bakingbuyer - November 2011 - (Page PAN -37)

CAKES & DECORATING dish, even when the proteins or other ingredients are uncommon. These independent restaurants are revisiting comfort food and putting contemporary twists on old themes.” Expo Comida Latina, held August 28-30, 2011 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA, is North American’s only trade event featuring new and traditional authentic Hispanic, Mexican and Latino flavors from around the globe. Over the three-day event, hundreds of exhibiting companies launched their latest product trends, product lines or services. “Expo Comida Latina is the place where buyers can expect to find the latest trends and new products in the Hispanic/Latino food and beverage category,” says, Liz Plizga, Expo Comida Latina show director. “This year, over 75 percent of our exhibitors will have new products on display.” See some of this year’s highlighted products: Cream Cheese Cake from Cinderella Cheesecake Co. Cinderella Cheesecake is launching two new flavors at the show: Mango cheesecake and All Natu- ral Plain cheesecake with no sugar added and trans fat and gluten free. Magical Cakes from Goldilocks Magical Cakes combines the technology of Augmented Reality and QR codes to bring you a cake like no other. A QR code is seamlessly integrated into the design of delicious cakes and when the code is scanned with an iPhone or iPad a 3D scene appears. DECORATIVE DECORATING 4. To make the face, use black piping gel in a bag made from cellophane paper. Creating a small bag with cellophane allows you to make very fine lines with the piping gel, for detail such as the face and tiny paw prints. CAKE TROUBLESHOOTING In the cake decorating world, whimsical characters don’t just come from fondant. You can actually pipe them onto a cake, as well as use most any icing. Peggy Mize of BakeMark shows you four simple steps to piping two dogs atop a round cake. For more decorating tips, check out the Baker’s Workbench series on The Baking Channel, at www.bakingbuyer.com. 1. Start by piping the dog’s body in one elongated motion. Then, add the hind legs and the front arms. 2. Next pipe the head, from the back of the head, up and then back down to the nose. Finally, pipe the tail in an upward motion. 3. Use black icing to make the dog’s ears and black spots. With the popularity of cakes on television, it might be easy to think of cakes as simply a visual product. But there are so many more important aspects to cakes, including taste, texture and structure. At the All Things Baking Show in Schaumburg, IL this month, Kirk O’Donnell, VP of education at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, KS, offers a few tips on how to troubleshoot cakes for optimum production. One quick way to know where your cakes stand is to look at them —and compare them to your competition. Do this on a routine basis, and involve your staff. Buy a cake from a competitor that is comparable to yours, and cut both open. Then use a “score sheet” that evaluates both cakes on internal and external qualities that include the following: NOVEMBER 11 | PANADERIA 37 http://www.baking http://www.buyer.com

bakingbuyer - November 2011

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