Wendy DeBord

I did the double rapped in foil method for years and leaks (depending upon the gage of the foil) happen and are a needless waste of materials and energy. Removing it from the foil after this happens won't matter when you remove it because once your crust is soggie-that's it-damage done. Condesation: doesn't happen while baking or cooling only after they are refrigerated for a period of time. It won't penatrate your cake though. And if this happens, you can blot it dry with paper towels.

My opinion for what it's worth...... First-Cooks magazine...for the most part consists of unmemorable recipes. For great tasting baked goods this is NOT the publication to turn to. Sure they tinker around, blah blah blah....yes it's interesting to learn what reactions different ingredients provide (and for that it's an interesting read) but please don't think this is "the source" on baking. Second-although they show cheesecakes being baked in springform pans-the truth is springform pans suck....for many reasons. Facts are cheesecakes can be baked in any pan. I prefer a regular 3" deep cake pan (in fact I believe I read an article in Cooks for the "Perfect" NY cheesecake and even they touted that a regular cake pan should be used)! When baked in a regular cake pan-it will never let water leak in an ruin your crust. To unmold, the only tricky part is inverting your cake. But once your cake is cold or frozen it pops out perfectly if you apply some heat to the exterior...just like you do to a jello mold. Third-most professional kitchens bake certain items in hotel pans covered with plastic wrap, then with a layer of foil. The plastic protects any reaction with foil (where foil erodes onto the top of the food being baked) and provides a tight seal. Therdogg-you need to experiment further, because not using a waterbath does NOT mean your cheesecake will be dense and sunken in the middle, nor browned! It's all in your recipe, technique and skills and I'd bet that none of the major popular manufactors of cheesecakes use waterbaths to bake their cheesecakes.

I vote that your right and your wife is wrong on this, too. You don't have to make them too strongly flavored-kids like it lighter on the molasses, mace, ginger, all spice (strong flavors you might use) and prefer it to be more cinnamon. The more frosting the better too. Making a large house is more challenging structurely then it make seem. There's websites that feature some amazing gingerbread houses, you might want to look-up. Also it doesn't seem very common to me that people and their children make gingerbread houses. So I think it would be way cool to share this experience with a group of children.

O.k. Thank-you guys, you've helped me understand more about this topic. I'm no longer worrried about trying your recipe nightscotsman, thank you for clearing up the details. If they've got SB on hand I'll make them.

Ah, I didn't realize that was your recipe, in fact I did print it out a while ago. I thought it was from finecookings site...... Anyway, I've never made marshmellows before and your recipe doesn't contain egg whites (and has alot of liquid) which concerned me. It doesn't make sense (in my head thinking it thru)....your pouring hot syrup into a thin non airating liquid, why? I understand the gelatin is setting the whipped texture, but I'm getting jello in my head not marshmellows. Would you please explain how your recipe works in comparision to a typical m. recipe?

I haven't made these before. The recipes I've found and plan to use, use oils to flavor (so your not thinning it down with liquids) but I don't have any on hand. So my brain is dead and I need help thinking of a flavor that kids would like with common flavoring ingredients a typical kitchen has. Any ideas?

Good, I'm glad I could pass on that infomation. It's hard finding 1 definitive recipe and sticking to it. Just today we were tasting some of my chocolate cake scraps and.... again for the millionth time I'm wavering on which recipe I like best. Night-I would love to see her work in person. She is indeed very generous in educating and promoting fine cake decorating. Her show has ALOT of crediblity and she includes pastry chefs like Pfieffer to exhibit where others are intimidated to seek PC's of his level. I predict it will be the creme de la creme of cake shows....newbies are more into her show then ICES. She has very high standards and it's well needed as guidance to others in the industry. She sometimes butts heads with ICES and mini "wars" break out, but I've never seen her be wrong. She's as smart as she is talented. Usters demos (thru your school) always start the year with with N. Lodge... and for some reason they always are cancelled. Which I find to be a HUGE bummer because I'd love to learn more about gum paste. I hate these long months between demo's!

That's white- not yellow, white ganche is yellow. If it is ganche then it is the purple color and they've gone back over the top with a titanium oxide drizzle. But if you've use white ganche as a glaze you know it's VERY difficult to get that look. I've tried with-out much real success unless the cake underneath is just perfect and mu ganche is too. With white chocolate ganche it's hard to find the right consistancy for pouring it. You'll also get "different" colors when mixed into it because your starting with yellow not white...and red and blue which make purple, become greyish with yellow-your base ganche color. (granted there are people much better then I that I'm sure can....I find it more difficult then it seems...and not something I'd want to do often) Neil when you have something fluid you can intoduce other colors and get that exact bleeding into look with-out mixing it into the base. Unless they are incompatible. That's not airbrushed or rolled fondant....rolled fondant doesn't shine.

Well I'm curious what our experts will say.... I think it's kind of hard to tell by your photo. Did you taste this? If so: was it very sweet, could you taste white chocolate, could you taste almond (marzipan)? What was the texture like? These answers would help alot. From the photo it looks to be fairly dense in thickness...if you look at how it draps over the edge-rounding instead of straight down. Ganche doesn't round out like that. You have white mirrors but I don't think it's that either. I'm going with poured fondant as my best guess. It would be the easiest way for a bakery to produce that look. They either did a heavy coating (which will help in marbling) or poured it over a marzipan or rolled fondant layer. Are you familar with poured fondant and how to use it?

To the best of my knowledge you can't completely whiten white chocolate couveture by mixing titanium dioxide into it. The PCB products aren't cheap and really are meant to be used in conjuction with couvetures....not alone. But I haven't used or seen the opaque white, night mentioned. But if your saying you can mix it into white chocolate and obtain a pure white color...I have my doubts...it's better to spray/airbrush it over your dipped white chocolate couveture. Honestly, for kids I'd use the candy coating. I do all the time and kids like it. Corn syrup and chocolate mixed- seize up into chocolate plastic (depending upon your proportions). For candy melts I use solid shortening to make it more fluid for diping. P.S. In my experience most kids aren't fond of coconut.

In addition to Chefettes post, if you want to learn how to get this effect in ganche ...."Chocolat" by Alice Medrich (Hope I spelled her name correctly) covers this in her book.

I think so too Tan. It was brought to my attention that he's posted similar threads-been rude, posing as a housewife when in fact he owns a restaurant..... ......so I thought I'd double check. Shoot me if I try to help him again.

again......

Where ya been Verbena? are you a hit and run or a participant?

I honestly think the sinking and browning do or don't happen from one oven to the next.... and every recipe seems to handle just a little differently. I can think of places where I've baked cheesecakes and the tops never colored and the current place I'm at some cheesecake batters do and some don't. It depends upon which shelf in the oven and where the hot spots are, etc...Convection vs. standard oven... Sinking generally happens when they are over baked a bit, but I bet it becomes more pronouced in some cheesecake batters. MJC you do nice work.......I can't help but wonder if this is going to turn into more then just a hobby/club thing?

Kevin-I ditto alot of what Alana wrote. Frosting the cake with it-it will just slide off from the moisture in the cooler and look really bad. Just swirling in something to a cheesecake batter doesn't always work, the cake will often sink in or crack along the swirl. It's better if you take some of your batter and make that flavored, then swirl. 1. carmel on the crust-it won't burn. It won't make the cake slide off crust. BUT it could make your crust soft or it could give you a not pleasant ooz as you slice into the cake. To have a bottom layer succeed like you describe-it needs to be pretty thick/dense, otherwise it won't be noticed. 2. I like the contrast of a plain batter to the dulce batter so your mouth doesn't become complacent to the dulce taste....just personal choice. 3. Too over the top-NA-the ice cream is and it sells well.

It's hard to say what it was with-out seeing the spots myself. (my bets on this) You had small lumps of cream cheese that weren't smooth and they rose to the top. I can't imagine any other possibility. The bigger the batch the harder it is to get it perfectly smooth. Also the mixers I use at work don't hit the bottom of the bowl cleanly.....so I have to prop up the bowl using a towel under each arm where the bowl sits in order for it to mix anything throughly. Other posiblities, but these would have been dark spots: (this happened to me yesterday) The oven was not clean, add a fan and it blows any burnt spilled ashes or crumbs on top of your cake- crumbs from you crust can rise to the surface-

If your a chef with a steady hand you can bake the cheesecake in a full sheet pan and then cut out to size-even using a round cutter. So long as your cheese is semi frozen it's very easy to do. You can get soft molds at your local stores (bed bath & beyond, or at linens and things). I've seen decent ones WITH perfectly straight walls, just like what you'll get out of a ring mold. 8 compartments for 24.00....they could be the cusinart line cause I believe they were red in color. SPECIFICLY what size and shape cheesecake do you want and is your shape needs set in stone?

O.k. it's past my bed time........but I'm good at incoherant rambling. I'm a unestablished pro. I most frequently use recipes from D: foreign (almost all French) PC's working here in the states. BUT I almost never present them as shown-I make them appear American. Or I'm stealing their fillings and flavor combinations and using them with my established components. But in contradiction, my core cakes and components mainly came from group A. Since I've a VERY visual person yet I do varied pastry work, I get the most inspiration from: all of the mentioned. A good photograph will do more to inspire me then a great description. Most satisfaction: probably the ones I use the most because I got my moneys worth and then some. Those books would be: #1 Herme's (all of them), Payard, Roux (2 books), Bellouet ( 3 books), Sherry Yard (3 books), Bau, Deslaunier (3 books), Alice Medrich, Julia, Greenspan and for magazines hands down Martha. Most frustration: because of ingredients being too extravagent or plating multi temp. items I don't have the situation that will allow that done in, or that I don't have access to decent equipment including serving dishes: Fleming, Leach and Orial B.. And most of all frustrated with MYSELF for not being is a job situation that allows me to use and grow from these chefs.

Complimenting and dishing specific books: I just bought Alice Medrich's new book Bittersweet. Although I haven't finished reading it or made anything from it.....* she's the first author I've seen who really dives into education on contemporary chocolates. She talks very clearly about percentages and her in depth experiences using various chocolate types in EACH recipe. Which is a first for a book (that I know of). I think she's does her best to provide the missing links of information on chocolate that even pro-books avoid. IT'S A BUY! I buy all of Marthas work and always get something worth the purchase out of each. Books that I should love that I'm not using: Claudia Flemming- too many frozen items, hard to get ingredients, flavors I can't sell in the mid-west... Richard Leach- soooo many components-sure they work together but none of them call to me to take out and use in other applications. Gale Gand-her work contains alot of recipes I've gotten else where. They aren't always good. Many seem childish for all the wrong reasons. I think her work is too dumbed down-don't appeal to me. Silvertons books- just sit on my shelfs I can't seem to find something I want to make from them. Torres-although I love his tv work I don't care for his earilier books. The few items I made weren't exciting. ...........to start.

Well I'm an admitted baking book whore! I own a good sized collection and love most of them from the little cheapie ones they sell at the grocery store to Herme and Bau. I buy for variety because I do a variety of work from cookies to ethnic desserts. I know I can't be objective on this topic. I can't look at a baking book and see it as a non-professional would. But I do recall being frustrated and unhappy with books when I began learning. Now I'm not always looking for a whole recipe, sometimes I just want an idea-something different. I have a list of authors I won't buy future work from because I think their work is inferior or strickly average (and I can judge your baking by what books you say you like and don't like). Then I also have a list of authors I buy everything they write with-out peeking at the contents. Nightscotsman touched on something that really does anger me- not telling yields...or I wish they'd scale proportionally to the torte mentioned. I don't mind having extra components-I'll freeze them, but when your in a hurry and you expect a mousse to yield a equal an amount to fill the 2 cakes the sponge yielded-having to back track and make more... ruffles my feathers. When I began working from probooks that wrote "prepare as usual" it did leave me frustrated. But now I've made enough recipes from them that I've grown to trust that instruction, because I haven't had a failure when doing so. On photos: Ah...I agree on the stupid waste of money spent on publishing artsy photos that don't contain baked goods. I always think that was dumb-why didn't they give me a photo of something I WANTED to see. I do judge very heavily on how the pastries look when they provide photos. When I look at Nick M.'s photos I see dry large crumbed cakes-and run away. I just bought Sherry Yards new book and I'm put off by the degree of brown she takes her work too, cause I know a couple hours after it's out of the oven it's going to be so dry no one will want to eat it. Although she does talk about this and insists that Americans underbake vs. the French (which is a discussion of it's own). Yes, I really prefer photos with every recipe, but I look at them not for guidance but I try to "read" the crumb/texture. BUT this doesn't stop me from buying from authors I like. Dorie Greenspans Paris Sweets would have a completely different feel with photos. Her words make up for not having them....but few authors can do this well.

My personal thoughts- I believe having the salt ontop is the nicest effect and it clearly states by it's placement that it's not a mistake. The concept is the ying and yang of sweet and salty, they should be in balance so you add your salt 'to taste'-there isn't a 'rule' for you to follow when adding salt to your ganche. I'm not sure why you want a "good sized" crunch of salt? I don't believe I'd care for that, it would stick in your teeth too much and you'd have to compensate while eating it....tooo much shock factor/over kill I think. Have you tasted someone elses truffles with fleur de sel or are you just thinking this thru in your minds eye?

Dee, I think Marthas recipe is better. I had been using Brauns recipe for awhile. I've lately been getting wedding cake orders where the bride wants one layer of chocolate and one of white cake. Which even though that's nothing new...I just never had those kind of orders. Anyway when I'd taste my cakes I didn't like how heavy the chocolate cake was in comparision to the white. I didn't think they made a good match in the same cake. So then I began using Elizabeths recipe (post here in the recipe section). I liked hers better because it's not quite as dense as Brauns, but it's also not as intense with the chocolate flavor. Then on a whim I made Martha's for a Halloween party and I really liked hers the best. It's very intensely flavored, yet it has a lighter crumb then others I've tried. The top crust must be trimmed off because it is too dense, but underneath the cake has a nice light crumb. Brauns cake can be too heavy with big air pockets and it really doesn't match up with mousses like I seek (I needed something more versitile). The only things I like with Brauns recipe is buttercream which can match the density. Do you have all the Austrilain (sp) wedding cake magazines? I enjoy those. You might enjoy the decorating topics at www.sugarcraft1.com/board/ Most of the people there use cake mixes and are illegally working from their homes........BUT I've learned alot about decorating from them. Everyone is at a different skill level but there are several that are VERY ADVANCED. Including some that have published books on the topic. There are other cake decorator chat boards but none seem quite as active as that one. I'm a pastry chef who does speciality cakes and wedding cakes as part of my job. My Mother began as a cake decorator out of our house when I was young. She eventually worked as a PC for a caterer and then opened her own bakery. Being the youngest I tagged along. I have artistic abilities so she'd enlist me when she got stuck on something. Before I new it I was decorating wedding cakes...before I knew how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, yet alone a cake. For cakes sites, some of my faovrites are www.elegantcheesecakes.com www.earlenescakes.com nicholaslodge.com/ www.bluegrassbride.com www.shavkin.com/links.htm www.karenscookies.com/links.htm www.ladycakes.com www.cake-links.com www.cakework.com I always like to follow other cake decorators links-they always know the best places. There's better sites then I've listed but I don't have them book marked. DO you own Dede Wilsons wedding cake book? She has tons on sites posted in the back of her book. I've spent days looking thru them. There are some really amazing sites out there! You guys, I ADORE B.C.!!! My hubby and I skied up at Whistler/Blackcomb this year for the first time (we're in Chicago suburbs). It's spoiled me-I can hardly feel interested to ski anywhere else. We took a day off to sight see in BC. MY GOD, we just fell in love with that food market under the bridge! That's the coolest foodie place I've ever seen!!!! I wish we had something similar...............I'm so envious!

Ya you've got to be making a small slip-up for that to happen. Perhaps you don't have the second pie pan down solid enough and the crust isn't supported. Hope you get it worked out 100%.

Sorry it took me so long to return. What I do is 1 tsp. baking soda and 1 tbsp. baking powder in with the dry ingredients. That should solve your problem. P.S. I didn't go to culinary school either, but your own personal drive will surely make up for that. Have you thought about taking any classes with a famous decorator? I think I saw that Kerry Vincent is teaching this fall at the French Pastry School. Also do you subscribe to any cake decorating magazines...they list classes, tips and sources for supplies. I've always done cake decorating with-out anyone "teaching me how". But I breifly worked in a bakery that was owned by a fantastic decorator. I learned several things from her. I also follow a cake decorators web site at an online store (you probably already know who I mean?) and have learned so much about decorating there that I NEVER would have even known existed, etc... Oh, do you check out everyone sites?? That's always very interesting!