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Airbrush and a hand cut stencil is my guess. Nice touch! Beautiful work!

Welcome, Julia! I actually turned on my computer just to be able to say that the rhubarb almond financier was heavenly! Please make more.

The really funny thing is that here I have it set up so that when someone posts to a thread I've started or a thread I've posted to, it's supposed to send me an e-mail. It never does. Never. Except this one. It doesn't send me all the replies, just one each day. My daily reminder. And today it's reminding me that someone ate the little marscapone lemon cheesecake I left in the fridge. I took a bite before I put it in because I couldn't wait but had to run and figured I'd eat it later. Someone snagged it. And my God, how it haunts me. I need another. Badly. Soooo creamy and smooth. Yeah....women moan at Mel's place. Needin' a fix tonight.

My recent favorite has been Alice Medrich's shortbread crust. I've also done nut crusts in the past. I do a hazelnut crust for chocolate cheesecake and I do a macadamia crust for a coffee pie I do that is just good coffee, sugar, gelatin soft set and mixed in with whipped cream and turned out into a crust of macadamias and a little sugar thrown in the food processor and patted into a pie pan.

The lemon chibouste is by Richard Russell. Now that I'm looking at it, the recipe sounds really good. I'm not usually into lemon but it's doing something for me today. (Maybe I'm just hungry!) I think it might be a good jumping off point. Unless anyone else has a favorite they'd like to suggest, how about using this as the first dessert?

Duh. Yes, I could make my own cones, couldn't I ? Thanks, Wendy! I should have thought of that. It would be cheaper than buying the molds since I'm buying some sheets of acetate for other things anyway. I think picking a recipe for a jumping off point and then posting whatever we have whether it's the same recipe or not is a great idea. And I think every couple of weeks is a good time line.

I was flipping through the book last night and thinking that this might be kind of a hard one to pick a recipe and everyone make it like the other threads but it would be great to have a little show and tell. I've been dying to try one of the cone desserts. I'm going to go ahead and order some of the cone molds from JB Prince and go from there. What I've been obsessively thinking about this week is taking Branlard's exotic orange cake that we learned at the World Pastry Forum last year and see how many different ways I can shape the same recipe. I'd love to do it as one of these standing cone desserts. I think it would be great to play with as several variations of petit fours as well. If I had to start with one from the book though, it would probably be Wressel's cone.

There's also www.pollyscakes.com and I've been told that the best tasting cakes come from JaCiva's. I would think they would have someone talented enough there to do something not so white. (This coming from someone that loves plain white icing with lots of boldly colored fresh flowers. They've always been my favorite cakes. )

I've had all three of the Grand Finales books on my coffe table for awhile and I flip through them occasionally and think about the things I should make. Same with my recipe book from the World Pastry Forum and my PA&Ds. Sometimes I even get as far as buying ingredients but some how never get much beyond that. It seems to get lost in the pile of things I "should be" doing. Maybe this would be a good way to motivate me to actually do it. Anybody want to do a bake along? Maybe once every week or two pick a recipe and play? I've thought about it. Sometimes my problem is coming up with the ingredients. It's the same old problem of I can buy puree by the case at work but not an each container. Now that I've sourced out a local pastry chef willing to let me buy stuff off her, how much puree can my tiny freezer hold? One at a time. And then there's always the molds and equipment. I'm adding to my collection slowly and have found a few good sources but I don't have it all. I was looking at the plastic cones in the JB Prince catalogue but I don't want a whole bunch. Just one. Anybody have one out of a package they'd be willing to sell? I'd love to do one of the chocolate cone desserts that stand on the plate, either Norman Love's or Donald Wressel's. I think it would be fun. Anybody interested in playing along?

Here in the NW, a local chef friend swears by Mother's Choice, a less expensive brand, for all her baking.

Wow! Really beautiful cakes!

Sounds like it was a great experience! (drooling and tummy growling)

There was an old thread on meyer lemons here.

I don't get people either. I've always been one to drag my deathbed into work with me. Hey, my Mom had surgery and I've been doing meds every 2 to 4 hours since friday night and meals, laundry, cleaning up um, well, let's just say accidents, and the first day I've had someone to cover the daytime hours for me, did I sleep? No. My ass is here at work plugging away and I'm gearing up for the next three days of more and shopping on the way home. (And work is a total cluster today. I may run away screaming yet.) Life goes on. So do I.

If it's homemade, I can hardly wait for it to cool. I eat it warm. If it's Cozy Shack brand, I always do it cold. It's the perfect breakfast.

Good show over all and I thought Michael was the winner for sure! I was really surprised by the final scores. Hope you get a rematch Michael!

One of the guys tried some at the trade show at the WPTC last year and he said it wasn't half bad. Pretty damn good buzz from what I understand too. Don't recall which company it came from.

The "Amanda's Amore" is to die for!

As far as I know, they did the sugar showpiece challenge and the birthday cake challenge this summer (which hasn't aired yet) but I don't recall seeing the chocolate showpieces so I'm not sure when they made that one.

A good standing mixer, more flex-pans, production molds, a decent oven, a decent fridge and freezer, counter space (aka new kitchen/my own house) stuff to play with pulling/pouring sugar, lots of silicone to play with making my own molds, a bigger, better airbrush and a huge book shelf in the kitchen filled with all the books I want. My next major purchase will probably be Michael Joys mold making book.

Actually there's a new gold shop two doors down in the same building. I haven't checked it out to see what all they have yet. Seems like I'm always in the neighbor too late.

OMG! Thanks for sharing, Neil!

I was starting to work my way through it at one point and got off onto other things. I was working it at the same time as Claudia Fleming's Last Course and there are similarities. I've enjoyed it. I think what first turned me on was all the bavarians. (Searching for that childhood memory.) He does do some rather strong flavors which is okay if you like them. I found out that I don't care for black currents or campari but it has been a good learning process. I've thought about doing a "bake along with me" thing similar to the other threads going on here with that book.

I just checked the Foodnetwork website and they don't have it listed yet. They don't have any listing beyond the show that airs this week.

Good to know! Thanks! I've been searching for a less expensive source.