If you don't decorate cakes for a living or if you didn't see today's New York Times's food section, ("When the Icing on the Cake Spells Disaster") you might have missed Cake Wrecks http://www.cakewrecks.com/. Jen Yates's blog, which uses the tagline "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong," is a chronicle of misspellings, miscommunication and good intentions gone bad. Besides her popular blog, Yates has a new book (Cake Wrecks, Andrews McMeel, $12.99) - a great gift for your favorite baker. While the examples of directions to the cake decorator ending up on the cake can become predictable, the shower cakes with babies coming out of pregnant bellies, well they have to be seen to be believed.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/dining/14cake.html?_r=1&hpw
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Cake Wrecks
If you don't decorate cakes for a living or if you didn't see today's New York Times's food section, ("When the Icing on the Cake Spells Disaster") you might have missed Cake Wrecks http://www.cakewrecks.com/. Jen Yates's blog, which uses the tagline "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong," is a chronicle of misspellings, miscommunication and good intentions gone bad. Besides her popular blog, Yates has a new book (Cake Wrecks, Andrews McMeel, $12.99) - a great gift for your favorite baker. While the examples of directions to the cake decorator ending up on the cake can become predictable, the shower cakes with babies coming out of pregnant bellies, well they have to be seen to be believed.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/dining/14cake.html?_r=1&hpw
Friday, October 2, 2009
Memorable Desserts from the NE Dessert Showcase
Here are the most interesting desserts that I could find at the New England Dessert Showcase, which was at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf last Saturday. Taste and uniqueness were my criteria, with an eye toward what could be sold in a mass retail environment.
Mango/Apricot Cake
Delectable Desires
http://www.delectabledesires.net/
No, you wouldn't expect the coffee guy's dessert to be among the best, but these little hockey pucks, warmed and served with a caramel sauce, were fabulous. They are gluten-free and made with Callebaut chocolate. After speaking with the founder, Anthony Massari, I learned that Boston Coffee Company has John Paul LaPierre, a former Ritz Carlton pastry chef in their kitchen. LaPierre, whose work has been featured in Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines has worked in Boston for decades in senior positions for restaurants including Davios, Sandrines, 647 Tremont, Biba, Pignoli and Cornucopia. LaPierre described these as his signature dessert. Boston Common Coffee Company operates three neighborhood coffee shops and serves a retail market.
Hand Decorated Sugar Cookies
Presentation promotes trial, but taste is what makes repeat buyers. These cookies win on both fronts. Sandra Rhoads produces her hand-decorated cookies in a nut-free wholesale facility in Lynn, MA. All cookies are delivered fresh and Starlight does not have frozen storage capabilities. Starlight focuses on seasonal and theme cookies, selling to Whole Foods and other New England specialty accounts such as Wilson Farms. I had two packs, one of which I sampled the day of the event and another which I sampled a week later. These cookies are markedly better fresh. I make these myself at the holidays and I can’t ever find a good, fresh moderately priced iced sugar cookie. Is there is an opportunity to do a fresh, everyday iced sugar cookie which is focused on taste and affordability rather than exclusively as an expensive specialty gift item?
Mango/Apricot Cake
Delectable Desires
http://www.delectabledesires.net/
This cake, a genoise soaked with mango/apricot puree and layered with vanilla butter cream, was the best combination of originality and taste. I was raised on standard middle-American fare, so mango can verge on an overripe or even off taste for me. Carlene O’Garro, the founder and pastry chef at Delectable Desires has softened the mango with apricot. The puree makes the cake a bright yellow-orange and gives it a pronounced tropical flavor which is offset by the rich butter cream. This would be great as a component in a mini pastry tray or as a whole cake.
Milk Chocolate covered Honey Bread
Brazilian Bakery and Specialties Company
http://www.brazilianbakeryspecialties.com/
http://www.brazilianbakeryspecialties.com/
With honey, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, this Brazilian honey bread (pan de mel) is a dense spice cake enrobed in milk chocolate. It works as a dessert or snack cake and has a 10 day shelf life. Brazilian Specialties products can currently be found at Whole Foods and specialty markets.
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Chocolate is my downfall, so it is no surprise that I would search out and find the most intense chocolate hit possible. And yes, I am consciously using “hit,” with its drug connotations – after all, what is the best delivery mechanism for chocolate? For starters, there were two items that have similar flavor profiles, but differences in texture, temperature and presentation.
Dark Chocolate Decadence Cake
Finale Bakery and Desserterie
http://www.finaledesserts.com/
You can always count on Finale for impeccable desserts and they showed up with one of their classics: a dense, almost ganache-like flourless cake with deep round chocolate flavor with a hint of coffee. Depending upon its ability to maintain its shelf-life at ambient temperatures, this could be a great addition to a fresh table. Finale has a centralized pastry kitchen which serves its three Boston-area locations and sells wholesale, with both frozen and fresh capabilities.
You can always count on Finale for impeccable desserts and they showed up with one of their classics: a dense, almost ganache-like flourless cake with deep round chocolate flavor with a hint of coffee. Depending upon its ability to maintain its shelf-life at ambient temperatures, this could be a great addition to a fresh table. Finale has a centralized pastry kitchen which serves its three Boston-area locations and sells wholesale, with both frozen and fresh capabilities. Chocolate Souffle
Boston Common Coffee Company
No, you wouldn't expect the coffee guy's dessert to be among the best, but these little hockey pucks, warmed and served with a caramel sauce, were fabulous. They are gluten-free and made with Callebaut chocolate. After speaking with the founder, Anthony Massari, I learned that Boston Coffee Company has John Paul LaPierre, a former Ritz Carlton pastry chef in their kitchen. LaPierre, whose work has been featured in Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines has worked in Boston for decades in senior positions for restaurants including Davios, Sandrines, 647 Tremont, Biba, Pignoli and Cornucopia. LaPierre described these as his signature dessert. Boston Common Coffee Company operates three neighborhood coffee shops and serves a retail market.Hand Decorated Sugar Cookies
Starlight Creatives
Presentation promotes trial, but taste is what makes repeat buyers. These cookies win on both fronts. Sandra Rhoads produces her hand-decorated cookies in a nut-free wholesale facility in Lynn, MA. All cookies are delivered fresh and Starlight does not have frozen storage capabilities. Starlight focuses on seasonal and theme cookies, selling to Whole Foods and other New England specialty accounts such as Wilson Farms. I had two packs, one of which I sampled the day of the event and another which I sampled a week later. These cookies are markedly better fresh. I make these myself at the holidays and I can’t ever find a good, fresh moderately priced iced sugar cookie. Is there is an opportunity to do a fresh, everyday iced sugar cookie which is focused on taste and affordability rather than exclusively as an expensive specialty gift item?
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