The black forrest looks so beautiful! I’m sorry to hear that the class you attended is skimping on ingredients I also hated that. That’s why the class that I attend often taught by some celebrity chef that is willing to share her expetise and has lots of product endorsements. so that the in her classes she often use the product that she’s endorsing which often is the real stuff!

I too am anti-shortening in most recipes…though the banana bread I make is made with it and does not taste the same with out it. But NEVER in butter cookies…boo.
Tempering chocolate is tricky but once you get it, you’ve got it forever.
Your swiss roll looks lovely. I would love to make one but we are having a heat wave(for us) and it is too hot to bake anything right now.

The black forest cake looks so beautiful! Love the gorgeous large chocolate curls. Yeah, I’m intimidated by chocolate tempering. Have never had the guts to try it. I’ll wait patiently till you’ve taken that class first ; )

Would you be willing to share how you stabilized the whipped cream in class? What sort of stabilizer did you add? Did it affect the taste? Thank you.

Hi Ivonne,

Looks like you have been having fun! I think pastry classes and school is great for exposing you to new pastries and techniques. Once you have that knowledge, do it your way! I agree with you 100% on the shortening issue, why put that in our bodies? Ingredients definitely affect taste.You have once again despite ingredients, managed to make everything look absolutely wonderful!

A lot of sweet things, i love …

I simply love your swiss roll. So yummy.

I am not a fan of shortening either. Call me a baking fundamentalist but I like to stick to good ‘ol butter. Also I don’t like to use hydrogenated fats…and why use it when butter is natural and tastes better.
By the way your creations look beautiful, as always.

I had begun to wonder about your classes, but thought that maybe they were over. Glad to hear that you had some interesting classes, except for the ingredient skimping…everything looks wonderful, especially your Swiss roll, it sounds so refreshing with all the lemon and cream!
Butter, butter, butter!
Take care.

Regardless of the ingredients (or lack thereof) your cookies, swiss roll & cake look completely scrumptious - you did a beautiful job on all three, Ivonne!

Hi SimplePleasure,

Thanks so much for stopping by Cream Puffs in Venice! Yes I have been somewhat disappointed with the ingredients. They’re not all bad, but it seems that we use vegetable shortening way too much. Glad to hear that you’re also taking classes. I’ll have to visit your blog and read about it!

Hi Peabody,

I too have some recipes that call for vegetable shortening, like pie pastry. But to use it in cookies just doesn’t seem right. We’re in the middle of a heat wave as well so not much baking going on here either.

Hi Sharmini,

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the kind words. I’ll e-mail you about the stabilizer.

Hi Sam,

Thanks. You’re sweet! And thanks again for the tip about not overfilling the pastry bag. Hope all is well in Vancouver!

Bonjour Fabienne,

Merci!

Hi Precious Moments,

Thanks so much for stopping by. The swiss roll was by far the best one!

Hi JenJen,

Agreed on all counts! Thanks!

Hi Kat,

Thanks! BUTTER! BUTTER! BUTTER!

Hi Lis,

You’re a sweetie. Thanks!

Fascinating. And you’ve now provided the answer to something that has long bugged me about bakery cakes: they look beautiful but taste — ordinary, not worth eating. In fact my description of a “great bakery” is always that it’s a place where everything tastes as good as it looks. Unfortunately, in the States, they are few and far between. In Scandinavia, in France, in England and Scotland … they’re everywhere.

Hi Ivonne, this is my first time commenting in your blog, but I’ve been enjoying it now for quite some time! I actually just ordered a copy of ‘Once Upon a Tart’ after reading your delicious posts/successes with it!

I agree with everyone else, the pics from cooking school look fabulous, but I too, am not a fan of substituting shortening for butter. But after seeing your pics, I DO think I’ll be making spritz cookies in the very near future (butter intact)…
Thanks!

I was wondering what happened to your Baking class, it’s great to hear more about it, though I’m sorry you still aren’t using butter more!

Your black forest cake looks really good, I remember when I was younger my family always used to buy black forest cakes from a local bakery. I guess they were all totally unauthentic because they were never soaked in liqueur or filled with sour cherries. Eating it for so long the way I had, I would’ve never thought authentic Black Forest cake is supposed to be that way. It reminds me of the first time I made real authentic lasagna using bechamel instead of tomato sauce.

As always Ivonne, your finished products look fantastic!!
I also agree w/ you re: skimping on ingredients is not the way to go. Butter is better!! So is using quality brandy or whatever spirits the recipe calls for. As you emphasized, the flavor of the finished product is definitely going to be negatively effected by inferior ingredients and enhanced by superior stuff. Why skimp if you don’t have to!!

Ciao…

Bruno

Hi Ivonne!
Thanks for the update on your cooking class - I love hearing about what you’ve learned!

I prefer the taste of butter in my baking,too.The sponge cake looks fantastic.

i love black forest cake, although i’m loathe to say that i also likely haven’t had an authentic version quite yet.

it’s really a shame that the ingredients weren’t as ideal as they could have been. i’d assume that it was more of a cost saving tip done in part by the school. maybe in large industry practice the shortening is common but i do hope that with the growing interest in organic/local/slow food movement that we’ll all be immersed in buttery goodness.

Black forst cake with brandy-soaked cherries: one of the best inventions ever. OH. MY. GOD. For the longest time I had only ever had it the non-traditional way, I suspect which was made much in the same way as you were compelled to make this black-forest cake. Sampling a more traditional one, however, is wonderful. I find it less sweet (which for once, to me, is a good thing!), but so much more flavorful.

Those are some beautiful cakes and cookies! I’ve always wanted to make a swiss roll, but I’m a bit terrified of the filling and rolling process…what sort of pan was it you used and was it difficult to roll without breaking up the cake?

Hi Ivonne,

That’s a superb photo of the swiss roll! Absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for the inspiration!

Despite the fact that the classes are subbing butter with shortening (oh the shame!), every image that you’ve posted here looks scrumptious! Yes…butter beats all!

I’m also a member of Butter-holics Anonymous!

I love real Black Forest Cake, sour flavours with chocolate are an inspired combination.

When will people learn that there just isn’t any substitute for butter? Nothing compares to real, high-quality butter. Nothing.

Your cakes look beautiful, especially the swiss cake roll. I used to eat those chocolate “Little Debbies” everyday when I got home from school.

Hi Ivonne,
The pics look wonderful! Bring on the butter, I say! My mom makes spritz cookies every christmas - I have fond memories of sprinkling green colored sugar on the christmas tree shaped ones. (She uses one of those machines that spits them out.) So buttery and only slightly sweet, they’re a favorite of mine!

Your so right about choosing the right ingredients… vegetable shortening should just be outlawed!

My grand mother had a machine to make Spritz, actually she used a meat machine with a diff mold. Reminds me of those times, and at every Xmas, my mum makes big batches! Great looking cakes! So much good work!

I had to laugh when I read your post about your disappointment with the ingredients. I took a cake decorating course, just one of the Wilton ones, a few years back, and the recipe they give you for the “frosting” that you make at home and bring in to work with in class uses all Crisco-gag! I insisted on substituting half butter in mine, so whenever I had any kind of problem, naturally the instructor would blame it on that!

Hi all,

Thanks again for the comments! You’re all such a source of information, wisdom and wit!