Banquet dessert menu

[Wendy DeBord]

Anyone care to share theirs, please? What are your best sellers? Anyone know of any good links to banquet dessert menus? In particular, I'd really love to see what the upscale hotels and restaurants are offering............

The reason for my interest, this coming year will be the first time that I've been in charge of coming up with our dessert banquet menu. I'm very interested in seeing how other companies write up their menus: descriptions, prices, what items they are doing.

My Chef wrote up last years menu I'd be happy to share it if anyone is interested?

[Ladybug]

I'm a home cook and I don't know anything at all about your question, but I'd still be interested in seeing your menu last year.

Thanks!

[nightscotsman]

lepatissier works on our banquet team, so hopefully he will see this thread and chime in with what they are up to.

I see a little bit of the stuff the banquet group does, and it ranges from standard cookies, cakes and tarts, to trays of petits fours, to totally over-the-top plated desserts. A few weeks ago they did a dessert for a thousand or so people with a theme of "fire and ice". All the plates were airbrushed with multicolored flames using cocoabutter. On top of that were disks of ice with a dry ice insert to produce a mist effect, and a selection of small chocolate deserts placed is slots molded into the ice. Right now they are working their little fingers to the bone building all these elaborate, round pastilage boxes, into which will be placed three custom molded chocolate compartments each with a different layered dessert.

If you ever wondered who actually produces desserts like those seen in pastry competitions - wonder no more.

[pastrymama]

You need to first consider the type of clientele and the type of banquets that are offered. I work at a private club and we offer many types of banquets so I have to have a menu for plated desserts for lunch and dinners. Different types for buffets, some are themed such as Italian or Mexican style, some are more upscale than others, some for working meetings etc. Here are some of the things I am doing for the winter.

lunch buffets may have fruit crisps, warm pudding cakes, winter fruit tarts, cakes, cookies and brownies

dinner buffets may have warm fruit crumbles, bread pudding, yule logs, chocolate tarts, passion fruit-raspberry tart, cheesecakes, and the ever popular miniature pastries

plated lunch and dinner dessert choices are warm chocolate cake, individual cheesecakes, apple crumble tarts, mini angel food cake with carmelized oranges, warm ginger cakes

I still have to come up with answers to special requests, and special desserts for the ladies fashion show luncheons. What I try to do is give them a choice of chocolate, fruits of the season, light for the ladies, We also have what they call a limited menu that will have 2 or 3 choices of entre and two desserts. Right now my choices for this winter are individual warm chocolate cakes and apple tortes, I always offer the chocolate cakes and change the other selection according to the season.

I think if you approach it the same way you do a holiday table it will give you a good start by deciding which flavors and how many choices you want to offer. The more choices the more of a pain it will be. Talk to your chef and find out how he likes to approach it and look at his last years menu and try to get an idea of what he would like.

I hope this has helped some and if you have other questions I'll be happy to try to help.

[Wendy DeBord]

Pastrymama, I too work at a private country club. They don't have seperate banquet menus for different purposes.............because we do any custom item they could desire. Typically at CC.'s in the slow months the manager firms up the next years schedule.......in doing so he sends out menus for their consideration, even though they don't have to comfirm their menu yet.

My ala carte menu is a completely seperate issue, as are buffets and all holiday events, ladies and mens functions too.

They like a seperate banquet menu partly to excite the host into purchasing an upgraded dessert product. A scoop of ice cream is the only dessert included in the basic price level. The reason for me starting this thread is to further educate myself on what others are doing, pricing and how they are writing up their menus. What my club has done in the past has room for improvement and I'd like to generate more sales/profit in our banquet desserts.

I have to run to work now, but I'll post what our menu is asap to share. Anyone doing desserts and selling them wholesale might find this interesting, like all our bakery owners-don't you all have a similar list/menu?

[Swisskaese]

Here are some interesting Dessert Banquet Menus:

Susanna Foo

Princeton Club

English Inn

University Club

Space Needle

The Peabody Hotel - Memphis

[Wendy DeBord]

This is our current banquet dessert menu. We do more volume then most country clubs so we need to keep with easy to make items and until recently (this past May) they didn't have a full time pc. Also we are a non for profit business so our prices are much lower then anywhere else.

New York Cheesecake, served with strawberry sauce: $3.50

Flavored Cheesecake, choice of strawberry or lemon drop: $4.00

Caramel Pecan Tart, fresh pecans, caramel, chocolate mousse and whipped cream: $4.00

Carrot Cake, layered spiced cake with cream cheese frosting: $3.00

Lemon Mist Cake, Yellow sponge cake accented with citrus syrup and lemon scented butter cream: $3.50

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake, chocolate sponge cakes layered with peanut butter mousse and covered in ganche: $3.50

Key Lime Tartlet, baked in a flaky butter crust: $3.00

Lemon Meringue Tartlet, baked in a flaky butter crust and lightly browned: $3.00

Bourbon Pecan Pie, baked in a flaky butter crust: $4.00

Apple Tart a la Mode, served with cinnamon gelato and caramel sauce: $4.00

Bread Pudding, served with a bourbon caramel sauce: $3.00

Tiramisu, espresso and liqueur drenched ladyfingers, with mascarpone and cream: $3.50

Fresh Fruit Tart, seasonal fruit and berries with pastry cream in a pastry shell: $4.00

Petit Fours, assorted mini pastries and cakes: $4.00

Assorted Parfaits, strawberry, raspberry, creme de menthe, or amaretto: $3.00

Flavored Gelato, Sorbet, or Sherbet: $2.00

The best sellers since I've been there are the apple tart, tiramisu, petit fours, parfaits and sorbet.

[DiH]

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake, chocolate sponge cakes layered with peanut butter mousse and covered in ganche

Jeeze, I was going to clean my monitor but after having read your menu, I've licked the screen clean. Would you mind sharing your recipe for the peanut butter mousse? That dessert sounds like it'd taste just like a Reese's PB cup.

Thanks!

Di

[Wendy DeBord]

This peanut butter mousse recipe is from Gale Gand. I double the amount of sugar she uses because the peanut butter we get at work is kind of harsh. The better your peanut butter, the better your mousse.

2/3 c. peanut butter

1 c. milk

1 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. xxxsugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. gelatin

2 tbsp. h20

Bloom gelatin in h20. Heat milk, pour into peanut butter and mix to combine until smooth. Whip cream with vanilla and xxxsugar. Combine by heating the gelatin to dissolve add it into the peanut butter mixture, when mixture is close to room temp. fold in whipped cream.

I agree with your point Pastrymama,"The more choices the more of a pain it will be. " This makes me wonder how big places write up their dessert menus. From what you wrote Neil your place would need a multi paged menu.............surely they have simplified their written menu and mentioned custom desserts available, no?

What about your plate selection, do the big hotels have many selections? When we do a big party or multiple small ones I'm forced to use dessert plates that are smaller then our salad plates. I've yet to design anything that looks great on those.

What's your best sellers Pastrymama? Do you do all your own plating? What about your hot or warm desserts..........do you adjust your schedule to be there at all hours for those?

[pastrymama]

Hi Wendy, the club I work at is part of a private community where milti-millionaire and billionaires have homes. Our membership is small, currently 350 but will never go over 450.

The reason I mention the rich people is because they can eat at any restaurant in the world, so when they are home they tend to want more simple, homey food. The only times I get to do really fancy or unusual desserts is for winemaker dinners and some formal banquets.

My best selling banquet desserts tend to be fruit based such as crisps and tarts, mini pastries and the warm chocolate cake. I make a lot of brownies and cookies in the spring and summer for buffets.

We have salad plates for desserts, but we never do more than 300 seated parties, any thing larger is a stationed buffet and they use side plates for those.

I work from 4-4:30 am to usually 2:00 pm Tuesday thru Saturday. I have an assistant that comes in at 12:30 pm Monday, Wednesday-Saturday. I take care of the breakfasts, lunches and make all the dinner party desserts. She takes care of dinners with help from the kitchen, or if it is a really important or extra fancy party I stay or come back for it. I also come in on Sunday if there is a large party or have a wedding cake. My assistant does all the everyday baking such as muffins, healthy snacks for the fitness center, bread, cookies and some of the buffet desserts. We also have to plate the dining room desserts.

[DiH]

peanut butter mousse recipe

Thanks, Wendy... can't wait to try it!

Di