Hello family and friends! I know it has been a long time since I have posted... school, work and social life have kept me really busy which is a good thing! I just got done with my break after Spring quarter and my next post will be of my great vacation to Bonnaroo and California! I wanted to share pictures from my last class, Pastry Tech II. In this class, we did more intricate techniques and cakes. Also, what made the class a little more challenging was there was no homework or written exam (the easy points!!), so my grade was solely based on my work in class and my final presentations of my desserts. I'll admit, at first I freaked out, but I spent a lot of extra time coming in to practice, so by finals week I felt really good! And, I got my first solid A in a lab, so I was pumped!!
Here is some of the cool stuff I got to make...
This is actually a thin layer of cake called ribbon sponge (I colored with white and orange/yellow and striped it). I use it for 2 different Charlotte cakes (these cakes have some kind of cake border along the outside)-see the following pictures...
I am in the process of building my first Charlotte cake... The bottom left has a strip of the ribbon sponge inside the silver ring mold, which is used to keep everything straight until it's ready to be served. I have a layer of chocolate cake inside then the mousse on the right hand side to fill...
Here is the cake completed! From the bottom the layers are: chocolate Frangipan cake (which has almond paste mixed in-delicious!!), chocolate mousse, second Frangipan layer, raspberry mousse, raspberry glaze on top. That ribbon sponge doesn't taste like much, just adds visual interest!
So, then I used another strip of the same ribbon sponge to make this cake! I also worked on some decor for the top since that was a component for my final. I have raspberries, discs of white chocolate with colored luster dust, and white chocolate curly q's colored orange!
These layers: white Frangipan cake (omit chocolate, so basically an almond cake), milk chocolate mousse, second cake layer, mango mousse. In the background you can see a couple other cakes from other students... their ribbon sponge has a cool pattern from using a silicon mold-we have so many cool molds in class!
Here is a traditional Charlotte Russe cake, wrapped with lady fingers. Inside is just a thin layer of white cake, then topped with Bavarian cream (start with a vanilla sauce base-called creme Anglaise-then add gelatin and whipped cream). In stores there is usually a ribbon wrapped around the cake to keep it together before serving
Another really cool Charlotte cake we got to make was called a Charlotte Royale. The first step is to make these "tiles" which start as alternating layers of thin cake and chocolate ganache, cut into strips (on the left hand side), then cut into tiles (on the right). The cake is built upside down in the bowl (center of the pic) and laid almost like parquet wood flooring...
It was filled with chocolate Bavarian cream and a layer of chocolate cake before flipped over... and this is the final result!! I thought this was pretty cool looking =)
A few other desserts we practiced were macarons (the meringue sandwich cookies) and Napoleons (layers of puff pastry and pastry cream with a thin icing layer on top). Here is a picture of some macrons (in the back) that I colored pink and filled with strawberry buttercream and my napoleon (front) before cutting it
Here are my cut Napoleons... This is actually a very simple dessert in terms of the components, but the difficult thing is cutting it clean without puff pastry flaking all over the place. Not too bad for my first time!
Another fun thing we did in class was a dessert contest! We partnered up and had 2 hours to create, prepare 12 desserts, and then plate 2 for judging. Here is what I made with my partner! We have a chocolate cake base, a raspberry gelee (kind of like jello made with real fruit)-this is hard to see above the cake, but it's there!, and raspberry mousse. The whole thing is wrapped in a chocolate cage and there is a handmade raspberry sauce and almond Chantilly cream (fancy word for sweetened whipped cream!). It was quite an adrenaline rush and that 2 hours flew by, but we got it done! And, we got second place so that was awesome!
Now, let me briefly explain my final exam for this class. We had to create 3 items: a charlotte cake, an entremet cake: this is a fancy, intricate cake containing many layers of more non-traditional components and usually is NOT round, and finally, 12 individual desserts (one had to be completely plated for the final presentation). So, all of the flavor profiles for all of these items were up to us to come up with and create. At first I was overwhelmed since there are about a million ways to combine flavors!
The first thing I did was figure out my individual dessert during week 1 so I could practice it over and over again! I wanted to create something a bit healthier, so I came up with a play on Pavlova, which is traditionally a meringue base, filled with whipped cream and topped with strawberries and kiwi. Here is a picture of one I found online...
The first thing I needed to was to make it smaller (for individual portion) and come up with how I wanted them shaped. I ended up using a round tip and making little bowls that sort of resembled beehives... Here is one of my practice runs... I really liked the look of the peaks sticking up!
The rest of the components for my final individual dessert: Pavlova base with a little lemon extract added, filled with a lemon/green tea flavored mousse, "tropical" fruit salad-pineapple, kiwi, and mandarin oranges-cut into a small dice and formed in a mold, mango sauce infused with ginger, honey, lemongrass and limes leaves, and an orange scented dark chocolate curly q. Here is my final presentation!!
Next: my entremet. My idea was to do a high antioxidant cake (as a dietitian, I just couldn't help myself)! So, here are my layers, starting with the bottom working up... The base is a almond meal meringue baked until crispy, then a blueberry fruit insert (like a gelee made with real blueberries and gelatin), then a vanilla cremeux layer (this is like a creme brulee-creamy vanilla bean flavored), and the top is a mousse made with an acai pomegranate juice reduction. I did a small square shape (about 7"x7") and sprayed with entire cake with white cocoa butter.
This picture is a practice run... the important thing about these cakes is the layers need to be even when cut into...
Here is my final entremet. I have white chocolate tiles surrounding the whole cake as my decor and to cover up the edges. I used a violet blue and pink color luster dust to tie in the colors of the cake. Once the cake was cut into all the tiles fell off of one side, which happens with tiles... they are cool looking, but not very practical!
Finally, my charlotte. This was my indulgent cake with the intent to make something like it for my sister's baby shower later this summer. I also bumped up the difficulty factor by creating a layer that would looked striped when you cut into it (this is actually called a carousel cake). So the layers for this cake: a chocolate cake base, then the carousel layer: chocolate mousse and salted caramel mousse separated by thin layers of sponge cake (think of a bulls-eye if you were looking straight down on the cake, each circle was filled with alternating mousse flavors), a second cake layer, then more chocolate mousse. I did chocolate mousse domes and then chocolate discs dusted with gold dust as my decor). It is kind of hard to see, but my ribbon sponge is a really cool polka dot pattern, chocolate on the outside and vanilla batter as the dots).
This is a picture of my final charlotte cake cut down the middle-it turned out pretty great!! (You can also see my entremet cut into on the right...)
Okay, let's move on to some some awesome savory dishes I had during a couple of birthday dinners I had (yes, I am spoiled!!)
Here is an awesome Spanish Tapas plate from Everyday People Cafe in Douglas, MI (about an hour from Muskegon). There were some great cheeses, amazing marinated olives and sauces! This is an appetizer, believe it or not!
Then, some of my family came over Memorial weekend to visit! We went to Mia and Grace Bistro, a really cool restaurant in Muskegon. They use local, organic ingredients and have some really amazing dishes!
This is their local cheese plate...
Blue cheese stuffed dates with candied walnuts-SO good!
One the left: half chicken with asparagus and radishes (sauce was awesome, just can't remember it!), on the right: shredded beef pasta (had similar flavor to beef bourguignon-also awesome!)
We also had a carrot cake entremet over that weekend that I made in class (two layers of carrot cake with carmelized pineapple chunks in between, topped with cream cheese mousse and covered with white chocolate glaze)
And, finally, profiteroles (cream puffs) filled with homemade pistachio ice cream and drizzled with hot fudge sauce!
Wow, that's a lot of info! Hope I didn't overwhelm anyone =) As you can see I've been busy!! Just looking over this post, I can't believe all that I am learning in each class (and it was only 5 weeks!). I'm still loving every day I get to go learn more about pastries and this pretty amazing field!
I'll post on my recent vaca soon! Have a great day everyone!!
