Confections! (2006-2012)

[khilde]

Well, in the interest of sharing what I do with chocolate, attached are some pics of a cake I just recently entered in a competition. I am one of those people who can't decide what they want to do when they grow up (cakes, chocolates, pastries, artisan breads????).

khilde

Edited May 2, 2007 by khilde (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Well, in the interest of sharing what I do with chocolate, attached are some pics of a cake I just recently entered in a competition.  I am one of those people who can't decide what they want to do when they grow up (cakes, chocolates, pastries, artisan breads????).  

khilde

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Looks gorgeous.

And why do you have to decide? Hell, why do you have to grow up?

[mrose]

The cake is beautiful. BTW growing up is over rated.

Mark

[Desiderio]

I agree!! I have the Peter Pan syndrome myself

Gourgeous cake

I was thinking this year my mother's day collection is almost the opposite of last year.I made mostly enrobed pieces versus molded.I guess is a different fase

Edited May 2, 2007 by Desiderio (log)

[GTO]

Stunning cake, khilde, really skillfully done.

I'm sure my Mum's living room looked like that at some point.

[khilde]

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. Compliments ALWAYS mean so much more coming from very talented people!! And it's nice to see I have such good company in the "not wanting to grow up" category!!

khilde

[Desiderio]

Hehehe Plenty of company here

[Kerry Beal]

Perhaps I should start another thread (oh wait - topic) called Confections - what have I screwed up royally today.

I had two samples of luster in a liquid base from Colorcon that I brought home from the PMCA this year. I decided to paint some in a couple of molds. Seemed a little thick and sticky and I had real trouble cleaning the brush afterwards. I was starting to get suspicous that something wasn't quite right.

When I knocked out the chocolates, they came out without any luster on them - which was good in that I can still use them because they look ok, just not very shiny - however I was left with a thick layer of luster that would not wash out of the molds.

Of course that was when it occurred to me that that sample was luster in shellac for finishing panned products.

Looks like alcohol will remove it from the mold, so right now my kitchen smells like overproof white rum - I'm prepared to sacrifice a mickey of the stuff that was sitting in the cupboard to get these molds clean.

[tammylc]

I actually made these a couple weeks ago when I was mostly focused on my Mother's Day production, and I'm just getting around to posting them now.

They are tests of some molds that someone is making for me. The Natural History museum at the university in my town has had 2 large concrete pumas at it's entrance for years, but with concerns about erosion, they sent them away to be cast in bronze. They're coming back this week, and on June 2 there's a big puma welcome home party. At which the first 200 people will receive the puma chocolate bar at the top of the picture. It's about 3 inches by 2 inches and weighs about 20 grams.

The larger puma at the bottom will be filled with a dark chocolate ganache and included in a box with some of my regular assorted chocolates and will be available for purchase as a fundraiser for the museum.

These tests are just from a rubber mold so that we could make sure there weren't any problems we weren't noticing. (Please excuse all the little bits of rubber from the not so clean mold.) The actual molds I'm using will be from food safe silicone, of course. The bars will be wrapped in foil. I'll be brushing the 3-D pumas with luster dust, since that matte finish from the silicone mold isn't so attractive.

I'm hoping to have the molds by Thursday so I can start churning out those bars. They're quite thin, so at least with the test one, set up quite quickly. Which is good, since I'm likely to only have 2 molds of 9 cavities each to work with, so I'm going to be turning the mold a lot. Any advice on keeping my chocolate in temper over the several hours it's going to take - I find it has a real tendency to overcrystallize on me...

[Kerry Beal]

I actually made these a couple weeks ago when I was mostly focused on my Mother's Day production, and I'm just getting around to posting them now.

They are tests of some molds that someone is making for me.  The Natural History museum at the university in my town has had 2 large concrete pumas at it's entrance for years, but with concerns about erosion, they sent them away to be cast in bronze.  They're coming back this week, and on June 2 there's a big puma welcome home party.  At which the first 200 people will receive the puma chocolate bar at the top of the picture.  It's about 3 inches by 2 inches and weighs about 20 grams.

The larger puma at the bottom will be filled with a dark chocolate ganache and included in a box with some of my regular assorted chocolates and will be available for purchase as a fundraiser for the museum.

These tests are just from a rubber mold so that we could make sure there weren't any problems we weren't noticing.  (Please excuse all the little bits of rubber from the not so clean mold.) The actual molds I'm using will be from food safe silicone, of course.  The bars will be wrapped in foil.  I'll be brushing the 3-D pumas with luster dust, since that matte finish from the silicone mold isn't so attractive.

I'm hoping to have the molds by Thursday so I can start churning out those bars.  They're quite thin, so at least with the test one, set up quite quickly.  Which is good, since I'm likely to only have 2 molds of 9 cavities each to work with, so I'm going to be turning the mold a lot.  Any advice on keeping my chocolate in temper over the several hours it's going to take - I find it has a real tendency to overcrystallize on me...

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These are going to be fabulous!!! Can't wait to see the finished pictures.

Keep a bowl of melted but untempered chocolate around and add that to dilute your over abundance of beta crystals. Remember that after you get over crystallized you can push the temperature up more - 34.5 dark, 32.5 milk.

A lot of work 18 at a time. See if you can find something to stiffen the back of the silicone mold, like a box or some hard plastic. It will make them easier to handle.

I don't envy you the foil wrapping - as I am foil wrapping impaired.

[tammylc]

These are going to be fabulous!!!  Can't wait to see the finished pictures.

Keep a bowl of melted but untempered chocolate around and add that to dilute your over abundance of beta crystals.  Remember that after you get over crystallized you can push the temperature up more - 34.5 dark, 32.5 milk. 

A lot of work 18 at a time.  See if you can find something to stiffen the back of the silicone mold, like a box or some hard plastic.  It will make them easier to handle. 

I don't envy you the foil wrapping - as I am foil wrapping impaired.

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Thanks for the tips, Kerry! I don't envy me the foil wrapping either. I've got a few people lined up to help, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I knew it was going to be obnoxious, but it seemed the easiest and cheapest way to package them.

Anyone know of a foil wrapping demos anywhere I should be checking out?

[John DePaula]

I haven't done a lot of foil wrapping myself - I have a severe allergy to wrapping caramels - but I've seen that once the solid chocolates pieces are wrapped, you can then rub them with a soft cloth to bring out all the detail. Hope this helps.

[zoe b]

I realize that I'm only in kindergarten in terms of candy making compared to the beautiful things you all are showing, but I did make candy for the Mothers for Mother's Day.

I made Butter Nut Crunch for my Mom--a standard that i can make in my sleep, and it was fine as usual,

but my mother in law likes fudge, so I made her some--now my luck at fudge making is pretty non-existant, so i decided to try the Cook's Illustrated no fail fudge--well, it's easy enough, but I don't think it tastes like fudge--it doesn't have that slightly grainy texture that fudge should have--it's more like icing--she liked it and the hub likes it, but i'm not pleased.

Has anyone else made this? and what did you think?

Zoe

[gfron1]

Hey Zoe,

There's none of that "I'm not as good as Kerry Beal/Tammylc" stuff around here! Post pics - we want to see. Its all for the good of the cause!

[zoe b]

ok, I'm game--and i promise not to refer to my wormlike status again, gfron 1.

The crunch is in Houston so i can just show the fudge--you can see that it's more like ganache in texture than fudge.

[tammylc]

Hey Zoe,

There's none of that "I'm not as good as Kerry Beal/Tammylc" stuff around here!    Post pics - we want to see.  Its all for the good of the cause!

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This post totally made me boggle, because a year ago I wasn't posting my pictures, because I didn't think I was good enough!

Zoe - I'm not fudge expert, but I think that looks amazing. Want some!

[Kerry Beal]

Fudge looks good, but I know what you mean about the texture. Someone sent me a recipe for fudge and asked me to fiddle with it and give it a longer shelf life. The weird thing was, it didn't actually get cooked. It was essentially a ganache made with sweetened condensed milk.

It tasted fine, but to me it wasn't fudge. I could see that it would make an interesting chocolate center however.

[Desiderio]

No fudge expert here ( never made it , is not in my culture plus I dont like it ) but you could take a pick to Kerry candy class , where there is a fudge recipe as well , I belive you could midfied to be a chocolate one with Kerry help.

Where's the link?

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...0entry1262270

Here , its very informative and lots of pics

Edited May 14, 2007 by Desiderio (log)

[Truffle Guy]

I actually made these a couple weeks ago when I was mostly focused on my Mother's Day production, and I'm just getting around to posting them now.

They are tests of some molds that someone is making for me.  The Natural History museum at the university in my town has had 2 large concrete pumas at it's entrance for years, but with concerns about erosion, they sent them away to be cast in bronze.  They're coming back this week, and on June 2 there's a big puma welcome home party.  At which the first 200 people will receive the puma chocolate bar at the top of the picture.  It's about 3 inches by 2 inches and weighs about 20 grams.

The larger puma at the bottom will be filled with a dark chocolate ganache and included in a box with some of my regular assorted chocolates and will be available for purchase as a fundraiser for the museum.

These tests are just from a rubber mold so that we could make sure there weren't any problems we weren't noticing.  (Please excuse all the little bits of rubber from the not so clean mold.) The actual molds I'm using will be from food safe silicone, of course.  The bars will be wrapped in foil.  I'll be brushing the 3-D pumas with luster dust, since that matte finish from the silicone mold isn't so attractive.

I'm hoping to have the molds by Thursday so I can start churning out those bars.  They're quite thin, so at least with the test one, set up quite quickly.  Which is good, since I'm likely to only have 2 molds of 9 cavities each to work with, so I'm going to be turning the mold a lot.  Any advice on keeping my chocolate in temper over the several hours it's going to take - I find it has a real tendency to overcrystallize on me...

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Tammy, very nice looking pieces. Did you use the molding materials from ChefRubber? Also, if you have done this before...how long will the molds last? Do they degrade or keep their form?

[gfron1]

Hey Zoe,

There's none of that "I'm not as good as Kerry Beal/Tammylc" stuff around here!    Post pics - we want to see.  Its all for the good of the cause!

←

This post totally made me boggle, because a year ago I wasn't posting my pictures, because I didn't think I was good enough!

←

I've been thinking about your comment (above). This is exactly the point. I remember when you were throwing tons of questions out for the pros, and look at where you are now. I also remember my earlier pastry pics and see how far I've come. EG is such an incredible resource - so much knowledge, and so many people willing to share. I love seeing less experienced or beginning folks post their creations and ask questions - that's what makes EG so strong and so much fun.

[tammylc]

Tammy, very nice looking pieces.  Did you use the molding materials from ChefRubber?  Also, if you have done this before...how long will the molds last?  Do they degrade or keep their form?

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Thanks, Truffle Guy! I don't know any of the details of the mold making - my contact at the museum is doing that. I sent him links to Chef Rubber, but I think he's getting his silicone from another source, probably one that he uses for other projects. The test molds were just from some sort of rubber, not food safe.

I've not done this before, but give me a few weeks and I'll be able to report back!

[tammylc]

Hey Zoe,

There's none of that "I'm not as good as Kerry Beal/Tammylc" stuff around here!    Post pics - we want to see.  Its all for the good of the cause!

←

This post totally made me boggle, because a year ago I wasn't posting my pictures, because I didn't think I was good enough!

←

I've been thinking about your comment (above). This is exactly the point. I remember when you were throwing tons of questions out for the pros, and look at where you are now. I also remember my earlier pastry pics and see how far I've come. EG is such an incredible resource - so much knowledge, and so many people willing to share. I love seeing less experienced or beginning folks post their creations and ask questions - that's what makes EG so strong and so much fun.

←

I agree completely. I couldn't have done any of this without eGullet. Thanks everybody for continuing to be a source of support and information!

[zoe b]

Fudge looks good, but I know what you mean about the texture.  Someone sent me a recipe for fudge and asked me to fiddle with it and give it a longer shelf life.  The weird thing was, it didn't actually get cooked.  It was essentially a ganache made with sweetened condensed milk. 

It tasted fine, but to me it wasn't fudge.  I could see that it would make an interesting chocolate center however.

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yeah, Kerry, that's what this fudge recipe was--you used sweetened condensed milk--I thought it was worth trying as I haven't much luck with regular fudge, but now i'll take Desiderio's advice and attend your fudge class!!

And this is really an amzing Forum--I'm sure you all have been at forums where newbies are promply jumped on and made to feel small.

Zoe

[khilde]

Tammylc, I can hardly wait to see your finished "museum pieces"! They are going to be quite extraordinary. I realize you're not making the molds yourself, but it is something I have wanted to try. I noticed that the San Francisco Baking Institute (where I've taken several courses) was offering a class on making your own molds -- I think it was supposed to be sometime this month?

Anyway, I love your chocolates!

Khilde

[Kerry Beal]

I have made a silicone mold in the past, It's described earlier in this thread, post number 73. My attempts to link it here were unsuccessful. I bought food grade silicone, and it was really quite easy, just a matter of deciding which method to use to mold different items.