Professional pastry pictures

[kitwilliams]

Terrific cake, Wendy. Terrific EVERYTHING to all who've posted photos here!

With a red dragon like that and the name "Dylan", he's got to be Welsh!

Iechyd da !!!

[oli]

^ ditto on that. What beautiful pictures.. everything looked so nice and yummy! Good lord..

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my kinda breakfast

[Patrick S]

Auesome work mpshort!  I LOVE the sharp edges you get on your cakes. Which method do you use to achieve that perfection?

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I'm curious too. You can't get that perfect an edge with a spatula and turntable, can you?

[RuthWells]

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post some stuff soon as my website maybe up in the very near future and I will be doing a wedding expo for Bloomingdales

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how do u put up a pic?

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Psst -- if you PM Wendy, she'll send you instructions. I figured out how to get a few pix posted by accident a while back, but couldn't tell you how I did it for love, money, or pastry.

I wanna see more pix!

[DiH]

Okay even though I'm way out of my league here...

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Oh contrare, mpshort... I've just come from your website and your work is absolutely amazing!

How lucky you are to be living on such a beautiful island. I was there in June, fell in love with all of the gorgeous flowers... and planted 18 hibiscus plants when I got back home.

Like others, I have the same question for you: How do you achieve the flawlessly smooth top/sides when icing your cakes? Inquiring minds want to know.

Di

Edited to say: Another demonstration thread, maybe?

Edited September 3, 2005 by DiH (log)

[chefpeon]

I'm curious too. You can't get that perfect an edge with a spatula and turntable, can you?

Sure you can. Just takes a little practice.

I do it all the time.

edited to say: Ok, not a spatula.....I use a turntable and that paint-masker tool thingy that I have discussed on several other threads. Like this one.

Edited September 3, 2005 by chefpeon (log)

[mpshort]

Thanks everyone! and sorry it's taken me so long to respond; we've been getting slammed at work and I had this wedding cake to make:

This is the only description the MOB would give me for this cake:

the look should be of a pretty pristine moist cake  sitting with the woodland nature effect going over it like looking into

a corner of the forest floor. Seeing green ti leaves/perhaps bark below the cake and orchids and these tiny ferns. Perhaps some moss

in the bright green as well, might be spun sugar/ or I can bring you my real moss? Dew like effects.What ever looks like Hilo

forest floor. You can make tiny branches  as you showed me on your orchid cake effect.

Yet very simple, and natural. People will look and wonder, how perfect the cake is relating to the natural world. Pristine and perfect. simple

Everything except the moss (that's colored rice noodles is gumpaste: cymbidium, oncidium and dendrobium orchids, ohia bark, uluhe ferns (curly burgundy things). The branches are chocolate covered floral taped wires.

I use a cake icer tip, an offset spatula and a dough knife/bench scraper to ice. I use a cooked sugar, all butter buttercream. I apply the icing using the tip and a large pastry bag, spread everything evenly with the spatula and then use the dough knife to smooth.

Edited September 5, 2005 by mpshort (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Absolutely gorgeous! I think you exceeded any dreams the mother of the bride may have had. Your edges just blow me away.....................

[DiH]

Everything except the moss (that's colored rice noodles is gumpaste: cymbidium, oncidium and dendrobium orchids, ohia bark, uluhe ferns (curly burgundy things).  The branches are chocolate covered floral taped wires.

I use a cooked sugar, all butter buttercream.

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Wow, wow, wow!!! I'm sure that everyone was simply blown away.

What baffles me now is how you prevent the weight of the decor from sinking into/smooshing such a soft icing.

Di

[Tepee]

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Hi

I've never used isomalt before and bought some (for months now) just so that I could one day produce that effect. Finally, I've something which requires that now. On melting the isomalt, do you need to add some water to it? Or just melt it as it is? Thanks in advance!

[Drewman]

10% water in the bottom of the pan.

[Tweety69bird]

You can melt it as is. Easy peasy.

[Tepee]

Great! Thanks!

[Drewman]

Had to do a TV appearance yesterday Here's my studio set up.

Closeups:

Chocolate Sampler Plate

Chocolate, Peaches & Raspberries

Black & White Cake, Tropical Chocolate "Shots" & White Chocolate Strawberry Pistachio Cake

Chocolate Raspberry Cake, Strawberry Cheesecake Dome & Carrot Pineapple Cake

White Chocolate Mandarin Cake

[sanrensho]

Had to do a TV appearance yesterday Here's my studio set up.

Wow...inspiring stuff. Are those bavarian top layers for the carrot pineapple cake and strawberry pistachio cake? I would also love to see a close-up of the chocolate cake with the inlaid tile-like finish.

Edited January 23, 2006 by sanrensho (log)

[ohmyganache]

Nice pix!

[Wendy DeBord]

Auesome..........thanks for sharing........

How'd the TV spot go?

Oh man.......do you guys get an endless supply of Hershey candies, etc... to use in your sets ups? That would be fun.

[ablosh]

WOW! Creative play with textures, vibrant colors and various shapes! These are all great pictures that I can only dream of making...

Maybe in a far someday I will.

[shaloop]

I use a cake icer tip, an offset spatula and a dough knife/bench scraper to ice.  I use a cooked sugar, all butter buttercream.  I apply the icing using the tip and a large pastry bag, spread everything evenly with the spatula and then use the dough knife to smooth.

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Is there any chance we could get an actual recipe for the icing? I'm sure you're very busy and I'm not in any hurry But I"d love it if you can spare it. Your cakes are gorgeous! (Just left your website.)

[mpshort]

Thanks! the IMBC recipe is the Mousseline recipe from the "Cake Bible". Off the top of my head:

2 cups of sugar cooked to firm ball stage,

1 1/2 cups of egg whites + 1/2 cup of sugar (added gradually until stiff but still glossy)

Add the cooked sugar syrup while continuing to whip the meringue

Whip until cool

Add 2 1/2 pounds of softened butter ( I decrease the speed when adding the butter)

Add flavorings (for vanilla I add 2 oz of vanilla extract)

Here's a photo of a cake I did last weekend:

I actually caught a drunk groomsman sticking his finger into the top tier . Before I could stop myself, I turned into "crazed cake decorator" and chased the man down I gave him a few choice expletives about his behavior and he promptly apologized...... although I did get a phone call from the bride (a good friend of mine) and apparently the repentant groomsmen made a full confession complete with how "the crazy lady that made the cake caught me"

[ablosh]

I actually caught a drunk groomsman sticking his finger into the top tier   .  Before I could stop myself, I turned into "crazed cake decorator" and chased the man down I gave him a few choice expletives about his behavior and he promptly apologized...... although I did get a phone call from the bride (a good friend of mine) and apparently the repentant groomsmen made a full confession complete with how "the crazy lady that made the cake caught me"   

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Whahahahaha!!! That's a wedding to remember, alright!

[Sugarella]

Everybody's stuff looks great! I wish more people were posting their pics. I'd love to see more.

Drewman I have to ask;

How exactly did you go about making the pattern for the Black & White Cake? And with the White Chocolate Mandarin Cake, I'm assuming you iced as normal, then used a template to remove the teardrops then filled? Or did you do it another way? The rest I think I can figure out.....

And one more..... I do love the look of cut cake presented....but don't you find the edges dry out because they're exposed cake, or is there something you put around the perimeter of these to keep that from happening?

Thanks.

[andrewB]

chefpeon Posted Today, 03:08 PM

I wanna know how you make that Tuile Dentelle!!!!!

Tuile Dentelle Chocolate:

Butter 100g

100% Chocolate 100 g (unsweetend)

Glucose 80 g

Sugar 300 g

Pectin 5 g

Cocoa Powder 20 g

Water 160 g

In a small pan, melt butter, chocolate, and glucose. Add the sugar, pectin, and cocoa powder off the heat. When combined, add water and bring to rolling boil. It should be the consistancy of bechemel. Chill. At this point, we just keep it in the walk-in until we need a sheet or two. So you spread it evenly and thinly on a silpat. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes (at the thickness we do it). You can tell when it's done because it bubbles up a lot while baking, and when the bubbles slow down, you take it out. If it's not baked enough, it doesn't snap as well... it kinda bends a bit. It also over-bakes very soon after it's done...

may i ask out of curiosity why you are using metric measurements for your recipes in SF?

[bripastryguy]

Drew,

Was the top on the cakes the texture and graphic sheets used for bisquit or was it stenciled chocolate or ganache. Very impressed, very impressed!

[Drewman]

To answer some questions:

sanrensho - The Carrot Pineapple Cake is topped with Cream Cheese Mousse, the Strawberry Pistachio is topped with White Chocolate Mousse & sorry, but I didn't get a closeup of the Vanilla Rum Caramel Cake (screwed up again)

Wendy DeBord - We pay for Hershey's Chocolate just like everyone else however, I get to use a ton of it as garnish to keep up the Chocolatetown, USA image.

Sugarella - The Black & White Cake (as well as the 2 to the left) are made with a cold set transfer sheet. You put it on a sheet pan with a frame mold and build the cake upside down. Freeze it overnight & the image is transfered onto the mousse. The White Chocolate Mandarin Cake is made in a mold from pcb-creation (they have the cold transfer sheets too) and then sprayed with white chocolate. And the cakes I used all have nut paste or nut flour in them which helps to prevent moisture loss. Besides, a dessert buffet only lasts and hour or two.