chocoera

I use his "sweetened condensed milk" formula because it has the least amount of water to start and seems to be the quickest to cook. In the past, I've made a "ginger caramel" by grating fresh ginger on my food processor and using the resulting "juice" in place of the water called for in the formula. This gave the caramels a nice spicy flavor. I imagine you could add pumpkin puree as well. My suggestion would be to "cook" the pumpkin and the spices together in a small pan before using them with the caramel. This will take some of the starch out of the puree and develop the combined flavors. Give it a go! i'll give it a try, thanks steve i was worried since raspberry puree is so "wet" lots of liquid instead of a pack solid like pumpkin...i'll write out how it goes, hope to get it done by next week

this may have been covered all ready, but you know his caramel recipe with the evaporated milk? do you think you could use the raspberry recipe and do a straight substitute with pumpkin puree? i know rasp is a bit more liquid than pumpkin but how do you think that'd work? and do a bit of cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg...ginger? or maybe enrobe in white choc with crystalized ginger on top? thoughts?

aww, thanks guys and robert, iowa is not tooooooo far from virgina :

a few things i did a couple weeks ago....mini lemon tartlette with italian meringue, a throwback to pierre herme's "sweet pleasure" dessert, raspberry cloud which is a vanilla sponge with raspberry mousse, raspberry compote and creme chantilly with white choc cage and a berry mint glace' which is chocolate sponge, chocolate mint mousse with raspberry cream core covered in our own richard's mirror glaze thanks richard!!

those are gorgeous kerry! inspirational mmmmmmmmmm

oh crap, wish i could come not enough notice to get things put together here...any chance you'll take some of the advanced popular topics and integrate into choc conference 2011? (like last yr during production we had some beginner molding and people who were more comfortable mold in a different kitchen?)

well....lebowitz has been my go-to "uh-oh" guy with this company....i turned down the cupcake order due to the questions you all raised here, thanks for saving my a** it would have been over my head, especially when i learned we were talking like hundreds of thousands of cupcakes... as for shipping, i found a solution for smudged frosting from some experimentation....bake and frost cupcakes (used american *sigh* not my favorite), freeze them, and then pack in those containers that hold 12 individual cupcakes in one large container. but before closing the lid (which is indented for frosting) put a lolli stick in each cupcake which is the exact height of the lid when closed. so if tipped upside down (which of course happens with postal people) the stick keeps the cupcake grounded and not sliding into the lid portion (and of course ship with ice and what not) well, then the company called back and was like "hey" wanna do 300,000 truffles in 4 weeks? i for one am not a large establishment and don't even own a selmi/enrober/lg tempering unit etc (which is high on my "i want i want i want" list) so i contacted a friend of steve's who graciously said they'd help me out with this situation and i got shipping coordinated with a friend who works for a private freight company and then....nothing. they canceled in favor of doing cookies. but they were so impressed with our coordination for the chocolate order, they offered us to do a bid on the cookie order...but wait, its not 300,000, its 900,000!!! ugggg so, called lebowitz again to brainstorm and he found a pastry friend who was a culinary instructor and long story short, timelines got moved, things fell through and i decided since it was their company and my company's rep on the line, it'd be more responsible to bow out graciously. (though i still sent chocolate and cookie samples and a very nice letter). well, they were disappointed, (but had back ups of course) but they were so impressed with the choice i made, (trying to not be selfish, but instead look out for their better welfare) that they are going to keep sending my biz opps, and hopefully i can achieve one and grow into this type of position.....(so keep tuned, i may be here for help and opinions again!) btw- they LOVED all the cookies and chocolates, their favorites thus far :0)

huh? acid?

these are awesome! tarko- could your work get any more shiney?! do you polish with a microfiber or what's your secret? and richard-your desserts are heaven, if i could control what i dream about, it would be alllllll your desserts allllll the time! to the lovely cupcake bakers, they both look super fun, makes me kinda hungry and candadianbakin'- that espresso bit of lushiness is picture perfect keep up the great work you guys!

elsieD......we ate them :0) and oooooooooooooh was it good! everyone has such a different flair and palate and eyes for things others don't see...its amazing what happens when you get everyone together, its probably one of my favorite weekends of the yr

those sound great! and no, they are not obvious tips to me are those boiron recipes on their web site?

hey all, i have seen people with (and tasted) some mighty fine pate de fruit. i've tried my hand at it once, and failed...horribly. not just failed, but wow, you really really suck, kind of failed. so i've been much to scared to try again. but after eating yet another piece of wonderful pate i thought "hey, its been 3 yrs since i tried, maybe i should get back on the pate pony" does anyone have a tried and true recipe for pate de fruit or any tips, techniques, tutorials? the purees i have in the freezer now are: pear, mango, passion fruit, raspberry and lemon, though i could get my hands on strawberry in a jiffy if needed. any words of inspiration? really feeling adventurous and thought you guys would be the perfect ones to to explore the world of pate de fruit with *and yes, i can upload pics of a future failure, or success, if you'd like...if i get ballsy enough to do it*

that is very very helpful....just learning my way around quickbooks and all the terms get jumbled up in my head...i have an accountant on staff who is helping get everything organized and on paper/computer but i was just wondering people's opinions, like i know in a service industry, such as photography, there is not a lot of product or inventory needed, its mostly time getting paid for ie: a 4x6 to the average photographer is a couple dollars, but can easily charge $8-10 for one, but a photography package may be $3000 just for the time it takes to take photos and then edit, so you're seeing a larger margin than say a baker, who has to factor time, product packaging, and ingredients before a final product is seen for the customer.... as for the figures above, don't worry, just random numbers i threw out as they popped in my head...who knows, i could be making millions :0) *ha ha ha* just kidding, but don't worry, they were completely fictional, just trying to illustrate a story thanks for your help though, i will be continuing my pow-wow with my accountant, just wanted an opinion or two

Just a general question....and i know i'll get a wide range of answers, seeing how we are all in different businesses (pastry, vs cake vs restaurant vs cafe vs chocolate shop etc) but in a chocolate shop scenario, what kind of profit margin are you looking for? I'm in the middle of quickbooks and yes, its only my first year in a retail store vs when i was just an internet business (that had very little overhead), so i know numbers will change after we get through the "start up cost hump"but as a whole, from what you've experienced or read about or know from a friend, what kind of number do you shoot for when comparing your gross sales with your net income (40% 60% 75%?) and then theres the actual operating cost after that which will affect your actual take home pay....but when it comes to gross sales # which becomes smaller after the packaging cost and stuff in invetory, cost of ingredients that go into your product etc, what kind of margin are you looking for? (you gross $40,000, but after the stuff that is deducted for the actual making of your products, maybe you only have $24,000 left etc...should you be looking for a number more like $28 or $30,000? or something like $34000? or maybe you're doing ok if you only have $20,000?) thoughts?

all this seems pretty intense....i wonder if i can even handle it.....what would you guys do? and about what price do you think we'd sell cupcakes for? i mean, do you know an approx mark up that food companies look for? (ie: company A needs to make 40% on a food product so they need it to be X price so they can sell it for Y price)

will do....

hey all....i was asked to look into doing cupcakes for a chain of travel centers, all 260 of them....details are super scarce, they just asked if i'd be interested and we'd work on details later, as this is new for them too. and i'm assuming we'd start with 10% of their stores to see how they sell, but even so that would be over 1000 cupcakes with numbers only going up from there. that being said, and they are all over the country, how would you ship them? they want them decorated with fun sprinkles and piped frosting different flavors etc, but would you frost and freeze? could american and italian buttercream defrost well? or would you ship fresh? would you have to hire a private shipping co/trucker? (or they could hire them) i dont trust shipping cupcakes through ups or fed ex....but are there special containers you know of that could keep them from tipping over or smushing each other? i'm a little overwhelmed, and this may not even go anywhere, but i want to seem informed (ha ha ha) before approaching them. and for those in the restaurant biz, what is an acceptably profit margin for you if buying from a small shop (compared to sysco) so i know a good price point offer etc. thoughts? oh lordy.... :0)

alex and rwood- love the idea of a drink....mmmm mint? and cocktail recipes are awesome! hello 4th of july

wow, that looks amazing!!!!!!!!

hi guys! i just had a friend of mine from CA send me about 7 meyers lemons from his garden ( i live in IA so this is a big deal) :0) but i have absolutely no idea what to do with them...any thoughts on desserts or recipes for these? i would try anything from creams, to cakes, to component desserts to bars...you name, i'll do it....because these lemons are to lovely to waste! hope all is well in eG land

awesome blossom looks fabulous! hmmmmm 2011 conference there?

i'm so proud of steve and marmish...was just thinking about you! did you decide to sell? YOU SHOULD!!!!!!!!!!! love and kisses to the eG's

i'd be in

I'd be a little nervous posting full text to eGullet, since I don't know how copyright sensitive we are - but surely no harm can be done with an official Google Books Link Watch out for the Canadians. Soon you'll be a socialist! B-}= perfect, thanks pat :0) also, did a couple truffles at the shop today, the honey/thyme from steve's handout, and a lime/kirsch with a dried cherry in the mold. some interesting looks...but they liked them!

speaking of that awwwwwwwwwwwesome salted caramel ganache, um, is anyone allowed to post that recipe with credit to shotts of course? major craving...(hard to believe after only 24 hrs eh?) *darn it, hanging out with Canadians rubs off on you....eh?)