Tweety69bird

That's 250g of cream cheese to how much IMBC?? ← Sorry....it's a standard buttercream....5 yolks, lb. of butter, etc. I've never measured the finished recipe to give a yield. ← Thanks, I'll have to try it out... I just wanted a basic ratio of BC to cream cheese. Sounds good!!

That's 250g of cream cheese to how much IMBC??

If you don't rub too much, or too hard, the pattern will remain pretty nice. I find that those rolling pins make such a nice effect on cakes, it's very elegant.

You can melt it as is. Easy peasy.

I watched too, and was dissapointed with the amout of time dedicated to the actual cake making... it would have been nice to see them do the layers and maybe more footage on the conception portion of the cakes... As for fillings, I do remember hearing someone mention lime curd, but I believe that one of the teams had a different flavour for each tier. I don't remember the others though, and am not even sure that they mentioned them. I didn't care for the pink either and was pretty surprised that they didn't just stay all white. Any why would they have made is SO pink? Goodness, it seemed more appropriate for a (girl) baby shower cake!! You would think that someone on the team would have noted the correlation between cake colours and wedding colours... thereby limiting their potential clients to only those who had pink in the wedding. And can I ask something? When they saw that they weren't selling any cakes, why didn't one of the team members suggest to bring down the 10$ per person cost down? I think 10$ per person is steep for a ""up and coming" cake company that has yet to sell one cake!

This probably has been adresses in the pie demo (I haven't read that one yet ) In regards to the cutting the butter into your dough, I would recommend that you use the 'fraisage' techinique, which uses the best tools we have access to - our hands!! Basically, start with cold butter, cut into chunks into the flour and then pick up some of the mix and with your open hands together (think praying...) rub lightly, and the flour that incorporates the butter will fall back into the bowl. Then pick up some more mix, and gently rub inbetween your hands again. You'll see the change over time as you keep rubbing the butter into the dough. It gets to a nice pea mealy size. Don't rub too hard or you'll just squish the butter into your hands... It feels really nice too and it's a relaxing task. I hope this helps!!

I think that you could get away with using jam or puree that has had the seeds removed.....mixing a bit into your buttercream, but not too much as you don't want the bc to get too soft... you could always add in some red colour to get the right effect. You could always stick some frozen raspberries in between the layers too. I hope your son has a great birthday!!

Ahem... there are plenty more vibrators on Amazon for far less money than the Hitachi one. I saw one for 69 cents!!

How about freezing the cake in the bundt pan before trying to remove it. I realize that this isn't very productive, but if it works... Or, how about trying your recipe in a new bundt pan and see what happens?

Um... I have a questions that seems appropriate to post here - Is it that easy to pop the creme brulee out of the form that was used to bake it in and have it free standing? It'll come out in one piece? I haven't had any problems doing creme caramel, but always thought that the caramel that is sitting on the bottom forms a shield between the creme and the container, so sticking isn't a factor. However, with creme brulee, there is no barrier, so that worries me. What about freezing them? Thought?

Well, no news so far, still waiting for news from the baker. At least now I'm prepared!

Aha! Now I get a chance to help you, after all of your great comments last week. For your molds, there is a super place here in Mtl, D&R. They have all sorts of chocolate equipment, not all cheaper than prices you mentioned in your post, but their chocolate molds are under 20$ apiece, so maybe you will find something you're looking for there.

I love wasabi!

Forgot to mention that I think I'm going to stay away from any nuts on this job. Since it's going to be on a wedding's sweet table, there's just too much risk there, and I would hate to have anyone have an allergic reaction.

Oh Truffle Guy, thank you so much for your suggestions. I really really appreciate all the advice!! Your mice idea is so cute!! It's funny, the first flavour I had thought of was passionfruit! Once the baker gets back to me with quantities, I will give him my list of flavours that I can do, and let him discuss with the client and get back to me with what they want. I forgot to mention that they had said something about wanting some chocolates with a pink filling to go with those pink tulips. I think I'll do those with raspberry. I have metallic red cocoa butter that I got in recently from Chef Rubber, and I haven't tried to use it yet, so this will be the perfect opportunity...although pink and red don't go...maybe to add some colour to the dark chocolates... I just want to break it out and use it... I also have Mycryo that I can colour...(I do have to temper that right???), so I have plenty of options.... I deffinately will have to do a practice run and give them out to local "Joe's" to see how they are received. You are right about the exotic flavours... I don't want to freak out anyone! I will make sure to use the best ingredients that I can find, absolutely. The way I choose to look at it, is that I'm investing my time, energy and money into building a name for myself, it's not about making a profit at this stage. As for the decoration, I have some transfer sheets already, so I'll use some of those on the ganaches I dip, as well as molding and I deffinately will post pictures when all is said and done. I am so looking forward to playing with all of this and seeing what I can create!!

Trishiad, thank you for your advice. I think that is the most stressful (but fun) part, trying to decide what flavours for each type I try to create, whether to do molded chocolates, or dipped chocolates... I think the dififculty comes from having no restictions. I think I will try to do some hand decorating... the wedding cake is going to be white with pink tulips, so maybe using royal on top with a cornet and make tulips.... I think that is more impressive looking than the transfer sheets, but I am striving for variety also. I totally get it that while I'm starting, I won't make a lot of money, but that it's more important to make a name for myself right now. Plus the practice can't hurt either!! I think that what I'm really trying to find out, is what should the ratio be between me and the bakery, when it comes to charging? I mean, on one side I think that, well, I'm doing all the work, and the bakery is just going to deliver the chocolates. On the other hand, I deffinately see that it's the bakery that got the job and if they hadn't contacted me, I would have no job at all. I just want it t be fair on both sides. Thanks to all of you who are giving me your advice. I really appreciate it, and since this is the first time I have started a topic, it's pretty cool.

Hello fellow Montrealer! For this instance, it's an order for a wedding's sweet table. It will be my first order. I do plan to make/sell on a more regular basis, but I'm not there yet.... not even close to being a small guy yet... but stay tuned... Thanks for the encouragement!!

Well, I plan to make molded chocolates, maybe using some transfer sheets and hand dipping some ganaches. Not sure what flavours are wanted yet....waiting for feedback. Getting my foot in the door deffinately is a concern, I don't want to seem to steep right off the bat, but I don't want to give my services away either. I'll be making them in my friends cake decorating shop, so not at home. I'm in Quebec, Canada by the way. Thanks for your advice.

Hi all, I need some advice what to charge a bakery that is ordering some chocolates from me. I still don't know what the quantity will be, but lets say it's about 150-200 pieces, and about 5 different flavours. I think the best way is to come up with a price per piece. I am concerned with charging enough to make it worth my while, yet not too much, as the bakery needs to make thier profit as well. Suggestions???? Thanks!

I think that this is just isomalt cooked up with some water, as described by simdelish, and then hardened into the bead sized pieces that you see. I have worked with Isomalt before for sugarwork, and the way we make it is that we cook up a big batch of just isomalt and water, and when it gets to temp, we pour it onto silpat in workable sized blobs and let it harden just like that. When you are ready to use it, you take your blob and put it on a piece of silpat in the microwave and zap it as is explained with the Micro Magic beads, and the middle melts before the edge, and you can work it until it's at the right consistency. It's that easy, and it's really convenient to have the blobs made in advance and waiting for you. As for the hygroscopic factor, Isomalt reacts much better with humid conditions than regulat sugar.

I have to agree with everyone, your flowers are spectacular and so life like. Very impressive. Thank you for taking the time to show us your work!!

Thank you!!!It is really nice to get all the lovely comments at the wedding, but to get nice comments from people who know how to do this kind of thing is even that more impressive to me. Thank you all so much for your kind words, it really is encouraging and makes me believe that really, you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to. Oh... yup, Photobucket is super friendly and very convenient.

Ha ha ha how I laughed when I read this..... Yes, you are absolutely correct, I came out ok on the other end of this adventure, however, it was a wedding cake for a friend of mine, not my wedding cake!! I just was calling it MY wedding cake because it's my first little baby, and to be honest, watching the bride and groom cut into the cake was to me, like watching someone cut the head off a baby!! I joined Photobucket, thank you very much for that info. FYI, it's the URL address to add in, the first line of the 3 options. The roses are real, and you can just see a little bit of the drape behind them. The cake was butter pecan with raspberry filling and buttercream. This one shows more detail of the royal piping. I didn't mask the cake with enough buttercream under the fondant because on the top tier you can see the layers! At least they looks straight! Um... notice the bloody caesar's behind the cake serving to calm my nerves. All in all a fantastic experience... looking forward to the next one!

Hey K8memphis, Thank you for your offer to help walk me through my wedding cake... too bad I only saw it today! The cake is all done, delievered and digested, and it all went off without too much trouble... thankfully I had a local buddy a phone call away that was able to answer my questions and calm me down!! I would love to attach pictures for you to check out - if i could figure out how to attach pictures! I've searched around but no luck... can someone please help?? Thank you again for putting all this info on here for people like me to see, I thought of you & this blog often as I was making my creation. It's amazing how much prep work needs to be done, especially with only a little Kitchen-Aid mixer to help me... but it got done, and now I'm looking forward to the next project to tackle... my better half's 40th surpsise birthday cake. I'm planning on doing a cake that looks like swiss cheese and has some mice and other deco around it, and says "Aged to Perfection". I think it'll be cute... will post pics when that's done too if I can figure out what I'm doing!!

What a beautiful job you did! Thank you for documenting all of this, I'm getting ready to tackle my first wedding cake, and this really is getting me in wedding mode!!