semester #2...done!

Well I have officially survived my second semester!  I had my written exams Wednesday and yesterday, and now I am DONE!  It actually feels a little weird, I felt like this semester flew by.  I did well on my exams for Pastry Techniques and Cookies and should be getting A's in both of those classes, but I'm not so sure about Basic Cakes.  I got a B on the practical for that class (my buttercream was way too cold....), and since I already had an absence, the Chef told me there was a slim chance of getting an A in the class, even if I did well on the portfolio and written exam.  But I will have to hold out until grades are posted to find out....

Our last two days of class before finals were pretty fun in Pastry Techniques and in Cookies because we were pretty much done with the semester.  In Pastry Tech, we made souffles... and they weren't nearly as scary as I thought.  Each group made a cheese souffle, a fruit souffle, and a chocolate souffle.  My group made peach for the fruit souffle, and it was my favorite of the day.  Our cheese souffle didn't come out quite right because SOMEHOW the oven got turned off twice while it was baking - and that is pretty much fatal.  It tasted okay, but it just didn't have the volume it should have.

Peach Souffle

Cheddar and Herb Souffle

Milk Chocolate Souffle

Then in Cookies class, we were allowed to choose from a lot of different techniques to just learn or practice something new.  It was a very fun and relaxed class.  Some of the options were piping with buttercream, writing with chocolate, and color flow with royal icing.  Now I get plenty of practice piping with buttercream at work these days, so I chose color flow.  I had only ever tried it once before, so I was excited to experiment some more.  Unfortunately, I forgot to go back at the end of the day and pick up my dried masterpieces, so they got trashed. 

After my Cakes practical, I was a little bummed about getting a B, so I got creative at home and made myself some comfort food.  I had some heavy cream that needed to be used up, so I made my go-to peanut butter mousse, and then I made a quick flourless chocolate cake (I picked flourless instead of regular cake because I could eat it immediately, warm out of the oven, instead of waiting for it cool, but it is also a great option for people who are gluten-free) and a chocolate sauce to go on top.  Yum!  I felt better immediately :)

And then this week we had some family visiting for a few days, so I made a white chocolate cheesecake with a salted caramel sauce.  The recipe I used called for about double the amount of graham cracker crust that I usually use for a cheesecake, and I wish I had cut it in half.  Other than that, I wouldn't change anything.  And I will definitely be making that salted caramel sauce again to use for other recipes.

survived my first practical!

and it was crah-AZY!  I am talking cutthroat, chaotic, stressful craziness.  Let me give you a little background....  So our practical exam for Pastry Techniques was this week, and most of us had never had a practical exam before (non-written, hands-on, etc).  So all we knew going into it was that we would have three hours, undetermined groups, and have to make multiple recipes from memory.  Oh, and that SEVERAL people cried last semester.  Not to mention that it's 15% of our grade.  Needless to say, we were all terrified.  We already have enough trouble sharing the mixers and other tools between 6 groups, and this exam was individual, so I brought everything I could carry from home, and I am so glad.  I am talking all my mixing bowls, all my utensils, a hand mixer, anything I could think of.   And it's a good thing because some people showed up an hour early to pick the "best" spots and hoard all of the equipment. 

So we started the exam and I was so relieved to get a great group (the test was individual but we had groups that we had to share counter space, ovens, stove burners, and stand mixers with).  This was a huge plus because we all get along really well and we were able to communicate about who was using the stove next, etc with no problems.  Not the case for all the groups, just saying...  We had to make three mini tart shells (the dough for these was the only thing we made ahead of time), and fill one with ganache and one with caramel pastry cream.  Then we had to make pate a choux and pipe and bake eclairs and cream puffs.  We filled those with the caramel pastry cream we made and dipped them in ganache.  Last, we made a swiss meringue and piped it on top of the pastry cream tart and torched it.  All from scratch.  Chef gave us the ingredients but we had to know the process to make each recipe from memory.  All in three hours.  Actually the time limit wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to share the stove burners.  For example, my group had two burners (one behind the other, so you have to lean over the other person to use the back one - not great for those of us that are 4'11") between the three of us and we each needed to use it four times during the three hours - once for pate a choux, once to make the caramel and then the pastry cream, once for the ganache, and once for the meringue. 

All in all, it wasn't as bad as I expected for me, but much worse for some people.  My group was the only group to finish on time, and some people finished at least an hour and a half late (you lost 1 point for every 5 minutes late).  I ended up getting an A even though something went terribly wrong with my tart dough and it puffed up like it thought it was a cake.  And now that it's over, I feel a little more confident going into my practical exam for Cakes this week.  A little. 

I was so flustered and nervous that I forgot to take pictures of my final products before Chef cut and tasted them, though...sorry!

I did get a bunch of pictures of the petit fours we finished up in cookies class the next morning though!  I had so much fun in this class.  We had pretty much everything made up from the week before, so we had plenty of time to get creative with our decorating. 

In cakes class, we didn't make anything :( because we prepped for the Grand Buffet the next day (all semester all the classes freeze their leftovers, and then there is a buffet open to the public for $20 each and they get to come eat all of our goodies.)  But our mini-entremets from last week were set so we got to taste them and I got a picture of ours.  So freaking good!

Stenciled jaconde filled with lemon cremeux, chardonnay-soaked blueberries, and topped with a lemon creme anglaise bavarian

Also, I have gotten braver about taking pictures of my cakes at work.  I have been working less hours (whew) now that Easter is over, so I am having way more fun again and less exhausted.  I have been learning all of the decadent desserts and cakes this week and even did my first airbrushed cake!

Alrighty that is all for now because I am supposed to be using this day off to work on my portfolios for cookies and cakes that are due this week and study for my cakes practical!  I'll let you know how it goes!

rough week, still good food

Well between working long hours every day and frustrations at school, this hasn't been a stellar week for me.  But I don't want to vent too much on here, so I will keep it short and sweet with a quick update on recipes from this week.


First, in pastry techniques class, we made mousses to pair with our cakes from last week.  My group made cream cheese mousse for the red velvet cake.  The mousse was good, but I wouldn't trade it for good ol' cream cheese icing.  There are just some recipes that you want to be dense and creamy, not light and airy.  The other mousses were chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla, strawberry, and black currant.  The black currant was my favorite by far, especially combined with the lemon cake.  Strawberry was the runner-up.  And actually, they were delicious combined too.  This was my first time tasting anything with black currant in it, and if you haven't tried it, it is tart and sour but I just loved the flavor.  It's the purplish-colored one in the pictures. 

I don't have any pictures for my other classes because we didn't finish any of our products this week.  In cookies class, we started our petit fours.  We made the cake, the buttercream, and marzipan, but we have to finish assembling, glazing, and decorating them next week. 

In cakes class, we had been moving so quickly this semester that we pretty much gained an extra week and so we got to get creative this week.  We made a coconut flavored stenciled jaconde and cut it to fit into molds, which we then filled with combinations of all the leftovers of the semester we could find in the fridge.  My group chose lemon cremeux and chardonnay soaked bluberries.  I may have sampled a blueberry or two...yum!  Then we made a lemon creme anglaise bavarian then went on top.  They have to set up till next week, so I will have pictures and tales of yumminess then.  I am super excited to taste those, can you tell?

Last but not least, I was finally able to sneak a picture of one of the cakes I decorated at work...the very popular Strawberry Peach Sensation!  Ooh-la-la!  This was actually my first time making one of these so I was pretty proud of myself. 

so much going on!

I have been so busy this week, I don't even know if I can fit it all into one post!

First, I graduated from Wilton class #1.  I was super happy with my final cake:

We finally learned the ribbon roses in the last class and also practiced handwriting and a few other things.  I signed up for the second class, and then an hour later my work schedule posted and I had been scheduled for some night shifts (I had only worked mornings so far so I thought I would be ok...).  So I had to postpone that, but I still plan on taking course #2 eventually because it covers way more flowers, including lilies, daffodils, violets, and more roses.

Work has been going well but I am just struggling with getting back into the swing of things.  I guess I took too much time off because working 30 hours plus going to school plus keeping up the house is kicking my butt.  I know I should just be grateful for all of these opportunities, and believe me I am, but I am tired!  I can barely find time for homework and housework, much less blogging or anything else fun!  Anyways, I have been decorating cakes and lots of other desserts at work, and this week we got in the Easter egg cakes.  Today I decorated 12 of those, which was fun because I could get a little more creative than with the usual cakes.  My borders and flowers are getting better, but they still need some work.

I did find a little free time this week to bake at home, including one of my favorite cookies, Oatmeal Scotchie Bars.  The neighbors brought us a housewarming bottle of wine, so I wanted to come up with something quick, easy, and yummy to thank them.  And of course I saved some for Trev and I...

I also brought home some of the puff pastry scraps from school last week and attempted my own jalousie (a streudel-ish pastry based on a type of window), based on what we were going to make in class this week.  I used some granny smiths that had been forgotten during strawberry smorgasbord, and some extra homemade caramel sauce I had in the fridge to fill it.  It was wonderful!

In pastry techniques, we baked all the jalousies that we made up last week.  We had a wide array of fillings to choose from (raspberry cream cheese, bluberry, cherry, pear, pear frangipane...), so there was a lot of tasting involved.  We also made some palmiers (aka elephant ears) from the extra puff pastry.  They look so simple and they are so easy to make, but they were amazing straight out of the oven!  I guess any pastry with that much butter would have to be, right?

The other recipe we made in pastry techniques was a fun and completely new-to-me technique.  We baked chocolate roulade in very thin layers and then cut it into even strips.  Then we covered it in French buttercream, and then rolled the strips up together.  When we turned it on its side and iced it, it looked just like any other cake.  But the fun part is that when you cut it open, it has vertical layers instead of horizontal.  I think this is a great idea to change up cake presentations, and would be a fun surprise for any occasion.  The only challenge is that not every texture of cake will roll as well, so only certain recipes would work.  I still plan to try it!

In cookies and tarts, we made an oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie tart with a graham cracker crust, and a rustic apple tart.  Neither was my favorite recipe.  The oatmeal-choc chip was good, but not amazing, and it really needed a scoop of ice cream on top.  I liked the crust on the apple tart, but since the recipe was French, it didn't call for any cinnamon or nutmeg, which I personally think should be a requirement for baking with apples.

In cakes class, we finished our Charlotte Royale.  We had made the outer mold and filled it with the mango mousse last week, so this week we basically had to pull it out of the freezer, cover it in apricot glaze, and eat it.  I loved the mango mousse.

We also made opera cake - layers of jaconde soaked in coffee syrup, coffee buttercream, and ganache.  Yum!  And that meant we got to practice writing in chocolate on top of all the tiny little pieces of cake.


All in all it was a good week, just crazy busy!  Learned a lot and had a lot of fun, but I am wiped out.  So I am off to work on some homework while I can keep my eyes open!

creams, tarts, and mousse

Well this should be a fairly short and sweet (no pun intended) blog post, because all of my classes went fairly smoothly this week. 

In pastry techniques, we were focusing on pastry creams and fillings.  We made a caramel pastry cream to fill our cream puffs and eclairs from a few weeks ago.  Then we made crème Chiboust and made a dessert by lining a mold with ladyfingers, and then filling it with alternating layers of ladyfingers, the Chiboust, and raspberry preserves.  We also made a praline flavored cream to fill our Paris-Brest from a few weeks ago.

Cream puff filled with caramel pastry cream

Ladyfingers filled with Creme Chiboust and Raspberry Preserves

Paris-Brest

In cookies and tarts, we have completely moved into tart world.  We got to taste our Bakewell tart and Pear Frangipane tart from last week, and we also made two more tarts.  The first was a fresh berry tart made with coconut pastry cream.  It was beautiful, but I didn't like the coconut flavor at all.

The second tart was a chocolate and peanut butter mousse tart.  Peanut butter mousse is always a favorite of mine, and then it was topped with a chocolate ganache.  Yum!

Finally, in cakes class we lined a mold for a Charlotte Royale with slices of the jaconde that we rolled up with preserves last week.  Then we made a mango mousse to fill it.  We also used two layers of almond japonaise from a few weeks ago inside the mousse.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to taste it yet, because it has to freeze and then we will glaze it and cut it next week.  I'm pretty excited about it, I love mangos but I have never had mango mousse.

Our mold before we filled it with the mousse

finally some flowers...wilton class #3

Finally a Wilton class where I am more pleased with what I learned than frustrated with the shenanigans!  There were still a couple little things that irked me (my 52-tip master set doesn't contain three of the tips I need for the basic decorating, etc) but all in all, I was really excited about what we learned in class yesterday.  Although when she said last week that we would be learning flowers this week, these weren't exactly what I had in mind.  But they did come out pretty and I can use some of the techniques to get creative and make some other flowers.  And next week is finally roses!

First we worked on drop flowers, which are WAY simpler than they look.  Basically put a star tip straight down, squeeze, and turn your wrist.  Such a pretty effect for hardly any effort!

Next we worked on rosettes...fairly simple but can be used for a lot of things.

Something I really wanted to learn was leaves.  Again, surprisingly simple with the right tip and technique.  I still need to practice these, but I think I will have the hang of them in no time.

And finally shells...although I didn't learn any new tips that helped me any more than the tips from school (these are the ones I have a lot of trouble with at school because we use them all the time in Cakes class and I am way slower than everyone else and they never come out as nice-looking).  I guess I will just have to keep practicing until they get better.

We got to use all of these techniques to decorate cupcakes and then we also learned two larger flowers, a mum and a pom pom flower.  I don't like the pom pom flower all that much but I think the mum is pretty and again, that technique can be used for so many other things.

Oh, and I guess I did kind of learn a rose already, but the Publix way instead of the Wilton way.  I had a great first two days at work, and I learned way more than I expected!  I thought as an apprentice, I would have to do a lot of cleaning, carrying, watching, and practicing on paper for a while.  Nope, they put me right to work and let me try just about everything we had time for!  The first day, I decorated about 48 key lime pies, 12 mango key lime pies, and 6 strawberry kiwi pies.  If you have seen the Publix commercial recently for key lime pies, that's exactly what I was doing!  Except in real life you have to move a lot faster! 

The next day was a little less busy so I got to try a lot of other things.  I did more key lime pies, just because of the sale, but then I also decorated 12 chocolate cream pies and 6 tres leche cakes.  Then I learned how to do balloons, banners, streamers, and confetti, and decorated four cakes with those.  These are the ones that are in the big cooler and people come along and pick one for us to write Happy Birthday on or something.  So that means people might actually pick one of my cakes and buy it!  I find that super exciting. 

And speaking of writing on cakes, the other decorator was on break when a man and his kids came by needing a message written on a cake.  So I went for it, and wrote "Happy 99th Birthday Grandma Mary!" on it.  No pressure with him standing there watching me!  But it actually came out pretty nice. 

I wish I could use my phone at work to take pictures of all the stuff I am learning, but unfortunately you'll just have to use your imagination.  And then at the end of the day I learned how to make the Publix roses.  None of these went on actual cakes because they are a lot harder than I thought and I couldn't get them quite right yet.  They were definitely getting better by about the 20th one but I still need a lot of practice and it was time to go, so hopefully they will get better next week. 

disasters and deliciousness

Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?  Ok, I'll start with the good news.  This week in Cakes class, we made a DELICIOUS modified tiramisu.  We used a ladyfinger sponge, then soaked it in a coffee-brandy syrup.  Then we covered it in mascarpone mousse and rolled it up into a "roulade."  Then we covered it in a coffee-flavored Italian buttercream and finally finished it with a chocolate glaze.  I don't think I will ever eat tiramisu at Olive Garden again!  It was delicious...and none of the components was all that complicated.

Modified Tiramisu

Ok, now for the bad news.  Both pastry techniques and cookies class this week were certified disasters.  First, in pastry techniques, we were supposed to use our puff pastry dough from two weeks ago to make napoleons and several other items.  However, when we got into the kitchen, our dough was still frozen solid.  I mean, these things were like bricks.  You could have wrapped a threatening note around them and threw them through someone's window.  And even after letting them sit out in the sun for over an hour, we had to fight to roll them out.  So we ran out of time and only got to make the napoleon (three layers of puff pastry filled with mousseline cream and topped with fondant glaze and chocolate).  And my group's mousseline wasn't set enough when we went to cut it and we ended up with a huge mess on a plate.  But at least it was delicious!

Classic Napoleon

Then, in cookies class, we were supposed to make three tarts - Linzer, Pear Frangipane, and Bakewell.  When we went to get the doughs out of the freezer, the Linzer doughs were nowhere to be found.  Completely vanished.  So that one was scratched from the list.  We moved on to the Pear Frangipane, which came out beautiful but we haven't tasted yet. 

Pear Frangipane Tart

Then the third one was the Bakewell.  We thought this one was alright until we put it in the oven and it immediately turned to liquid and started pouring over the edges of the tart pan and down into other groups' tarts.  We put a sheet pan under it, hoping we had just overfilled it, and tried to let it bake some more.  But it turns out there was something wrong with it, and we still haven't figured out what.  As made obvious by the pictures below, it was destined for the garbage.  Sigh.... at least we got one good tart out of the class?  All in all, it was a frustrating week.  I think we all got a little TOO much rest over Spring Break...




Bakewell Tart - what it was SUPPOSED to look like...

 


...and what ours looked like :(