Tweety69bird
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Posts posted by Tweety69bird
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Did you torch before or after stacking?
Afterwards.
That would explain the burnt edge, then. A wrap of aluminum foil would prevent that if you so preferred.
Great tip! Thank you.
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I'm thoroughly impressed with the final result, when I saw that you wanted a brulee on a cake, I thought 'thats crazy!'
Haha, that's what I thought too. As frustrating as this task was, I learned something new doing this, and am very pleased about that!
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Nice! So as I was saying :-)
Thank you!!
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Did you torch before or after stacking?
Afterwards.
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So, here is my final result. I'm very happy with how it came out.. although this one didn`t have the nicest base.
What I ended up doing was: Baking the chiffon cake in ring molds & baking the creme brulée in hotel pans. I put the brulée in the freezer for an hour before using and then cut rounds with the same ring mold and tranfered them to the top of the cake. It worked really well. The kicker: The chef loved it and even gave me a hug.
Yay! Thank you all for your help on this one. I'm happy it's over.
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The thing that has been most on my mind during this thread is that something tells me, even after all this, when your dessert comes out, your chef will be the one taking the credit.
But maybe I'm being too harsh...
After all, I barely know him.
It's not an uncommon practice. One can always strike out on their own.
I agree, and it doens't bother me at all. HE will know who made it.
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Adding a moisture barrier is what I would try but instead of a layer of some fat, how about some sheets of buttered phyllo dough.
Thank you for your suggestion! I think the phyllo would make it more difficult to cut through the dessert though. In any case, I finally found a solution.
Pictures will come. The actual event is next Wednesday, so hang on til then!
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It sounds like you're working hard to make him happy and keeping a good attitude about it, that's awesome. It's a shame he's decided he's beyond learning. I hope that never happens to me.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Tri2Cook. I try to be positive, and it's out of my control anyway, he is the chef and in the end, I have to do what he says. No point in getting all discouraged.. but it's dissapointing to continuously fail in his eyes, with all the attempts I've done.
The final chapter in this saga is that he finally - with the help of the sous chef - has agreed to me making the cake & creme brulee seperately and mounting them together at plating.. Can you believe it?
He didn't like the texture of the custard in the Leche Flan Cake. I wish he could have agreed to that from the beginning, but alas I learned about the Leche Flan Cake and got some great ideas from everyone here. Thank you all again!!! -
Bake the cake and cool.
Brush the surface of the cake the custard will come in contact with egg yolk
Grill that surface cooking the yolk this will give you a good barrier.
Make creme brûlée mix on stovetop over Bain Marie
Cook out throurougly about 82 degrees c.
Use agar agar or gelatin to gain a little extra strength in your custard, pass custard through
A fine chinois
Place cold cake into ring form lined with acetate , pour in custard mix
and set in fridge min 6-8hours .
Remove ring and peal of the acetate
Make a caramel disc to place on top of brûlée cake or spun sugar or praline
Hope this helps
I will keep this in mind, great idea! Hey, that was your first post! Welcome to eGullet!
Great video HowardLi, thanks!
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I'd love to know why he's so attached to this since most customers won't even recognize this as a big technical achievement. That and has anyone pointed out that while the custard is optimally served cold, cake is not at its best when chilled?
He doesn't want to hear any reasoning about anything, he just wants it done. Believe me I tried.
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OMIGOD I just had a lightbulb go off in my head!!! I`m going to use a springform pan to make tomorrow`s cake, and trap the parchment in the base ring so the mix can`t seep underneath.
YAHOO!!!!
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Good luck with your chef, it is hard to create something according to some one else's vision, especially when that some one else doesn't really know how baking works.
Oooh pastrygirl, you summed it up perfectly.
Ok, so tonight wasn't a complete success, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.. sort of.
I made the Leche Flan Chiffon Cake at work as planned. The obstacles I had was that the 'cake' pan I had was only 1" high and in hindsight I should've taken a hotel pan but i was trying to come up with straight edges and was over thinking things. Anyhow, I took the 12" pan, lined it with parchment and also made a collar of about 3" around.
I made both components and poured the custard batter in the base. It was very thin and I could see that it had picked up one edge of the bottom parchment.
I should have started over, but I thought giving it a convincing rub would keep the parchment flat on the bottom. I put it into a bain marie to bake, and while it was cooking, the cake was too heavy fr the collar and it flopped over on one side. There wasn't much I could do at that point, so I let it finish baking, removed it, let it cool and trimmed off the excess cake. When I flipped the cake out, it came out very easily, with the parchment paper layer, however about 1/2 of the custard had baked UNDER the parchment.
It bruléed ok, not perfect but the chef is only concerned about having the right height of custard on the cake. I asked the chef if I could do it with the caramel layer, solving one big issue for me, but that isn`t an option.
I do have a picture for you to see. You can see the two layers are clearly defined. It's exactly what the chef wants, just more custard layer.
Tomorrow I am going to redo it, using my cake pans from home, and making sure that the parchment is as stuck to the bottom as possible.
Do you guys have any advice?
Thank you all!!
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So, I've decided on this recipe and will make it tomorrow, so I'll have feedback tomorrow night.
Question: Do you think that if I eliminate the caramel layer on the bottom of the pan, that the custard will a) come out nice and dry so I can caramelize it, a la minute, and b) come out in one piece, or is the caramel layer important for eliminating the sticking factor. Do you think that a parchment layer would do the trick?
Thank you! I'm excited to make this!!
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Googling Leche Flan Cake will get you the white cake versions of what Jaymes has linked to. And now I want to make this!
Kerry, I think this is the ticket! Thank you for taking Jaymes' idea and running with it! I'm going to find a recipe and make it. Pictures will be taken of course!
Thank you everyone, once again, you guys are all the best!!!
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I realize that the Chocolate Flan Cake isn't what your chef wants on several levels, but since we've been talking about it, and since you asked if the layers remain separate and distinct, thought I'd google a few images:
ETA - Since I have no idea as to the level of experience/expertise your chef possesses, I can't help but wonder if he actually has some information about Creme Brulee baked on top of a cake, or if he saw one of these Mexican "impossible" cakes somewhere, and then extrapolated.
In particular, if he had caught a glimpse of these, and didn't realize they're "upside down" flan cakes, he might have thought it'd be nice with vanilla cake and creme brulee:
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These look to be exactly what he is looking for! Fantastic, thank you Jaymes!!
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If chef considers following his idea to the letter more important than the result then you're in a tough position. If you're baking the cake, pouring on a custard base and baking again, the cake is being overbaked. It's also going to leach moisture from the custard base changing the texture of both the cake and the resulting custard. If chef refuses to budge on this, maybe use Jaymes' idea of the custard cake, bake them in individual serving dishes and cover the top of each ramekin with a premade sugar disc before serving. The custard will be on the bottom but they'll be baked together since that seems to be the party trick he wants. I don't know the situation you're working in or I'd suggest diplomatically telling chef that people have to eat my dessert so it's more important to me that they enjoy eating it than be amazed because they were baked together.
Without being disrespectful to my chef, I would jusy say that everyone has painted a prett good picture of his character and knowlege. I believe he saw this dessert at a previus restaurant that he (not I) worked at and wants to recreate it, without a recipe of course.
He was adamant of the two layers being baked together, and I completely agree that if the cake is solid enough to support the brulee mix, it's going to overcook. I think Jaymes' idea would look elegant on the plate, especially with a pretty sugar disk on top. That will have to wait for one of my dinner parties though..
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The curdling is due to it being baked at too high of a temperature. You're trying to marry two things with very different oven needs into one pan.
I agree, I'm not fond of this dessert, but need to come up with a solution. I baked them at 300. I'm going to try the bain marie even with a thermometer to eliminate the stovetop being the cause of the curdling and see how that goes. That might not be until Monday though.
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Did you bake the bottom custard section protected in a water bath? I think if you half submerged the pan in boiling water it might take care of the curdling.
I cooked the mix on the stove, once tempering and adding the yolks. Then I poured it onto a ring mold with a cake layer on the bottom and baked, so a water bath wouldn't be possible.
Perhaps I should move to a bain marie once the yolks have been added.
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Thank you so much for all of your amazing replies, they are so much appreciated! I went MIA becuase I had to leave for work.
Instead of baking the creme brulee, why don't you cook it like a crema catalana? Make a heavy pastry cream and just pour it on top of your cake and let it set in the fridge.
I did try something like this tonight. I basically made the brulee mix with 8 yolks to 1 cup milk/cream, in a pastry creme method. When it cooled it was a nice thick consistency. When I poured it on the cake and baked it, it stayed seperate and basically was a success... however, the texture once I tasted it was not nice, the brulee was curdled. I made a second batch with 6 yolks this time, with the same results. I am thinking that I overcooked my mix on the stove, but was very careful (especially the second time!). When I tasted the unbaked mix, it was nice and creamy.
So, I figure I need to find a happy marriage between the number of yolks and baking temperature. I baked them at 300 for 15 min.
I can't imagine the chef insisting they be baked together if it's not necessary just because that was the original idea. Gelatin and agar are commonly found in or easily and inexpensively sourced by restaurants which is why I mentioned them specifically but if carrageenans are available in Tweety's kitchen I agree that it's a good path to follow.
Actually my chef is pretty particular and insists on them being baked together. I had popped onto my phone to read responses on this thread while at work and tried to get him to let me try that and got a flat no.
I feel better about where I'm at after today and think I will practice a bit more. If the curdled issue is only from my stovetop cooking of the mix and not from baking it, I'm not too far from my goal. Anyone have thoughts on this?
We have gelatin at work, so I might go that route.
Thank you all! Of course I will take pictues of my final result.
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Thank you for your reply Jaymes! The request came from my chef at the restaurant I work at. What I've been trying to do is bake the cake first, then when it cools (I've tried waiting a few hours, to freezing the cake and thawing it, hoping the results would change) the brulee mix is poured ontop of the cooked cake that has been cut with a ring mold and baked like that.
I generally do cook my brulee in a bain marie, but I don't see how that could be possible for this instance. The ring mold is only 2 1/2" so it' pretty small and I suspect would cook quick enough, if I could get it to stay on top of the cake instead of soaking into it.
Your method of cooking it upside down is a great idea, do they layers come out as two distinct layers?
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Do you think that would work? I suspect the cocoa butter would melt and blend in as it cooks?
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Hi everyone,
I haven't been here in a long while and when I came across this problem I knew exactly where to go! Hope someone can help.
I have to make a plated dessert, creme brulee cooked on top of a cake. Every recipe I try, the brulee mix soaks into the cake. I've tried a number of different recipes to no avail. Searching the internet resulted in some great pics, but nothing more.
Anyone have experience with this or a recipe I can use? The only stipulation is that the cake has to be vanilla.
Thank you!!
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I'm going to be in NYC in Nov. and am thinking of doing the 35$ Lunch Prix Fixe Menu at the MAZE. And comments or reviews? TIA..
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Looking for a smores recipe that would be in bar form for an adult party. Need to make ahead - and if possible freeze - wondering if that would hurt the marshmallow part?
Someone told me that you can freeze marshmallows without any problems, but I haven't tried it myself.
Costa Rica - Pacific coast dining
in Central & South America: Dining
Posted · Edited by Tweety69bird (log)
Hi all,
Will be traveling from La Fortuna to Manuel Antonio this spring and am interested in any dining highlights you may be aware of, local fare or not. I'm aware of Sodas and Casadas.
I'm just starting my search but I know if there are gems, someone here knows about them. Thanks!!