eG Foodblog: Wendy DeBord - Dessert, the most important meal.

[JeanneCake]

wow.. my 9yr old got up in the middle of the night (kids never wake up DAD, do they!!! ) and as I was lying in bed, thinking I'd drift back to sleep, I suddenly remember I hadn't caught up on your blog, and I'm addicted! I don't want your blog to end!

Please, please teach me/us to do those joconde cookie minis - they will blow away my restaurant client for Mother's Day. I usually have leftover flavored meringue buttercreams from building my cakes, so could that work for the centers? Or do you use a neutral mousse base so it is freeze stable?

I'm ok on making joconde - I have a biscuit recipe that is the base of all my individual cheesecakes, but it is too thick for this; I know I have joconde formulas from classes I took years ago and this is the perfect excuse to buy one of those silicone forms that have the patterns on the back - but the reality is that I will probably just do a two tone pattern with a comb due to time constraints. Gisslen's book has a few photos I could use for reference.

Enjoy your day off, you've earned it! Cue music: "you're unbelieveable" (I have no idea who sings that, it just came to mind)

[Chufi]

wow, those minis!

For some reason the rows and rows of minis are even more impressive to me than the large cakes.. maybe because I am imagining you carefully positioning pistachios on little cake after little cake after little cake...

I think I need to get me some of that flavored water you're drinking, maybe it'll give me some of your energy!

[Smithy]

Add me to the list of people thinking, "No, really, we're reading, we just don't know what to ask or say!" Even praise along the lines of "you're awesome" or "I'm stunned" is nice to hear/read, but it doesn't necessarily generate discussion.

Thanks for showing the petit fours en masse trick. I'm just a home cook with little chance of needing that, but I fantasize about making something, say, for a bake sale. That's a great trick.

How do you get the layers of your cakes so incredibly thin? The joconde comes to mind, but the petit fours have multiple thin layers too. I suppose you bake them separately. How do you transfer them without breakage?

[Wendy DeBord]

How do you get the coloured patterns on the outside of the joconde? Airbrush and stencil?

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Good morning. While my hubby is out chasing for lox and bagels I thought I'd drop in and see what's happening here. I'm drinking this:

While I'm reading and typing.

The answer to the above question: There's several ways to creat images in pastry work. For the joconde cake I use many methods. Mostly I like to draw with a pastry bag because I can do very specific images that you can't easily buy a shortcut method to do. Being an artist, I find this fun and rather ease to do. I suppose I could get pretty elaborate creating images but usually I'm just creating some sort of pattern that I think will look good. I have alot of photos that aren't digital, since I've only had my digital camera for like 2 years. Here's a photo of a photo (sorry) it's a cake I did for a halloween buffet a few years back. Using a pastry bag and tip I drew out the cob web pattern. Later I drew out cob webs in chocolate to insert on top of the cake to reenforce the pattern:

Oops, breakfast has arrived........I'll return as soon as possible to finish this line of thought.

[Darcie B]

I haven't had time to post before, but all I can say is WOW! I wish there was a CC around here that had a pastry chef 1/2 as good as you. Even 1/3 as good would be great! I don't belong to any CC's, but have been to receptions, etc. and I'm pretty sure none of them even have a PC, especially after eating some of their schlock passed off as dessert.

You're photos are inspiring. I am hosting a bridal shower in a few weeks and will attempt some minis due to this inspiration (if they don't work out I will be cursing you under my breath....just kidding...but I will be cursing).

If I thought anyone in this area would ever hire a PC I would go get a pedigree and apply...most people around here think that whipped cream frosting on the cheapest cake mix you can buy is heaven on a plate, so I just bake for my friends.

I have to show my husband this blog because he thinks I'm weird for wanting sweet things for breakfast, and for wanting dessert with every meal. Thank you for sharing. I may even attempt the joconde; that dessert on the shortbread just kicks ass!

[Pam R]

I'll show you an example of each.

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Thanks Wendy. Your blog came at a great time - I'm about to start a new venture at work and you've inspired me. Though I doubt I'll ever get to your level, you've given me some great ideas and I promise to work on my own techniques.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[ruthcooks]

I'm enjoying this blog immensely...would love to know the composition of each and every dessert, but that would probably make me hunger for them even more.

Now I see why restaurants have pastry chefs, all the special gadgets and ingredients and techniques that are required. I'll never understand, though, how you accomplish so much in a day.

In admiration...

Ruth

[Wendy DeBord]

This was good:

a nice start to the day.

I used vidala onions, but they were still to hot so I wound up picking them off.

I'm eating a store bought cannoli as I'm typing away. It's not bad at all!...........but then I'll eat any cannoli good or bad it doesn't matter.

Looks like I'll be vacuming my key board soon. We have our first 'sort of' gourmet grocery store with in a easy drive. I don't know if it's a big chain of stores or small, it's called Joesph's. It's not large and most of the items aren't "fancy" but at least they have specialty items no other store around carries. Finally I can easily get the ingredients I want for my meatballs and gravy! I notice they have catus already chopped in packages to go...........I guess I should decribe the main product of this store as 'ethnic foods' and that's great! I'm sooooo burned out on our big chain grocery stores. I had an "iccident" at one not too long ago and I've vowed not to return there.

What happened was, I gave the cashier my keychain that holds my Jewel card for writing checks and getting their 'special deals' that only card carrying members get, HA.....rip off. Things are going fine, I'm at the end of the order/purchase and I look to my grocery cart and notice that the tomatos I've purchased aren't in the top basket........they are buried in with all the heavy stuff (that drives me crazy inside). This store employees handicapped baggers...........no big deal, I'll just dig my tomatos out put them up in the basket and go home. While I'm digging thru the bags looking for the tomatos my casher comes around toward the cart to help me search (god knows I can't search alone). During the time she steps down by me a new cashier slips in behind the registar............and before I can blink the next customers stuff is coming down the belt hitting my stuff which I had place up there while I was searching for the impossible to find tomatos. I find my tomatos finally after two customers behind me had been checked out. As I step two registers down toward the door to leave I realize I don't have my keys. The cashier never returned them to me. So I quickly go back, mention what happened and search for my keys. NOW I'm suddenly capable and can search all by myself. But I'm in the way, I can't go behind the register and check there too. I politely go up to the service desk and mention exactly what's happened. The lady behind the desk says something like, "did you look in your purse?", then "maybe they fell into your bags as you were searching for the tomatos?", that after I told her the cashier never handed my keys back to me. UURg. I go to an empty register and totally empty my groceried from the bags, no keys. I empty my purse turning it upside down, no keys! I've got an audience of cashiers watching me struggle. "Did you check your pockets?"...........I didn't have any pockets in that clothing. So I repack my groceries get myself back together and think, "what next", I can't get home with-out car keys. AND slowly I stew, and stew and stew.

I went back and insisted I speak to the store manager. He wanders up and researches everything I just searched twice....still no keys.........and no signs of apologies from the cashiers watching my new sport/hobby, key searching.....no signs of the manager really caring. I finally had enough and took control of the situation and began demanding an apology and told him what he should do to recktify this. I got him to research who the people were behind me and call them to see if they accidently picked up my keys. No luck! Oh...........now I remember it was Valentines day because I had to call my hubby to come save me from this store and I got lucky that he was almost home, so I had a short wait.

I called that store multiple times and they never did turn up my keys. So from now on, I will never ever shop at a store that makes me hand over my keys to them while they swipe my discount card (their so expensive their discount still makes them the highest priced store around). I hope sharing this silly story will prevent that from happening to anyone reading here. Why us women are polite while "stuff" is happening.........I just don't know! I should have been forceful and asked the casheir to STOP and stop checking out people behind me while I was obviously in distress. Soooooooo live and learn. I had to go to work and tell my boss/Chef that I lost my keys and needed new ones...........that's humiliating at my age. He still teases me about that. end of story.........

I went to Joesphs the first day they opened and fought thru the crowds. I picked up an Italian bread like a cabiatta and was so excited to have that with dinner. When I tasted it, it was just horrible....than to add insult to injury my olive oil stinks. It's not at all similar to what you'd find in a restaurant for bread dipping. So I'm excited to now have so many options for evoo. Before I do, I wanted to ask around here for a name of good breading dipping oil.....anyone? This store has the largest selection of evoo I've ever seen so chances are good I can find whatever brand is suggested.

Oh guess what, I did buy some vegetables and healthy items. Now I just hope I'm up to bothering to cook them. I found a new brand/type of instant fake cappuccino at Joesph's: I bet your excited to see me drink something different on my last day tommarow!

While I was away shopping my Hubby and I stopped at Arby's for a late lunch. I got a rueben and he got a super. If you don't mind fast food, the rueben is really quite good considering. They don't toast the bread, it's soft marbled rye, but all and all it's pretty decent. Since we ate a late lunch and then came home to snack on cannoli we won't eat a dinner tonight. Perhaps some popcorn later at the most.

[BROWNSUGA]

I love your blog!!

You should have a WARNING/CAUTION sign posted on the front page of this blog! I thought I was full when I sat down to read through your blog. Now, my mouth is watering!! I want to "reach out and touch" each and every photo that you have on here!! Everything looks so delicious! Now, I am forced to go and eat some leftover cake........with a tall glass of milk!!!

Edited April 17, 2005 by BROWNSUGA (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Since you all are indulging me, I thought I'd dig out some older photos that I have in my portfolio for fun. None of these are digital so I'm taking digital shots of photographs. You might see my shadow as I snapped some shots. Please look past that.

As I look at more of my work it seems that I have a shoe obsession that sneaks out on Mothers Day buffets......I really don't own alot of shoes but perhaps I like them more then my concience knows.

This first photo is something I copied out of a book. I made white chocolate cones for the heels of the shoes, leaving them hollow I filled them with mousse. The soles are made out of a cookie batter called tuiles, then the area around the toes was cotton candy that was supposed to represent fur, like a ladys fur slipper.

If your think your seeing double it's because I made the chocolate shoes for a Mothers Day where there were two seatings and they wanted everything the same at each party. So I saved the shoes from the first party and placed the on similar cakes for the second.

These are shortbread cookies. I frosted them all white and then airbrushed on using stencils for the patterns.

Next up is a cake I did that also for Mom's day. I swear to god, one of the older members picked up the cake by the thin chocolate handle thinking it was a real purse set down on the table. Thankgoodness you all have better eye sight.

Here's more goofy halloween shots..........I LOVE halloween, the whole dress up thing is great and ideas for sweet tables on that topic is endless:

The following was just like a gingerbread house but it was a haunted house. The house part came out just o.k. but I really enjoyed the witch flying into the chimney part. I got that idea from actual halloween decorations everyone was putting out on their trees that year.

This next shot is two photos, one over the other as I've placed them in my portfoliio. I really liked what I did on this sweet table. It was back when I worked at a slow club, so I had time to make anything I could think of. The witch is totally cake, to which I wrapped some black fabric we had on hand to make it sort of look like her body. I made hands out of white chocolate plastic that I dyed green. Her hands are "holding" the tray of culdruns. Each culdrun is a chocolate cake hollowed out and I put green colored vanilla pudding in the centers to be witches brew (remember kids are eating this so it has to be plain flavors). Then I had piped out mini (and I mean mini) frogs out of royal icing and placed them so they looked like they were trying to escape from the witches culdruns. I made everything on that table something to do with a witch. I had decorated cookies to look like brooms, cupcakes that were eyeballs (eyes of nute), 3D witches hats (cookies stuck together)..............stuff like that. I really love when I have time to put together a table with some thought. I wish my work was at a higher level then, but maybe one day I'll dig out that menu and remake it at my current job.

Here's more random photos of pastries I created and ate.

This first one is a wedding cake. The bride came to me with a heavily designed silk scarf that she loved and asked me to make a cake based on the designs on the scarf. All the flowers on this cake are real flowers coated in egg white, then fine sugar. This "coating" preserves the flower and as it drys it becomes firm. Maybe some of you are familar with candied violets? This is very similar except you go to great lengths to perserve the flowers appearance.

This wedding cake is a copy of a famous cake published by Martha Stewart. It's very common for brides to ask you to copy a cake they've seen in a magazine.

This next photo is several photos on one page of my portfolio. These cakes were done as centerpieces for a large party. I forget how many I had to make....somewhere around 20 cakes. The theme of the party was purple and gold. The base each cake is resting on is made from poured sugar and the garnishes on the cakes are all made from sugar too.

This next cake was another design that was used on all the tables as centerpieces in place of using flowers. I probably only made a dozen of these. The bees are made of marzipan and there are wires holding them up.

More bee's, here on a chocolate wrapped wedding cake.

I found a cake that shows more of what I was talking about when I said I use butterflies alot too. This butterfly is made out of royal icing, piped out. I also do them out of colored chocolate and will search for a photo of them out of chocolate.

One Easter I did a table on the chicken and the egg. Here's a little from that:

This photo doesn't show scale. It's really a huge table. The snowman was well over 2' tall. It was in the center of several tables pushed together then I put sweets around all sides of it.

This one from the opposite camera angle, the gingerbread house has written on it's page the Night Before Christmas and all thru the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.........which explains the chocolate mouse sleeping infront.

The next one was a buffet for a childrens christmas party. I was thinking about the nutcracker and all the sweets that a kid could dream of.

The next two shots are a gingerbread village that was a pretty exact duplicate of the town in which the country club was in. I made the windows out of poured sugar and the chef at that club rigged up lights that the house sat on so it would illuminate. It looked really cool at night in a darken dinning room where it sat.

[rjwong]

Wendy,

Do you make a men's dress shoe, size 11?

Your blog is just excellent, Wendy! You have not failed. The time & effort you have put into this blog, especially after work, are noted and greatly appreciated!!

You seem to have a wonderful Chef who understands your needs as a pastry chef. I sometimes read in other posts that PCs don't get the respect from their CCs.

Perhaps, your blog might change that. You definitely have my respect, Wendy!!

[redfox]

I have been very much enjoying catching up with your week, Wendy! I love your descriptions of the work you do, and the photos are great, too. The joconde cylinders are super cool -- I went and looked at the other thread where you explain how you use the tubes to form them, but was a little confused at how the acetate sheets work. Are they precut to the perfect size to fit the circumference of the tube?

[Wendy DeBord]

Thank-you Rjwong. Currently I work for the best chef I've ever had the pleasure to work for. He's young and was raised in the "business"...he's a total natural, he has no formal culinary education either. BUT he's a natural born leader too..........truely! I've never worked for someone as organized, respectful, intelligent, sharing, oh man..........I can go on and on. If I was his parent I would be so proud of him, if I was an unmarried young female I'd be chasing him around the parking lot. He's auesome!

In my past I've had some really horrible kitchen working experiences. Including racial and sexual discrimination running rampent over me. When I used to talk about it to others online they never understood what I was talking about. Why I was so negative. At one point I thought all working kitchens were run by horrible chefs. I'm very very pleased to have found a work enviroment that I can brag about and now I can understand that those kitchens aren't all kitchens.

Oh, and I'm the first pastry chef he's ever had work for him. I was just temp. help when I met him and he really fought to keep me and make me a full time employee. My job cut into an already tight budget and he doesn't complain about that at all.

[Wendy DeBord]

I went and looked at the other thread where you explain how you use the tubes to form them, but was a little confused at how the acetate sheets work. Are they precut to the perfect size to fit the circumference of the tube?

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No the acetate sheets are cut to the length of the tubes. The circumference is dictated by the circumference of the tube. It doesn't matter how wide the acetate sheet is because your rolling it into a tube shape that coincedently has your joconde cake in it.

Try to think of it as rolling up a news paper, you can do it loose or tight. Then your squeezing the news paper into a tube. The paper just rolls over into itself so it doesn't matter how wide the sheet is.

I hope that made sense.

[redfox]

Aha, got it. And then you just have to be smart enough to cut your cake to the right width.

[Wendy DeBord]

Aha, got it. And then you just have to be smart enough to cut your cake to the right width.

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Exactly! You've got it.

[Wendy DeBord]

If you have a mo, perhaps you could show/tell your knives and cutting equipment? I've always thought that even if I could ever bake a beautiful dessert, I could nevernevernever cut and plate it nicely! So how do you get your joconde biscuit sliced so thinly and evenly and rolled round your mousse into such a perfect cylinder?

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Pastry chefs have a completely different relationship with equipment then hot side chefs do. I use more dishes/pieces of equipment per day then probably both our morning and night crews. Hot side chefs rely mainly on cutting boards, knives and pans. For vertually ever task I use multiple pieces of equipment.

Just for example when I make a mousse, a very simple item. I need: a mixing bowl and whip, a bowl to melt my chocolate in, a scale, a spatula to touch my raw ingredients, a whisk to fold my mousse with, another spatula to touch my cooked ingredients, a bowl to store the item in.

When you work in a professional kitchen you become extremely savey on how to reduce the amount of dishes you generate. Currently we are with-out a morning dishwasher, so everything you need you've gotta wash yourself. That's not so easy when you don't work in the same room or floor as your dishwashing machine. So I have to cart my dirty dishes upstairs, wash them and bring them down. Most of the time I hand wash my mixing bowls in my sink downstairs and wash each one of them maybe a dozen times a day. I have two 40 qt. mixers, one 20 qt. and one small table top kitchen aide.

I took some photos of our upstairs kitchen and what specialty equipment I've purchased out of my own pocket. I'll load them up tommarrow and show you around more, let you see the great guys I work with too.

[Wendy DeBord]

Are those supposed to be brains? Awesome.

I don't know if they still have it, but Archee McPhee used to sell a brain-shaped mold with a recipe for greyish-colored jello. I always wanted one, I must admit.

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Sorry, I meant to get back to you earilier. Yep, those are supposed to be brains. What they really are is floating islands (poached meringues) floating on fresh strawberry sauce. I put food coloring into my meringues and then piped them into the poaching milk randomly. I was really worried that no one would know what they were supposed to be, yet alone taste them..........but my Chef told me they were the first items gone off that sweet table and they asked for more, that makes me happy.

I've never seen a brain shaped mold, but that's pretty cool.

[kthull]

Your sweet tables are incredible Wendy!

What are those little ghosts made out of? And how about the skulls? I'm always looking for new ideas for Halloween treats. Those are very cool.

You need to post more pictures in P&B. This is the best!

[Wendy DeBord]

How do you get the layers of your cakes so incredibly thin?  The joconde comes to mind, but the petit fours have multiple thin layers too.  I suppose you bake them separately.  How do you transfer them without breakage?

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The joconde cake is a specific cake designed to be very thin. You spread it very thinnly on your sheet pan. If you took that cake batter and made it into a deep cake, the cake would be dense and spongy. Likewise there are many cake batters that if you spread them as thinnly as the joconde they would bake up to be dry like cardboard. So you pick the right cake for the right circumstances.

As of yet I don't have a cake levelor, but I have instructions to buy one on the net this weekend for work and they'll re-imburse me......finally. Usually, it's easiest to bake your cake layers thin, but I've gotten fairly agile at slicing cakes. Having a long very thin serated knive is important. There are some cakes that I just can't slice horizontally nicely still, for instance: carrot cake-forget it........just bake it the right height the nuts and such don't like to be sliced horizontally. Oh, I'm talking about slicing whole full sized sheet cakes not smaller rounds.

I've had to learn how to handle them with-out breaking. over the years, I've never seen a pastry book address that issue. I find the very best way to handle cake is while it's frozen. You slice it when it's not frozen, but you freeze it and you can man handle it with-out worry. When my cake is soft or not frozen I insert a cardboard cake circle underneath it to prevent it from flexing and breaking. Then I carry it around on the cardboard and slide it off the cardboard onto the next layer.

[Wendy DeBord]

Please, please teach me/us to do those joconde cookie minis - they will blow away my restaurant client for Mother's Day.  I usually have leftover flavored meringue buttercreams from building my cakes, so could that work for the centers?  Or do you use a neutral mousse base so it is freeze stable?

I'm ok on making joconde - I have a biscuit recipe that is the base of all my individual cheesecakes, but it is too thick for this; I know I have joconde formulas from classes I took years ago and this is the perfect excuse to buy one of those silicone forms that have the patterns on the back - but the reality is that I will probably just do a two tone pattern with a comb due to time constraints. Gisslen's book has a few photos I could use for reference.

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Have you looked at the thread I posted that leads to a more detailed discussion on this in the Pastry & Baking Forum? That explains it pretty well, I think. But I'm happy to talk more about it.

I'm not sure I would be crazy for filling the centers with frosting. That would be auefully rich and maybe too much frosting to cake ratios. But you certainly can do that if you like it. You can fill the centers with almost any filling. From creme brulee's/custards............oh many any sort of non cake filling, frosting, mousses you can think of. Theres more things that you can fill it with then not. If you don't want to make seperate cookies to place each one on you can dip the bottoms in melted chocolate to 'seal' the bottom creating a 'foot'.

All the recipes I use for mousse are freeze stable, no probelms there. You can make mousses too. They're not any harder then making buttercream. If you need help please don't hesitate to ask.

[Wendy DeBord]

I'm ok on making joconde - I have a biscuit recipe that is the base of all my individual cheesecakes, but it is too thick for this; I know I have joconde formulas from classes I took years ago and this is the perfect excuse to buy one of those silicone forms that have the patterns on the back - but the reality is that I will probably just do a two tone pattern with a comb due to time constraints. Gisslen's book has a few photos I could use for reference.

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Oops, I forgot to mention that I posted the recipe for joconde cake and cigarette paste on the same thread where we talk about how to do this. Look here.

If your cake has a lot of pattern to it, it probably will negatively effect what you can do with it. It probably won't roll as tight as you want and fit in smaller circumfernce tubes.

[Wendy DeBord]

What are those little ghosts made out of? And how about the skulls? I'm always looking for new ideas for Halloween treats. Those are very cool.

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Ah Kevin, my night time web freind...........welcome.

The ghosts were cupcakes covered in rolled fondant. The skulls are white coating chocolate covered apples with licorice hair. I got both ideas out of books.

[purplewiz]

Every time I open this thread, I sit here and whimper. Just quietly whimper.

Punctuated every once in awhile with "hey, Honey, c'mere, you have GOT to see this! Yes, that's EDIBLE!"

Marcia.

[arbuclo]

Wendy, my dear, you described yourself as an artist and nothing could be more true. Wow, wow, wow! Post all the pictures you want of your beautiful creations. :-) I'm in awe of such talent.

Can you give advice on how to cut sheet cakes (or pans of brownies) into even pieces? I never seem to be able to do it even with an 8x8 pan!