Wendy DeBord

Thank-you Ted........I was a little nervous including a photo with me in it. I liked the fact that Neil had his picture on his school site, both Cheffette and Steve have been in photos (also at their site). SOooooo it's you and everyone elses turn to unveil what you look like-hint, hint! P.S. I just got my hair colored and it's not really that light (I'm getting used to it myself), it was in a ponytail-I'm not bald, HA!

Neil. I had to laugh....one of the morning news shows did an article on the B. being in the dark.........it hit national news! What a total nightmare, been there....but you were luck cause they didn't loose product right? Thanks. I had 1 week and no help. Plus I chase around before I begin working at the club and buy the props I need and fax detailed grocery lists, etc...-that time adds up (I do bill them for it). The NY Cheesecake ran out the quickest on both seatings, I could have made 4 for each seating and ran short........oh, it was almost 600 people total. It's complicated working at this club........at times extremely frustrating (chef is not able to speak), but this Easter went as smooth as I've ever experienced there....they have a new sous chef who really made a difference in the organization. Everything gets wet with humity in their coolers over night, that makes things more complicated! If you look closely, you'll see paper towel imprints on the cakes from me trying to absorb up the moisture. The first seating started at 9:00 a.m. so I couldn't leave much for the last minute. This is typically what I do as far as sweet tables. This L shape is different, usually I have an island where they serve from all sides or 1 long table the v/L hurts traffic flow. For this event almost 50% of the guests were young children so I really try to please them (a couple of them were really thrilled and couldn't believe they we allowed to eat the flowers-that makes everything worth while). In the past I've always run out of suckers (they eat them there and then take home a handful of goodies)..........so this time I finally didn't run out by adding other items on sticks. I used 700 sucker sticks.

So here are some of the photos I took of my Easter buffet. I made 4 of each cake or tray of mini's, plus mulitple trays worth of the flower suckers, brownies, blondies, marshmellows. I was disappointed in my final look.........the white picket fence was suppose to go behind the entire buffet (all the way behind the egg). But that responsiblity was in someone elses hands and they didn't come thru for me. But over all I was pleased given the situation available to me. P.S. ......also I didn't edit/crop any of my photos, sorry........it took me so long just to figure how to downsize them I ran out of patience to do more. I did this easter egg for last years buffet. The inside is painted with chocolate (the first time I tried that) but someone removed the chocolate bunny that was standing next to my fence, oh well. Heres the inside view of this cake The tulips are Neils recipe for sb marshmellows. This should be a photo of the inside of the banana cake

I ditto Neils advice about working in a shop first before you spend alot of money on schooling. Yes, it's nice to work at a job you love but do you understand the pay scale and exactly what the work is like? I'd be practically homeless, living from one check to the next if it wasn't for my spouses income. It's low pay and long hours.......... and nothing can prepare you for how hard it is to mantain a relationship in when you work these kind of hours. So make sure your able to make all the long term sacrifices before you give up a job that has decent pay and life style. Test the waters by working in the business before you make permenent sacrifices. School is not a realistic example of what daily life is like in the profession. I know this post sounds very negative......but it's better to know the truth going in, in my opinion. Sometimes depending upon the person (which I don't know you at all)......but sometimes it's best to keep you hobby your hobby and not spoil the pleasure it gives you by doing it as a profession.

Brian if you have a moment can you give more details on those books? I didn't realize you were a CIA grad. cool! Any reccomendations from the book? Are you actually using any of those recipes? Like.....what's good work in it..............

Thanks for posting what you did!!!!! Looks great! I'm more then a little suprised it took that long to whip with-out a stand mixer.........I had no idea. Girl, you need to put that high up on your x-mas or birthday wish list, a stand mixer makes everything soooooo easy.

Thanks Kevin. Those oils are really great in suckers. I think they are perfect in any application that takes oil. It seems that not enough people have been buying them thru wholesale sources and so they aren't so available any more. But I think their better then emlusions. Yesterday I made a huge batch of chocolate mousse (the one I posted on another thread). I added their lemon oil and some lemon emulsion to one bowl. Orange oil and emulsion to another.........they flavor the chocolate mousse devinely. It's such a natural rich flavor I was very pleased.

I've used that recipe from loranne, works fine. I don't think it's flavoring is as intense as typical purchased suckers. I made suckers for Easter and used the Boyan (I've forgotten the exact name and spelling) brand of oils. I had a hard time finding the oils thru normal wholesale suppliers and wound up buying them at World Bizarre Stores, it's a little 3 pack of lemon, orange and lime, aprox. 3 oz each. I made about 6x that quanitity recipe and used one bottle of lemon oil and about 2 tsp. citric acid. It makes all the difference with the citrus flavors, otherwise they're very bland. I did similar with orange oil but it's flavor came thru using less oil, about half. I think the lorannse oils are find for some flavors but not others. It's a work in progress..........

I need someones help here, isn't there a website specific to cooking schools? I'd swear I've seen it. I think that might be a good place to get alot of names, correct addresses and contact names from. Theres several well known junior colleges that have culinary programs in Chi town, Kendall, C.h.i.c., E.C.C., who else? The Art Institute chain of schools now have culinary programs....theres one in Schaumburg, IL. And the reknown French Pastry School should get you some interested students. I'd make a phone call and talk dirrectly to an instructor/or similar so they verablly mention this in class and then send something 2d for them to post in their student lounge. (unforunately I didn't do the culinary school route and my knowledge is limited on schools)

I hate to sound really duddy but I think I lean toward very simple items that everyone loves. When I'm away from home I long for items that I would have had at home but can't get in a convience store, hotel or restaurant. Those aren't necessarily as exciting as what you normal do........... Depending upon the hotel, my favorite snack is microwave popcorn and my hubby is a cookie freak (chocolate chip or peanut butter-which you could dress up and dip in chocolate). He also likes rice crispy bars-duddy I know but you can dress those up also. You could do white chocolate coated popcorn in mini bags...thats a treat I really love. Theres a recipe for caramel corn at this site I've been dying to try. Banana bread/muffin is huge a favorite. A mini cinnamon bundt cake is a yummy and could double for breakfast...really any kind of breakfast cakelet would be a good idea. Seasoned nuts might be a man pleaser- a sweet/salty combo. The fruit was a great idea!

Glad you were able to find it. Keep us up-dated on how yours turns out, o.k.? I'd be delighted if you post a picture of it when your done!

I'd love to know more specifics about your bakery. Have you desided on your product line, packaging, etc....? Where's it located, whats the decor like, when do you open? What kind of equipment do you have? Whats your specialty? Will you do chocolates or ice creams? Will you seek out wholesale? What type of crowd are you aiming for (income level, office workers, homemakers, after the theater crowds)? Will you do decorated b-day cakes? Do you have any photos of your work you'd post for us? Are you familar with Brian here? He also is in the midst of getting his bakery off the ground. He's on the East Coast-I wonder how that effects your businesses, verse being mid-western.......what's the level of pastry knowledge of your clients?

I don't know maybe this is crazy........but have you advertised this to Chicago based culinary schools? I'm in that area and don't find the drive to MI bad at all. I supose students might have a hard time with transportation-yet the insentive to win something and be able to include that on a resume should entise a few, no? I admire your company providing a compeitition like this!!!!! It's very cool, I wish you great success Chocolate Guy!

Well, I'm delighted to see this isn't in my head and others know what I mean. I'd swear it doesn't seem to be what it contacts. But yes, I use a stainless whisk in the glass bowl, so maybe that brief contact does it? I do use jugs of fresh lemon juice at times and it gives me the same taste. BUT now I'll have to buy one of those coated whisks and make something in a glass bowl....to see if this eliminates the undertone. That might take me a couple weeks........... Have any of you ever read anything about this? Other then the typical don't cook in aluminum-which I swear yeilds the same exact results as stainless, not any worse. I sure would like to resolve this! I really don't know where to look for an answer-anyone have an idea?

Well, we''re all raving about Neils marshmellow recipe and their very cheap to make. I'm not sure I understand what the gift bags are for........they have water and tissue........thats kind of different. Can you explain what the goal is other then on the cheap? Are you selling these or giving them away? Please explain. And are you asking what our favorites are so you pick popular items? Do you need specific recipes? Do you have a list of ideas your already thinking of and need some help choosing from those? How advanced are you skills.........are you adventerous?

o.k. I suppose this will sound crazy to most of you but I have a problem with the taste of fresh lemon in my desserts. I keep wondering if it's me, if it's my taste buds that detect this..........am I all alone? I swear it doesn't matter what I use fresh lemon in or the method, nor the pan mixed in (it could even be glass and I notice this). The finished product has metalic under tones to me. Examples: 1. If I mix a egg custard in a stainless steel bowl adding fresh lemon juice and zest then baking to set. So the lemon and eggs are cooked in a crust not in metal. 2. In lemon curds cooked either over a water bath or dirrect heat. I don't get this metalic taste when I use lemon oil or extracts only with fresh lemon. I should add I've been struggling with a sinus infection which could throw my taste off-but I'm certain I've noticed this my whole baking life. Do any of you know what I mean? Is there a reason for this? When you taste a fresh lemon tart do you taste this metalic under tone too? Last-how do I get rid of it!!!??

I spent all last night looking thru my major files and I haven't found it yet. I don't know where I put this....I have alot of different files, etc... I'll keep looking but it's looking doubtful that I'll find it, I'm sorry. But that shouldn't detour you at all! The main issue will be finding a pan with a similar shape. Vertually any cake can be baked to resemble these. I'd probably make a lemon cake with lemon curd piped into the center (from the bottom) then dusted in xxxsugar. Serve bowls of whipped cream and berries on each table to accompany. Off the top of my head I'm thinking popover pans would be the closest in shape to what they've used here. Perhaps other people here will have dirrect links of sources for these????? If your really dying for the exact instructions, I know that MS has a message board you can post on. Certainly many people there will have that issue and can re-print exactly what she did for that.

Great advice from Elizabeth..........if you don't mind I'd like to add to 3.-just make sure you don't over whip either, if you go overly stiff that won't work either. If the eggs are over whipped they'll break up into little clumps when you fold in verses being a total mass and they'll also not have a shine to them. One thing I do differently is I use a whisk to fold in (in most applications for most products). I find the whisk doesn't deflate airated mixtures and it's folds in quicker. Granted you can't be heavy handed with it, but over all I think it's more gentle then a spatula. Heres the recipe I use for angel food cakes. It's from The Professional Pastry Chef written by Bo Friberg. If you compare this to the one Elizabeth offered you'll see that there are differences.........ah but it's up to you to try them and see what you like. Sift and mix together: 4 oz cake flour, sifted 6 oz. granulated sugar Whip: 12 whites 1 tsp. tartar pinch of salt Gradually add while the whites are whipping: 6 oz. granulated sugar Add at the end of whipping: 2 tsp vanilla (or use 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. almond extract) Stop whipping and fold in flour sugar mixture from above. Bake 325F in a 10" tube pan. I bake until a tooth pick comes out clean when tested. Cool in pan, upside cown. Mr. Fribergs recipe also adds: grated zest of one lemon and 2 tsp. lemon juice, which I don't use. One more thing.........chosing whether you use almond extract or not........typically angel food cakes you've tasted have it in it. You might not conciencely noticed it but they generally have this almond flavor. Since you want a lemon and ginger cake you should use lemon extract instead of almond and not both. It's your choice if you want to add both vanilla and lemon extracts or just 2 tsp. lemon extract plus some zest. I hope you come back here and tell us how your cake turned out...........????

EXCELLENT! I printed out the photo, thanks to you SwissKaese........I can't wait to send this off to her. I know she'll be delighted. Thank-you to all that helped!!

That site loaded easy for me too. I don't know.....I think using fresh in many applications is a huge waste of money. Typically (with exceptions), I only use it in non-baked items, where it's noticed by your palate. But I don't get fresh beans at one job so I use the Massey brand emulsion. I think I saw someone did testing on extract comparing the imitation stuff to the pricey real vanilla and the imitation won in taste tests, in baked goods only. Did anyone else see this? I think it depends upon the brand, there are some imitations that are horrible and others that are decent. I have to wonder about milling the beans in with flour. I can't help but think that would coat the tiny beans and they might not even come thru in flavor. Instead aren't you getting more pod flavor verses bean out of milling?

You can fold almost anything into the finished batter, I make a mini chocolate chip version. Lemon zest will be fine and you can also add lemon extract in place of the vanilla or in addition to it. I'm not a fan of ginger personally, but I'd think a 1/2 tsp (or less) of gr.ginger would work nicely with lemon.

LOVE IT! Your my long lost sister, I think....Hurry up, get back here I need the rest of this fix.

O.k. so there was a brand of baking powder that was made by Bakers? Can anyone confirm that brand existed?

I made Nightscotsmans recipe for Easter and it was fabulous! I highly reccomend it and I can't wait to try other puree flavors. Thanks Neil for sharing that!

I save all her work and I'm familar with that item. Give me a couple days and I'll look thru my files and see if I can find the exact recipe and dirrections Martha used.