Baskets By Expressions

We have decided to move our chocolate shop from our 2,000 sq. ft. store to a 3,000 sq. ft. store. This move is allowing us to add a dessert cafe to our shop. Our store is kosher so we are only adding a limited amount of crepes as all ingredients and toppings will need to be kosher. Any good recipie or book you can recommend? Thank you all! Cathy

I would love to know if there's a way of shipping cupcakes without ruining the frosting. shipping companies throw the boxes off the trucks and I think that anything with frosting will not arrive in good condition for that reason. No matter what kind of packaging you invest in, cupcakes don't ship well. One company that I know actually had no choice but to include a bag of frosting with their plain cupcakes and the product was then finished at the destination by customers. Eventually it didn't work out for either one and the deal was called off. Cathy

We do these in my shop. We purchased a cannon printer and ordered edible ink for them (you can purchase a system from Kopycake or Pfeil & Holing which comes with everything). What I was able to do was to get the printer from a regular retailer and purchase the edible inks separately. You also need to get rice sheets and that's what you use to print anything on chocolate. I'm not by my desk right now so I can't give you the names of the companies that I ordered the things from, but will post later.

The caramel that we usually use for dipping apples is from Gold Metal and it comes in #10 cans which we place in a caramel apple dipper filled with water (that's how the caramel softens) this caramel is slightly thicker than Peters or Merckens. We usually leave the opening on top (where the stick is inserted) clear of both caramel and chocolate. We have tried different ways of cleaning the apples. We have bathed them in hot water and we have bathed them in hot water with a little bit of white vinegar in there and have noticed that most of the wax does come off. When we dip the apples, we have either just left the alone once dipped, and sometimes we have used our hands to firmly press the caramel to the apples. If the apples are to be sold dipped only in caramel, I just leave them alone once dipped as I like the shine on them. Once cooled, we have dipped them in a variety of different kinds of chocolates and toppings. Once we wrap them, we do leave the top of the cello loose so that the gasses could escape. It's weird how some apples will have a problem and some will not. The next batch of apples that I will dip I will let them cool overnight before dipping in chocolate. Curious to see if it will make a difference. The part that I find weird about making these apples is that some will have problems and some will not. I was also told that the temperature of the apples will affect the outcome. So, I will use room temperature apples next time and see what difference I see in the end. I will be making apples again next Tues. and will keep all of you updated. Moving on to another question, do any of you make candied apples (you know, the red ones)? No matter what we try, we have bad luck with them. We melt the mixture and bring it to hard crack stage, dip the apples and they look great. However, the next day we start to notice that the candy will start to soften and peel away from the apples. We noticed this even more in apples that we have celloed rather than apples that we have left open. The open ones will last a little longer before that candy starts to slice off. Yet, the supermarkets can keep them on their shelves for at least 2 weeks and nothing happens to them. Again, we have a candy apple cooker and use a product from gold medal to make them. I still think that these problems have to do with the apples giving off gases. For those of you who have made candied apples, what process do you use and how long do they last before having the candy melt off of them. BTW, with the extra candy mixture that we have, we just dump it on a metal tray and for some reason, that one will stay hard like a candy for weeks. so, what gives? Beth, try the caramel from Merckens, it is a little thicker than Peter's and is pretty good, too. We use either one when we make our pretzel pizzas. Chocoera, I usually do like to leave the top part of the apples exposed. I notice that were the stick goes in, it will have liquid coming out of it, so I like to keep is open. The bride apples that we made were dipped in Merckens white compound so, I'm not quite sure if tempered chocolate is the problem. I'm going to experiment with the next batch of apples that I will make and record problems with each different method. Only that way i can satisfy my curiosity as to why some of these problems occur. I will keep everyone updated, and if someone who makes apples has a technique that works, please share. Cathy

Thank you for answering. This problem happens all the time. We use tempered chocolate, since we make some of our own confections, it is the only chocolate that we use (callebaut is what we use) in our commercial temperers. We have tried to keep the top part of the apple uncovered by both the caramel and chocolate and it hasn't been so bad. for this order we decided to dip them completely since we were making bride and groom apples and certainly the green on top was not looking good. I think that the issue is that gases coming out of the top of the apple is causing this. I've seen Mrs. Prindables apples stay for 2 weeks and not have this issue. Then again, I doubt that many of the apple companies out there are using real chocolate and are using compound. Sebastian, I will call Peters and see what they can tell me. Also, when we make candied apples, the coating seems to melt off the very next day. For those of you who make these, is there a way to clean the apples and how can the apples last longer? Thanks to all who have replied. Cathy

In my shop we have started to make caramel apples dipped in chocolate. Here's my problem, where the sticks are pushed in, within a day or two, caramel starts to ooze out. We tried to keep the top part of the apple where the stick goes in free of caramel, but we still see that the bottom of the apple will get air bubbles. Can someone please help me with this? We just had an order for 120 groom apples and 120 bride apples and are terrified that they will start to ooze out of the top. For those of you who have made caramel apples dipped in chocolate, can you enlighten me as to how you do them? We purchased a caramel dipper which melts the caramel that we buy in cans. We have also used Peters and Merckens caramel blocks and it seems to be a little softer than the canned ones that we buy for the melters. This causes other problems, as once the apples are celloed, the caramel seems to run of the apples. I know that I'm asking this question in the right place. Cathy