dICEd Blog Listing

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...

More than just a sweet treat, Mexican wedding cookies date back to centuries worth of history and traditions spanning the world. In addition to delicious flavor, these cookies carry more history and...

To start, you need a great sugar cookie recipe. I’m including one, and you can use any trusted one you like. There are many secrets to successfully decorated sugar cookies, and the first one is it...

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...

What is Butter? Butter is a semi-solid emulsion made up of approximately 82% butter fat, 16% water and 2% milk solids. The percentages of fat and water in butter are unique, especially when it comes...

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...