HELLO KITCHEN THIS IS THE CAKE DECORATING CHAT HOUR WELCOME TO ALL NEWCOMERS TO OUR LIVE CHATS! WE ARE CHATTING ABOUT CAKE DECORATING..9-10PM EST...
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Topic: "Tricks of the trade" - ways to make it easier. If we couldn't 'cut a few corners" I suppose I wouldn't be happy. At our shop we are always looking for ways to organize and improve our shop and our cakes, making things go faster and smoother. Below are some of the things we do that perhaps save us a lot of time. Later I am going to ask you to share your thoughts on 'cutting corners' too...during open mike.
METRIC WONDER CUP - this is a special measuring cup we use for measuring shortening and other ingredients. It is Available in 1 or 2-cup size. We use the 2-cup size only. The 1-cup isn't big enough. This is a cylinder with a cup inside. The reason I like it so much is because you pack the cup with shortening, we just slide the shortening out with no mess at all. We carry these in our shop for $5.99. They are also available from pampered chef at a much higher price. (see a picture of this on my web site under: "cake photos, etc to share"
SPEAKING OF ICING! - for Rich's cream cheese icing we add our cream cheese filling to buttercream icing. This is safe and requires no refrigeration. You'll need to experiment some as to how much. Guidelines...I add 1/2 cup or a little more. It will thin the icing too much if too much is used. ...or...for white chocolate icing, we melt white chocolate coating and add it to our white buttercream. Do dark chocolate the same way (this is delicious too...I like to use semi-sweet for the dark). Peanut butter icing you say...just add peanut butter to buttercream --- or add it to chocolate buttercream. I've had this and it is so good.
PAN SPRAY - we use a commercial pan spray by Karp's...so much faster than grease/flour or, even using pan grease. (pan grease I use to use: equal parts Crisco & flour & enough cooking oil to thin to an acceptable spreadable consistency.) I tried several brands of pan spray but this one works best --- unequaled. No mess and no build-up on those character cakes. The indentions are easy to see. One girl told me she prefers this for those stand-up character cakes...I don't know, we can't do them...may fall over.
NOT WASHING PANS IN BETWEEN MULTIPLE USE - I must say before I tell you this that I disagree and I don't do this. I think they'll regret this when the pans all start turning black. But my daughters wash pans only after they have used them multiple times for each day's baking. They use a baker's rubber scraper to remove all residue between uses. But they only wash when all the day's cakes are baked.
PRE-MADE ICING MADE IN OUR OWN SPECIAL FORMULA BY OUR SUPPLIER - we have our icing made for us. We have been doing this for 2-3 years. It is a wonderful formula developed to perfect consistency. We can make roses with it and do not need to stiffen it. It comes in 5 gallon buckets ready to open and use. We use about 10-15 buckets per week. We order colors in smaller amounts. We sell this in our shop too. Customers have come to depend on this icing and we sell several buckets 1-5-10 lb tubs of icing each week. We package colored icing in 1 lb tubs. The taste is great and this icing works perfectly.
BAKE ON BOTH CAKE RACKS - I've done this forever! I'll fill the ovens, then I start over adding cakes on the lower racks too. Cakes can only be left on the lower racks for 15-20 minutes so you must be careful that the cake above will be done in that amount of time. We have 3 ovens but with 50+ cakes to bake for one day, we must get finished. (of course, a cake baked too close to the bottom would brown too much on the bottom before the top gets done. And visa versa for the top.)
ELECTRIC TURNTABLES - my daughter Joyce finally broke down and got one! She loves it. I can't say enough for it. I've had one for years. The brand we like is Kopy Kake. About $150.00. It is second in handy tools only to the airbrush. It sure is nice to finish in half the time it use to take, especially for round and wedding cakes. It goes very slow/fast and in forward/reverse. What use to take me until 3 am now takes me until only 6pm.
CAKE ICER TIP - Joyce uses the cake icer tip to ice around sheet cakes now. And of course, to ice the sides of character cakes when smooth iced is required. It is so much faster and the cake looks so much neater. (we use a bent spatula to smooth down any icing that peaks up on top). It takes some getting use to but is well worth it. The bag for this tip should be either 16 or 18" and must be cut so big that this bag can't be used for anything else. I prefer the 18" bag because it holds more...tip: keep the big bags closed with a rubber band!
PREPARE CAKE BOARDS AND GREASE PANS AHEAD OF NEEDING - mark each color-foiled board underneath '8/w' (means 8x11 white)...etc.
WHILE ON THIS SUBJECT....I received the following email and wanted to pass it along to you. Looks like we should all take heed!
Subject: florist's foil under decorated cakes --- From: James Asmus <jjccasmus@worldnet.att.net>
START QUOTE: Just wanted to pass along a big health issue re: florist's foil (which I notice you use under a lot of your cakes). I learned this from Helen Sembra, a nationally know ices decorator & judge, who also helps us in 4-h cake deco. With her encyclopedic knowledge of the craft. Florist's foil is not a food-safe covering for cake boards. It can contain heavy metals such as lead, which can leach into foods and cause poisoning. Non-food-safe cake board coverings should always be covered with a food-safe wrap (such as saran) to prevent illness in consumers. I'm a new browser to your page, and am enjoying it immensely! I've been decorating since 1980, when I practiced to do my own wedding cake. End Helen is friend I have known for many years. She lives in Colorado. Helen, along with Joan McDaniel wrote the book: "LACE AND FILIGREE" $8.50 at Sugarcraft - a best seller - The laciest cake patterns there are!
EACH CAKE ORDER ON A SEPARATE ORDER BLANK...then keep the orders with each cake. Before we used a schedule book with one page for each day. We became so busy that this was no longer possible. Nothing is more important than keeping orders straight!
BAKING - If you work outside the home, bake a cake while you are getting ready for work. Then when you get home it is cool and ready to ice. 2. Bake all your bottom layers first, let these cool, ice to fill centers and bake the top layers. I don't wait in between baking the top & bottom layers, this just works out if I'm careful. 3. Timer...what would I ever do without that! I have one I can carry around...from kitchen to office. End
The first medium to be discussed is GUMPASTE also know as SUGAR PASTE. Water should be warm not hot when making the clay. The glucose is a sticky substance; therefore, it is a good idea to melt the glucose and water in a hot water bath so that the sticky spoon from the glucose can be placed right into the hot water bath when done using the sticky spoon. Also, no extra pots are necessary when this hot water bath procedure is used. Just put some very very very hot tap water into the sink. Place the pyrex measuring cup with the glucose and water mixture in the cup into the hot water bath which is in the sink. Stir the mixture until well melted and blended. When the utensils are ready to be washed, just add some liquid dish detergent to the hot water bath and there you are! A sink with hot, soapy water to wash the equipment and utensils.
DIANE'S GUMPASTE RECIPE:
FOR PASTILLAGE: leave out glucose.
HERE'S AN IDEA FOR A CAKE SHOW ENTRY AND A "TRICK" FOR MAKING THE ITEMS UNIFORM FOR ALL OF THE PLAQUES. The show piece display is: twelve plaques - one for each month with some hand-molded animals on each plaque representing that particular month. To make the plaques ALL THE SAME SIZE and basically the same shape when cutters for the plaques are not used, just draw the plaque shape and size onto a piece of plain, white paper. Place the paper with the plaque sketch underneath a piece of plexiglass. Make twelve plaques the same basic size and shape of the sketch. To make the animals uniform to each of the plaques, place the sketch of the plaque underneath the plexiglass and use this as a guide to the size and shape of the items to be hand-molded for each of the twelve plaques. For printing a "wood-burned effect" on each of the plaques - one for each month of the year, let the clay form a thin dried layer. Wet the area of each place where a letter will be formed. Then, use a sharp-pointed ceramic tool and etch into the clay to form the letter. Let the plaques dry before staining.
TO CREATE A "PAINTED" WOOD-GRAINED EFFECT, take a cotton ball and drip it into some brown "stain" that has been made from food colors and a clear, alcohol such as gin. Now, drag the cotton ball across the plaque to form lines of a wood-grained effect. (also make sure that the stain gets into the well of each of the letter that were etched into the plaque) use another cotton ball in order to remove some of the stain from the center of the plaque. This is the highlighted area where the gumpaste animals, etc. Will be placed. Stain the edges of the plaques with about 3 coat (let dray in between each coat) of brown stain. The very edge of the plaques can be painted in spots with deep brown food coloring and alcohol to give more character to the "painted, wood-grained" plaques.
A TRICK OF THE TRADE: Paint the center of the plaque with water while the plaque is still "fresh clay". This is to allow the area to be sealed and painted with a background such as blue skies and green grass. Also, when this center area of the plaque has been dried, the stain that coats the plaque will automatically be a lighter color in the previously water-painted area. To make the plaques, use a mixture of 1/2 gumpaste and 1/2 pastillage.
TO MAKE PASTILLAGE, just leave out the glucose from my recipe. The second medium to be discussed is chocolate compound (candy). To have colors ready for painting, put melted, white chocolate compound in each of the cavities of a muffin tin. (I use the egg-shaped muffin tin). Leave one of the cavities filled with the white chocolate and do not tint this chocolate. One of the cavities can be filled with semi-sweet compound for creating the "black" color for animal noses and snowmen's hats and features. Tint each of the cavities that are still empty with an oil-based candy food coloring. Stir with sucker sticks. A different stick is not necessary for each color. Begin by stirring the white chocolate, then, the flesh tone, then the yellow, then orange, then red, then purple, then blue and finally green. Take a clean stick and mix the pink. Each time that the warming tray where the muffin tins are placed is heated up and the chocolate colors reheated, just stir the compound using the procedure as described above. When I paint, I use the wells of the muffin tins to store my tinted compound for painting. Be sure to shake the liquid colors well or the compound may become too thick when tinting.
A TRICK OF THE TRADE: paint the flesh tone section of the Santa face with flesh-tone compound. Bring bulbs of melted flesh-tone compound over to the inside of the Santa candy mold and place where it is to be. Continue this bulb method until the desired section is completely coated and no light can be seen when the mold is held up to a light. Paint the Santa hat with red compound. (I do not use the ready-made, tinted colors. I tint all my colors for much prettier colors. That's my preference). Let all the painting dry. Then fill the mold with white chocolate. Put into freezer to chill. When solidified, remove from freezer and remove the candy piece from the mold. Let set until room temperature and paint the features: the eyebrows, the mouth, the eyes, the mustache, etc. Many people prefer milk chocolate to white chocolate.
SO, HERE'S A TRICK: when the face and hat have been painted and solidified, put a dab of white chocolate into the mold, dip an artist's brush into white chocolate where it is stored in a bowl, and then into the cavity of the candy mold where some white chocolate already is. Just move the melted white chocolate with the brush until all the areas that require white chocolate are coated completely. Let solidify. Now, fill the mold with milk or semi-sweet, melted chocolate. The front is now painted traditionally and the back of the candy piece will have a milk or semi-sweet "cover". Another trick of the trade is to put Rice Krispies into the left over chocolate in the bowl. Pour out onto a waxed-paper-lined tray. Spread with a spatula. Break apart when solidified. Place into cellophane bags (florist corsage bags). Tie with a curly ribbon. Another trick of the trade is to coat Oreo cookies with chocolate. Break up into crushed pieces, the broken cookies that cannot be used as a "whole cookie". Add these crushed Oreo pieces to some melted chocolate and mold in the peanut butter cup molds. Do the same thing with broken pretzels that are too small to dip. Now, there are candy pieces to add to those boxes of assorted candies.
THE FIRST MEDIUM TO BE DISCUSSED IS GUMPASTE ALSO KNOW AS SUGAR PASTE. Water should be warm not hot when making the clay. The glucose is a sticky substance; therefore, it is a good idea to melt the glucose and water in a hot water bath so that the sticky spoon from the glucose can be placed right into the hot water bath when done using the sticky spoon. Also, no extra pots are necessary when this hot water bath procedure is used. Just put some very very very hot tap water into the sink. Place the Pyrex measuring cup with the glucose and water mixture in the cup into the hot water bath which is in the sink. Stir the mixture until well melted and blended. When the utensils are ready to be washed, just add some liquid dish detergent to the hot water bath and there you are! A sink with hot, soapy water to wash the equipment and utensils.
DIANE'S GUMPASTE RECIPE:
HERE'S AN IDEA FOR A CAKE SHOW ENTRY AND A "TRICK" FOR MAKING THE ITEMS UNIFORM FOR ALL OF THE PLAQUES:
The show piece display is: twelve plaques - one for each month with some hand-molded animals on each plaque representing that particular month. To make the plaques all the same size and basically the same shape when cutters for the plaques are not used, just draw the plaque shape and size onto a piece of plain, white paper. Place the paper with the plaque sketch underneath a piece of plexiglass. Make twelve plaques the same basic size and shape of the sketch. To make the animals uniform to each of the plaques, place the sketch of the plaque underneath the plexiglass and use this as a guide to the size and shape of the items to be hand-molded for each of the twelve plaques. For printing a "wood-burned effect" on each of the plaques - one for each month of the year, let the clay form a thin dried layer. Wet the area of each place where a letter will be formed. Then, use a sharp-pointed ceramic tool and etch into the clay to form the letter. Let the plaques dry before staining. To create a "PAINTED" wood-grained effect, take a cotton ball and drip it into some brown "stain" that has been made from food colors and a clear, alcohol such as gin. Now, drag the cotton ball across the plaque to form lines of a wood-grained effect. (also make sure that the stain gets into the well of each of the letter that were etched into the plaque) use another cotton ball in order to remove some of the stain from the center of the plaque. This is the highlighted area where the gumpaste animals, etc. Will be placed. Stain the edges of the plaques with about 3 coat (let dray in between each coat) of brown stain. The very edge of the plaques can be painted in spots with deep brown food coloring and alcohol to give more character to the "painted, wood-grained" plaques. A trick of the trade: paint the center of the plaque with water while the plaque is still "fresh clay". This is to allow the area to be sealed and painted with a background such as blue skies and green grass. Also, when this center area of the plaque has been dried, the stain that coats the plaque will automatically be a lighter color in the previously water-painted area. To make the plaques, use a mixture of 1/2 gumpaste and 1/2 pastillage. To make pastillage, just leave out the glucose from my recipe.
THE SECOND MEDIUM TO BE DISCUSSED IS CHOCOLATE COMPOUND (CANDY). To have colors ready for painting, put melted, white chocolate compound in each of the cavities of a muffin tin. (I use the egg-shaped muffin tin). Leave one of the cavities filled with the white chocolate and do not tint this chocolate. One of the cavities can be filled with semi-sweet compound for creating the "black" color for animal noses and snowmen's hats and features. Tint each of the cavities that are still empty with an oil-based candy food coloring. Stir with sucker sticks. A different stick is not necessary for each color. Begin by stirring the white chocolate, then, the flesh tone, then the yellow, then orange, then red, then purple, then blue and finally green. Take a clean stick and mix the pink. Each time that the warming tray where the muffin tins are placed is heated up and the chocolate colors reheated, just stir the compound using the procedure as described above. When I paint, I use the wells of the muffin tins to store my tinted compound for painting. Be sure to shake the liquid colors well or the compound may become too thick when tinting.
A TRICK OF THE TRADE: paint the flesh tone section of the Santa face with flesh-tone compound. Bring bulbs of melted flesh-tone compound over to the inside of the Santa candy mold and place where it is to be. Continue this bulb method until the desired section is completely coated and no light can be seen when the mold is held up to a light. Paint the Santa hat with red compound. (I do not use the ready-made, tinted colors. I tint all my colors for much prettier colors. That's my preference). Let all the painting dry. Then fill the mold with white chocolate. Put into freezer to chill. When solidified, remove from freezer and remove the candy piece from the mold. Let set until room temperature and paint the features: the eyebrows, the mouth, the eyes, the mustache, etc. Many people prefer milk chocolate to white chocolate.
SO, HERE'S A TRICK: when the face and hat have been painted and solidified, put a dab of white chocolate into the mold, dip an artist's brush into white chocolate where it is stored in a bowl, and then into the cavity of the candy mold where some white chocolate already is. Just move the melted white chocolate with the brush until all the areas that require white chocolate are coated completely. Let solidify. Now, fill the mold with milk or semi-sweet, melted chocolate. The front is now painted traditionally and the back of the candy piece will have a milk or semi-sweet "cover".
ANOTHER TRICK OF THE TRADE is to put rice Crispies into the left over chocolate in the bowl. Pour out onto a waxed-paper-lined tray. Spread with a spatula. Break apart when solidified. Place into cellophane bags (florist corsage bags). Tie with a curly ribbon.
ANOTHER TRICK OF THE TRADE is to coat Oreo cookies with chocolate. Break up into crushed pieces, the broken cookies that cannot be used as a "whole cookie". Add these crushed Oreo pieces to some melted chocolate and mold in the peanut butter cup molds. Do the same thing with broken pretzels that are too small to dip. Now, there are candy pieces to add to those boxes of assorted candies.
I have a MAC and was able to successfully download one of your newsletter and decompress it using a shareware utility called ZipIt (I have version 1.5.3---I think!) and then open it in Microsoft Word (Macintosh version 6.0.1) It looks great!
Joanna Joyce jjoyce@hederman.com Hederman Brothers Printing
answer from Joanna:
I have ZipIt Vers. 1.3.5 I just downloaded Version 1.3.8 off http://www.shareware.com (a search for Macintosh files--text "ZipIt" will locate several locations to download this shareware file) and it works fine as well. There were 3 of your newsletters I was unable to UnZip, probably because of problems downloading (I plan to download them again and try with the newly downloaded files.) You can either launch ZipIt, and then go to File and Open (or Command-O) and select the newsletter file, or drag the icon of the (newsletter).zip onto the icon of ZipIt to launch. To use the application (trying it out) before you pay the registration fee wait a few seconds a "not yet" will be an option you can click to use the program. Once the program is opened, a window will open with the newsletter file listed in it named like "9701nltr.doc" instead of "9701nltr.zip" select this and choose Zip-- Extract ( or Command-E). This will produce a .doc file that can be opened in Microsoft Word for Macintosh (I have version 6.0.1) When you've launched Microsoft Word, open the file as you would any Word file. I just double click the newsletter icon and it opens in Word. The fonts will be the only difference in viewing the newsletter (I think :-)! ) The photos are there and in color (when you used color) and I've been able to print them to our laser printer without any problem (make sure your printer options are for color/grayscale and not black and white or the picts will be unrecognizable!). I tried opening the file in Word Perfect and didn't have any success (those are the only word processing programs I have). Hope this information helps. If anything needs further clarification, please let me know!!! I'm SO Glad I could help!!!
Joanna Joyce jjoyce@hederman.com Hederman Brothers Printing
Joanna - we all thank you ever so much for taking the time to spell this out for us!