Wendy DeBord

Your correct, place the foil over the top of the pan to sort of steam it and keep the heat in (the cake won't be at the top of the pan, so it won't stick). I place a baking sheet on top of mine since I use a convection oven, otherwise foil does blow around alot.

Well, I've cut out a heart stencil sheet, a arrow stencil sheet and bought a couple heart shaped molds...........but I still haven't started to think about what I'm actually making. I promise to post further on this topic when I get my act together. In the mean time, where is everyone else? What is everyone making. Oh, and don't forget to do a site search on the topic. I recall talking with Brian Fishman last year about what he was making.

Yes, Michael started out on the hot side of the kitchen. I'd bet big money that he's damn good with savory too! After all he works very closely with his chefs and he's always abreast of whats happening. I also sort of wondered how they picked the chefs..........but I don't really care too much, it is entertainment only. I'll look to other culinary competitions learn who's the best in the States. If you think about it, to have a good show it's got to be darn helpful to have experienced tv chefs who can cook, talk, look in the right camera and entertain at the same time. I'll be watching..............go Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you got that right. You can make your components in advance and then assemble on another date. The yield on his recipes do vary. Most make 2 cakes..........but more like 8" rounds. Some of his recipes are based on full sheet pans and not individual rounds. I've made a fair amount from his professional books and this one by Dorie Greenspan. You can ask specific questions and we should be able to help you.

Your cake should not have fallen out of the pan. The only way it would is if you greased your pan. Did you?

Welcome to The eGullet Society of Arts and Letters plk! Are you and your fiance' both professional chefs? Gotta tell you the truth from my experience. I can't begin to help you with your mini cakes unless you survive the rest of my post and come back for more. I used to co-own a catering business with my parents during the time I got married. It was only natural we/I'd cater my wedding.............we had the best food around and it was a group of foodies that would be at our wedding. We only had 50 people too. I rented a really funky/cool house that was totally equiped and I hired staff (the remaining employees that weren't invited guests). The week of my wedding, my Mom got bogged down with dress problems. She was out shopping instead of prepping for my wedding. My parents decided to have a HUGE fight that week to add to the tension. So the day of my wedding my florist doesn't show up. I called them and they've lost my order all together. Oh well, they bring out what they had- I got twice the amount of flowers I had ordered.....that worked to my benefit..........but it was last minute stress and work. My Mother arrives with our B level waitstaff to set up the food. NOTHING goes right. The minute my Dad arrives my Mother is now hugely distracted and the waitstaff I do have has no idea how to set up and prepare. Long story.........I'll cut it shorter. I wound up being in the kitchen and working my wedding. It really was horrible. As I look back I didn't relax and take my time to enjoy the day and my guests at all!!!!!! I have no fond memories of my wedding. My spouse was mad because my parents were fighting , my Mom didn't have things organized and I wasn't around. My sous chef wound up helping in the kitchen too, ignoring their date completely. The staff I hired and paid were totally worthless. I wound up feeling mad at them for the rest of their employment. So my advice to you and anyone ever thinking about doing this: Don't even dream of doing your own wedding with-out good PROFESSIONAL staff! Friends don't count, they become guests and they don't do the dirty work. When everyone goes home it's you and your new hubby picking up everything..........forget that sexy honeymoon night.........you'll be too tired. Don't have any expectations. You must be people who like flying by the seat of your pants and don't care if things are all screwed up. Best to do sort of the b.b.q. type meal. So if worse comes to worse everything is out and your guest can literally help themselves. Be prepared you will NOT dance and socialize very much. Your guests will feel slighted. You'll be too distracted taking care of details to actually have fun. I'm sorry, I just want you to know the reality. If this is what you want, we will do our best to guide you through it.

Plunk, you can make everyone of Herme's recipes at home, equipment wise. Yes, there are a few ingredients that are hard to come across, but we can help you make pretty good subsitutions here. Don't get hung up on his glazes, I don't use glazes 99% of the time and nothing will be lost with-out it. We can also help you break down his procedures so you don't have to complete a whole cake at one time. You can make them over many days and weeks.

I own this book also. I've had it for a couple years now and I've yet to make anything from it. I find the way he just puts down recipes with-out making whole dessert compositions a failure. Since I already have these basic recipes I wish he had drawn them more together as Claudias book does. As mentioned there's very little baking. I do like how he teaches a master recipe and then explains how to manipulate it into many other flavors. I've not closed my mind to this book..........I just haven't been sparked by it either. I would love to know what specific recipes you all have made from this book and what your specific reviews of each are.

I've been out of the art business for too long cause I can't recall the name of the mat cutter that professionals use (I never owned that one it cost too much. it's a wall mounted multi function piece of equipment). I'm pretty sure the home improvement stores all own the same cutter, but it's doubtful they bought all the attachments. Anyway, they have attachments for cutting out circles and ovals in mat boards, glass and plexiglass. So perhaps some phone calls to your local frame shop could yeild a source. They like to cut one hole per item but doing multiple holes in one sheet of anything is very do-able....just takes more calulations. I cut my own glass and cutting plexi can't be too far from that. I can't think of what they call that thing we used to use in math class to draw perfect circles..........is it a compus? Anyway they have those for cutting glasss so they probably have them for cutting plexi. A call to your local stain glass shop might he another avenue.

But store purchased egg white aren't the same. They don't consistantly whip up.

You know, now that you've written that, your absolutely right! I've heard the same thing............never added it up in my head.

Welcome to eG Gary!!

My experience so far has been that chocolate flourless cakes with the whites whipped seperate are different then ones using the eggs whole. The whites do lighten the ingredients more then just whipped whole eggs. But if your recipe is really dense- like just chocolate, butter and egg......whipped whites won't turn it into a more cake like cake. It will still be dense and fudgie. Sooooooooo (now that I look back at your question) the answer would be: yes. Sorry

I hope your not offended? I know it's confusing because every web site seems to have their own policies. So long as you don't post the recipes instructions, the actual recipe part (quantities and ingredients) won't violate copyrights.

My fall back recipe is always banana cream pie, it's just expected by my friends and family.

NEVER! We all enjoying talking about all aspects of the pastry arts, that's why we are here.....if you stop, we'd all will be bored.

I find myself questioning what the perfect flourless chocolate cakes texture should be. I personally like dense overly rich items (but it is hard to eat more then a couple bites), I see customers and other chefs that don't. I've made flourless c. cakes that ranged from dense moist cakes that are fudge like, to cakes with some actual crumb. What texture do you think is ideal for this? If you order it out, what are you expecting?

Oh, thanks Niobe. They do have some nice ones. Those will work for me to airbrush cocoa butter and dust my plates with cocoa. I still need thicker ones for tuiles and poured sugar.

Do you really pit your own fresh cherries for multiple pies? I sure as heck don't, I could never charge the money it would take to recoup that cost. You can buy them frozen from Michigan and WI orchards all year round. For a fruit pie and cobblers IQF fruits are as good as using fresh and in a lot of cases better. I live in the Midwest. At no time of year can I go to my local market and buy good tasting peaches, plums and dozens of other items. They come in so under ripe and they never ripen with any flavor, they just ripen into rot. We have no season for many items. I believe with today's global economy that it's good to buy produce from other parts of the world when it isn't available locally. I can't see anything wrong with it. I also think it's good to support our local orchards in March by buying their frozen products. If you want real quality and taste grow your own produce and fruits. You can beat the your local orchards and farm stands, I have. If your going to be a "gourmet" then go all the way. You can buy local in season produce that stinks. I've had years where the weather made my apples gross, but since they're local and organic should I use them? Is that better then using IQF apples that taste great? I don't think so. It's too late, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I can understand businesses and people that have standards, that's great, I do too!!! But make sure you've actually tasted the stuff you've pooh poohed, some of it is surprisingly good. *note, I'm not advocating canned fruits. Don't you dare bad talk my imported groites...........true.

I finally found a great stencil material this past weekend. It's acetate sheets to line kitchen cabinets, sold at The Container Store. You can get a 18" x 48" sheet for aprox. $10.00......and a sheet pan is 18" x 24" so for 5 dollars a piece it's a steal (well minus your time to cut the shapes out). It comes wrapped in blue plastic to protect it, so I used a marker to trase out my images (in mass). I'm able to use a small pair of sissors to cut it........the exacto knive takes 2 strong passes to cut it. It should last along time, but it's not heat proof. But thats o.k. I need some stencils for tuiles that I don't see using that large of an image for poured sugar garnishes. I also ordered some neoprene sheets but it's taking for ever to arrive from Rubber Chef (plus they charged me $18.00 for shipping plus $4.00 for handling, too darn much I think!).

Hey, I wanted to share this. I found individual sized silicone heart shaped molds this weekend at Crate and Barrel for like $6.00 a piece. Theres only 6 hearts to a mold, but it's still cheaper then demarle and other similar brands.

I figured out today where I saw similar molds to those plexiglass ones....Martha Stewart uses something just like that to hold pastrys on the buffet. She sets cone shaped items in it-------------then you don't need the bottom plate to have cut out circles too. You can buy plexiglass and they'll cut it for you at Home Depot.........maybe they will cut circles too....I think they do? You get plexiglass dowels, cut it to length and glue them between your two panels. Sound good?

AHHHHHHHHHHH, I've wanted to try that and keep forgetting. Thanks for mentioning it. When you pour the molton sugar over the brulee it's tricky because it's very easy to get too thick of a layer. It would however work quite well if you needed to torch them off a couple hours in advance and hold them in the cooler.

I also use the Oblivion Torte. It appears to me that the River Cafe Chocolate Nemesis is exactly the same method (I don't have the recipes infront of me to compare the weights), I think your getting pretty similar results. They both bake in water baths too, but the RLB recipe only bakes for 15 minutes total where as the RCCN bakes for an hour. Hum........anyone tasted both of them?

I love it, how funny! JGM, don't ever work in a professional kitchen it will put you in the insane asylum. You can't begin to realize how we struggle finding equipment and parts from multiple dish washers (people, not machines). Every now and then someone goes nuts screaming about something thats missing, it's amazing how worked up it can get you.