Umm, a little help please…

We’ve had a couple more days of cakes and it is time to clean out the refrigerator.

On Monday, I made my first covered cake.  It was a white butter cake with pineapple mousseline covered and decorated with colored marzipan.  Very problematic all along the way, but I managed okay.

Unfortunately, this cake did not fare well on the way home, after being stuck sideways in my work locker for 7 hours right after it was made.  Pickles gave it a whiff and a pass.

I had better luck with my first rolled-fondant covered cake.  The whole class was instructed to use pastel colors only and to make and trade polka dots.

This cake was wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the beer keg fridge at work instead of the locker.  It suffered some minor dents but a-okay!  It’s a vertically rolled (you’ll see what I mean) chocolate sponge cake with pistachio cream.

Here is a Black Forest cake up close.  You know Black Forest.  German.  Chocolate.  Cherries.  Whipped Cream.

There’s a cherry compote inside made with Kirsch, and also some Creme D’or (chocolate whipped cream).  I’m lying.  I didn’t make the creme d’or, I made a light chocolate ganache instead and by accident.  The brandy soaked cherries decorating the top are from a jar imported from France or maybe Italy.  The English translation on the jar reads, “Not suitable for consumption.  For professional use only.”

So back to cleaning out the fridge.

In the back right, there is a lemon chiffon cake I made at home because I didn’t like the way the one at school came out.  Below is the one from school, but don’t be fooled.  The chiffon cake on the inside was all sorts of wrong, and I used a salty honey buttercream that someone else from another class made for the basket weave, shell and floret decoration.  It’s two-toned.  That’s not just more bad lighting.

Point is, I learned to basket weave with buttercream.  My home cake has lemon curd cream on the inside and lemon curd buttercream on the outside.  Ewat and I ate some of it already.

The fridge also had two and a half cheesecakes.  The little one and the one with the lattice are Italian/Neapolitan Cheesecakes made with ricotta and mascarpone cheeses and also some candied orange peel and sliced almonds inside.  The crust is sucree.

The other one, topped with blueberry compote and sour cream topping is a classic New York cheesecake with graham cracker crust.

I sent this photo to some neighborhood friends, asking for a little help.  This is what I do now. I sit around with a table full of cakes, looking for some company.

A closer look at the insides:

Chocolate & Pistachio Cream Cake with Fondant

Black Forest Cake

Neapolitan Cheesecake

New York Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote

There are five things different in this picture, than the one before…

That’s right.  I ate some of each (minus the lemon cake) and left my dirty fork.