petits gateaux and delizie

[ShoeBox Oven]

Newbie baker asking some newbie questions

I am looking to do small desserts for a restaurant. Though I know how to do large portions, I'm wondering how the experts do small yet precise portion sizes.

What type of molds are used and particularly for the cakes, how are they assembled and cut? Is a guitar used or are they cut by hand. Any help?

would a regular ring mold be used? and does anyone know what those clear dots are? i've seen them on various desserts as decorations

is there a certain ring mold for something like this?

i imagine this is baked in a silicon mold, but i've never seen anything with this shape before.....

generally, how is a cake like this assembled and cut? is the cake baked in a sheet and then cut in layers and then assembled in between the cream, then refrigerated, then cut freehand or with a guitar?

i'd like to hear back from anyone who can help. just looking for some general guidelines.

[ShoeBox Oven]

ping. bump. anyone got a clue?

[HQAntithesis]

Nice place that. Spent $50 on my first visit... it was delicious ! Have you tried their passionfruit macarons and black sesame chocolates?

The first one is a creme caramel.. so no cutter/mould was needed. It was set (baked?) inside the plastic cup it's sold in. Not sure about those 'pearly' things on top.

The second one consists of different components: sponge, mousse and croquant plus a few others. The sponge was probably baked off in sheets then cut out with a cutter and then assembled either in a small oval shaped metal ring or a silicon form. The top part was probably done by piping a 'dam' of some sort as it isn't 'perfect' positioned in relation to the edge.

For the last two, yes the baked components probably were done in sheets, but thin sheets as opposed to a slab which would then need to be cut into layers. After assembling it would probably be frozen and a portion thawed and cut/finished as required. Whether you use a guitar or some other sort of device as opposed to dividing and cutting it manually would depend on the scale of the operation. I'm not sure what they use at that shop.

Hope that helps.

[ShoeBox Oven]

thank you for the input. demarle has a good demo too:

http://www.demarleusa.com/flexipatdemo2.wmv

[oli]

thank you for the input. demarle has a good demo too:

http://www.demarleusa.com/flexipatdemo2.wmv

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Do you know if anyone has a smaller flexipat? It sure would come in handy at home.

[alanamoana]

i imagine this is baked in a silicon mold, but i've never seen anything with this shape before.....

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this could be a ring mold or a silicone mold. it looks like the raised edge is piped on after the fact and the entire dessert is then sprayed with chocolate to give it the velvet texture you see.

ring molds and silicone molds come in so many shapes now. note that ring molds are a lot easier to unmold. the demo video from demarle that you linked to is a great example of ease of use, but that is a large flat mold with low edges under perfect working conditions with a professional pastry chef. even silicone muffin pans are extremely difficult to unmold. the item needs to be firm enough not to tear and usually has to be frozen solid (as in the video -20C?) in order to unmold cleanly. so consider your work space and what you have available to you.

the pink clear gel on the first dessert you posted is probably just that. depending on the dessert, they probably made a thick gel out of a sugar syrup (maybe with a touch of food coloring or fruit juice) and piped little spheres on top of the dessert for garnish.

if the company who made these desserts is a large one, then they probably have a guitar cutter for the cakes like the following: go to 'professional cake cutter'.

if you're doing small volume, then a machine like that is too expensive and you'd be doing it by hand.

[alanamoana]

there is also this website, which makes plastic molds for mousse cakes (full sized)

and these, which you can use to make quantities of individual items in different shapes. most of these are meant to be made with sponge cake around the outside and filled with whatever you want on the inside.

[ShoeBox Oven]

thank you. i'm collecting a list of sites now. that could be helpful for people, like me, looking for molds, ingredients, etc...

by the way, i never had to freeze silicone molds for release. they have always worked well for me once the pastry has cooled.

anyone know where i can get a really large rectangular frame....one that is at least 4" deep? i've seen the stackable frames, but the one in the demarle video is not a stackable frame. it just looks like one big piece. any ideas?

[alanamoana]

jbprince.com

pastrychef.com

[ShoeBox Oven]

alanamoana

is there a link to a 4" deep frame? i did not see any products listed.

[NickLam]

Hi Shoebox Oven,

Seeing that the pastries are from Canele, I assume that you are from Singapore. You can find cake frames of several sizes and depths at Phoon Huat stores dotted around the island. http://www.phoonhuat.com/

If you are looking for mousse rings and different types of shapes as seen in JBPrince or PastryChef.com, you might want to head down to Chinatown to Sia Huat and the other store a few doors down. http://www.siahuat.com/

You will be able to find a mousse ring that is similar in shape and size to that custard thingy you posted. They cost me like 2.60 each at 250 pieces, so for maybe 4 or 5, you will be looking at $3 to $4 each? They are awesome as there are no seams.

For the spheres, they are drops of cooked glucose.

Hope this helps.

By the way, most of the recipes can be found in Pierre Herme's pro books. One outfit in Singapore copies Pierre Herme's PH10 recipes exactly. Well, not really, coz they look the same and even bear the same names like Ispahan and Arabella, but flavour wise, it is so inferior that I am even ashamed that they are from Singapore.

Edited March 27, 2007 by NickLam (log)

[sugarseattle]

One thing I once saw another pastry chef do was cut a bunch of 3" plastic plumbing pipe using a chop saw to the desired height..he then had a ton of rings to setup his individual mousse cakes for like pennies. Of course you can't bake in these, nor can you use a torch to release the cakes from the molds, but for certain cakes, that could save a bunch of bucks since those molds can get pretty spendy!