onetoughcookie

I, actually, am not a fan of red velvet cake, as it's not chocolate-y enough! But, my clients seem to like it, so it stays on the roster. Thanks to all for weighing in on this. There are plenty of other really delicious cakes to concentrate on.

Yes, blue velvet cake, from what I understand, is red velvet cake substituting blue food coloring for the red. I have decided it's best for an April Fool's joke, if at all, since blue is the color of many molds that forms on food. No wonder I find it so revolting. Interesting how color can affect one's appetite, isn't it?

Is anyone adding blue velvet cake to their menus? Are you getting requests for it? I've seen it recently (not in NY...yet), and am repulsed by it, yet strangely gripped by the thought of it. Bueller???????

I just tried it this week and it broke. It's possible the cream cheese wasn't quite warm enough but the overall flavour didn't impress me enough to want to try again. Collette Peters has it as a suggested flavour add-in with her recipe for SMBC so it must work. ← Never tried the cream cheese, but Claudia Fleming has a recipe for goat cheese buttercream (to fill cornet-shaped tuiles). I tried it, and the consistency wasn't as smooth as with all butter, and it definitely had what I would call an acquired taste. There's also a recipe for white chocolate cream cheese frosting from "The Cake Bible" that's absolutely delicious. I use it as a filling for red velvet cakes, chocolate cake...fantastic.

I have found the cost to be very effective if you can get it in bulk. ← I agree. And, I make what I need and use it. I don't worry about opened cartons of pasteurized egg whites and their expiration date, nor do I have to turn those whites into mountains of SMBC. No waste = cost effectiveness. And, you'd be surprised just far a pound of egg white powder will go. Plus I have extra room in the 'fridge and the freezer now that I'm not buying the frozen, pasteurized whites.

Aren't you eating any? I will post Toba Garret's Decorator's Buttercream recipe. It's that retro-y fluffy filling that you're looking for. ← Wish I was eating them, but all I can do is try to remember them from visits to my grandparent's house in Philly (many, many years ago...) I appreciate the Toba Garret retro recipe, as well as the picture from Steve. ← Here you go: I think what makes this darned recipe so good is the veg. shortening. I hate to admit it, but that's it. And, I'll bet if you added melted chocolate to it, you'd have the perfect TastyCake frosting, too. 454 g. unsalted butter, room temperature 230 g. vegetable shortening 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, or 1 1/2 tsp. lemon or vanilla or almond extract 1.36 kg 10x (3lb) 135 ml milk 3 tsp. egg white powder 1 tsp. salt Cream butter and shortening. Add flavoring and salt. Gradually add sugar, a little at a time. Add egg white powder (mixture will be very dry). Add milk and beat til light and fluffy for 5 to 8 minutes. Keep covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap so it doesn’t crust over while working with it.

Aren't you eating any? I will post Toba Garret's Decorator's Buttercream recipe. It's that retro-y fluffy filling that you're looking for.

Now you're talking! There's a drink I'm in love with at The Standard Grill called "Penny Drop". Vodka, 'housemade ginger cordial' (your ginger syrup), lime juice, ginger beer. Not sure of the proportions, but you could certainly play with it. The Standard bartender pours it over lots of crushed ice in a copper mug, and garnishes with crystallized ginger. Adult ginger ale. Refreshingly delicious!

I use egg white powder all the time, now, for royal icing and SMBC. I'm delighted with the results, frankly. My royal is very stable; doesn't break down as quickly, and, colors don't bleed as readily. The royal also dries very quickly, even in humid conditions. It's fantastic. After all my success with royal icing, I decided to try it in the SMBC, instead of using pasteurized egg whites. Great results! I'm a convert. I buy it in bulk from a purveyor.....I think it's Just Whites from DebEl.

Do you know where this is?

I read about this product, "Choco-Pan" recently. It's fondant with white chocolate in it....anyone tried it? Yay or nay on it?

Drawing anything, I have come to find out (never felt artistic enough to take an art course in school, but that's a whole other story), is nothing more than a series of lines and their relationship to one another..or some such thing. Ergo, the grid system is a perfect example of how to recreate something specific. And, because I work on cookies, it's one of the ways I use to figure out how to draw something specific on the cookie. Labor intensive & time consuming, yes, but once I get the repetitive motion/muscle memory thing down, I'm golden. Or so I like to think.

Nice cookie writing onetough! Thanks for adding your pic! In response to your question, it's a lot like royal icing colorflow, but I use white chocolate. 1. Print your font out (in reverse!) 2. Pipe a melted chocolate outline of each letter right on the paper. (if it's a really bold font....if it isn't, just pipe each letter) Put your paper on a piece of cardboard or a sheet pan to let it lay flat. 3. Go back and fill in your outlines if necessary. 4. Using white chocolate with no color, you can connect the words or letters together, as you've seen in some of my cakes, or you can just leave each letter separate, like I did on the PTTV cake and position each letter on the cake as you like. 5. Let the chocolate letters set in the fridge for about 5 minutes, then flip the paper over, and let them set about ten minutes more. Peel the paper off, and voila.....you have your specialty font. You can do the same for pictures, as you can see, I did the same thing with the man with the martini glass on the martini cake. It's not necessary to reverse the image when you are doing pictures (most of the time), but with letters and writing you HAVE to reverse the letters or your font will come out backwards when you are done. A lot of printers have settings wherein you can reverse images. On my printer, it's the "T shirt transfer setting". ← I totally get the reverse chocolate thing....it's so beautiful, too. Since I can't really do that on cookies, I make royal icing plaques to adhere to the cookies. Those cakes were great...really, really fun. Love that Martini cake's retro images.

Here's something I did that I love: http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/12409508...4030_197936.jpg

May I ask how you did these? Really fun and beautiful work.

Amen, sister.

Thank you. Glad you liked them. You'd never have to have anything from a custom baker that you wouldn't want. That's the beauty of 'custom'. I bend over backwards to make what my customers want.

Hooray!

I don't think this is the kind of substance that will sicken someone. Food allergies are the concern over here. My order form contains a portion for the client to outline any known food allergies. Without knowing about them, I can't take measures to avoid or prevent them from occurring. In extreme cases, I will not take an order if the allergies are too severe. I like to sleep at night. Ingesting a miniscule amount of a non-toxic substance once in a very blue moon, in my humble, non-medical opinion, isn't going to cause any real damage. There are plenty of other culprits in the average daily American diet whose after-effects are far more destructive.

Wow, let me know if it ships. The stuff I use is too soft for that. It will hold texture but would definitely show dings. Maybe if it was real stiff? ← I won't be able to ship these if they ding.....that's why royal is the greatest for cookie decorating. Maybe for local delivery where I can have more control over dings and dents.

I am definitely going to try this. I'll be curious to see how hard the rolled buttercream gets, as I tend to ship cookies alot, and would hate to see dings and dents. Thanks K8

This is the finished product that went out this a.m. Will hear from the client later as to a yay or a nay.

Whoops! Didn't see this. Does rolled b/c get hard like royal? Can it be molded like gumpaste?

Rolled buttercream? I know I've heard of it, but would you mind refreshing my memory as to what that is? Fondant is gorgeous, but so much of what I do is for kids, and we know how kids are about fondant.

Hi K8, I use edible glitter as 'snow' for winter projects. It 'melts' when it hits anything wet, so it cannot be applied to wet royal. This disco dust has no mouth feel whatsoever, no taste either. I ate my test cookie a week ago, and I'm still here, so we know it won't kill...immediately (LOL!) I actually saw this used by a British cake and cookie maker in a recent book of hers, and I flipped for the look of it. This discussion reminds me that in Europe, the dragees are edible...silver coloring over sugar...they're meant to be eaten. Not so here, as we all are warned time and time again. I'm hoping the 'tween birthday girl and her little pals will love this look. I'll know the verdict on Sunday after the party is over. Do you use luster dust on anything that's meant to be eaten? And if so, do you just dust or paint on with a flavorless/odorless alcohol or lemon extract?