sugarseattle

their online catalog is a little bit kludgy, but you might try Paris Gourmet in Northern California http://www.parisgourmet.com Also, isn't there some place in NYC that has stuff like that? I can't remember, but maybe Martha has a source index somewhere???

i agree on the whole "no need to adjust the leavening". if you are scaling the recipe by weight, there is very little margin for error. however, i try to adjust in stages until i feel comfy with the results...for example do 2x first, then 4x, then do a big jump like 16x. probably the whole "need to adjust the leavening" comes from eggs, which can vary a lot in weight egg to egg. if you're scaling them, it's much more accurate and you don't need to adjust when multiplying up or down.

I believe honesty is the best policy. I would say something like, "I know you mentioned you wanted silver painted fondant and we agreed on that for your cake, but I was just talking to a friend about your cake and she brought up to me that mormons don't consume alcohol. I wanted to inform you that the only way to paint the cake is to mix the luster dust with alcohol. Now the alcohol will evaporate off, but I wanted to make sure you were comfortable with that before we proceeded. The only othe rway to get silver on your cake is to sprinkle it with the luster dust. I know it's not the same..."

i would limit yourself to 4 varieties...one chocolate, one red/berry/fruity, one citrus, and one nut (like coconut). i usually do a mix of labor intensive and not so labor intensive tartlets (which are more work because of all the rolling) and big sheets that I slice and garnish plan your labor time carefully as minis can be real time suckers...every time you move the desserts takes time...for example from sheet tray to box...if you can garnish in the box or on the platter, it will save tons of time. i budget about 1 hour per sheet for the cutting/garnishing part of the job.

we already offer writing on the tops of our cakes, free of charge. I would never expect a customer to do their own writing...but if they want a cake shaped like a drum, perhaps they should buy their own pair of drum sticks rather than have me shape them out of modeling chocolate. we do use purees often when the flavor is appropriate...strawberry makes a great addition to buttercream! Oh, and by the way, I just convinced a customer NOT to color their cupcake frosting, saying it's an extra charge and we like to keep everything natural. It felt great to be strong about my vision, and the customer was happy because they still were getting a high quality product. I think it's a philosophical shift from the customer is always right to the supplier may be right. The customer is seeking my pastries and cakes because I am a specialist in what I do, and they are buying my vision of what I think good pastries and cakes are. Of course, if nobody buys my vision, the customer is right, and I need to shift my vision. But if enough people buy my vision so I can make a profit, I am golden. If I keep letting the customer's "vision" get in the way of my vision, then there's no vision, just a mass of millions of ideas. The number one reason people return to a place is confidence. Hard to be confident in a place if it's not confident in itself.

here's a few random ideas... have you thought about an "unfrosted" cake such as a bunch of pound cakes perhaps with a bowl of whipped cream on the side and some fresh fruit (i bet you can get some pretty awesome peaches in the south!) you could even flavor the cake with grand marnier and orange zest. you can usually purchase "just whites" in the supermarket by the milk and avoid the surplus of yolks. the best way to make meringue consistently is to put the whites and sugar over a bain marie until the sugar melts and then beat the whites. if this is your way, you're golden.

we do get requests for custom flavors a lot as well and it opens up a whole other can of worms..."you make mini cheesecake bites, can you bake me a whole cheesecake?" well then technically i have to cost it out to determine the price, and usually I don't have that luxury because they usually want an answer on the spot. the comments so far have been extremely helpful!

it's not the natural or unnatural of the food color...it's the perception of unnatural...butter is not blue...i want to respect the flavor of the cake, does that make sese?

we're a bakery in our first year which translates into we are hungry to sell as much as we can to keep our head above water. while we are trying to have more ready made cakes available in our case, most of our cakes are "made to order". a lot of times, people request different colored frostings, special decorations for a baby shower cake, etc. In a way, they are sort of asking a lot. We tentatively just charge a $5. surcharge for this, which I know is ridiculously low for all the extra time, extra piping bag, inevitable waste, etc. Instead, i am thinking of asking substantially more, say 5-10% of the price of the cake or something. however, my gut is saying I would like to assert myself as a creator of fine cakes that have a certain look, take them or leave them. we do try to assert ourselves as using all natural ingredients, only using food color on certain frosted cookies, so in a way it doesn't make sense for our cakes to look like grocery stores. whatever they choose to do with their cake after they buy it is their business. I suppose my fear is turning away business because I'm being a stickler. we do want our customers to be happy, but I think they're taking advantage of our kindness. How do those in the cake world address these requests?

i just find it so disappointingly hard to find a good salad, and like you say, they are usually just dumbed down copies of so called "classics". it's the same with dessert...everybody has the "molten chocolate cake", the "creme brulee", etc. it's like the chefs can't be original in the salad realm, which is I think a supremely missed opportunity. as a pastry chef, I have so much fun and am so creative with salads when I cook...it's just such a relief to make salads because you don't have to sit and worry that the vegetables and meat will be done at the same time...with salads, everything is ready...you are just magically putting it together. So i make my own salads, not just because i love it, but because there's no place else to get a good healthy meal!

you guys are making me drool...it's sunday in seattle and we can't buy brandy here...i am totally going to make some brandied cherries this week!

know that labor is a HUGE factor. we just (gulp) finished our second quarter payroll taxes which resulted in a HUGE tax bill which shocked the hell out of us. we thought we were doing ok because we were paying the bills and even paying more on our loan than the minimum. but on further investigation, we've found that our labor is like 44% and then adding up all our costs, they are like 118%. so we've made a huge switch in our labor, and have put into place all sorts of cost cutting procedures. we are also tracking our waste more vigorously, which is why it's good to target your food costs maybe even as low as 18% to account for waste. one of the most difficult things we've found is being able to see at a glance where we are financially. for example, at what point should we send somebody home? we use quick books financial software to track our spending, but we find it very difficult to work with it to get the reports we need before our spending becomes a problem. we've tried working with accountants, but one we had was very expensive, and half the time I didn't know what she had done or not done. I've been able to enter in most of the bills, but that's about it. i think having all that information close at hand is very valuable. it was MUCH easier when I didn't have so much overhead. so back to your question, I agree with the other posters that you are going to need to defend your prices since your ingredients are so high. the other thing to take into account is how much ingredients fluxuate. two weeks ago, jam was $10 a bucket and now it's $14. so build in a little buffer to allow for inflation. be prepared to stand behind your products...be ready to say, this is a hand made product made in small batches with very expensive ingredients. sure, you could get a cheaper cake at the grocery store, but that is a different product than you are selling. blah blah blah...i've gone on too long.

freezing a frosted cake will not pose a health risk. if well wrapped (double wrapped in saran wrap), it will reduce the possibility of the cake aquiring a freezer burn taste. usually, we freeze unfrosted layers and never freeze fully assembled cakes...I find that when they thaw, there's some odd moisture leakage and they don't taste as good. a well wrapped cake WILL keep in the fridge for 3-5 days.

it's always frustrating when you've been reviewed on something you no longer have, but try to hold your head high when people come in the door and ask for it (or don't ask for it if it got a bad review), and put your best foot forward and turn them on to all the fabulous NEW things you have. those negative reviews suck...no matter how many great reviews, it's those bad ones that really hurt. the quicker you get over them and address their concerns, the better. also realize that a review is just an OPINION, and even if I go to the best restaurant on the planet, i might not walk out of there with the best review.

Should have gotten my facts straight...i meant Whidbey Island, not Camano Island! i have a client who is getting married august 23rd and is looking for a coconut cake. I am in Seattle and her wedding is in Whidbey Island, which can be as long as 3 hours away on the ferry. I'm a little nervous about offering delivery for her as we don't have air conditioning. I've considered using a courier service, but I really don't want such an important item left in somebody elses hands. Any bakers in the Whidbey Island area I could refer her to?

if you can describe what the cake texture was like, we can point you in the direction of the type of cake you should make (sponge, butter, genoise, chiffon, etc.) also, if you could describe the filling and frosting better, that would help. it's much easier to recreate the cake by knowing all the parts, rather than having you work through an entire recipe of cake/filling/frosting...

yeah, i use my heat sealer all the time. when i was doing more volume, i agree the foot pedal would have been a better choice, but now that i'm mostly retail, it's no biggie that i don't have one...it turns out to be good side work for my barista.

i would love to know exactly what technique was used to make the bread in the study...there's so much "fake" sourdough here in the states that is actually made with flavorings and not technique.

glad to hear everthing's on schedule for your big event. I can't wait to hear how it goes. Sorry this is too late, but I personally prefer a chocolate cake made with vegetable oil, not butter. I find chocolate cakes made with any sort of dairy (butter, milk, buttermilk, sour cream) tend to be not as chocolaty and often certainly not as moist.

that is so interesting. One thing I've noticed in the grocery store trying to find whole wheat anything is that most commercially available also have added high fructose corn syrup (likely added as a dough conditioner). I wonder if that was the case in the study? I think it's interesting that the sourdough had that effect...I wonder if that is due to the slower rising time. I know bread that's been left to rise overnite in the fridgey is so much better tasting. And now, maybe heatlthier too.

what about the differences between chantilly cream (made with powdered sugar) vs. regular granulated sugar. I personally like granulated sugar, which I add after the cream gets a little frothy, but I know other chefs prefer the powdered sugar version, which I think tastes pasty.

i think increasing the egg will give you a more cake like texture like a brownie...i am thinking about whoopie pies too...they are a cake-like cookie that might be a good ice cream sammy base

i think this is the right way to post images. anyhow, here's the pic of the final cake that my assistant pastry chef whipped up...i think it's more like a guggenheim cake since it's not that topsy turvy and looks rather refined in a way, much like the formal wedding it was for.

how about this for a compromise...make a cheesecake as usual, then make a blueberry compote. once the compote is cooled, put it on top of the cheesecake. then top with fresh blueberries. doesn't that sound cool?