obsessive compulsive disorder builder...

The first week of cakes is history and it has the potential of driving me nuts. The sides of the cakes need to be flat and perpendicular. The top needs to be flat and level without any imperfections. All of the piped shells along the edge need to be the same size and shape. The message that is piped on top needs to be attractive and proportional. When you cut into the cake, all of the layers of cake need to be the same width. The frosting between the layers can't be too thick or too thin and it needs to be consistent. In order to make money, a cake needs to be built quickly with all these requirements. No dillydallying allowed.

The cake shown would never pass but it's my second cake. I'll get better.

christmas in july....

This week was the start of the cake block.  We have done two cakes.  The first one was a black forest chocolate cherry cake.  It had a couple of layers of chocolate genoise cake with creme chantilly masking (frosting).  We bake relatively thick cakes and then slice them into flat, skinny layers.  The cake needs to be sturdy to tolerate the thin slicing and the handling so it is a very dry cake as a result.  As we build the layers we drench them with cherry brandy flavored simple syrup.

The second cake was a yule log.  It was a sheet of white sponge cake applied with a layer of chocolate mousse.  The sponge is rolled up into a roll and we do our best to make it look like a log using buttercream frosting.  

I'm not going to include pictures because they look silly.  Maybe I'll get better with practice. I did include a portion of the yule log which shows the mushrooms made out of meringue.

When I brought my product to the instructor for evaluation, I said "Yule probably not going to think this is too good."  She agreed.

passionate about passion fruit....

All of the practical tests that we have on Fridays have been on one or two products that we made during the week.  Today was the end of the custards, creams and fillings block and our final practical test was on a recipe that we were given on Wednesday.  Mine was a Passion Fruit Charlotte.  There is a disk of stenciled sponge cake on the bottom and the inside edge of ring mold was wrapped with some of the same stenciled sponge (that part of the cake with the yellow stripes).  The majority of the cake is passion fruit mousse and the very top (1/8") is a Passion Fruit Glacage.  That lattice garnish is piping of Pate a Choux (the same paste that we use for eclairs) with poppy seeds sprinkled on.

It's a gorgeous cake but I would work on the recipe ratios a little bit.  It was pretty tart.

Next week we start a block on cakes.  Not wedding cakes, yet - just cakes.  

ice cream and souffle....

I think that ice cream has been our first dessert that we didn't fancy up with its French name.  This has been ice cream, sorbet and souffle week.  The ice cream product was Baked Alaska.  Inside that mound of browned Italian meringue is a ball of homemade dark chocolate.  Inside the ice cream is a ball of raspberry sorbet.  

Souffles are tricky.  We did a vanilla souffle and it came out OK for the first time.  It is definitely a dessert that requires some practice.

yahoo, it's tiramisu...

I haven't been keeping close watch but I think that this is the first pastry that we've done from Italy.  Tiramisu has an interesting origin.  Legend has it that a restaurant in Italy had a brothel upstairs.  The girls requested something to help keep them going through the long, late hours.  The chef took various scraps and put together sponge cake soaked in espresso, layered it with mousse rich with mascarpone cheese and added some chocolate.  I don't know if it was the world's first energy food but I like the story.

Our tiramisu has a band of dark chocolate around the outside which obscures the layers of sponge and mousse but it gives it a nice polished look.  If you ever get this in a restaurant, disregard how easy it is to do the band and gladly fork over the $12.  What's inside that band is worth it.

Check out my tempered chocolate filigrees.  There is a slight improvement from a couple of months ago.

everyone gets a chance to play....

I made a batch of cream puffs and eclairs for the gang at Green Mesquite today.  My recipe for the pastries outpaced the recipe for the pastry cream.  You should see how much ganache I have left.  I need to work on my respective recipe quantities.  

Knowing that I was going to be short of filling, I selected the pastries with the best shape.  The result was that about 12 pastries were not filled.  My original thought was to toss them and call it a day.  Then I remembered all of the things that I had tried out for and was not selected.  sniff.  The pastries looked so forlorn sitting on the cooling rack without any filling or ganache coating.  It wasn't their fault that they came out of the oven a little goofy.  

It looks like I'll be making some pastry cream tonight.

4 basic food groups....

"There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles".  

I'm not sure who said that but we covered 3 of the food groups in my favorite project of the week.  This is a 3 Chocolate Bavarois (Bavarian).  From the bottom up, it is chocolate sponge cake, dark chocolate bavarian, milk chocolate bavarian, white chocolate bavarian, chocolate jelly and tempered white chocolate piping.  My instructor started the autopsy on my cake before I could get a picture of my creation so I lifted this one from the electronic textbook that I have.  With the exception of the piping, mine was very similar.

Having an 8" version of this is a little too much so I'm hitting the baking supply store tomorrow in search of 4" ring molds.  That's a good size for an individual serving, don't you think?

the stimulus isn't stimulating....

Even though I'm in school, I still watch for engineering opportunities.  There was a job fair today for the Texas version of the EPA.  There were 24 positions advertised and it started at 9:00.  I got there right at 9:00am and the line was 200 yards long.  I got in the door by 10:15 but I never made it to the interview portion of the festivities.  When I left at 11:00 for school, there was still a substantial line outside.  They were being told that they wouldn't be able to do all those interviews by quitting time (3:00pm) so they should go home.

happy bastille day eve.....

July 14 is Bastille Day. The school is celebrating by seeing who can make the most crepes in 10 minutes.  The happy news is that we get to eat all of the crepes.  Viva la France.

Today was bavarian day and it wasn't your everyday bavarian.  The bottom half is a sponge cake that is a about 1/2 inch thick and it went inside a small ring mold.  We stenciled a polka dot pattern on it to give it some character.  The bavarian cream was flavored with blood orange puree and poured in and allowed to set.  It was topped off with a thin layer of blood orange glacage (jello - giggle).  The hardest part was getting it out of the ring mold.  It was a lot of work for a little dessert but it sure was good.

make mine a big slice...

It's been so hot outside, I'm content to stay in and fire up the oven and stove.  The creation for this weekend was a pie with chocolate pastry cream filling and whipped cream stars piped on the top.  We've only had one day dedicated to pies in school but I think they will become my weekend hobby.  

Also on the menu this weekend is a peach bavarian.  My refrigerator is being taken over by peaches so this is my attempt to use some.  We'll see how it goes.

off with their heads...

These are Religieuse and they are kind of fun.  They are meant to represent Catholic nuns.  The body and head are little puff pastries filled with espresso flavored pastry cream.  There are many options for making the collar but we went with piping little stars of whipped butter around the neck.  You would be hard pressed to find these in the US but they can be found in every bakery in France.  After a hard day in Catholic school, the children apparently take great pleasure in running to the local bakery and biting the head off a cream filled nun.  Payback. 

say cheese.....

There's an old expression that it's best if you don't know what goes into the making of sausage.  The same could be said for cheesecake.  All that cream cheese, sour cream, eggs and sugar.  Yikes.  That's a secret better left unspoken.  Having said that, there's nothing better than a nice fluffy cheesecake for dessert.  It's hard to see the yellow swirls but I went for light lemon cheesecake using lemon curd.  Those slices didn't last long after our instructor evaluated them.

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

We made rice pudding and bread pudding yesterday.  It felt like a Dickens novel.  I'm thinking that they didn't have their bread pudding served with creme anglaise, berries or a fork.  We made the basic versions.  There wasn't any rum or raisins involved.  I haven't had a lot of experience with bread or rice pudding but I thought these vanilla models were just fine...

cla-foo-tee....

Clafoutis is basically a fruit custard.  Some people are insistent that the fruit be cherries but some frisky bakers will use any fruit that sounds good on a menu.  We used cherries marinated in simple syrup and rum.  This custard has some almond flour as well as brandy mixed in.  As a result, this custard has a little more texture and taste to it.  It's not your typical vanilla, creamy custard but it is still a great dessert.

By the way - I've been in this house for 14 years now but I'll be needing some custard dishes for a house warming gift!!

pass the torch....

We made the Creme Brulee yesterday and let it chill overnight.  Today we got to coat the top with sugar and liquify it with a propane torch.  It then sets up into the crunchy crust we creme brulee lovers love.  

This class could also be called Presentation 101.  This is the first class where plating the dessert is important.  When done in a restaurant, it helps justify that $14 cost for the creme brulee.  giggle..  

That little "cookie" on the plate is a Tuile (tweel).  The batter is equal parts flour, melted butter, sugar and egg whites.  You can put any free form shape on a cookie sheet.  Even though they brown, they are totally flexible when they come out of the oven.  If done quickly, they can be bent and formed into shapes (cones, ribbons, spirals, cups, fortune cookies,  etc).  As they cool, they hold the shape.  Fun...

flan - oops - i mean creme caramel...

My hat goes off to the person that thought it would be fun to heat up some eggs, milk and sugar and pour it into a cup with hardened caramel in the bottom.  Bake it for awhile, chill it overnight and plop it on the plate.  The longer it sits in the cooler, more caramel liquifies and spreads on the plate.  It's magic.

custards last stand...

We're trading in the mixer for a saucepan for the next 3 weeks.  We're in the custards, fillings and creams block.  Today was creme caramel (flan), creme brulee, chocolate pots de creme and finally lemon curd.  I came home with an urge to watch Amelie.

atticus...

The Paramount Theatre has classic movies all during the summer.  The Paramount is an old theatre and it is a great place to see movies.  I always sit in the balcony.  I make a goal every summer to see as many as possible but I always fall short of my goal.  This summer is no exception.  I've purchased my 10 ticket bargain pack and I'm determined to use them all.  The summer kicked off with "Casablanca".  I had never seen it before.  Last night was "To Kill a Mockingbird".  This coming Wednesday night is "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Hustler".  They don't make them like this any more.