Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Freddi and Marshall's Cake

Former Vice President of Academic Affairs Marshall Shafkowitz married  Freddi Press in Chicago in a beautiful ceremony Saturday, Oct 23.  I designed an all white cake for the couple using different heights and textures for each tier.  Pulled sugar flowers added to the simplicity yet, elegance of the very tall cake.

Free Hands On CupcakeWorkshop





Every month we select a theme for a  free hands on workshop I conduct for my Baking and Pastry Club for our students.  October was cupcake month.  We used several media for frosting and decorations...from buttercream, ganache,modeling chocolate, marzipan, fondant, royal icing...here are some pictures

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Nicholas Lodge on Massa (Albert Uster's Rolled Fondant)


Nicholas Lodge, now spokesperson for Albert Uster's Massa line just ended a roadshow using the Americana line of Massa.  Chicago was the last stop for his demonstrations showcasing the amethyst Americana Massa. Nicholas Lodge is an expert demonstrator...his work is clean, precise,detailed, and he does not hold back on useful tips for the professional or the student. There were several useful tips tonight including gathering inspiration from current trends in fashion, home decor, paint colors, magazines, flavor profiling of cakes, frostings and coverings. He also talked about the different ph of fondants and other pastes that affect colors, the use of mold putty for making quick fondant or50-50 molds ...Interesting was his explanation of non-toxic and inedible...There were several key points that I totally agree with, like heavy use of vanilla and other flavors that make profiles confusing, the advantage of using both water and fat soluble food colors, but, at the same time extremely proud that we cover most of these things in our cake decorating classes.
Also, part of the Albert Uster collection is the newer Orchid line of chocolates, it is 1/2 the price of what we use at school (Felchlin), and there is reason for it......Sorry, for the lack of good pictures, and although I admire Nicholas Lodge, it is not one of his best ...

Friday, October 01, 2010

L'Atelier de Patissier: Cupcakes








Hands-On Workshop for October was cupcakes.  17 Baking & Patisserie students,1 Cuisine student, and 2 alumni attended the free monthly workshop.  I demonstrated the different media used in covering cupcakes, fondant, pate a glace, modeling chocolate, buttercream.  I showed the different texture mats and rollers that are quite popular, also showed some of the preprinted fondant sheets that can be "glued" to rolled out fondant for a custom look. Different finishing techniques were employed, in addition to different decors or garnishes.  We piped, shaped, colored, and hada ball....