Wendy DeBord

Just a quick question. How long will you hold the different types of yeast before pitching them? Being safe verse sorry. I used some instant active yesterday that proofed o.k. but I think that was all it really had to give. I know it's been here over a year sitting on a shelf, not in a cooler or freezer. I'm ready to pitch it, but having never used "instant" I thought I would double check before doing so.

Wow, I wish I was there FWED.........you do such a nice job of posting, thank-you for putting in that effort! I have post my photos soon (sorry, I promise I will asap)...the thing that struck me was I could look at your photos and tell you which cake was from whom....my results really mirror yours in color and texture of these cakes. So-that means were doing good work getting consistant reliable results.

Yes you can post the recipe ingredient list as published because you can't copyright that part of a recipe, the ingredients or the amounts. But you have to put the methods of how you make the recipe in your own words, because copying those words exactly will infringe on copyright. We always like to give credit to the authors too. You can also post a link to the recipe if it's posted some place legitimate......but not from a site where someone just took the info. and pasted it with-out regard to following proper respect to copyright. Steve or Neil can elaborate more on this if anyone needs it?

I've used all of the above (except floating it in a bowl of water), but I then kept it in the cooler.....which works depending upon just how fresh the mint really was when it came in. Sometimes my mint would last for a week in a baggie in the cooler, sometimes it looked bad the same day it was delivered. I've never succeeded holding it out of the cooler. To be honest, I avoid it. I haven't used mint in years, I really don't like it on the plate unless your doing a mint dessert....and I avoid using items not designed to be eaten on my plates. I find it much easier to just make a nice garnish myself, that eliminates the hassle of it not holding thru service and beyond. But thats just my opinion......... If I had to use real mint, I might consider sugaring and drying it. Or just chopping it and using as a sprinkle. Deep fried? Suspended in liquid and frozen? Baked into a tuile?

Tracy they have never been used on non-food products and are sanitized and just like bent handle spatulas....it's stainless steel. It's completely safe. Scott Wooley is so talented! How long did you work for him? Photos never do justise. They look even worse when it's not taken by a photographer. My digital camera doesn't show depth at all, the backgrounds blend into the foreground. Are you working on your own doing cakes now Tracy....or have you gone a different route in the kitchen?

Bri, would you show some photos too, please (if you find the time). I really enjoyed seeing other photos of your work! I WISH YOU, HUGE LUCK AND SUCCESS!! You two guys are going to knock them dead.........!

I couldn't agree with you more Mktye...I have quite a collection of older baking books many of them from Pillsbury and other "homemaker' type baking books. I find alot of jems in these books. Also on ocasion I believe I see where a current author/chef has originally gotten their ideas from these older books. I see that lot in Gale Gands work, she definately looks and studies older books too. I will bake you best white asap then compare it to my best white.....see if I can beat it. Others should do the same......if you can beat this recipe-thats the goal...find the best of the best.

Beautiful work Annie! I didn't mean to throw you out there all alone, sorry. I know theres several people here that do cakes (I do too) and I hope we all can share more about our work. I too used to use an off set spatula and apply icing with it, like for years. Then I worked at a bakery and they taught me about the large basketweave tip. It took me a while to feel comfortable with that. Is everyone familar with that tip?...was I the last person to learn about this? But I hate having to constantly refill the bag and worse I don't like to handle slippery bags. But inevitable mine gets frosting on the sides and I start to loose my grip. Anyone have a way of avoiding that?????? I do my best to keep it neat but unless you barely fill your bag some frosting always sneaks up to the top, then it gets all over the place. Then I went to work at another bakery and they taught me to use the huge spatulas and hardware store equipment. Again it took me while to get comfortable with it, but now I can't believe I ever played with a little bent handle spatula. I use a different tool then you Annie. Mine is a half round metal shape with a handle. I'd post a photo, but I'm having issues with that right now. I think it's for putting "mud" spakle on walls. Once on tv I saw a bakery that hung their pastry bags from bungie type cords on the ceiling. NO kidding, it looked weird but it makes sense to help your wrists from all the wear and tear....have any of you seem similar? I enjoy doing cakes but I know I couldn't do it all day any more. It's hard on your wrists, if I wear a wrist brace it feels too aukward. One day I'd like to figure out that bungie method....at least is would create a few laughs at work. Tp(M'sia), you mainly do cakes too, right? Who else? .....Annie did bring up a interesting issue about what to call yourself. I can relate! You do want the respect and acknowledgement that your not at all similar to a grocery store 'decorator'....some people get it, others don't until you show them your work. I like how you've used the whole cake board as part of your art. That's something that greatly interests me...I'm seeing more and more people doing that with some great examples. TP how do you find food proof papers...how are you going about this. I've done like Annie is showing in her taco photo, but never figured out how to do it other ways with-out alot of hand work. Help, how do you do that?

WOW! I have a huge smile on my face....another wonderful, highly detailed review from mktye. Thank-you sooooo MUCH!! Ha, good ole Betty Crocker strikes again. You can never judge where a good recipe might come from. They are everywhere, needles in a hay stack for us to find.

Welcome to egullet heleen1!

I start with a square and then fold it in half into a triangle, cutting slits paralle to the edge of the triangle, about 1/8" or 1/4" in from the edge. But you leave the ends attached. Then you cross over sides or flip flop them so they sit on top of the solid square..... and it gives you a quick box or diamond shape. I could probably draw that on paper and photo it, if you didn't follow. But this is shown in most school pastry books....so you might be familar. In the end it's pretty much the same as a vol au vent where your left with a shell to fill, I just find this quicker and less formal, less waste too. You can buy pp cut into squares already, if you really need to save time. For that matter, you could just weigh down some pp pressed into a shell shape and have a more rustic vessel to fill. Typically I use this method to mass produce fruit tarts, served cold. I fill it with pastry cream, whipped cream and tons of fresh fruit....and serve with any fruit sauce or even a chocolate sauce. Many non pastry chefs I know, make this version: take an individual size piece of pp, add a dollop of pastry cream, put apple slices or pear slices on and bake. I prefer to serve those warm and I also often add either a cinnamon sugar sprinkle or struesel...but more so in the winter then summer. So easy and quick you can really mass produce these. I've also make individual tarts using a cut out of pie crust, prebake it flat most of the way. Pull it out, while warm top it with pastry cream and any fruit. Plums, apricots and similar work well this way. Some fruits need sugar some don't, bake as long as the fruit needs or doesn't need. Serve hot or cold. You could techniquely do this with a wide vartiety of doughs too. In place of the frangipane, you could use a pastry cream in a whole tart/pie. Also fruit curds.... Sometimes if you explain to your chef that something is easier or cheaper to produce they might change their minds, so good luck.

Wow, I can't wait to use those tips. As I said this is the first I've read about that. Soooo I could make my batter, pipe it in my molds and then freeze them for an extended period of time, then bake them off fresh. Nice.

I've enjoyed reading your many posts since you've joined us. You really intrigued me when you posted this: "Doing cakes runs in my blood, I do it well, and I love to share the knowledge. I was taught by one of the best cake designers in the country (Mike McCarey of Mike's Amazing Cakes) and it's the least I can do to pass down the awesome "secrets" he showed me. I am so fortunate to have mentored under him. If I were there, Wendy, I could teach you how to do cakes so that they are stress and worry free." Any chance I could get you to show us some of your work and or share some of those tips? How long did you mentor with Mike? Did you study formally anywhere else or with anyone else? Is there any thing that stands out in your head that you've learned to be a shortcut or easier way of doing something then whats traditionally known...that you could share? I've played played around doing cakes upside down on acetate to acheive a perfect shape. I've read of people that use paper towels to smooth sides. I now use a trowel as my spatula and find that it's much quicker then any other utensil I've tried. What do you like? Other decorators out there--unite! Feel free to join in on eG.

Ohhh, you learned from MIKE, cool.......... I'm only familar with his work shown at his site. Does he have a book yet? He does do auesome work! Maybe I read too much into it but- I think it seems like he has a great sense of humor too. I'm allllll ears if you'd be kind enough to pass on any of those secrets, pleaseeeeeeeeee? I know that tons of people set up using the method you described Annie, I live under a cloud of if anything can go wrong-it always happens to me. I think Murphys law was written by a guy that sat behind me in grade school.

I ditto both the previous suggestions and add: Just as a reference, in "Simply Sensational Desserts" by Francois Payard he has several quick and beautiful fruit tarts that are based on the sweet tart shell with a almond cream filling. I've made all of the ones in this particular book and they all hold up well and slice like a dream. If you have a chance it's definately worth finding this book in your library or book store. I'm not sure if my following suggestions fit into your guidelines or not. Sometime guidelines are flexiable.... Making individual puff pastry shells is not time consuming nor expensive. You can bake off your tarts seperate, hollow out the center then use any fruit filling or combo you can dream of. They'll reheat fine and or depending on your fruit don't need to be served warm. You can make them into turnovers in shape, so their neat. You can also make a cheesecake tart and place your fruit on that base or depending upon the fruit bake it into the batter. Following that example you can do this with several well known tart/pie fillings, like lemon or key lime. Use them as your base and add your fruit to them, they'll slice easily (can't use very wet fruits though). The almond cream or frangipane filling can also be changed by using extracts and emulsions. For example in Bellouets mini pastry book, he adds a coffee extract to his frangipane and it's a nice and diffferent approach. You could also add pistachio paste to your frangipane for an nice flavor variation.

We were just talking about these egg products in the end of the buttercream thread. I had only used them in non-whipped applications or non-cooked for safety reasons. But I've got to say....this past week I used them everytime I could, just to learn. When I whipped the whites with plain sugar they worked out great, good volume. But when I poured a hot sugar syrup into them, they didn't work great. I never got a really firm meringue. But since I've only done this once....I can't make a real judgement. I also used cartoned yolks as much as possible this week and didn't see any negative issues. I'm glad this issue came up....I sure didn't miss seperating eggs.

I don't recall ever reading anyone rest this before, that's interesting. Do you rest it at room temp.? Covered or not?

Annie once when I was inserting a dowel to do the center support thing, it bent my card board that my middle cake was sitting on.....made the whole cake unstable, lopsided. Granted I don't have to do transporting anymore, just in house....but I'll never insert a center dowel/skewer again. I tryed pre-cutting a center whole for a center dowel, but who can hit that spot when you can't see it, not me....still weakens the cardboards. I must be the most accident prone person around, cause over time I've had things happen that move me away from one method to another. Getting your dowels perfectly cut is the most important thing and that applies to using straws too. At one time I had my chef cutting my dowels with a pipe cutter. That worked great, but I still wound up with dowels varying in height, sure only very small fractions off but this happened: I accidentally wound up with dowels on one side of my cake being a hair shorter then the other side (on the base cake). It took a long time for this problem to show up, I got the rest of my tiers up and decorated and then slowly it did the lean thing...it was a heavy cake and a heart breaking site. Anyway I wound up loosing one tier completely, it went from a 5 tier to a four tier...and I was late for setup in the room (the chef and manager still don't trust me totally and think I'll be late again, even though I've done many cakes since then). It was just a horrible experience. So I did alittle research and after reading rave reviews I bought a set of "stress-free" cake supports-man do I love those! Their not cheap so they'd be painful to use in a bakery setting-but I won't do a cake with-out them any more....their fast, easy and accurate. I guess my point is lots of methods work just fine, until one day something happens. Cutting straws or dowels will always be prone to human error. I've never been able to touch up a poured ganche coated cake. You always can see it.

Na, it's not too long, I read every word. You make me smile... it's fun to read your perspective.

I don't cut any vents either, boy that seems like a pain. NO, it's not needed at all. Bread flour-yuk, propped open doors, leaving in turned off oven, etc.... All this playing around isn't really necessary. Choux is not an advanced pastry skill at all. In my experience though, they always soften during defrosting (regardless of how their baked in the first place)...so I briefly re-crisp ones I've frozen before using. And I'm just a little confused about everyone talking about really drying them out. If their properly baked their crust is firm/dry and the center is still moist. I don't think I'd want to eat one that was cut and really dried out.

Some people do transport cakes that are already stacked, but I don't. You wouldn't want to do that with ganche because unlike buttercream you can't touch up a finger print. I have to freeze ganche covered cakes. It's not perfect! Often you'll have beads of condensation that will mar your surface. I don't think you can do this with-out excepting that there will be water spots. If possible, I'd wait and do the ganche after the cake is defrosted. Transport ganched cakes, then assemble on site. Use long spatulas to set your teirs-but it takes strong wrists and some experience. Good Luck, post a photo when your done and show us how things turned out, o.k.?

I don't think it ever got posted. I got a copy in a pm from Ted.

Beautiful peaches Jeniac! Thanks for posting them. I also use a melon baller to core my apples, I think its much easier and quicker. Just insert into the whole apple, make the circle in the center to grab seeds and pull out. I think the corers leave behind seeds too much....and I can't get them in exactly each time either. I feel bad for you doing all those apples, it's definately one of my least favorite things to do too. You can buy in frozen apple slices........only problem is you can't get the apple varietys you want. Feet.....do you have really good shoes? Can you stand on those rubber mats-they do help. Otherwise you might need to see a foot doctor, perhaps your not getting enough arch support or something like that.

No you shouldn't sub. almond flour in this instance for almond paste. Paste used in petite four batters gives you a nice dense almost crumbless cake. Which makes cutting and coating them easier. If you did use almond flour in that recipe, I think you'd get a dry cake.........even though it "might" work, it will give you the wrong results.

Personally, I wouldn't attempt to make my own at home. I don't think you can get the same results. If you don't want to buy it from overseas then I'd skip it all together in my petite fours. Instead use a thin plate of white chocolate on top of the cakes before pouring fondant. Or you could use a thin piece of rolling fondant (which you can make at home successfully).