lilthorner

I've only made the rolls one time previously. (Thanksgiving) it calls for the first rise in the bowl, punch down, form into balls and then place in a buttered cake pan (9x13) then rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.. if I made rolls at school (diff recipe) I believe I rise, punch down form, and freeze or form and then proof. the oven things makes lots of sense.. I will most likely do it the regular way, or the heating pad..

thank you Lisa, it does happen after shaping.. I meant to ask my instructor before we left for break, but plum forgot! LOL

I am about to make a roll recipe that I adore.. It is a "home cook" recipe.. it calls for 2 rises, the second right before baking.. is this the proofing time that would be if I was in the kitchen? I have figured out how to make my oven like a proof box, so I would prefer to do that, if that is the point of the second rise.. Thanks in advance

beautiful cakes Chef annie... seems practice is my operable word these days!

I don't make pumpkin pie, but i do make sweet potato. I personally wouldn't want to deliver my pies a week early, although if it was absolutely necessary, I would give explicit instructions to refrigerate or freeze) (but we know how well people follow directions right?) When I make my pie, I can taste a difference in the "freshness" after a few days-if it lasts that long- even after I have friged. Of course, the pie isn't "bad" per se, but not up to my standards.. In regards to giving the crust and the filling to have the customer bake, the reason that people order "home style" cakes and pies is either becasue they can't or don't want to take the time, so they are purchasing from me. I wouldn't ask them to prepare the product.

thank you guys! I thought I had this set for notification.. Jeanne, I will search for the topic.. I usually search (almost too extensively and get confused before posting.. Most times I find what I am looking for.

I want to make a champagne cake reminiscent of a bakery that used to be in my area (and still served by some bakers that are still open). the cake is vanilla chiffon, the filling is like 2/3 custard folded into 1/3 whipped cream with sherry added (this info is from and OLD newspaper article from the bakery that is now closed. my first attempt is using this pastry cream recipe: 24oz milk 8 oz sugar --scalded together (with a vanilla bean) 2.5oz cornstarch 8oz milk 3 eggs --combined cooked the normal pc way LOL then stir in 4 oz butter this is the recipe my chef gave me in school (well 1/2x the recipe) when I make it and cool the pastry cream it is nice and creamy (kinda thick though but tasty) so when I whip the cream 1 times it was rather lumpy and the next time I warmed the pastry cream a bit and then the whipped cream made it look curdled. once I put it in the cake and served it, it was ok, but I would prefer the creamy texture that I can get at the bakery (which is prolly pc in a sleeve with whipped cream folded into it) so should I cut the cornstarch to make the cream thinner, make a bavarian with anglaise and gelatin, use cream instead of milk for the pastry cream (would that make it thicker or thinner?) HELP!

thank you much!!! I will color the clay for the figure, but I made a couple of pieces that need to be black so I was just going to airbrush them..

I FINALLY made some good modeling chocolate (using Annie's recipe from eons ago!) the problem is, I dont really know how to work with it..specifically, I am trying to find out if I can airbrush it or will it get icky.. also when I roll it out, should I use cornstarch or 10x.. Lastly, when using it for figures, does it get hard enough or do I need some type of support? I am gonna be making dora, but just as a topper, not huge. its supposed to be 75 degrees tomorrow (when I need the cake to be done) so I am thinking it will be cool enough. thanks in advance!

wow those pics make we want to go bake that cake.. everytime I make the buttermilk cake, I look down and say I MUST make that one day soon, but then I don't. I'm trying to narrow down the flavors that I make on a regular.. I have a hard time remembering what I made for people LOL

I make a cake from the cake bible quite often. the sour cream butter cake.. the only time I make it the same amount as in the book is if I need a dozen cupcakes.. I double it for 2 9 inchers, triple it and I have 4x it for my kitchenaid 5q mixer.. I have 3x and 4x written in the book next to the original, and I have it written that 4.5x fits in a 12x18. I never adjust the leavening in the recipe, it calls for soda and powder.. I read the formula before but unfortunately it was right when I needed to be baking LOL so I scrapped that math and just doubled..

I make the buttermilk cake quite often.. my chef at school 1st had us use it as a base for cranberry muffins.. they were delish!

Im not in business, but I used to work at an upscale bakery local to me (of course) they have house cakes (their reg. cakes with their regular icing finishes that have been deemed regular for that flavor.. they will write on it, in piping chocolate. anything outside of that, like Brian said is custom and needs to be preordered. in addition, if I'm not mistaken, on a special order cake, there is a charge to tint the icing. initially i was like wow, everything is extra if its 'custom" but more and more I began to understand. especially when there is time and extra product involved

thank you alanamoana! that really helped me also.. the only mags available at school (community college-maybe thats the diff.?) is the ACF mag, but my chef is really good at letting me look at his books, suggesting which ones may be good only for technique which may be for recipes, etc.. I go on amazon and looked for used copies most of the time once I find something that may interest me..

I didn't even realize that I had gotten some replies.. I'm not sure what no dormant geniuses means. I mean i know what dormant is and i know what genius is, so maybe I'm just being a lil slow. I usually buy any book that interests me also, unless I can check it out from the library. I guess the question was like when do I find out who the tried and true (as much as can be) pastry chefs are. I mean awhile ago, somebody could have said Pierre H to me and I would have thought Hermes like scarves. so Ill just keep doing what I been doing. looking and searching! thanks for the responses

i was looking for a recipe to adapt for caramel mousse and I saw a post that I believe was made by wendy on another board regarding Michel Roux's book Finest Desserts... I have never heard of him.. i love searching eg boards and looking for advise from the "experts" ( I am a pastry student), but do I just keep searching for the tried and true folks? or when do I learn that part?

thank you stephanie.. I am still going back and forth on this, mainly becasue I just want to bake. I hate thinking about pricing, also I want to do it "right" so I don't have to do it again, except to reevaluate my pricing when eggs go up again. Oh wait, that will be tomorrow huh?

thank you annie! i rather enjoyed your drawings..

Pam, I am thinking mainly mini desserts, not cakes that I would have to cut.. unless it is in bars. like a cheesecake or lemon bar or something

on a few occasions, I have made desserts for a caterer and she is asking me to do it again.. "a dessert bar for 150" is what she is asking for. the last times, I made sweet potato tart, pecan tarts, lemon tarts (like chess pie, not meringue), one time I made cupcakes and tarts.. I have a couple of things I am dealing with here. Those other times I charged by the item and I think that she really didn't get enough pieces per person, but thats not really my problem LOL. this time she is just asking for buffet for x amount of people, I will most likely suggest 2.5-3 pieces per person total. my dilemma is if I should continue to charge her by the piece or if I should have a listing like these desserts are xx. per 100 or per 50 OR (another twist) if I say something like x amount per person gets you 3 items off this list or 2 off that one, etc.. I am not really sure, but I can about guarantee that she marks up from what I charge her, although she does let it be known that she has a someone she works with to bake and will give my information if asked. I'm trying to get myself the best price (wholesale I suppose) but not have to rethink this every time she asks me. so I am asking the experts.

when I half a recipe that uses an odd number of eggs I weigh and use half I dont know why it didnt dawn on me to do that anyway.. so I made a test batch of chiffon cupcakes and it made umm 12 lol.. (the recipe is from school and I made 1/8 times the recipe.. guess I gotta break it down more next time..

thanks guys.. I am really wanting to try a cake recipe, I have successfully halved a recipe from a cookbook (not commercial quantity) but had never done more than that. I wont do it if it only contains like 1 egg or somethign ( i will go ahead and do the whole batch..

forgive me if there is a thread.. I am getting better at searching though.. when testing out a recipe (cake, filling sauce custard etc, but mainly cake) would/do you scale the recipe to make a smaller batch? I have a devils food cake recipe scaled to 1/16 because the recipe was given to me by my instructor and made a lot of cake.. 1/4 was still to big for my kitchen aid LOL

Tell your brain to go watch a movie or something and follow your instincts... coffee mousse, sans chocolate, is tasty. Infuse your cream with some good coffee beans and go to it. ← thanks, I wish I could tell my brain to go somewhere, unfortunately at school all I have made is chocolate mousse so I wouldn't even know where to begin to make one without chocolate except that I know the ingredients for mousse

thank you for the responses! I didn't even want to do chocolate mousse, just coffee but I couldn't wrap my brain around it without chocolate.