gfron1

Here's what I ended up with: I called it the Daquoise Tropical Its Pierre Herme's coconut daquoise topped with Mamster's coconut panna cotta, another layer of the daquoise, bananas carmelized with rum and brown sugar, and finished with a traditional meringue and a candided kumquat. I also did a second cake that I'll post when I have time in the What I had for dessert thread. I went with the panna cotta idea because it was really warm last night and I needed to make sure it would hold up. Thanks again to everyone for their help.

These are all fantastic suggestions. I'm going home at lunch to start baking and I'll be sure to post the final product for you over the weekend.

I'm preparing a cake for a 60th Birthday party this weekend and they wanted a chocolate genoise cake filled with a "banana custard." I'm going to cover the whole thing in a bavaroise with chocolate tiles inlaid on the top (she's a tile artist). I haven't had any luck finding a banana filling recipe that had cinnamon or nutmeg or some other spice. "Exotic" is the request, so it can be unusual and challenging. I've exhausted my cookbooks and recipe gullet...any thoughts?

Ya know...this is why I love EG! These are all super ideas and feedback. I had caught the update of the recipe to return it to the heat and did this time. I continue to wonder about the effects of living at 6000 feet on this recipe. And the idea of separating the flavors...I've been leaning toward (because I'm not quite ready to give up on saffron in this dessert YET, a saffron panna cotta partnered with pistachio tuiles. And for the saffron, truly just stick with one or two threads. Thanks again everyone, and I apologize for making this honorable thread transformed into a 'disaster' thread. I promise to post the successful conclusion of this epic here and leave my disasters to the EG masses. I just knew the right people would see my cause on this thread so thanks for baring with me.

The strawberry was still frozen. I hadn't let it thaw completely when I realized how bad things tasted, so I just snapped the picture. The cremeux recipe is from the orange exotic cake: 60g sugar for dry caramel, 360 g heavy cream hot, 1 vanilla bean seeds (original recipe called for 4), 120 g yolks, 3 g gelatin (I assumed sheet and translated to 2 g powder, which I then doubled in this recipe to 2 g powder). "Directions: Caramelize the sugar, add vanilla seeds, and hot heavy cream. Return to heat until thickened. cool slightly and add to the egg yolks, and finish with the gelatin. Cool and set aside." Obviously, some good ambigous professional recipe...

Did you place the gelatin while cream was very hot? You "shocked" the gelatin... and will not set even if you pray to it. Gelatin powder has to be soaked in small quantity of water and then disolved over very low heat just about until is clear and liquid. Add to cream when this is warm but not hot. Mix well. Use as desire, use molds for certain shapes. ← That might be it - thanks. I did add the gelatin (on all three occassions) to hot liquid. When I've added it to other recipes that weren't hot, it set up just fine. Okay, I won't give up on cremieux just yet...but it is its last leg! Thanks again.

This post is subtitled...Three Strikes and You're Out - A Dessert Disaster! I could really use some help on this one. The idea was simple, I wanted to have both the flavor of pistachio and the flavor of saffron in a dessert. I thought I would make a pistachio genoise, topped with a saffron custard and to add some twang to the otherwise subtle dessert, I added a strawberry gelee. Seemed simple enough. First, the genoise was virtually flavorless. I used Julia Child's "Perfect Genoise" which was perfect except it didn't taste the like 1 C. of finely chopped pistachios that I put in. Second, the custard was actually a cremieux that I have failed to get to set up on two other desserts posted here - this time I cooked it until it was very thick and doubled the gelatin. This is the base recipe from the orange exotic cake. And to make matters worse, I wanted to get the saffron color very vivid, so I kept adding more and more saffron...well, as you already know, more is not necessarily better with saffron - the taste was horrid. Third, I topped this wonderful creation with a fresh strawberry gelee which might have been tastier had I added some sugar. Well, here is my pride and joy (questions after the pic): So, I obviously need some help, but I'm not done with this flavor combination yet! First, I'm considering switching the genoise to a shortcake, but I still want to supercharge the pistachio flavor - without the use of extracts, is there a good way to do this? Then the overuse of saffron was my desire for natural color, but I was doomed because I was trying to cover the creamy/yolky color of the cremieux. I'm thinking about maybe a panna cotta although its not quite what I was going for, but it would work. And finally...that damn cremieux! I don't know . I tried the suggestions offered when I made the Orange Exotic Cake but it still won't set up. Ideas to help it hold, or suggestions of other fillings that would have similar consistency (minus the runniness) would really, really be appreciated. Thanks

Absolutely beautiful as always Filipe! I love the chocolate citrus combinations. Thanks for finding this thread

It was something that was pushed heavily at the Fancy Food Show in San Fran. Lots of samples, and yes, I love it too especially when I don't have the mint or time to make my own.

I do tastings about every other month and the only comment in addition to what has been said, is don't offer too much - it becomes overload. I start off with a bit of history and taste an Aztec hot chocolate offered by our local herb store, or the Vosges Azteca hot chocolate, then let them nibble on Domori roasted beans. After teaching basic tasting skills and terminology i offer El Rey because its a nice progression to help people find their preferred percentage. Then I shift over to the Pralus bars to demonstrate differences in country/region. I like to finish with both the Domori Latte Sal and 100% bars for kicks. Convaluted answer...just don't overload them

Thanks for the tip...sounds like the right adjustment. I'm embarrassed to say where I got the plates - again, I wanted glass brick for the drama of it all, but I got these at the candle aisle of Wal Mart - one of the few that didn't have a warning against using with food.

Thanks! It really was a lot of fun to make, and easier than it may look. As I always do with new recipes, I spent about 2 weeks thinking about how I was going to mess it up and about 3-4 hours over two days actually making it. Each individual step was fast and easy (minus the cooling time). The most problematic part for me was the whipped cream becoming hard. You're supposed to bring the cream to a boil, pour over the chocolate and smooth it. I did. Then, you put in the fridge to chill the cream again (covered). I did. It even said to chill overnight ideally. I removed the cream and it was the consistency of a ganache. I measured in grams v. cups so my measures were accurate, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. I tried whipping with an electric mixer which must have been my demise. It said to whisk by hand. I was careful not to over mix, but I never had the chance. My thick paste became chopped up thick paste. Also, as mentioned, it was too chocolately for all of the guests (Ling would probably want to coat the whole thing in a ganache ), so I would have a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, and/or make them a bit smaller.

I had PH's Plaicir Sucre...

I made the Plaisir Sucre... This was a lot of fun to make, but a bit too chocolatey for my guests. I had trouble with the whipped cream. I followed the directions very closely and kept the unwhipped cream in the fridge for 8 hours after I included the chocolate. When I removed the cream to whip it, it had become too hard to do anything with it. I gave it a light whipping, put it in my pastry bag and squirted away! Taste and texture were fine, but nothing like the pic in the book. I also added the decorative touch of some finely crushed hazelnuts striped on the top and squirted the recipes sauce across the top. I wanted to serve these on glass bricks - but couldn't find any in my little town.

Just returned from a wonderful birthday dinner that ended with a Moroccan saffron pudding with cardamon and rose water orange blossom water...very subtle and nice. As has been said numerous times on this thread..."used sparingly" just like Marmite!

Well...I own the specialty food market in our little town and we don't have the purees. I got the mango puree up in Albuquerque, but they didn't have the passion fruit. And I read the instruction about getting the cream very hot - it didn't say boiling, and then I added it and then heated it in a double boiler. It seems the problem is boiling point at 6,000' elevation.

I bought mine from Albert Uster and it was a combo pack - 5 designs - 5 sheets of each. AITransfers I've had chefs buy that assorted pack for me previously..........I think the thing I'm most looking for, is the introduction of bright color and contemporary patterns. Right now I make my own "transfer sheets" using cocoa butters, but a splash pattern is the only one that matches a professional transfer sheet (looks wise). .............I still have more on that I want to explore......just haven't found the time like I'd like to.

These are beautiful and fun! Its great to see personality in the chocolates. Thanks for sharing them. I also have the issue of buying a box of transfer sheets and then not needing more than a couple. I've used a few as regular acytate for lining dessert forms, but I would prefer to just go on a chocolate binge. I originally bought mine to make chocolate sushi which I've posted HERE. Or you can see more pics at my site HERE

Here are the pics: You can see the my cremieux didn't set up - I'm really struggling to adjust for the altitude here. You can also see that my artsy attempt on top turned out looking like Mickey Mouse. And here's the slice. The gelee was a bit thick, but no one minded - very tasty. I didn't have Passion Fruit, so I did mango and key lime. Overall it was very yummy. I need to fix my cremieux dilemma, but other than that it was super. My honey cake was made with Balinese Mango Blossom honey which shined, but not overpowered the citrus taste...I'll definitely make this again.

Well, the moment of truth is almost here. After weeks of mental build-up ("Can I make such an esteemed dessert?"), weeks of hunting down ingredients (I should have just made my own purees), and tension over gelatin translations (sheet v powder)...my Orange Exotic Cake is complete, and just in time for the in-laws! I did not have access to passion fruit, so I went a different direction on the gelee - mango and key lime. Everything else is by the book, except of course the gelatin which we've bantered over on this thread. Ultimately I used Knox individual packets using the feedback above and some comments from the Le Courdon "Professional Baking" book. I got very scared when my gelatin set up before I was ready to use it, but I plunged in and dropped that clear jello-disc right into my bavaroise fearing lumps. It dissolved just fine which made me very happy. My cakes were made in a 9" springform, and I used a 10" springform lined with transfer paper for the final mold. I made my top/bottom discs out of floral foam wrapped in saran which allowed me to be more artsy. (A note when you see the pic in a few days - I know that by being artsy, the gelee will be unevenly distributed the guests...tough break! I chose fashion over function today!) The honey cake was made with (as promised) Balinese Mango Honey, which has a really rich taste. I gave some of the cake trimmings to a friend who thought there was orange in the cake, so that's an encouraging sign for the final product. The in-laws arrive tomorrow afternoon, and this will be the welcome the Silver City cake...we eat like this every day I'll post a pic as soon as I can, but I want to wait until I cut it. Thanks to all for the help, especially the EGers above.

My Halloween favorite is lychees stuffed with slightly smushed (to make the blue run and soak into the veins) blueberrys set in champagne gelatin...voila! Eyeballs!

Just pulled mine out of the oven after being inspired by the pic of these last night. I followed the recipe to the letter, but still had some problems. I had to bake about 7 minutes longer. Taste was great but I think i should have returned the dough to the fridge to firm it up more, they melted out more than the ones in the picture.

Mexican markets will definitely have it. Some good specialty food stores have it. Your herb store will probably have it. Its known to help with gas too

As best as I can remember, tonight was the first time in my life when I was insulted by being called a food. I was telling a local chef (whom I admire) about a dessert I recently made, and my spouse said, "You're such a genoise." At first, I thought he meant that I was a lighty delicate pastry that was a perfect foundation for wonderful things. Then he clarified and said that I was being a sponge, trying to get the chef's praise. He was right, although I was rightly offended. So, what other food insults are out there...