We have a main lobster event twice a year at my club. This time around I'm doing cakes like fish etc... For instance, kiwi mousse set in a fish mold, bottom layer is a cake to hold it, then I'm going to use thin slices of kiwi on the fish to represent scales, blue geletin on the platter for water etc... I want to do another one with either rasp. or s.b. mousse in a lobster mold. I can't seem to figure out how to garnish this one since lobsters don't have scales. Anyone have any creative thoughts on this theme they would like to share?

By jeee2 on Wednesday, August 11, 1999 - 11:16 pm: Edit

Put rasps in the mold first, glaze with strawb glaze when unmolded.
Or enrobe with red fondant.
Or pure' some strabs with enough gel to make it set, add red color and line the mold with it , then add the mousse.
Or make individual lobsters from marzipan and use to garnish each mousse.

Regards, Gerard

By W.DeBord on Thursday, August 12, 1999 - 07:53 am: Edit

I was thinking about red ganache enrobing it, but fondant sounds better.Will it adhear nicely to the mousse? I don't follow you at all when you wrote "pure' some strabs" this is greek to me? I make mini lobsters out of royal icing for one garnish.Also, lobster short bread cookies,lobster chocolates. I like the idea of maripan but it's not as quick to make (I'll have to think on this).Anyone have any other ideas, it could be anything that ties into this theme? For instance, I did a treasure chest with:madleine(SP?)shells, turtle cookies and candies,colorful fish shortbreads suspended from a real fishing pole,gold coins for treasure,cakes shaped and decorated like sea shells etc... Ideas?

By jeee2 on Thursday, August 12, 1999 - 12:23 pm: Edit

I meant pure' some strawberries in a blender, add coloring and something to make it gel, or just use jello.

If the fondant isn't overheated it should work but it would be tricky and the mousse will tend to dissolve it. An easier way is just glaze the mousse with multiple coats of glaze like doing a chaud froi.

By W.DeBord on Friday, August 13, 1999 - 08:03 am: Edit

I was hoping more of you would be interested in this subject. Anyone have some fun ideas on this theme?

By Morgane on Friday, August 13, 1999 - 11:28 am: Edit

Just a thought. If you had a lobster mould you could make a red candy shell to simulate the lobster shell and then fill with with a genoise and mousse.


Morgane

By W.DeBord on Friday, August 13, 1999 - 11:57 pm: Edit

What type of candy shell were you invisioning? A hard sugar would not cut well. Would you explain? I'm using a aprox. 8" or 9" copper exterior decorative mold. It's rather small so I think it will have to be aprox. equal to a three layer cake in height to get a few servings out of it.

By Casual Cook on Saturday, August 14, 1999 - 01:47 am: Edit

I'm no pastry chef, but, lobsters do have delineated shell segments (as you said, they don't have scales). Could you pipe, on top of the final prep, a tiny line of darker or lighter topping mimicking the [==:( ( ( (==] segment separations (i.e., the ( ( ( ( parts)? This would be really effective if segments were proportioned from higher to lower. It would add to the 3-D effect.

Just a thought.

By W.DeBord on Saturday, August 14, 1999 - 09:02 am: Edit

I need to stick with using the mold for this item, so I can't go after the 3-D effect. Just a thought is always welcomed by me, thanks. Have you any other fish like ideas? Your ideas don't have to be perfectly thought out, only a jumping off place.

By Morgane on Saturday, August 14, 1999 - 12:35 pm: Edit

I would use what is called in French sucre d'orge, or any hard candy. Just put in thin layer in a well oiled mould. If you heat your blade first you should have no problem utting through a thin candy layer.


Morgane

By the sugar guy on Sunday, August 15, 1999 - 06:09 pm: Edit

a few ideas to share ,
you can cover the mold with a thin layer of white couverture shaded red and then build your cake right in to the mold with the set chocolate .freeze it and unmold it. the thin layer of white chocolate (shaded dark red with oil based colors)will be no problem to cut and you will have a very nice finish that can be further detailed with piping ,or not.dont temper the chocolate in this case so it will stay softer and easier to cut than tempered chocolate.
a whole other approach ,since you do this twice a year , would be a large marine center piece made from pulled and blown sugar. even though it is time consuming , i did something like this before on my spare time , prepering for some occassions that i have 2 or 3 times a year at a local country club and they requir the same displays ,so i prepered every thing using isomalt and the display still keeps after almost 4 years , just add mini cakes,chocolates,petit fours etc, at the base of the display.

By the sugar guy on Monday, August 16, 1999 - 10:35 am: Edit

another great idea,
line your mold with 4mm. thick layer of red marzipan. then build your cake in to it. you will
be able to cut it , no problems,and have a smooth surface to play around with some airbrushing to shade the lobster details in black+blue+red mixture , and you can finish it all with edible food shelac spray to make it realy shiny!
what do you think?

By W.DeBord on Monday, August 16, 1999 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Sugar guy that's it! Thanks!!! The marzipan will be easy cutting for the customers and easy on me.Would you recomend lining the mold with plastic or just a heavy dusting of xxx sugar? I work in an extemely humid area. I've never used, never heard of and don't know where to get edible shelac spray but this really interests me. Where can I find this in about a week?
Do you have any other brain storms on this theme while your hot?

By W.DeBord on Monday, August 16, 1999 - 10:30 pm: Edit

I don't own any small metal lobster molds for suckers.I thought I read somewhere that you could use cornstarch (or something) put aprox. .5" layer down, then use what ever you want to make an impression in the starch which you then fill with melted sugar. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and have more info.? I could then make lobster garnishes of hardened sugar.

By jeee2 on Tuesday, August 17, 1999 - 03:36 am: Edit

Or just buy soft candy lobsters and dip them in chocolate.

Cheers, Gerard

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, August 17, 1999 - 08:02 am: Edit

Do you have a place to buy soft candy lobsters? I'm not familar with what this is. Is it like a gummy candy?

By jeee2 on Tuesday, August 17, 1999 - 09:58 am: Edit

No but I would ask around and only mold my own as last resort.
Rather than mold I would make them from meringue, did a lot of little birds for easter same way, use a 1/4 inch plain round tube, practice with buttercream first. Pull the thorax out with one bulb then the sectional abdomen by pumping the bag as you draw it back, the claws are easy to figga out, use french meringue and dry it out in the oven overnite or same as for mushrooms.
Form the tail by drawing a pastry comb from the top of the tail bulb to the sheepan.
You could make 100 like this in less than 30 minutes. Some strawberry emulsion would help with the color and flavor.

If you do the corn starch method you need to fill a tray and make the impressions, then leave in a very warm place overnite to dry it out(oven), don't bump it. Its usually done for liquer center chocolates.
Choc mfgers have a special "dry room" for this.

Regards, Gerard

By thye sugar guy on Tuesday, August 17, 1999 - 05:16 pm: Edit

dust your mold with a thin layer of 10x powder sugar or corn starch, you can then brush it off when you unmold the cakes.
i buy shelac spray from swiss chalet in california. 1-800-34-swiss .$20 for one espray can or so.its great for sugar,marzipan or chocolate work.
the corn starch method is efective for liqoure centers for candies , they are poured in to the starch and let dry and form a crust on the outside you then dip them in tempered chocolate.it will not work for regular cooked sugar for pouring since it is cooked to a very high temperature.

By W.DeBord on Wednesday, August 18, 1999 - 08:42 am: Edit

Thank-you for your help sugar guy! Gerard, meringue lobsters are an ideas I haven't done yet. It's a good ideas. Coming from an art background this is very easy for me to pipe out, just like I've done with royal icing. I think I'll add flavoring and put chocolate on their bottoms making then a cookie/candy. Hats off!

By the sugar guy on Wednesday, August 18, 1999 - 02:52 pm: Edit

if you realy feel like it and have the money ,
you can make silicon molds from small plastic models of lobsters .it will last for ever and you can pour cook boiling sugar in to it , no problems.
if you want to play with chocolate , i would use the same plastic lobster models(from toys-R-us) and make gelatine molds for pouring white couverture colored red or any other tipe of tempered chocolate.this should be a great party-favor to take home...

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, August 31, 1999 - 08:16 am: Edit

I'm making a turtle cake. Like a charlotte royal...Lime curd in the roll with extra coloring. Thought I would glaze over the "shell" (cake roll) with lime flavored gelatin. Use white choc. modeling dough tinted green for its' head, tail and legs peaking out from the bottom.

I'm stuck on what flavor goes well with lime?? Right now I leaning toward a white chocolate hint of lemon bombe. I don't seem to make much with lime flavor what's a good match with it?

Also concerned the lime gelatin glaze will take too much time. Anyone have a faster way of coating the cake with a green tint (that's easy to cut)?

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, August 31, 1999 - 08:24 am: Edit

I tried to mold marzipan in small plastic molds it didn't release well. I had a hard time keeping the xxxsugar even through-out. Placed it in the mold, placed it directly on the marzipan, no go. Thinking I'm either doing something wrong or this isn't going to work with out lining the larger mold with plastic. Help anyone????

P.S. I did make some solid lobsters free form. They were easier and looked better than I would have thought. Good idea Gerard!

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, August 31, 1999 - 08:40 am: Edit

Finishing thought on turtle: when talking about glazing top I want the jelly roll pattern to show through like a pattern you would see on a turtle.

Played with bubble sugar the other day. Isomalt on silamat (SP?) mat over the top. It worked great but how come it was sticky to the touch????

I used the bubble sugar as a garnish to Chapangne (man I can't spell this morning) Zabalione over berries. Very nice. I'm trying to think of how to incorporate the bubble sugar into my fishy theme.Any thoughts???

Stuck on putting it into tops of individual flans and floating small green fish(I have a mold for fish)out of hard sugar around the base. I'm not thrilled with this because I think the fish will be visually lost in the carmel around the flan. Should I make the fish a different color to stand out more? If so what color is going to pop out from the carmel?

Due date for buffet is this friday.All thoughts are welcome!!!

By Morgane on Friday, September 10, 1999 - 12:01 pm: Edit

W,

In the bookstore while waiting in line I saw a Australian cookbook on the sale table. I looked at it. In it was a pyramid cake. The cake was in a shell of jelly/pate de fruit. Inside was a genoise with a mousse. I thought the idea could be usuful to you for your next lobster cake.


Morgane