Wendy DeBord

I guess everyone sure is different. I think the Spanish dessert is a breakthrough in technique and knowledge but once you lift the inedible sugar off the plate it's a rather simple little dessert (well actually, I don't know what the exact dessert is, but it looks simple, watch it be something else new). I like South Korea's show piece and ones similar to it, where it's something formed by hand with-out the use of a mold............and it's not yet another pulled sugar flower. But who knows........

Thanks, the coffee blonde brownies sound pretty good to me, I'll have to make them in the future.

Congratulations, job well done! I bet the Bride and Groom were thrilled! When they all eat it, thats the best compliment of all.

Doing a good job torching the sugar does take practice and patience. If you apply the sugar too thick I think your more likely to burn it in a spot or two before it melts. It just takes too long for the sugar to melt all the way through and it burns the top. Instead, if you do 2 or 3 thin coats you'll get perfection.

Any chance you could post an example, I'm not totally sure I follow you.

Chiantiglace I've written similar responses before and luckily Steve Klc has been around to explain to us the realities about these shows. First, I think these people have the talent to make just about anything out of sugar and chocolate. But if I understand correctly they are indeed fitting with-in traditional show piece standards. To go outside of traditional design won't get you the win. So it's a traditional show and traditional work wins. If you search thru our files and look up past competitions you'll find Steves words (and a few other peoples) that will do a far better job explaining then I. It's worth the search.

When your happiest spending all your extra money on culinary items, from equipment to books and ingredients. When you go to the mall and the first place and your longest stop is in a kitchen store. When you visit the book store once a week and they don't have any books or magazines that you don't already own on the topic of baking. When you take a culinary book to read in the bathroom because you can't set it down and walk away for 2 minutes. When all your shoes are Danskos or Burki's that you wear to work.

You bake them and use them exactly like any other cake. You can make simple layer cakes with them or complex layered torte. The lightness and moisture of these cakes do make a great substitution for say a butter cake (which tends to be heavier) or a genoise (which tends to be drier with a denser crumb). You can bake them in tube pans, but you also can bake them in regular cake pans with-out a center heat core.

Here's the recipe I use, it's from Marlene Sorosky (I forget the book title right this moment). 325F oven using a water bath. 8 cups 1/2 & 1/2 2 c. sugar 28 yolks 8 tsp. vanilla I heat my sugar in my half and half, bring it up to a boil, turn off heat. Temper cream into eggs, strain, add vanilla and bake. Dani Mc, it's totally normal for the time given in a recipe to be way off from what time it takes for your oven. It's not about an old oven or a poorly calibrated oven..........personally I think theres alot of mis-prints or guesses offered up in recipes. It's always best and to your advantage to know the signs of when an item is done baking so the whole timing issue doesn't worry you.

Oh................totally auesome..........THANK-YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!! Your photos are fabulous..........I can sort of feel what it's like to be there, something I've never quite seen in a magazine covering this topic. I literally can't wait to hear all the details!!!!!

I'm sorry, I guess I missed the questions dirrected at me about the cake recipe. I'm glad you all jumped in with the answer. I believe it's baked at 350F. In the Spago book she uses thise recipe in a couple applications. I think it's when she makes a layer cake with it, she decreases the amount of oil (I think from 3/4 c. to 1/2 c.). Anyway the point is, the version with less oil is better, the one with more is just too much. So decrease the oil in that recipe. I use that recipe for all my chocolate cake rolls, it's wonderful. When I mentioned deflate or sinking in the middle, yeap it does. I've mentioned this before that I hate over baked cakes and if you bake this as a layer cake correctly it WILL sink inward when cool. I've never had those cake strips you bake with, so I don't know how that will work.

Thank-you, I'm glad you also see the reasoning behind it. We all gain!! Well if you trust your caterer (which you should) I'm sure it will be lovely! I'm glad to see your not taking on everything, your suppose to enjoy the event too.

I've tried using that immersion method, never got it to work for me. Once your eggs are set tight they won't do any further setting.....no matter how much I blend them I just get soup.

Actually, I'm delighted to read that they don't use those molds much at your work Neil. I started a thread before on them.........they just take SO D___ long to use, I hardly ever use mine. They also break!! I've seen what your talking about to hold the acetate strips.......I think in P A & D. I've been looking for something similar that I could use everytime I go into a home improvement store. Eventually I might ask our handiman to make some for me, it seems easy-ish! Besides I want to be able to serve items on my buffet in those too.

I have alot more then a home baker. I've definately got enough to open a small bakery. I store them interstacked on a metal rack in my basement. Although if I brought home all the stuff I have at work..........I'd need more racks. I also have clear plastic bins where I store my cookie cutters and small stuff. I've put similar themed cookie cutters in plastic bags with-in those bins so I can easily grab them. For x-mas stuff..........they have their own bin or two.

The simple facts are, not all creme brulee recipes work. I've tried more then dozens of them......seems like zillions.........and they don't all work. You've got to have enough yolks to thicken properly and theres alot of recipes that don't. My favorite brulee recipe is almost set before it's baked. By the time I put the hot cream into the yolks and get it upstairs to my oven the stuff is thick! It actually bakes in the reccomended time too. I can't tell you how many recipes take double or triple the time mentioned in the recipe. The depth of your container really does make a difference. If you've got too much depth compounded with a weak recipe it's a nightmare, they never set evenly. I've also (due to conditions in my kitchen) used my favorite recipe and then not gotten hot enough water in my water bath and had the whole center set-up and the exterior not. What I've been doing lately (and it's been a big hit) is I bake my brulee' in hotel pans, let them cool. Then I scoop my brulee' into thin crisp caramelized puff pastry cups. If your struggling alot, you can make chocolate brulees' and they almost always thicken considerably. So make a white chocolate brulee' and add what other extra flavoring you want, or don't. I'll come back and post my recipe later. Oh, I forgot to add............I got a couple complaints on my stovetop brulee'. I like it, but it's not as thick as customers seem to prefer..........so I'm back to baking mine.

I love chiffon cakes. The thing is- you don't grease the sides of your pans, whether it's a tube pan or a standard round cake pan. Let it cling to the walls of the pan for support. But, put parchment paper on the bottom so it doesn't stick there. Let it completely cool in the pan, then cut it out around the sides. I don't invert my finished chiffon cakes when I bake them in rounds. Honestly, they do cave in and I should invert them. When I cut it into layers it's not an issue.........but I don't want to suggest that you break the rules too. It's not ideal. Have you tried the chocolate chiffon cake in "Spago Chocolate" yet? It's a fabulous recipe.

I just wanted to bump this thread up and see if we can get some answers for LNorman.

Happy 40th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great work as always Annie.

Quick note: We'd like people to post recipes in the thread to share with everyone, if that's possible or better yet, provide a link. Thanks. I don't want to throw you a curve ball, but I would like to suggest to you how a thoughtful presentation can really put the "wow" into your party. There's many inexpensive ways to enhance your sweet table/dessert bar. Since you sound like an experienced baker I think you might enjoy that as another challenge. I like to take on a theme of some sorts. The theme could be your use of color (Martha Stewarts work has great examples of this), use of risers or pillars, fabrics draped over the table, use of similar serving pieces that tie the presentation together or unusual serving pieces (items like baskets or large vases). For example Mother's day, I might make everything shaped like purses or everything is shaped like a present and served from a present looking tray. A theme can be more obvious, like a country theme or a Mexican theme etc... . Martha's done buffets where every food is one color (like white or pink). Injecting a style or a theme really adds the nicest finishing touch to a buffet. Then when I begin choosing what I'm making I begin to visualize how I want the table to look. Then I pick which items will be fit that appearance or how I can modify the items look to fit my style. That's how I choose what I'm going to make and it forces me to make new items and rethink familiar items. Anyway, back to your list of questions: Yes, Mexican wedding cakes, Russian tea cakes, pecan sandies, snowballs are all the same......sand like cookie with chopped nuts, rolled in xxxsugar while hot. Then freshen with xxxsugar last minute. You originally said you wanted to do mini pastries or items in small pieces. I think adding a cake takes you off course. If you stay with mini's, bar cookies, cookies you won't need to provide a fork..........almost don't need a plate either, a napkin would do. Caramel Cheesecake- don't mix the caramel into the cheesecake batter. Instead make it a layer over the crust, then pour over the cheese batter and bake. Swirled it's likely to crack, and if you go lighter on the caramel so it won't crack you'll probably loose the flavor. Or totally mix the caramel into the batter or use brown sugar instead of white in your batter. I ditto the Payard apricot tea cakes, it's excellent. I make them often. Biscotti, depends upon your crowd. I've served them to some groups that won't even try them. Chocolate fountains..........those things are darn expensive to rent. My chef did once when I wasn't there............people really didn't eat a lot of it. Perhaps with children it would be more successful. You can add mint extract to any chocolate recipe to make it chocolate mint. Pretzels, buy them and white chocolate coating, assorted toppings mini m & m's, sprinkles/jimmies, chopped up heath bars or any candy bar. You can dip them in Kraft caramels let them cool (or drizzle the caramel over them), then dip them in melted white chocolate coating before the coating sets up sprinkle on various toppings like the chopped toffee.

I agree with Artisanbaker. The freshness and moisture content are far more important to me then the salt content. I've baked with both salted and non, I've never seen a difference or tasted an objectional salt flavor. I like extra salt in alot of my baked items. I think it's under used in the pastry kitchen.

Thanks! I am familar with those. I knock those off the wall when I sneeze.

Oh boy, this can be a loaded topic.......... I struggle with balancing my spouses needs and my job needs everyday. He doesn't understand the fact that I love my job so much and I'm willing to do it 24/7. In fact because I'm usually doing something baking related off work like being here or reading pastry books, that he teases me. He complains that I'd still go to work and work too long of a day even if they weren't paying me..........unfortunately he's right (but lets keep that a secret). I know that he can't understand the concept of staying until everything is done. How about those days where everything goes wrong and you have to remake something or have last minute work piled on you? Even though he doesn't punch a time clock either.....he thinks you can put away your work until tomarrow or that someone else should take care of it when I'm not there. And HOLIDAYS.........oh I better not go there! It's damn hard to balance a crazy obsessive career like this with a family. God forbid being an owner, I couldn't do it. Everyone I know that works in a kitchen struggles with the hours and family life.

I use them in several mini pastry applications. I use them in Payards almond paste petite fours in place of the pineapple he reccomends. I top any flavor mousse with them, in a tart or chocolate cup. I love it with frangipane. I combine brandied cherries, pie cherries and dried cherries and use that in my danish, cherry pies and turnovers. I also use them in my blackforest cakes.

You might not need to test out that recipe, everything I've baked out of Claudia Flemmings book has been excellent!