Success!

So, getting back up to date with everything. I know I've been pretty bad about updating but you have to understand how intensive this program is! I knew I'd be busy but it's crazy how exhausting this is. I slept for twelve hours last night. I just couldn't bring myself to do anything but order some Chinese food and go straight to bed. My body is so tired too, it's physically exhausting work, but it's well worth it!

I'm going to start by apologizing for the poor quality in photos in this post. My photoshop has suddenly stopped working and it's hard getting good photos when you're maneuvering around 12-30 people who are all trying to get a photo of the same thing, and all before they cut it to pieces for everyone to eat!! I'm also an amateur photographer, so that doesn't help either.  

 

I left off with our éclair class and after that fun-filled long weekend, we moved on to

                                                                              1. Bâtons de Maréchaux - The Marshalls Sticks
                                                                              2. Madeleines - Shell sponge cakes
                                                                              3. Cigarettes et tulips - Cigarette & tulip shape
                                                                              4. Palets de dames - Cake shaped in quoit
                                                                              5. Tuiles aux amandes - Almond tuiles

Here are Chef's lovely creations

 

 

 

 Bâtons de Maréchaux

 

 

 Madeleines

 

 

Cigarettes et tulips

 

 

Palets de dames and tuiles aux amandes

 

 

For some reason I had a lot of trouble with this exercise. It should have been really easy, but I really felt like a moron when I was rolling the cigarettes. They wouldn't close! As you can see by my pictures. They are really hot and you burn your fingers when you roll them so maybe that was my problem. The point is, I couldn't get them to stick! I think Chef was getting frustrated with me.

 

 

 

Madeleines

 

Palets de dames and cigarettes (these did not roll!)

 

After that terrible exercise, I had a much better day with the next cake which is aptly named "Success!" I managed to complete this cake with time to spare and I was quite pleased with it. First though, are the ones Chef made for our demo.

 

 

 

Progrès - Layered dacquoise with chocolate buttercream

 

 

Succès (Success) - Dacquoise layered with praline buttercream

 

Gateau Russe aux Noix - Nutcake with buttercream

 

 

Three beautiful cakes

 

All the cakes were so delicious. I loved the Succès cake, the praline buttercream was really smooth and creamy and the flavour of the praline was incredible.

 

Here is my version of the Succès cake...I think it was a Success! (wow, i'm such a nerd)

 

Not a very good picture of me, but it's one of the few cakes that I was really pleased with so I had to get a picture with it!

 

 

Chef's remarks for this cake were that I was well organized, focused very well on step by step, had no problems with the preparation and technique but my dough was a little dry. He said my buttercream was really good though! (It really was). 

 

 

We've now apparently entered Christmas because our next class was on the Bûche de Noël. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's a traditional Christmas dessert in French culture and also goes by the English name of a Yule Log. It's made from a genoise or sponge cake that is then covered in chocolate buttercream and rolled into a log. Sponge cake is usually fairly dry so before the buttercream you brush a rum-flavoured simple syrup onto the sponge. This makes for a delightful taste experience.

 

I laughed when Emily leaned over during our demo and asked if we could play Christmas carols while we did our practical.

 

 

I think Chef's inner child came out when he started making all the little decorations for the cake. We make them out of marzipan and he was molding everything from Christmas presents and holly leaves to skis and snowmen. So cute!

 

 

 

Oh yes, Chef forgot the 'T' in Christmas. Pretty funny. Michelle was the only one with the guts to mention it (as she also pointed out lol)

 

 

So, enter our practical class. We had a few requirements. We had to have at least two marzipan decorations, a marzipan scroll saying "Merry Christmas" or "Joyeux Noël", at least two chocolate decorations, one or two meringue mushrooms (which Chef had pre-made) and a green vine cascading the log. Everyone seemed really relaxed and took their time but we soon found out that was not the best approach, no one managed to finish their yule log. I got most things done, but I didn't manage to write "Merry Christmas" on my scroll and I wasn't able to get the vine done, but overall it wasn't too bad. A bit disappointing not being able to finish, but I felt better knowing I wasn't the only one.

 

 

 



 

I had bought my own food colouring because I didn't like the  green that the Chef had and I also wanted to make some acorns. I thought they were so cute! Chef came over and saw my coloured marzipan and said "What's this? I call these poo colours." He then asked me what I had made with the 'poo' colours. I showed him with a big smile on my face because as soon as he saw them, he thought they were cute too! Haha!

 

We finished up the week with the Miroir Cassis and Miroir Citron. These are beautiful mousse cakes. I, personally, loved the Citron the best. Cassis is blackcurrant, it really has a lovely flavour but surprisingly, I found the tartness of the lemon to be very pleasing rather than the sweetness of the blackcurrants.

Here are Chef's lovely mousse cakes:

 

Miroir Citron

Miroir Cassis

  

 

Unfortunately, I had some problems with my cake. I wasn't the only one though; we were in the third floor kitchen which is extremely hot and not well equipped to do pastry. We only had one freezer and it was working over time with twelve people opening and closing it to put in their cakes. The freezer just couldn't keep up so when it was time for me to take out my cake to unmold it and decorate it, it was still liquid. It finally did set up enough for me to unmold it but I wasn't very happy with the décor.  



 

 

 

I leave you with some photos from the Superior Pastry class that had their beautiful sugar pieces on display. Can't wait to do this!