jersey13

Thank you chefette. I'm going to save this recipe.

That does sound lovely. I'll keep my eyes open for one. Thank you.

Thanks chromedome.

Wow. What's Chantilly? I don't think I've ever heard of a St Honore pastry tip. Care to take a stab at describing it? The curiosity is killing me. :

Thanks chefette. I think his ideal is the custard/cream variety, so I'm going to shoot for that. And yes, I would love to see the St Honore cream recipe if it's not too much trouble. Thanks so much.

Hello out there, I have to make a birthday cake for my brother in law this weekend and his favourite is the St Honore. I have seen versions with a sweet short base and others with puff pastry as the base as well as different fillings. Which is the authentic version?

But for pure entertainment.... you know where to look!

And don't forget to hire the Pillsbury Doughboy as your pastry chef!

I'll keep my eyes peeled...

Especially in the restaurant business... Perhaps as a cheap substitute for parmesan.

QUOTE we used to make our own soap years ago .those are the days where chefs were masters and could work. now you need a hundred people in the kitchen to serve a handfull of people. QUOTE What did you serve with the soap?

Using an assumed name is short term. Eventually, if you develop as a food writer / reviewer, it will likely become known that at one point in your career you wrote paid reviews, your opinion was (and who knows maybe still is) for sale. That stigma can only damage your credibility in the long term. I would caution against taking the copywriting job because of its close association with the professional career, but I believe many people have gotten away with keeping their commerical nom de plume separate from their professional ones and I understand the pragmatic issues. To not understand the professionally harm most likely to ensue from writing both columns under the same name is what puzzles me. It doesn't sound as if the writer has though much about a real future as a professional culinary writer. I absolutely agree that writng both under the same name is career suicide, if in fact the chosen career is exclusively food writing. If, however, we are dealing with a freelance "generalist", then I say write both, but the advertorials shouldn't get bylines. And if publications are reprinting reviews as ads then they are compromising the professional future of a serious food writer because even without the byline, the "ad" has already been seen and recognized as an objective review.

Identifiler, Well written and entertaining as always.....

The byline gives the advertisement the respectibility of the reputation of the person whose byuline it is, at the expense of the ultimate value of the byline. QUOTE (Chris Cognac @ Jan 21 2004, 11:19 AM) Its "advertorial" type...its actually a well done advertisment written by a food writer...it's complete with the border around it and the word "advertisment" next to the column so there is no fooling anyone into thinking its a critical review..Kind of like the travel ad/articles in the magazines QUOTE Bullshit. There are only two assumptions that can be made. They are exclusive of each other. The first is that a food writer wrote an honest review that was so favorable to the restaurant that they chose to pay to have it reprinted. The only other alternative is that the writer's opinion is always for sale at the right price. I don't thnk ads normally have bylines. Commercial writing is a different game. It's designed to sell. Reviews are there to inform. And if the writer is doing an advertorial, his/her opinion probably won't be given much play. It will sound like an opinion, but if the resto is paying for the writeup, I would imagine they would want some serios input as to what is written. In pieces like that, the fact that it is an advertorial is made clear, so there's no assumption on the part of the reader that what they are reading is objective. I'd like to think that a publication wouldn't be dumb enough to allow a review to be reprinted as an advertorial....

If it's a clearly marked advertorial, then there need not even be a byline. I've seen those in local papers in my area and I don't seem to recall a writer being given credit. I ghostwrite an ad column and I still show the clips. I would say take the gig. If this guy is good at writing that sort of stuff, it will be to his credit. Just because someone is good at one type of writing doesn't mean they can't branch out. And besides, it's still food related. Hope this helps.

Don't worry Sherri. I baked a wedding cake here in Montreal, froze it and hauled it with all my equipment to Vancouver for my sister's wedding. I made the frosting there, in a tiny kitchen with my brother in law's mixer. I was up most of the night only to have to get to the hall for 7 am to assemble while my other sisters decorated, etc. The cake was well received and most appreciated. Are there things I would do differently? Hell yeah!!! But it was a good learning experience and when it's for someone close to you, you get over the headaches much faster. :-)

Ahhh, I see..... Got any friends/relatives with chest freezers? Or, even if you wanted to begin a couple of days early, refrigeration would work. As for the plane ride, I didn't know about that part. Sorry. I thought this wwas a local thing. Yes, 30 hours can work. Don't be scared! Just don't expect to do much dancing at the reception. I took my sister's cake to the West Coast for her wedding where I did the frosting and assembly. I was so zonked at the reception I could hardly stand! But, they loved the cake, and the effort that was made for it.....

You could bake those suckers way sooner than that. Pace yourself and do it over the course of a couple of weeks. Well wrapped, cakes have a good life once frozen. If moisture is a real concern, use a soaking syrup (either with a pastry brush or spritz bottle) between the layers. Either way works like a charm.

When you say the countoured look, does that mean you won't be stacking the cake? I am picturing a cake with a dome -like top (the part we usually slice off )

Be sure to try the Chocolate Ruffle Cake. I've done it a couple of times and it's divine. The pound cake is a hit too!

Hi again, I've baked cakes and frozen them almost immediately. Freezing doesn't affect the taste/texture unless the cake is badly wrapped. Even a chilled cake is easier to handle, especially when you're talking about moving around large layers. If you can bake a few days ahead, you'll have an advantage. P.S. If you flavour the fondant slightly, the combination with the icing and the cake should be terrific. ciao

W.Z.? Huh?

Hi Sherri! You're in for some fun! I did cakes for my sisters' weddings.. a different adventure for each. While I can't recall off the top of my head the number of servings from each pan, the good people at Wilton have a nifty chart that provides this information: Wilton I also use their fondant recipe because it works like a charm and with the addition of some clear vanilla extract, I have gotten positive comments on the taste. I don't know if you have done a project like this before, but I can recommend some tips from my experience. Feel free to PM me if you like. Renée

I guess it's probably considered too far west to be convenient, but I just love the smoked meat at Smoked Meat Pete's in Ile Perrot.

We do take-out BBQchicken, rent Schindler's List and make out like our plane is going down. Then we make coffee,and sit there like idiots, drinking it without so much as a slice of cake. Later on, we lie in bed, bug-eyed, and watch the glow from the chicken sign through the window..... SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!