Wendy DeBord

That looks interesting Kevin........I've often thought the pudding would help in a scratch white cake, but I didn't know how to work it into a recipe like this. My Mother used to use cake mixes and instant pudding way back before anyone knew about this combo. My best 'mix' white cake version is white cake mix and instant dream whip combo, I got from her. I've never had dream whip alone to know how it varies from pudding. But the reason I mention this is doesn't the yellow color from the pudding effect the cakes finished color? If so maybe the dream whip would be a good replacement? just guessing....... I'm excited to try this out, thanks Kevin!

The acetate you buy in art stores in my area is WAY more expensive then buying acetate thru a food vendor. It was hard to even find at the art store, not many carry it anymore. The stuff you get thru food sources is a thinner gauge and larger sized sheets. Doesn't Uster carry acetate? I think I've seen it for something like .50 to 1.00 per sheet thru them. PVC is white pipe, not remotely similar to acetate, that I know of.

This will really be a challenge, I've spent years looking for this perfect recipe and I can't match a cake mix on this. Does anyone have one that they know is great? If so will you post it? If no one has a recipe they think is great maybe we should mention which recipes we've already made from which books or people and what our results were in the past.??? What do you think, will that help us narrow down the search before we begin baking? Any chance Karen is reading????? Can you get us started with the things you've learned from the bakers dozen? Did you guys find a 'best of' for this?...if so, any chance you'd post it here?

I wish I could help, but I'm not very knowledgable on yeasts.......but I wanted to bump this up higher because we do have a couple people here that are bread experts-hoping they'll see this. Hey Bighat where are you?

I just want to say something quickly. It's not MY recipe at all, it's Scott Wooley Clarks completely (and by the way his whole book is excellent on gum paste and decorating PLUS even though I've yet to try them I've read good things about his other recipes). I found out about this recipe from someone else on line who shared the tip of this good recipe to me. This is the coolest thing about the net, sharing info.!!! You find people that you trust online and network with them.....you always get back more then you give.

Oh my gosh..............if theres anyone else lirking and not posting, PLEASE please please don't be shy! We are all at different levels, even among the people that are pro's, seriously- everyone is welcome to join in to ANY conversation/thread! More then once I've cut into a thread I didn't understand to ask for help following along. They've always stopped and explained with-out making me feel dumb.

All good points, I can't disagree. As far as the cake decorators and my comment about Jacquey....theres been heated discussion between different "groups" (online at other sites) as we in the baking industry seem to be divided into. Like it or not. My point is- I appreciate that Jacquey stands out as a bridge between "groups". There shouldn't be any groups at all and it's important to keep building bridges and networking together.

Looks NICE Brian! I hope we will see more of your work! P.S. You have this down. Attaching the sides would have been a breeze for you. Use a hot knive, touch your chocolate to it and glue instantly. You'd have had boxes in a minute....next time........and molds can be limiting-once you have the tech. you can make any size you want-where as, in a mold you can't.

The next several days will be pretty intense for me at work- Preparing for my second Mothers Day at the second club.....so I won't be able to test out the RLB recipe until later. Hopefully Neil will cover that. Whats your opinion Lorea? I know I'll get boo's and hisses.........but I've not warmed up to most of RLB'S recipes (WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS!). I think she's a genious scientist, don't get me wrong-I wish I had her talents!.....but I only have 1 recipe from her I use regularly. Also it's time for anyone who thinks that their opinion or skills aren't as good as some of us that make a living baking-STOP IT RIGHT NOW! We are all equals in this testing journey, we all have valuable opinions and insights! Some of the best baking recipes aren't published in professional pastry books and I've tasted some lousy pastries from people that called themselves professionals.

Neil brought up a really good point about trying them on in person verses ordering them! They can vary from one pair to the next in the same size. Their not cheap, it's worth taking your time and trying on more then one pair in the same size. I actually was in a hurry the day I bought mine and the sales clerk really insisted I try on severel-they were totally right!

Actually I'd love to get really deep into what can be done with printers and edible printing. Theres a few decorators out there doing amazing work with them. If I had the time and the money........I know I could do some cool things with it. I know this might not make sense coming from my art back ground........but to me freehand is sooooo limiting (time wise). Not that I can't do freehand work, but to take art work to items made in mass-that's interesting to me! Where are you Brian?-you could do some really impressive wholesale products this way.

Personally I think the danish dough recipe is the best recipe in the book, o.k............one of the best of the best. You've got to go for it! It freezes beautifully too.

Well, typically you both make good points! O.k. I do need to back track,-diversity is good, very important, style doesn't need to be consistant. But workmanship does need to be consistant! Consistancy in the over all quality of the competitors or break them down into catagories. I really like the fact that Jacquey P. is participating in cake shows and teaching to that audience. He's always had a couple decorators teaching courses at his school.....but it's cool that he takes himself to their world too. Wedding cakes don't have to look traditional, definately not! Every bride is different and yes, a show piece type cake like your winner does have a place.......o.k. so maybe their breaking new ground, I'll embrace that. For some reason I'm still left wanting a black and white mentality to judging all culinary competitions. Maybe it's there and I just don't get it.

Glad you joined us gibfalc! Where do you teach? We have other teachers that participate here too, I hope you'll find interesting. Do you have input as to which book your school uses? Your post made me think about how hard it must be to teach. It supprised me that you didn't want variations listed......but if makes sense if confuses students. So mainly you like the CIA's teaching style? But this pro bought the book (can you ever own enough? NO I don't think so), so any chance you could mention which recipes you've baked and liked specificly? Is there any recipe I might want to add to my file that's better then average? Thanks

Karen, I was planning on tackling white/vanila cake next. I've yet to find that "perfect" recipe (I've got one thats decent, but not perfect). It's alot more illlusive! I wanted to work out the bugs of how to do this testing and group consenses on line first, before we get into white-which will be alot more technical. Do want to lead/start that testing thread? I think your experience with the bakers dozen would be very valueable to everyone. I'd love to learn more about what you learned in that experience and I'm most curious how we can use that knowledge right now as we're testing? Any advice? I still want to keep this thread on track. Has anyone else baked my base recipe and if so will you rank it 1-5? Please, only offer up a recipe after you've baked the base recipe and you KNOW that yours IS better. Common you guys we need to find "THE BEST", I'd love to find a recipe better then what I posted, if you've got it please anti-up?

Any chance you have some groittes on hand? You could do alot with those.

I'm a dansko wearer too. I used to live in berkinstocks (I have wider, high arch feet and those are roomie) day and night..........until I had a problem. My foot doctor says the berkies are horrible for you feet. Says it's amazing how many people come to her that wore those and developed problems. Anyway-if I go back and try to wear my berkies-my foot problem comes back with-in the week. Danskos= no problems with my feet. I have the pro ones with the back and have had no problems on floor surfaces. Also if you can, try to get rubber mats where you stand.

Brian, how did your boxes turn out? What did you do to make them?

I don't know I have a hard time with your first place winner. Not that it's not the best technically and artisticly but to me it seems like something I'd see in a sugar competition verses at a real wedding or even a wedding cake show. I try to follow the cake scene.........and usually theres a more consistant style in the shows I've seen highlights of, where as this show everyone seems to be on a different page. The chocolate cake with the swirls, this style is published all over the place! Do they have any organized local cake clubs like ICES? I wonder what the typical wedding cake there looks like? Is it like the wilton stuff we see out of our typically high volume low cost bakeries here in the US?

Thanks Carp! I knew I saw that somewhere. I don't know Chocophile....in my head it's still a stretch using it in milled flour-I can see adding it into breads for an interesting taste through the flour, but not typical sweet baking. I can see using it in shortbreads or cereals as a vanilla powder to enhanse, but I get stuck mentally using it through your flour in other applications. Maybe this is one of those things that you need to actually try and taste cause it's hard to guess with-out putting it through trials. It certainly is an interesting idea, I've heard of anyone else doing this, maybe you've got something interesting Wholemeal Crank.......... How's it been going since you began this thread Wholemeal? Have you narrowed down your amounts? Any chance you have some photos of how you do this and your finished product, that would be VERY interesting!?

Chocolateguy your link didn't work (I wanted to take a look), any chance you could look at it again and adjust it so we can click on? Thanks!

Karen, any chance you could find a moment to bake the one I posted and give your review and comparision to the recipe you posted? TP(M'sia) I haven't sculpted with this cake yet. But I'm guessing it won't be what you want for that. I think this one will break up too. Cheffette, are you in? I'd love to see your opinion.

Celenes please particapate. To do so, you need to make the recipe I posted trying to follow my dirrections......-sorry you do need to read through the whole thread because people brought up questions and issues I forgot to cover in the post that has the recipe. Where is your bakery located Celenes?

Well thats interesting info, thanks Fat Guy! Seems like I need to do more exploring on which process will look best for my use. Thanks for the links, they make it easier to visualize but they don't help me deside which would be best for this application. I need to learn more. Think that I could do this on my own hp printer or are the edible cartages only for cannon printers? Technically no one is going to eat these cards....so...... Oh, I missed you last question. The wedding is in July.

I had a wedding cake consultation this weekend and she's looking for something way over the top. Picture this: a three tiered wedding cake, the bottom cake is a monopoly board with hotels and game pieces on it, the middle layer is 4 dice (the supports will be hiddened thru each dice) and the top cake is a square covered in playing card on each side, the cake topper is two playing cards inserted-a king and queen. Around the base of the wedding cake I'm going to make dominos on the table. This needs to be done well and not "cheezy" as the bride phrased it. Problems: BUDGET, of course AND all the colors should be pastel, pastel monopoly board dice and cards and dominos. The brides sister works for an advertising company and shes going to have them scan playing cards and re-color them in pastels. Then so I'm not hand painted all these cards (too keep costs down) I want to take them to a bakery that has a edible colored printer and have them print these cards on either gum paste or rolled fondant. BUT I'm not that knowledgable about these printers and I'm hoping one of you are, and can guide me. Everyone is worried that this scanned image will look bad like gorcery store cakes. But I worked at a bakery once were they printed dirrectly on rolled fondant and you can get a decent reproduction. Well, the easiest thing would be for me to go to that bakery and have them print these up for me. BUT (of course theres a problem) that owners spouse ran their printer and he did a horrible job, never centering the images and didn't fill the color cartriges so full color stunk. So I need to make some phone calls and find a bakery that will do a great job. Anyone in Chicago that does this please let me know? What do you call the type of printer that prints dirrectly on fondant verses those press on sheets? Whats the best way to get the best product.....I could have the images on disk or copies to be scanned. How do those printers work, do they take a disk? Can I use gum paste rolled out instead of fondant to print on? Have any of you done any work similar to this? Any advice? Will I need to spray cards, game board and dominos with edible shelac so they look real, not dull?