The last 5 weeks of my life (minus New Orleans)...

Well, I figured I would fill you in on what I have been doing the last 5 weeks in my latest completed lab: BPA 151 (Pastry 1).  The point of the class was to learn and produce basic pastry techniques, like: cutting and icing a 3 layer cake, glazing, making batters, mousses, ganaches, and fruit tarts.  We also had some free time to make some cool bonus items that I have to share with you!

Here I am getting ready to paint some chocolate bands to cover that little round cake with mousse to my left

I brushed chocolate on flexible plastic, then wrapped it around the cakes.  Once they harden, the plastic is removed to reveal a smooth chocolate coating (don't have a picture of a "done" one, sorry!)

Here is some peanut butter mousse pie slices, topped with Chantilly cream (sweetened whipped cream) and a cute chocolate peanut decor that I designed!!  These went to the bakery on the 1st floor of the school called The Sweet Spot

Here I am practicing glazing a cake for my final.  It it WAY more difficult than it looks!!  So many things can go wrong, including: air bubbles, too warm or too cold temperature, "candle waxing"-where the glaze doesn't fall all the way down the cake and exposes the thin icing layer... just to name a few!

Here's what it looked like once I finished.  Not too bad... it needs to be really smooth though...

To hide any imperfections on the bottom, decorating it with more chocolate always helps!!

This was a practice 3 layer cake...  the cake and icing layers need to be uniform, so the top has too much, sides need a little more.  Yes, the instructor is THAT picky!!

This is an Opera cake, containing thin layer of coffee syrup-soaked sponge cake, coffee buttercream, chocolate ganache and finished off with that pesky chocolate glaze.  These are very popular in Europe.

Here is the massive 5-layer carrot cake (probably weighed 10 pounds!!) I made for Easter Sunday lunch with a friend and family.  It had delicious cream cheese buttercream and chopped walnuts coating the bottom.  Really good!!

This is a sweet action shot of fruit puree being added to a gelatin base... 

They were poured into a silicon mold, froze and then popped out to reveal a smooth dome top.  They are called: fruit inserts

So, what did I insert them in??  This is a larger dome mold filled with homemade strawberry ice cream with fruit inserts being placed in the middle

 A thin layer of chocolate cake was place on top, then froze solid.  They pop out perfectly smooth!!!  I know the bottom edge looks kind of messy but see what I did to them below...

They were topped with Italian meringue and made into Baked Alaska!!  They have to be torched so the peaks get light brown in color and slightly dry and crispy.  They are a great balance of creamy and crunchy texture! 

Another cool thing I got to work with was ribbon sponge which is cake batter that can be spread really thin on a silicon mold like the one here.  Part of the batter is dyed green then pressed into this mold...

Then, uncolored batter is pour over and smoothed.  Then, it is baked for a few minutes until just set.

 I got to use it to top this really cool dessert!  From the bottom, the layers are: sponge cake, white chocolate and green tea ganache, lemon ginger mousse, then the cool-designed sponge top!  These were cut into 1" cubes and placed on a platter for a meeting at school.

Then we learned fruit tarts which might be my new favorite dessert to make!  I actually had never made one before, so i was really excited to learn!  This is my first official fruit tart!!

Here's another one with a more crumbly dough base and some kiwi which I love using!

So, then last week was my final and this is what I presented to be graded...

It went pretty well overall, but I did make better looking products at different times in the class, but this is the one that counted!!  The cake is cut (and a piece showing in the upper left corner) and is a little heavy on the icing (which is weird because I don't even like icing!!!), the fruit tart needed more pastry cream under the fruit, and the chocolate glaze for the back cake was a little too cool so it formed too thick of a layer on top.

So, even with all of the negative feedback (which I really take seriously!) with these 3 pastries, I still ended up with an A-, so I'll take it!!  I did really well on my homework and written final which helped boost my grade.  So, that class is now done and I have started my next lab... just keep plugging away!!
I also did some other cool, non-pastry related stuff over the last 5 weeks and have a few pics to share...

First, I rolled my own sushi for the first time!!!  It is quite a process, let me tell you.  The hardest item to prepare is the rice (which I can't take credit for!), then you can get creative with the fillings!  As many of you know I LOVE sushi, so now I might actually be able to enjoy it more often without going broke =)

Here's my second roll (it's inside out: small amount of rice on the inside, but mostly on the outside).  It had avocado, snow peas, carrots, yellow pepper, and green onion, then rolled in sesame seeds and topped with srirachi aoili

Also, got inspired to infuse vodka!!  This has pear, ginger and the zest of orange, lemon and lime.  It only has to sit for a few days and you have a great unique flavor!  We've mixed it with mango green tea and it is delicious!!

 That's it for now!  I can't wait to share more with you soon!!  Enjoy the warm weather and keep it coming!!