Cakes II Exam

Today for the cake decorating exam I had to make a chiffon cake with fruit mousse and buttercream.  We had to submit itineraries and sketches beforehand.  My intention was to make orange chiffon and blackberry mousse, but in class we only had lemons (no oranges) and raspberry (what!) was my closest option for the mousse.

The theme for my cake was a going-away cake for one of Ewat’s colleagues.  They work at a record label so I wanted to decorate it with some gold records since no one goes platinum anymore.  I made the decorations out of marzipan.  Besides the flavors, it came out pretty much according to plan.

Here’s a couple of my classmates cakes.  I really wanted a photo with all twenty of them, but that didn’t quite work out.

Man, there’s something about these small 6 inch cakes we’ve been making.  Such a good size.  I like it a lot.  Hooray for cakes!

Tomorrow – CHOCOLATE!!!

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.

 

 

 

Yule Log

Also known as Buche de Noel.

This one has spiced cranberry orange buttercream in the log, and the bark is chocolate buttercream.  There are little mushroom meringues and some cocoa nibs near the base.  We also made this Fraisier

It has a milk sponge cake base, fresh strawberries, vanilla creme mousseline (pastry cream lightened with butter) and is topped with marzipan.  We made the marzipan ourselves, and I forgot how to write a cursive capital “F.”  It’s pretty close though, I think.

Gateaux & Viennoiserie/Bread Exams

Last Thursday we finished up Level 1 with the Gateaux Exam.  I finished at a record-setting 11:36am.

We had to make the plain Genoise Cake, write “Happy Birthday” in fondant icing on a three inch mazipan plaque and make a marzipan rose.  I could have placed the decorative items ON the cake, but since I didn’t color the Marzipan, bland on bland wasn’t a look I wanted to go for.  And it wasn’t required.  Is deconstructed no longer en vogue?

Then we moved on to Level 2 with a new Chef Instructor and a new, much smaller classroom.  You could say the smaller space simulates the conditions we may one day find ourselves working in.   Fortunately there has been a lot of butt bumping butt and unfortunately the school does have plans to renovate the entire floor including the classrooms.

We worked on breads again including lean doughs this time (so no added fats, sugar, fruit/nuts).  It was pretty chaotic, as breads tend to be.  This baguette dough exploded while proofing overnight in the refigerator.

It was a short 5 day unit, and we had our Viennoiserie/Bread Exam today.

We did the croissants and scones already in Level 1, but the Petit Pain rolls were from Level 2.  I never thought I’d say it, but I can’t eat any more Pain au Chocolat right now.  So sad.

Next week: Petits Fours!

Woodland themed Chocolate Cakes

Pickles is making my little photo shoots increasingly difficult.   She likes to stay close to the action, either by sniffing the tantalizing aroma of the Flourless Chocolate Cake decorated with Chocolate Meringue (good for those with wheat/gluten allergies)

chewing on the towel

or simply insisting on being in the photo.

As soon as I manage a walrus-free shot of the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse Cake, decorated with faux bois White Chocolate shards

Pickles is back for a taste.  But who can blame her?  This is six layers of chocolate-hazelnut sponge cake and mousse.  There are fresh ground toasted hazelnuts in the cake and hazelnut liqueur in the mousse.

Finally she leaves me alone so I can enjoy a slice of the Flourless Chocolate Cake, which was made with almond flour instead of wheat flour and also has Creme D’Or (choco + whipped cream) icing under the meringue.  I think the meringue looks like Birch trees.

Everyone loves Flourless Chocolate Cake.  It always reminds me of my friend Stacey who moved to Austin, TX a couple of years ago.  She used to make it all the time.  Hi Stacey!  Let’s take a closer look at the all the fanfare.

What’s not to love?  Plus, the Chocolate Meringue biscuits get a little chewy in the center – like macarons.  Drool.

That’s right, more cakes

Known amongst friends as “the brick,” this Marjolaine is layers of the same almond meringue as the Coffee Dacquoise and also includes a layer of the same Coffee Buttercream.  Here it is, before freezing and trimming.

The base is a chocolate Genoise cake, then the following layers: Dark Chocolate Ganache (choco + cream), Dacquoise, Creme D’or (choc + whipped cream), Dacquoise, Coffee Buttercream, Dacquoise, Whipped Cream (flavored with Whiskey), and Dacquoise.  After freezing and trimming, we covered the brick in more buttercream and then a chocolate glaze.

I brought this to a birthday party for Classy P.  The Dacquoise (almond meringue) layers turned from crispy to chewy which I really liked in contrast to the various silky smooth fillings.  I would love to make this again for another special occasion, but there are so many different components that the Lazy in me will probably win out.

For Classy P’s birthday we also had a White and Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake

Carrot Cake with marzipan carrot decorations.  Cute alert!

And a Black Currant Mousse cake and Chocolate Cupcakes which unfortunately are not pictured.  Boo hoo!

These last two cakes are pretty nice cakes, but I left them at school because believe it or not, I didn’t feel like eating them.  What?  I dunno!  Both of them were originally created, to sustain a longer shelf life.  I think they last at least a week outside of the fridge, assuming you don’t have a sweet-toothed cat walrus lurking around.

This is the cake-formerly-known-as-Sacher-Torte.  It is not Sacher-Torte.  In fact, there are only two Sacher-Torte legally found on Earth at either the Sacher Hotel bakeries or the Demel bakeries, both Austrian.  Given how exclusive these cakes are, you’d think they were extra special tasting.  That’s what you’d think.  It’s chocolate cake with apricot jam and chocolate fondant.

FUN fact: Demel New York was one of my clients when I was working in insurance.  They had a bakery, now closed, at the Plaza Hotel.    The surviving side of the business in NY is high-end airline and airport lounge catering at JFK.  If you’ve ever worked with the Port Authority of NY & NJ I’d love to hear about your experience.  Not!

I also left behind this Dobos Torte (pronounced “Dobosh”) named after a Hungarian baker.

Ours is five layers of sponge cake, chocolate buttercream and crunchy caramel sponge cake topping.

I liked the crunchy top and the sponge cake was the spongiest we’ve made.  As for the buttercream, it was yummy, but buttercream is generally not my favorite filling.  What?  Too much butter??

Cakes and cakes and cakes and cakes!

Cakes started with some practice.  Here is plain genoise cake soaked with simple syrup, layered with raspberry jam, and iced with plain buttercream.   It’s okay.  A nice way to learn from my mistakes.

Now onto some good stuff.  From the top, Chocolate Ganache, Angel Food, Coffee Almond Dacquoise

 We are working on egg foam cakes, which are either whole egg or separated egg, and also meringue cakes, which are baked or dry.   Angel Food Cake (baked meringue) made from scratch is my new favorite, so long box cake!  It was the only box cake I would ever buy, but now I will wait until I have saved enough egg whites and make it fresh.  Way way way better and I never knew.  We’re gonna bring back angel food cake. AFC 4 Eva!

The Chocolate Ganache cake is triple chocolate and super chocolately but not overwhelming.   It was served for my friend Vicki’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Vicki!

The triple chocolate is chocolate genoise cake, light chocolate ganache and chocolate glaze.  The cake layers were punched with whiskey for fun. 

By the way, genoise is a whole egg foam cake.  We also broke out the Coffee Dacquoise cake for Vicki.  It’s five layers of dry almond-meringue with coffee buttercream.  This cake looks familiar doesn’t it.

Ooh la la!  Very rich, very sweet.  Only eat a little bit.

And now for something completely different, welcome back fruit!  Hello Russian Charlotte (Charlotte Russe) made of pear!

First we made the Lady Fingers (Biscuits a la Cuillere), a separated egg foam cake where the egg whites and egg yolks are mixed separately.    Then the filling, a Pear Bavarian which is like a silky mousse stiffened with a little gelatin.  We made a chocolate one back in Tarts & Cookies.   The pear dessert tastes light and refreshing, a welcome change from the recent repertoire.

I have leftover lady fingers.

Should I make Tiramisu?

It’s the right thing to do.