Our town's annual A Taste of Chocolate festival was on Feb. 7, 2014, and I had a vendor table

W

wigs

Well-known member
again this year. I made 2 each of the following desserts and will list them in the order they disappeared, i.e., sold out.

1) Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake posted by CathyZ from Kauai. This was the biggest cheesecake I've ever made! It filled my 10" springform pan to the brim. REC is at http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=14474

2) Café Latte's Turtle Cake as posted by MariaDNoCa. I only tasted crumbs, but they were delicious! REC is at http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=201763

3) Three-Layer Chocolate Cake with Blackout Filling from http://www.oprah.com/food/Three-Layer-Chocolate-Cake-with-Blackout-Filling. Also, this had a great presentation since it was such a tall cake.

4) Coconut Berry Tart--Because I thought the original recipe from "Taste of The South" magazine could be a bit sweeter, I tweaked things to qualify this dessert for the chocolate festival and painted my baked & cooled crusts with melted white chocolate. That added the additional sweetness I wanted. FYI: I discovered the ingredient amounts listed in the recipe for the crust were ample to fill one 11-1/2" round tart pan AND one 13-1/2 by 4" rectangular tart pan (both with removable bottoms). I merely added an additional 1/4 cup whipping cream to the recipe and had enough filling for both my round and rectangular tart pans. I have added this newly discovered info about the crusts to my original posting--the recipe can be found at: http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=221262

5) Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake from Epicurious. I baked this in a bain de marie in a preheated 325-degree oven until the filling tested between 145 to 150 degrees F. At that point I removed the cake from the oven and let it sit on a cake rack still in the hot water bath for 45 minutes. Then I removed the cheesecake from the water bath and finished cooling it on the rack before refrigerating overnight.

I had complete success making homemade caramel as one of the ingredients in this cake thanks to all of you fine cooks at this site. I'm sure you'll recollect when you taught me how to make caramel for Charlie's Caramel Pecan Black-Bottom Pie (Source for pie was Bon Appetit at http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=91210). This cheesecake was the first time I ever tried the "dry method" for making caramel as directed in the cheesecake recipe. No problem. I can hardly believe I just wrote those 2 words! ha! The cheesecake recipe can be found at:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Caramel-Cheesecake-102589

6) Chocolate Cheesecake (with Dark Chocolate Drizzle)--a Nigella Lawson recipe==> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-cheesecake-recipe.html

Notes: I added 3 (8 ounces each) packages of Philadelphia cream cheese instead of the 2-1/2 cups called for, and that worked out fine. I found a site that said if you could not find custard powder, you could substitute 1 Tbsp cornstarch + 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 extra tsp sugar for the 1 Tbsp custard powder listed in the recipe. This custard substitution tip came from http://www.foodbabbles.com/2011/05/chocolate-cheesecake/

 
Wow congrats wigs-what an undertaking. Glad you made the Raspberry Swirl- it is my favorite

It is the one recipe I don't mess with- I make it to a "t" by the recipe. Yup, it fills the 10" completely but I have never had one spill over the top. and I have never had leftovers smileys/smile.gif

 
Not a drop of overflow on the 2 I made either, & I did get to sample a bit of the filling that stuck

to my slicing knife along with a few crumbs of the delicious shortbread crust. I've never seen a dessert disappear so fast! It was a big hit at Taste this year. Thanks for posting. I didn't fiddle one iota with your recipe, and both my cheesecakes came out fine. The individual slices looked great on the plates.

 
On 2/7 I worked at home for 6.5 hrs straight "just" slicing & boxing (in styrofoam to-go boxes);

then garnishing (with chocolate leaves &/or curls, whipped cream on some or Valentine sprinkles or fresh flowers, maybe fresh mint leaves; I sprinkled pink & red Guittard chocolate chips over a few) and packing the individually boxed desserts in iced-down coolers. Our station wagon was packed to its ceiling after I got everything loaded to head out to the festival venue.

I used to display whole desserts at my table and slice and box to order, but this event has grown to the point that I cannot keep up with that approach any longer so I have resorted to the above in order to avoid long lines at my station. Now I simply showcase a sample slice of each type of dessert at my table so people can view and choose.

BTW, I haven't had any chocolate "seize" on me in literally years, but I messed some up during my cooking frenzy for this year's Taste and was so thankful I had just ordered a new bottle of liquid lecithin (from LorAnn oils) and had that on hand to use to save a batch of chocolate. By adding just a bit to my seized chocolate and putting both into the food processor and pulsing with the PLASTIC blade, I salvaged it--not to the point that I could drizzle the chocolate any longer, but it was certainly usable enough for baking. Remember to always start off with a tiny amount of the lecithin--maybe 1/8 teaspoon to half a pound of seized chocolate--then pulse briefly a time or two and add more of the oil only if necessary. I picked this little trick up from instructors Donna & Dick Wagner during a cake decorating class I took from them back in the early 90s.

 
MarilynFL & Heather_in_SF, I will try my best to remember to take some candid shots next time I do

any type dessert buffet. I am bad about skipping that step when I cook/cater. Guess I will need to add photography as a separate line item on my TO DO list! ....Wigs

 
On 1/31 I bought all groceries except last-min fruit & flowers to garnish with. Prep work began on

2/1/14 when I began sifting all the dry cake ingredients + greasing & flouring cake pans. On the 2nd & 3rd I made & froze my cake layers plus made & froze all the cheesecake crusts & tart crusts (except for CathyZ's because I had never made a pastry dough crust for cheesecake before and wasn't sure if I could do that part ahead). CathyZ's 2 cheesecakes I made in totality on Feb 6, the day before the festival, due to the crusts as I didn't want any risk of them being soaked due to being made too far ahead.

The other 4 cheesecakes had their fillings made and put into my pre-made & frozen crusts & were all baked in water baths on Feb 5. Also on Feb 6 I fillled & frosted the 4 cakes (all frostings and fillings were made on Feb 4 or 5 and refrigerated until needed.) It was about midnight on Feb 6 when I finished making the filling for the Coconut Berry Tarts (all that filling went into the fridge overnight) so the only baking/assembly I had to do early the morning of Feb 7 (the day of the festival) was to paint my pre-made tart crusts with melted white chocolate (that was my tweak to the recipe in order to qualify it as a chocolate dessert!), and then I scooped the filling (made the night before) into the 4 crusts. I put the mixture of berries on each individual slice after it was placed into its individual styrofoam container.

Each year when I select my 6 or 7 recipes (I usually make 2 of each recipe), I generally include 1 or possibly 2 that I have made before, but the rest are brand new ones from my "To Try" folder. When choosing recipes, I take into consideration which desserts can be broken down so some steps can be done ahead. Doing everything at the last minute would put me in Rehab for a month! lol.

Cheesecakes are great as crumb crusts can be done ahead & frozen until needed plus cheesecakes are better if chilled thoroughly after baking so they do just fine if allowed to "ripen" for a day or 2 in the refrigerator prior to serving.

I ended up with about 150 dessert portions this year which is pretty typical for me. This annual chocolate festival is the main fund raiser for Columbus Service League, which is patterned after and run like a Junior League organization.

I do part-time sub work for an investment firm in town and have worked out a joint venture with the financial advisors here--they buy all my groceries, chocolate & garnishing supplies, and I supply the labor to bake and set up & serve the desserts. The FAs get credit as does my little catering business via the free advertising all the vendors receive in our local newspaper and radio ads.

The participating 35 to 40 vendors (restaurants, caterers, candy shops, bakeries, etc.) donate their chocolate confections, and the not-for-profit Columbus Service League sells tickets at $3 apiece for each dessert portion and keeps the money to launch future community projects. It's a win/win!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top