My Wedding Cake!

That I made for class….hell no am I gonna make my own for the real wedding.  This thing took 3 days!

It’s a basic white cake with honey buttercream  Covered in fondant, decorated with blown sugar, poured sugar, chocolate pinecones and royal icing.  The class behind us picked the theme: Winter Forest.   Not bad, though somewhat limited in scope.  But much better than my all time favorite theme from a previous class: Elegant Modern Disco.

I lugged this thing home in a taxi.  Ewat, Pickles and I will have it for dessert tonight.

Plated Dessertsssssss

Oh it’s the end!  No really, we graduate in two weeks!!  Today marked the end of plated desserts for me and half of the class.  The rest finish tomorrow.  Our Menu Project required that we conceptualize our own restaurant and create an 8 item seasonal dessert menu.  The chef instructors then select two of the desserts for us to make and plate.  We have two days to prepare.

I stupidly forgot to take a picture of my menu, the nice one we had to make and turn in.  Maybe I will have a chance to see it again…someday.  Here’s the two that I made.

Chestnut Tart with honey glazed figs, moscato fig sorbet and candied chestnuts.  I also made some brown butter honey sauce for the plate, a meringue for the sorbet to sit on and a caramel decoration.

The tart is made with puff pastry, chestnut cream and candied chestnut on the inside.

Chocolate Fritters (chocolate brioche with chocolate on the inside) with sichuan peppercorn sugar, caramel apple cream and whiskey sauce.  There are some apples that were flambe’d with calvados and whiskey for added flavor, some milk chocolate crumbles and another caramel decoration.

The two weeks prior to the menu project we made a slew of other plated desserts in class.  Each team is responsible for the main elements and then one other component that would accompany one of the desserts from that day.  I’ll TRY to remember what they all are.

Pate a Bric Day:  Pate a Bric is this French stuff that reminds me of spring roll wrappers

Apple Beggar’s Purse with ginger sake sabayon, lychee sorbet and candied pistachios. This was supposed to be a mango beggar’s purse but the mangos were pretty nasty that day.  The “purse” we made in a different shape to be more elegant than bulky.

Pear Spring Rolls (see…spring rolls) with caramel pepper gastrique and creme fraiche raspberry swirl ice cream.  A gastrique is an emulsified sauce with acid.  We used champagne vinegar.

Strudel Day:  Strudel dough is a basic dough made with all purpose and bread flours, a little salt, oil and warm water.  Then we stretch it real thin over the entire table and on a table cloth so it doesn’t stick.  It’s filled then rolled, so you get lots of layers.  Pretty fun stuff, but such a hassle!

Apple Strudel with sour cream, vanilla ice cream and candied walnuts.

Grape Strudel with plain genoise on the inside to soak up extra juices from the fresh grapes.  There’s a red wine (I forget what kind) reduction on the plate too.

Fry Day:

Tropical Fruit Beignets (pineapple, mango, banana and star fruit) with tamarind ice cream, coconut  and caramel sauces.

Deep-fried Apple Crepes with bourbon caramel sauce and hard cider ice cream.  Now this was real crazy pants.  We made crepes.  Rolled them with an apple filling.  Dipped them in beignet batter.  Bananapants crazy…and weird.

We also made Bomboloni but I didn’t get a photo.  They’re basically brioche doughnuts filled with pastry cream.  The fried brioche is uber light and fluffy and crisp on the outside.  Pastry cream is one of my all time favorite things.  These make me want to rethink my doughnut business idea, but I’m not keen to fry stuff all day long.  www.moredoughnuts.com  I own it.

Souffle Day (x2):  I’ve been looking forward to this since school started.  I’ve never had it, never made it.  In the end, I think pretty easy.  I don’t know what all the fuss is about, but I also don’t want to wait an extra fifteen minutes to order it for dessert at a restaurant.

Pear Souffle with pistachio creme anglaise.  For the fruit souffles the teams picked the fruit.  Pear flavor is pretty delicate and doesn’t quite hold up here.  I thought that most of the fruit souffles were a little weird.

Chocolate Souffle with coffee creme anglaise.  Now we’re talking.  Chocolate prevails!  The best thing about the chocolate souffle is that given the higher fat content, it can actually be pre-made and kept in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking.  Perfect for fancy dinner parties.  You’ll lose a little height, but no one will notice unless you do a side by side comparison.  You’re welcome.

Cheese Souffle: Cheese.  Souffle.  Cheese.  Souffle.  Gruyere.  Souffle.  Goat Cheese.  Souffle!  Doilies!

Lemon Souffle Pancakes with strawberries, honey lemon ice cream and honey lemon sauce.  So yummy, light and fluffy.   Perfect for breakfast, brunch or just because.

Pistachio Souffle Pancake with pistachio pastry cream, pear compote and vanilla peach swirl ice cream.   Also good, on an individual component basis.  Pear and peach and pistachio were a bit of a mismatch, but maybe we were cleaning out the fridge that day.

We also made an extra souffle of choice.  I did a hazelnut chocolate souffle but ate it before I could take a photo.  Whoops!

Cake Day:

Warm Chocolate Fondant Cake with chocolate sauce, some ice cream and some other sauce.  I think some left over coffee anglaise made it on the plate too.  My memory is fading.   I think that whoever invented this cake, is the original creator of the now famous, molten chocolate cake.  The inside is that flowy gooey stuff that we all know and love and maybe have had enough of?  I dunno, I ate the whole thing anyway.

Warm Nut Cake (cooked through).  The nut is hazel.  I forget again here what the sauce and ice cream were, but the obvious other components were strawberry compote, candied hazelnuts and a tumbleweed tuile

Chiboust Day:  Remember chiboust from level one, the St. Honore cake?  It’s pastry cream with gelatin and meringue.  It’s lovely.

Raspberry & Lemon Chiboust Tart with raspberry compote and berry sorbet.  Yup, I made the caramel decorations that day to practice for the menu project.  I love lemon and think I ate one and a half of these tarts that day.

Coconut Chiboust with coconut financier, coconut sauce, coconut sherbet and chocolate sorbet (or was it also sherbet?)  This was so yum, I loved it so much.  We brulee’d the top for a sweet crunchy touch.  Ate all of this one too.

Cake Day (#2): the binge eating continues

Beaumes-de-Venise Cake with the same sorbet and grape compote.  This cake is made with the Muscato wine and olive oil.  It’s like a fancier version of pound cake.   And yes – ate all of this too.  It’s been a fat couple of days.

I made the wine sorbet to practice for the menu project.  Everyone who has a bottle of vodka in the freezer knows that it doesn’t freeze, which causes problems for sorbets and ice creams with booze.  But we use stabilizers like Cremodan for sorbets and try to burn off most of the alcohol which helps.

Chocolate Cupcake with vanilla cocoa nib ice cream.  Not your average cupcake.  Ate it up and gained some pounds.  I think there is a MasterCard commercial here somewhere, with calories instead of dollars, but equally priceless.

Ligurian Lemon Cake with honey almond gelato and raspberry sauce.  This cake is a blur.  I think I was in sugar coma at this point.

And the last before the menu project started – a Tropical Tasting Plate.  Fun to make and fun to eat.

From left: Savarin (like a baked brioche doughnut) with rum lime soak, creme chantilly and candied lime peel; Coconut Cous Cous with Fruit, coconut sherbet, raspberry sauce and coconut chips;  Coconut Dacquoise (meringue) with passion fruit cream, fruit salad and passion fruit tuile

I lied, we also made a brownie because we had time.

THE END

Temporary relief for my fingertips

Working with hot sugar hurts the hands.  Here’s the last of it for now.

Pulled sugar bow and roses

Blown sugar fish

Our class made a group showpiece.  It’s Halloween!  Spoooooky!!  My partner and I made the creepy trees.

 

 

 

 

Transition to a sticky situation

Let’s see, where were we….

Here’s the last of the plated desserts, ending with our grand finale, the Afternoon of Desserts!  This was a dessert tasting held at the school for family and friends.  The class conceived our own fall menu from start to finish and prepped for 3 days in addition to our regular classwork.   I’m super proud of our class and thankful to all our friends and family who made it all worthwhile.

Last of the classwork:

Tiramisu with espresso granita in a chocolate cup, tuile cookie, coffee creme anglaise and chocolate sauce

Panna Cotta made with goat’s milk yogurt and served with a white chocolate decoration, peach compote and white wine granita.  I love this one.  The goat’s milk yogurt was a new twist, but still highly enjoyable.

Let me just say that I am a fan of dessert soup.  It’s common in Chinese cuisine but an enigma in America.  I’ve had it only one other time at Nobu 57 some 6 or 7 years ago.  The details escape me, but it was something peachy that floated on my tongue with a little crunch and the touch of something frozen (sorbet or ice cream?).  This soup, while completely different, evokes the same happy, fuzzy feeling in me.

Spiced Fruit Soup seasoned with star anise, ginger, mint, cardamom pods and vanilla bean.   Resting in the delicately flavored sweet broth are sous vide plum, pineapple and apricot.  It’s so nice!

And TADA!  For the Afternoon of Desserts, my FAB partner and I made a Chestnut Ice Cream Cake with Hot Fudge, Chestnut Caramel Sauce and Candied Chestnuts for the Afternoon of Desserts.  I love chestnut!

This was a our trial plating, which was later toned down for elegance.  That is, less hot fudge everywhere.  Boo hoo!  Poor hot fudge.

Final plating:

Ready for pick up:

THE END…of plated desserts…until the Menu Project.  It never ends…until Oct 28.  Now we get sticky all day and play with sugar.

My giant Pickles made me a proud cat momma this week by quickly adapting to her new Litter Robot (if you have a cat, giant or otherwise, you must look into Litter Robot.  It will change your litter scooping life).  To commemorate her achievement, I erected a sugar sculpture in her likeness.   Hip hip hooray for Pickles!

Thanks to our friend Humidity, Sugar Pickles melted over the weekend.  I made a replacement Owl, that would take more kindly to being decorated with feathers.    It was a hoot.  There, I said it.

Photo of feathers to follow.

Key take-aways:  There is nothing wrong with more hot fudge. Dessert Soup is gooooooood.  Litter Robot is your friend.

Family Meal

This will be my last Family Meal post.  After 5 months, I think we get the idea.  I eat lunch.

September 26, 2011

September 23, 2011

September 22, 2011 – Whoops!

September 21, 2011 – Whoops!

September 20, 2011 – Whoops!

 

Backlog part deux

Feels like i’m just heaving gobs of photos all at once.  Will try to get back on track soon.

This is a Cardinal Cake.  It’s two tiers of chocolate genoise cake with raspberry (yuck!) chocolate mousse.  I put some chocolate decorations on and around it so it at least looks nice.

Then we made a zillion and one bon bon bons and other chocolate candies.  My  bon bon bon bon fillings were: spiced dark chocolate ganache (cardamom, cinnamon, star anise) and Lava Lava Flow (throwback to the Hawaiian Rum Pina Colada with a swirl of strawberry puree).   Let’ see what else we have here:

Clockwise from top left, chocolate covered fruit & nut nougat, chocolate dipped butter caramel, chocolate covered soft ginger caramels, chocolate dipped peanut toffee, Lava Lava Flow bon bon, cardamom spiced ganache bon bon and my most favorite of all time, the chocolate covered peanut butter nougat in the center.  It’s like a mix between a three musketeers bar and a reese’s peanut butter cup, and is basically an italian meringue folded with creamy PB.

Not pictured: peppermint patties, hazelnut “branches”, cherry cordials.

We finished off Chocolate II with…showpieces!  The class theme was Fairy Tales and I chose The Snow Queen.  Diagram & Itinerary:

And magically, two days later this appeared:

And of course, a look at the rest of the class.  Good times.

Now we are back to plated desserts which will eventually lead to a friends and family dessert tasting and an individual menu project.

This is Chocolate Mint Dome.  A flourless chocolate cake base, with a layered mint and chocolate frozen parfait and then sprayed with chocolate to give it a nice warm fuzzy coat.  Other accessories include a toffee lace cookie with orange-mint salad, orange-mint coulis, a chocolate cigarette and a candied mint leaf.

And here we have White Chocolate Citrus Parfait.  A orange milk sponge cake base with a white chocolate and citrus frozen mousse.  We sprayed with white chocolate too.  There is strawberry salad, candied orange peel, strawberry coulis, caramel sauce and a white chocolate twirl for added flair.

Hazelnut Mendiant looking for some love.  A chocolate hazelnut cake base with frozen gianduja (hazelnut chocolate) creme legere, chocolate sauce and sour cherry compote.

And if it weren’t for the raspberry – again with the raspberry – this would be right up there.  Introducing White Chocolate and Hazelnut Semifreddo with raspberry compote, white chocolate sauce and raspberry coulis.

Bon Appetit!

Family Meal

September 19, 2011

September 16, 2011 – Whoops!

September 15, 2011

September 14, 2011 – skipped lunch to finish the chocolate showpiece

September 13, 2011

September 12, 2011

September 9, 2011

September 8, 2011

September 7, 2011

September 6, 2011

September 2, 2011

 

Backlog

Whoops!  Didn’t mean for such a long hiatus.  As usual, we have been busy and now I have a tremendous backlog of photos.  We finished up Chocolate, breezed through Plated Desserts, dabbled with a little Marzipan and air brushing and have just finished Pastillage (aka sugar paste).  Today we started Level 3 and I’m shocked how quickly the 6-month program is going by.  But the new kitchen is spacious and we actually have some natural light coming in.  Windows!

This is a Queen of Sheba Cake, a separated egg foam chocolate cake.  The objective here was more glazing and decorating.  I made some striped chocolate “cigarettes” to go on top.

Even after our chocolate box and candy stand, the school still had us make another box with flushed sides and our initials.  My first box ended up being out of temper and so I started another one at 11:30am that day, finishing in about an hour and a half.  Apparently, we can temper chocolate quickly when we need to.

Plated Desserts:

Creme Caramel with cilantro-pineapple compote, clear caramel sauce, tuille cookie and creme chantilly

Creme Brulee (Le Cirque style) with shortbread (Petit Beurre) cookie

Chocolate Marquise Cake with poached pears, vanilla ice cream, vanilla creme anglaise sauce, chocolate sauce and a chocolate cigarette

Chocolate Crepes with chocolate ganache filling, chocolate sauce, cranberry compote, cranberry-ginger ice cream, sauteed pears and caramel sauce.  I may have forgotten to put the caramel sauce on the plate.

Orange Crepes with orange pastry cream filling, tuille cookie cup, blueberry sorbet, an orange chip, orange supremes and an orange-butter sauce

 

Kiwi & Milk Marmalade Napoleon, with lemon frozen yogurt, kiwi cookie and kiwi coulis.  This one ended up looking like your face.

Spinach and Mushroom Jalousie with bechamel sauce

Baked Lemon Tartlette with berry sauce, basil syrup, berry sorbet, candied basil chips and some creme chantilly

Baked Manjari Chocolate Tartlette with toasted coconut ice cream, coconut creme anglaise, raspberry coulis, toasted coconut shavings and creme chantilly

For the Banana Macadamia Nut Financier, my partner and I made these caramel and macadamia nut decorations for the class

The financier was also served with a brown butter sauce, milk chocolate ice cream and a tuille cookie.

Pineapple Tart Tatin with pineapple-passion fruit butter sauce, a pineapple chip and vanilla-lime frozen yogurt

Cold Green Apple Charlotte (soaked lady fingers with green apple bavarian) with red currant sorbet, red currant coulis, vanilla syrup and apple chips

Hot Green Apple Charlotte (spiced apple flambe baked in clarified butter soaked white bread – tastes as weird and delicious as it sounds) with green apple sorbet and apple caramel

Marzipan Fruit in a Nougatine Basket, decorated with royal icing.  The color is either airbrushed, hand painted or colored marzipan.

My diagram/illustration for the pastillage cake stand and decorated “dummy” cake.  Dummy.  Cake.

No thanks to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, we had one less day to make it.  But I still completed all the elements, minus two of the bird nest boxes and one bird.

Some of my classmates’ work

 

And we made some sugar paste flowers but didn’t get to put the finishing touches (i.e. wrap stems, attach leaves, paint rose highlights).

Have a lovely weekend!

Family Meal

September 1, 2011

August 31, 2011

August 30, 2011

August 26, 2011 – My marzipan oranges and apple went missing.  I was too distraught to eat.

August 25, 2011 – Whoops!

August 24, 2011

August 23, 2011

August 22, 2011

August 19, 2011 – Whoops!

August 18, 2011

August 17, 2011

August 16, 2011

Chocoholism

Some people love chocolate and some people really love chocolate.   I have met people who dislike chocolate and people who hate chocolate.  The haters hate on a personal level as chocolate can be difficult to work with.

The process to temper chocolate for molding, etc includes, heating, cooling, agitating and heating again – all to specific temperatures. Agitating the melted chocolate promotes proper crystal formation which leads to shine, smooth texture, snappiness, arm fatigue, anxiety, dismay, and general malaise.

I’m a really lover of chocolate.

First we made a fruit and nut chocolate cake, with glaze and some chocolate decorations.  Our first foray into tempering chcocolate.

Then we made some Orange-Chocolate Truffles (not pictures) and a box to put them in.  We spent two days on these.  Guess what mine is.

It’s a Rubik’s cube.  The colors/patterns were from transfer sheets.   Maybe mine ended up a biggie, but that just means I can put a million chocolate truffles inside.  Here’s the whole class:

We spent the next two days on our Chocolate Candy Stands.  They again asked us to submit sketches and itineraries, but these weren’t for an exam, just class work.  Mine is a Dim Sum Cart with stackable steam baskets.

And presto!  Those are Roches (Rocks) on the bottom of the cart, made with sliced almonds, grand marnier, candied orange peel and dark chocolate.  I made some little dumplings, sitting on the top corner of the cart, out of this chocolate “plastic” stuff, which is like tootsie roll.

There are some chocolate candied almonds in the top basket.

Then some chocolate squares that have this crunchy, flaky feuilletine with hazelnut praline filling.  Like fancy Crunch bar.   In the bottom basket, though you can barely see, are these drops of dark chocolate with a hazelnut, a pistachio and a dried cherry stuck in it.

And here’s the whole class again.  Applause!