Musical Cakes

Ok. These updates are going to be so quick. The last couple weeks of our 3rd term got really hot. The kitchens felt like it was hotter than outside. I really slacked on taking good photos and updating my blog. I was just extremely tired every day that I would come home from school. Better late than never! 

Monday 6.6.11

Today we finished our practical. I was really proud of how quickly I finished. I think that I managed my time really well and that helped me a lot. I thought that making the sugar work was going to set me back but I was patient and tried not to freak out. 

With my Gateaux St. Honore Chef said my puffs could have been baked a little longer which is what I suspected. I was happy that I corrected most of my mistakes from the first time I made this product. I filled in the center with the Diplomat Creme a lot better this time. However, with the sugar work on the tops of the puffs, I did not keep the circles in consistent circles. I am not sure "why" but it's difficult for me to do. I have to find out the secret to getting them to look uniform! 

Gateaux St. Honore

I was really happy with my Tiramisu. I was happy that my lady fingers came out in uniform lengths and that my mousse filled up to the right height so I didn't have to trim my lady fingers. I did forget to dust my lady fingers with powdered sugar, as I mentioned two posts ago, before they baked and of course, Chef was able to tell. That's ok thought. I was very happy with both outcomes. 

Tuesday 6.7.11

Today we made the components for our Opera Cake and assembled it. This included ganache, Joconde Sponge, and French Buttercream. We assembled it and held it over night for completion the next day.

Wednesday 6.8.11

Today we finished our Opera Cake. We glazed the cake with Opera Glaze (dark chocolate melted and mixed with vegetable oil). Them trimmed the edges and wrote "Opera" or "L'opera" on top. 

The layers include (from top to bottom): Opera Glaze, Espresso Butter Cream, Joconde Sponge soaked with coffee, Ganache, Joconde Sponge soaked with coffee, Espresso Butter Cream, Joconde Sponge soaked with coffee and a dark chocolate bottom layer. 

It was as a tribute to the Opera Garnier- an Opera Hose in Paris. 

Opera Cake

We also prepared a Chocolate Butter Sponge and Italian Butter Cream for our Entremet Cake. 

Thursday 6.9.11

Today we prepared a Dobos Sponge for our Dobos Torte that we assembled the next day. We also filled and crumb coated our Entremet Cake. 

Friday 6.10.11

Today we tempered chocolate. It was so difficult to do so in a hot kitchen! Needless to say, I ran out of time and didn't get to take home my Entremet Cake. We also had to put our final coat of Butter Cream on the Entremet Cake. 

We assembled our Dobos Torte. I thought this was a fun cake to make. We used some of our Italian Buttercream and added melted chocolate to it to make Chocolate Butter Cream. The Torte consists of layers of cake and buttercream and topped with a layer of cake that has been coated in melted sugar and sliced for decoration on top. It is a Hungarian Cake and was said to resemble a drum. 

Dobos Torte

With Love, 

Adriana 

Welcome Garrett!

My co worker is expecting her first baby very soon! She asked me to make her cake for her baby shower! I was so excited! She asked for Marble Cake filled with Chocolate Mousse and Whipped Cream frosted. She also requested to have the cake decorated to match the theme of her baby's nursery. So here it is! 

Mable cake, Chocolate Mousse Filling and Whipped Cream
with Fondant Decorations

I had some troubles with this cake. The fondant on whipped cream wasn't working out too well. It did fine on the top but on the sides, it would keep sliding off. Definitely won't do that again. I was advised that it would work just fine though. 

A week after her baby shower, our office threw her a baby shower as well! I made blue velvet cupcakes for her "Work Baby Shower". I think they came out decent. I tried to do a swirled frosting with the cream cheese frosting but it ended up looking kind of "cheap" to me.  I guess what matters is they tasted good. I just bought some cute little plastic carriages and decorated a few of the cupcakes with them. 

Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting 

I also made her a non-edible cake! It was awesome... no cleaning dishes required! :) I made a diaper cake. This my second time making one. They are a lot of fun to make and decorate with baby items. 

Diaper Cake 

With Love, 

Adriana 

Various Cakes

This week we were introduced to some different styles of cakes. The cakes required a couple days of preparation with the exception of one. The Tiramisu and the Charlotte Royal contained mousse fillings that required over-night set-up. We had a much needed 3-day weekend which meant a shorter school week. We all needed a little breather :) 

Tuesday: 5.31.11

Today we made a Tiramisu. Tiramisu translates to "pick me up" in Italian. Our Tiramisu consisted of a lady finger ribbon and sponge base that encased a wonderful Coffee flavored Mascarpone Mousse. We made the components and assembled the Tiramisu but we held it over-night so that the mousse could set up. 

We also made a Jaconde Sponge cake that was made into a very thin layer and filled with raspberry jam. We then rolled it up (kind of like a Jelly Roll) and cut them into thin slices and lined a small bowl with the slices. We then held it over night so that we could use it to assemble our Charlotte Royal the next day. 

Wednesday: 6.1.11

Today we assembled our Charlotte Royal. We filled our Charlotte Royal Shells (I guess that's what you can call it) with a Raspberry Mousse. Again, we needed to hold it over night so that the mousse could set up. 

On the other hand, we presented our Tiramisu today and I was happy with the outcome of mine. All we had to do to finish it was dust the top with cocoa powder. We were supposed to make chocolate curls for the top but we ran out of time somehow. Chef said that everything looked pretty good with the exception of the height of my ladyfingers. She said to try keeping them the same lengths. I agree with her however it was difficult because when I was piping them, it was hard to get them to stay within the line. I'm not sure "why", but I'll get better at it!

Here is my Tiramisu. Jeff liked it. His family liked it. I did not like it. I guess I just don't do well with soggy cake and the fact that the ladyfingers were soggy with coffee just through me off a bit. 

Tiramisu

Thursday: 6.2.11

Today was a fun day. We made a Jelly Roll Sponge Cake, French Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache to make a HUGE "HO HO". Actually, it's a Chocolate Roulade Cake (originating from the French word "rouler" which means "to roll"). I thought it was really tasty, however the sponge cake wasn't to my liking. Other than that, the buttercream was great. It tasted like chocolate milk. Evangeline (my awesome partner for the week) and I had some problems with our French Buttercream. The French Buttercream requires the addition of a simple syrup that must be heated to 240F. Well, our thermometers only went to 220F and our candy thermometers didn't submerge completely into the mixture which left us trying to "eye-ball" it to the soft ball stage. We messed up the first time and had to redo our simple syrup but in the end it came out perfect (in my opinion). That's what school is for, right? To learn. I'm glad I learned how to use the soft ball method that way I don't always have to depend on a thermometer. 

Well, here is the cake!

Chocolate Roulade Cake

I sent this photo to Jeff and he said it looked like sushi! 

Today, we also un-molded our Charlotte Royal. 

Charlotte Royal (Raspberry)

I was pretty happy with myself that I sealed up the mold enough so that my mousse didn't leak. It did leak in a few spots but overall, I feel I did a good job. Room for improvement- always!

Slice of Charlotte Royal (Raspberry)

Friday: 6.3.11

Today was day one of our first practical. For our practical we need to make a Gateaux St. Honore and a Tiramisu. I managed to be able to assemble my Tiramisu on day one and also make my base, cream puffs and pastry cream for my Gateaux St. Honore. I had a couple mishaps. I forgot to dust my ladyfinger sponge with powdered sugar and  I think I may have pulled my cream puffs and base from the oven two early. They are hollow, which is needed, but the color may be a little to light. We will see on Monday. 

I had such a good weekend. I am sad to see it go. I stayed home all day yesterday without leaving my house. I brought home Charlie, our doggy, to spend the weekend with me. Jeff and I have decided that we need to learn how to cook for ourselves so we have started a project to learn how to cook one new item each week. I'd like to blog our dishes on here as well so here is what we made this week! We made Chicken Teriyaki and served it with steamed rice and steamed broccoli. The chicken was good but a little  to lengthy to make. The recipe required us to lightly fry the chicken then cook it in the Teriyaki sauce. We need recipes a little simpler since we always seam to be so busy!

Teriyaki Chicken, Steamed Rice and Steamed Broccoli

Now to get my head "in the game" from my last day of my practicals tomorrow. EEK!

With love,

Adriana 

Practice Desserts

Last weekend, I went CRAZY making all kinds of desserts. I made these for my portfolio because most of the photos from the original time I made them weren't very nice.

So here they are: 

These cookies were just for fun. They were so moist and tender. I'm sure the use of buttermilk played a huge role in that. 

Key Lime Tea Cookies

I made various sizes. With the amount of space on my cutting board, it was hard to do big ones like I had planned. 

Croissants

Brownies

Brownies with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Toffee Candies

Chocolate Pot De Creme

Cranberry Orange Biscotti with White Chocolate

With Love,

Adriana 

Ice Cream, Sorbet, Souffle, Bavarian Cake....

For our second week in International Patisserie we started learning about frozen desserts and assembled our first "complicated" cake. 

I've been really busy lately and not feeling to great so I've been slacking on my blog posts. I would really like to detail them more but this is the best I can do, for now. 

Monday: 5.23.11

Today we presented our Chocolate Pot De Cremes that we prepared on Friday. When I got home, I put a little whipped cream on top with some powdered sugar and shaved chocolate. 

Chef Cory said that the consistency of my pot de creme was good. I don't remember him saying anything that I could have done differently. 

Chocolate Pot De Creme

We also worked in groups of 4 to prepare a Raspberry sorbet base. We allowed it to sit over night and we churned it the next day. 

We also made a Chocolate Orange Frozen souffle that would be presented the next day. 

We practiced with Tuile Batter as well. Tuile Batter is what is used to make fortune cookies! We used our tuile batter to make edible vessels to present our Raspberry Sorbet. It was challenging working with the Tuile Batter because you have to shape it right when it's removed from the oven. It doesn't take long at all to bake so you have to keep a close eye on it yet, you still want it to get a nice golden brown color. 

Tuesday: 5.24.11

Today we worked in groups of 4 again to make a Vanilla Ice Cream base. We had the choice of searching through flavorings to make a yummy flavored ice cream. I chose Tahitian Vanilla Bean for my group while others did Key Lime and Espresso Bean. It needed to be held over night to mature the flavors.

We churned our Raspberry Sorbet and oh my, it was fantastic. I am beginning to really love raspberries- I didn't care for it too much before I started Culinary School. We presented our raspberry sorbets in our edible Tuile Batter vessels. 

I tried making a star shaped vessel but it didn't come out how I envisioned it. I used a fish stencil to create a little garnish. 

Raspberry Sorbet in Tuile Batter Vessel

We presented our Chocolate Orange Frozen Souffles as well. I am not a fan of orange and chocolate together and neither are our chefs so it was interesting watching them taste test our products. Chef said that I could have whipped my cream a little bit more so make my souffle more airy. Frozen Souffles are pretty cool- no baking required!

Chocolate Orange Frozen Souffle

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: 5.25.11, 5.26.11 and 5.27.11

Over the next three days we assembled the components for our Bavarian Cake. Our Bavarian Cake consisted of these elements:

Dacquoise (like a meringue)- used as a layer in the cake

Chocolate Ribbon Sponge- used as a layer and as the outer edge

Raspberry Gelee - used as the top layer

Vanilla Bavarian Cream- used to fill two layers in the cake

Tempered Chocolate- used as garnish

Chantilly Cream- used as garnish

The decoration on the sides is achieved by piping tuile batter onto parchment allowing it to freeze then spreading the Chocolate Ribbon Sponge over it. When baked, the tuile batter bakes into the cake for the awesome effect. 

Bavarian Cake

Bavarian Cake Slice

With love,

Adriana