RWood

Gum paste daisies for two birthday cakes. One for Claragene's 80th and Tillie's 90th :).

Mother's Day dessert-buttermilk panna cotta, vanilla roasted strawberries, honey almond praline and strawberry rhubarb sorbet

OK, the visual helps. I would form them and use cotton to hold the shape while it dries.

Are you making it with ruffles like this? Or where the ruffles point downward? If down, as you ruffle the strips and put them on, you can prop up parts of it with toothpicks. As it dries, it would give you more fluff I guess :). Then remove the toothpicks. Mixing in CMC or a mix of gum paste and fondant will make them stiffer.

Pies are another thing I don't do very much. My step father's 79th birthday is in a couple of weeks, but we're all going to Las Vegas that weekend, so I made him strawberry rhubarb pie instead of a cake a little early. He is crazy about rhubarb, and complains he never gets it.

Spring Dessert Sampler for a chef group that came in for a luncheon. Rustic almond cake, roasted strawberries, olive oil ice cream with brown butter crumble, chilled vanilla rhubarb soup with creme fraiche panna cotta, candied pistachios and strawberry tuile, strawberry, white chocolate and rose water macaron and strawberry basil pate de fruit.

Two cakes this past weekend. I wasn't that crazy about the bling-y one, but most people have seemed to like it. And the other, I don't quiet get why a banana slug would be a school mascot :). But, that's UC Santa Cruz. The owner of the restaurant came to me on Wednesday and wanted this theme for a cake on Saturday. Suuuurrre, last minute, have no idea what to do. Aye!

Thanks so much Patrick. Just saw your post. You do some beautiful work with doughs that I wish I had more of an interest in doing more of myself. Your Nutella flower is beautiful (and Nutella and anything hazelnut is one of my weaknesses.) I'm more of a cake, chocolate and dessert girl. While I don't mind occasionally making something dough related at home, I couldn't stand it as a job. The last time I ventured into croissant dough, I made these orange hazelnut rolls. One of my favorites :). And I thought my dough layers were pretty good.

I didn't go traditional Easter, but this is the special for this weekend: Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake. Brownie base, chocolate cremeaux, peanut butter mousse and salted peanut brittle.

I know! Our wedding coordinator had never heard of it either. So, I took her my DVD :). I loved this list of titles the bride sent for this cake.

Medieval theme book wedding cake.

That time of year for me to make my birthday cake :). I decided to just use it to try something new or experiment. So, BB-8. That little bugger has way too much detail on him. I had too much to do this past week so he didn't get everything. But, it was fun and now I know what to do differently if there's a next time. The cake is chocolate marbled raspberry with sour cream raspberry ganache.

Yeesh, I'm beginning to hate holidays from working in a restaurant.Two wedding cakes, extra production, Valentine's special, and we'll probably do 1800 covers from Friday-Sunday with extended hours. Anyway :), here's the special-Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake

I hadn't planned on chocolates for Valentine's, but my cousin asked me to make some to sell in her shop. So, I made a small selection. Tried a few different colors I had, and a different texture sheet. Not sure I like it as much as the other. And, I made an attempt at cashew brittle, similar to See's for people who know it. My mother and a good friend have been asking for me to try it. Basically toffee with cashews, white chocolate and coconut.

It's done with a texture sheet and cocoa butter. I just spread it on, then when it's set, scrape the excess off, then take a paper towel and buff away what's not in the pattern.

Holiday chocolates this year. It's always easiest just to feed people :). But, still wears me out with working in a restaurant and then coming home to do these. Starting at the top dome: Coconut Creme (really fast buttercream coconut filling, mainly for my mother ) Red Wine (butter ganache with Nocking Point Wicked Aim Cabernet-still gotta work on the wine thing, hard to get the wine to show through enough) Spiced Orange Tea (white ganache with orange spice tea, orange oil and extra cloves) Peppermint (white ganache with crushed peppermint) Passion Fruit (white ganache with passion fruit, orange zest and PF liqueur) Absinthe (dark ganache with Pacifique Absinthe) Black Raspberry (dark ganache with black raspberry purée, very yummy) Peanut Butter with ground honey roasted peanuts Mexican Coffee (milk and dark chocolate ganache steeped with Verve espresso, vanilla bean, cinnamon sticks and Kahlua) Honey Vanilla Caramels in the middle, one with Maldon flakes and one with smoked Maldon.

I've been asked by a friend to make him a Thor's hammer cake for his birthday for a while now. I finally made myself make the time this year. He's big in the cosplay world, and Thor is the character he's known for. He was thrilled. I'm just glad I was able to pull it off . The hammer and base are chocolate cake with raspberry ganache, and the handle is Rice Krispie treats.

Thanks, it was a fun cake to make. I just kinda winged it on the design. I dug out all the smallest cutters I had and just went with that. The board is nothing unusual. It's a foam core board that I covered in black fondant. The white cut outs are the same as the black ones on the skull. Some odd little cutter that I found at Sugar Art Studio. Called Nova. Supposed to be able to use it in a multitude of shapes and directions. The board was supposed to have a ribbon to cover the white part, but that and not removing the other cake from the cardboard are what happens when someone else sets up things.

Thanks! I'm gonna get a couple of pounds and give it a shot.

Thanks, I did find that page. Their prices and amounts were way more than I need. I did find this from Swiss Chalet:http://www.scff.com/catalog/product/view/id/215/ May give it a try.

Sugar free. I did a little more digging, and I found the Valrhona, but it was a bulk order, and 6 week lead time. So, they must not produce it like the regular. And, most of the info about it is a few years old. I have found one by Felchlin, 62%. Says it sugar free, but doesn't say what the sweetener is. They also have a milk chocolate. Both between $13-15 a lb.

Has anyone found a good sugar free chocolate to use for molding? I have seen one from Valrhona, but that's been a while back, and haven't had any luck finding anyrthing recently. I have a few friends that are diabetic, and have asked me several times about making sugar free. I plan on giving chocolates this year, and was going to see if I could make them some as well. Thanks!

Two cakes for a wedding reception/Halloween party combo. The skull was used as the groom's cake, and the tiered cake is covered in wafer paper printed with an image similar to their invitations. Cake lace spider webs and fondant branches.

Got in a 25# case of Seckels this week. I just love them, so cute. This is an almond cake, with the pear poached in Zinfandel, orange, star anise, cardamom and vanilla. Serving it with mascarpone ice cream and the reduced poaching liquid. Very fall/wintery favors.

Oban is 100%, unsweetened. Can't say if it's the same as the bar, I've never tried them, but I wouldn't think it would be that different.