Trio Gelato & Desserts

ice cream cakes: attempt #1 May 16, 2006

Well, this should be fun. I know I don’t have any gelato to work with yet, persay. But ice cream will probably work just as well for experimental purposes.

Tonight, I am going to attempt to create some small gelato cakes, gelato CUPcakes, if you will — some with real cake, some without, some with cookies, some frosted, some coated with whipped cream, and I’m even going to try to come up with a “rolled buttercream” which supposedly works a lot like fondant, but stays soft (though who knows what happens when we freeeeeeze it!?).

Pictures and descriptions to follow.

Beyond the awesome book Jess got at Borders with everything-cake-decorating included, I found a really huge archive of icing recipes here.

Rolled buttercream recipe:
Equal parts Crisco & Karo, mixed with any flavoring (I think I’ll stick with a little vanilla tonight), and enough confectioners sugar to make a stiff dough.

Stiff Royal Icing:
1/2 egg white, sifted confectioners sugar. Use immediately (don’t store) with small decorating tips to make lacy things.

step one, done (at least for this week) May 13, 2006

The cash flow projection chart is complete which feels like a huge accomplishment and a relief, too. It is a huge accomlishment because it really summarizes everything we’ve been researching and thinking about for so long. A relief because, in the end, if we stick to the financial goals we set up for ourselves in the chart, we actually make money. Pretty decent money, too!

So that’s that. We figured out how much it will cost us to make a liter of gelato, the price at which we will sell a liter of gelato, as well as what it will cost us to make a commercial kitchen and pay for our equipment, salaries, and marketing for a year. It feels real now!

Annotated Bibliography May 3, 2006

I thought it might be fun to keep a record of books, articles, websites, etc. that have been or will be helpful to us that we have read or looked at.

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Business Don’t Work and What to Do About It (Unabridged) by Michael Gerber

Probably the most useful book we’ve read (Melanie’s reading it right now), this book stresses the importance of creating a turn-key operation. Innovation, quanitification, and orchestration and, especially, how to organize ourselves as three partners to accomplish our technical, financial, and entrepreneurial goals.

Mel edit: I’m getting super excited about making gelato cakes… tonight I subscribed to a professional pastry chef website and posted questions about the stability of rolled fondant, ganache, or chocolate plastic when frozen (hehe… don’t I sound all chef-like?)

I also found some really useful stuff for construction including molds, sticks, and packaging wrap here.

Gelato, gelato, everywhere… but not a dollop to eat. May 2, 2006

Gelato is big. Huge. Just because Central Florida has up to this point been oh-so-sadly deprived of it’s frozen goodness doesn’t mean that the rest of the world isn’t enjoying it on a daily basis.

My love for gelato was jumpstarted as a freshman in high school — my singing group went to a competition in Verona, Italy and, though it was my first time out of the country and the scenery was incredible, it was the ICE CREAM that I remembered best: the mountains of smooth, creamy, incredibleness infused with more flavor than any frozen food I had ever tasted… I was hooked! I am not exaggerating when I tell you that we ate gelato every single day on that tour - sometimes more than once per day!

Returning to Italy in 2001, this time with Jess (and a guy named Dave — don’t ask), we went crazy eating gelato as well. After every single meal, if I remember correctly. Insert picture of insanely full Mel & Dave post-HUGE GELATO.

You see, in Italy, gelato shops are everywhere you look. Much like Starbucks or McDonald’s here, gelaterias abound on every street in every town in Italy. There is an important difference, however, between our mass-produced chain stores, and the quaintness of these shops… They are not chains, and most of them are not even small franchises, but tiny, independent stores, with generations-old recipes hiding secretively in the kitchens of each and every one.

If you are Italian or know any Italians, you know that they are serious about their food. Serious about their traditions, and their recipes. Not only do they make it like their grandmother used to, but the way their grandmother used to is the RIGHT way… the ONLY way!Gelato carries with it a similar sense of tradition. Lucky for us, it’s beginning to catch on here in America. Cold Stone, Marble Slab… they’re hip, tasty, and innovative in a weird sort of let-me-smash-it-together-for-you way. But many Americans in larger cities (New York, Chicago, and… heck… even West Palm Beach) have changed their tune when it comes to frozen dessert: they’ve found their favorite gelaterias and they’re not looking back!

We hope that we will be able to not only provide Central Florida with a decent source for this amazing tradition in Italian frozen dessert (because what’s here now, frankly, STINKS!), but also that everyone will discover the art, freshness, mystique, and romance of it like we have.

Plus, monsters are cool. And gelato + monsters = yummy, yummy fun.

Scusi, Signorina…

Pimsler… Pimsler… Pimsler…
As of today, I can officially tell someone that I understand a little Italian. Even though I don’t really understand much more than “I understand a little Italian”.

Kind of silly first lesson, don’tcha think? Why would I, at this point, admit to understanding a little Italian?? Someone might take it the wrong way…