I was grateful to have my former chef-instructor from ICE's Pastry & Baking Arts program, Penny Stankiewicz, share some wisdom about the process. “With recipe testing, the first thing I do is research

For years I have been passively using cocoa powder. Very rarely is cocoa powder the main ingredient in products I make so I rarely give it much thought. I always focus on the type of chocolate, the

Growing up, Pastry & Baking Arts Chef-Instructor Stephen Chavez and his family would take a perennial summer pilgrimage to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the Southern California coast. “Dead

In its earliest modern form, in the days of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, chocolate would have been sold unsweetened in rough blocks and cakes, to be ground or broken up by the end-user for

Ever since ombre cakes became fashionable, the colorful trend has filled inspiration boards on Pinterest and flooded foodies' social media feeds. While the ombre hair trend emerged in the early part

Though the name may imply otherwise, Mexican wedding cookies are made for plenty of occasions other than just celebrating matrimony. During the holiday season, you’ll likely find some variation of

Using a kitchen scale is so important that it's the first lesson for Culinary Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts students at the Institute of Culinary Education. In the video below, Chef Jeff gives a sneak

In a pastry chef’s toolbox, you may find items like a candy thermometer, a bench scraper and an offset spatula that professionals simply can’t live without. You may be surprised to find out that one

Working with fresh pumpkin can be a frustrating exercise due to its inconsistency, and I always feel a bit guilty resorting to the canned variety. The choice of sweet potato as an alternative is an

“I started pretty young,” Michelle admits. “I begged my mom to send me to cooking camp when I was a kid.” Throughout middle school and high school, her goal was to attend culinary school. At 18 years

The traditional technique is one perfected over a century. It involves delicate piping of royal icing, through a very small piping tip, built up upon itself to reach breathtaking gravity-defying

In 2017, when Cher was laid off by her employer, she was out of a paycheck, and sadly like many people today, she could not find a new job. To fill her time, Cher resorted to baking. “What I used to