when it is very, very cold. If you have any gaps or mishapen sides, use some just-firm ganache to fill in and then chill it again overnight. If you use the Pettinice, you don't need to use the veg shortening that RLB calls for when using commercially made fondant. Use a little cornstarch and a cool stainless steel table, along with a heavy rolling pin (use a french pin or a 14 or 18 inch rolling pin for best results). The home made fondant from the Cake Bible is more translucent than the commercially made stuff- hard to describe. The fondant in the picture (the Art Deco cake) is thicker than what I usually do; about a quarter-inch to a third of an inch is plenty. Fondant can be frustrating for a novice the first time; how much do you use? how thin to roll out? what if it tears? Colette Peters' books include a chart for fondant amounts on various cake sizes - you might want to look into borrowing her Wedding Cake book from the library to skim through, but Margaret Braun's Cakewalk book has excellent pictures of fondant application that would be helpful to you. Fondant will show every lump and bump under it so be sure the cake beneath is smooth and blemish free. I would definitely practice putting it on a cake pan before doing it on a real cake. Good luck!

Hi ... I use Perkins for most of my dry goods and the oreo crumbs from an earlier post; they don't carry Skor bits and my salesperson had no luck with a special order, which is why I was buying them retail. I didn't ask at the store, since I couldn't find the whole candy bar, I thought maybe Hershey stopped making it. But that's a good idea. I tried going to the puratos web site, but can't find any US locations - maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? I know they advertise in Modern Baking, there has to be something in New England. I had a peppermint mocha at Starbucks and that's what started me off on this whole candy cane cheesecake obsession! I thought I would just add some peppermint schnapps to my existing white choc toffee chzcake recipe and replace the toffee with the candy bits (the toffee melts too). I think I just wanted some crunch in the cheesecake, it could use a little more peppermint flavor in it, but I didn't want it to be a dark chocolate cheesecake. It's ok, could use more peppermint flavoring, so I'm definitely going to be doing this again and again. But... if you have a recipe you'd be willing to share ...!

My local supermaket no longer stocks the bags of chopped Skor bars. Now all I can get are chopped Heath bars and they don't work at all well. When I use the Heath bits for the topping on my banana cream petit fours (rum flavored pastry cream in choc cup, topped with a banana slice, glazed, sprinkle with Skor bits) it looks horrendous (the skor kept its shape, the Heath melts). The Heath bars also don't work as well in my white choc toffee chzcake, but since they're in the cake it isn't as bad. Does anyone know if they stopped making Skor bars? I'd also like to find a source for peppermint candy bits to add to cheesecake batter. I wanted to make a candy cane cheesecake, and have experimented a few times with chopped candy canes in a white choc chzcake batter, but I'd like something that stays a little more solid, something along the lines of the bits in peppermint chip ice cream. Thanks!

Steve, I've always been curious about exactly what that luster dust stuff is! I took classes with Colette Peters a few years back and she liberally paints her cakes with various colors of luster dust (as opposed to "petal dust"), as do several other cake stylists/designers (Jan Kish, Margaret Braun, Gail Watson). Does anyone know what this stuff is? or what it's made from? It's definitely used all over her cakes in her latest book... I know in the UK, similar dusts are manufactured by Squires Kitchen and Sugarflair; and their equivalent of our FDA doesn't have the same level of stringency so they are accepted as food safe in the UK. I've been curious about Ann Baber's Folk Art Paint (it looks from the photos like the fingerpaint stuff we used as kids!) but I've always thought if you tried to order it, customs would stop it anyway. And, on a sort of related topic, remember those silver and gold dragees? What's in those that got them outlawed? I know in California, they can't be sold anymore; I'm just wondering why. I use the edible fondant pearls from Pfeil and Holing and now that I think of it, they're probably rolled in luster dust!....