Bread- Day 1

Last night we started our new section: bread. We made Viennois, Irish Soda Bread, Croissant dough and Brioche dough. The croissant dough and brioche dough will be used on Friday. Things were fairly simple last night and we finished early. We also had a lesson in nutrition. I actually enjoyed myself last night. Maybe bread is not that bad after all. We'll see.

Viennois (It is like a light brioche.)

Irish Soda Bread (Not one of my favorites.)

Friday, we are making croissants, brioche, Musli, and bagels. I will have a lot of bread for this weekend. Anyone want some? :-)

Today

TODAY I'll trust Thee, Father God.

Thy hand may hold the chastening rod,

But I will love Thee nonetheless,

As when in pleasure Thou dost bless.

TODAY I'll walk with head held high,

Nor ask to know the reason why

Heart doth break and winds are chill-

Still I pray to do Thy will.

TODAY, Your gift of love and grace,

Let me but look upon thy face;

Strength of my life, my keeping power,

Be near me in the testing hour.

TODAY I dedicate to Thee;

Thy purpose, Lord, fulfill in me,

That I may say when comes the night:

"This is the path of peace and light."

Frances J. Roberts

Cakes Final

Last night was frustrating. Unfortunately, my cake did not turn out as well as I would have liked it to. Chef was very nice to me though in grading it. I think he takes into consideration how we have done through-out the course too. It is frustrating knowing I have done so much better. My practice cake this weekend is an example of that. O well. At least now it is over and we move onto bread on Wednesday. After breads I believe it is petit-fours and then cakes 2.

It may not look too bad in the photo, but my cake sunk in the middle and the layers I cut kept crumbling. I had to put too much butter-cream on the top to make it level and one of my edges caved. Not my best by far. :-(

My marzipan parchment and roses came out really well. My writing on the other hand... Really bad. Chef said at least it is legible. Not what you want to hear. I don't think he counted me off too much for the writing.

These roses were the only thing I was proud of last night. Chef said they were really nice. He had nothing bad to say about them. Yay!

After our final, we all finished our chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake from the previous week. This cake is pretty and tastes really yummy. I was very happy to be taking it home.

All in all, this section was fun and challenging. I really wish it had ended on a better note. The nice thing is that I know I can do better. Practice makes perfect and I really like practicing cakes.

Cakes Day 8- Culinary School

Last night felt like an off night for me. Things seemed to keep going wrong. The bright spot in the night? I was the first one to successfully created a chocolate fan. Yay me! The chocolate fans will be placed on top of the chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake we made last night that is currently in the freezer at school. The other cake we made was a flour-less chocolate cake. Mine seemed to be a different color than everyone else (not sure why) and my creme d'or that frosted the cake, set too much too fast. My partner and I had to use chefs. At least our chocolate meringues came out well. (It tastes pretty good, too.)

Here is a picture of the cake:

Flour-less Chocolate Cake decorated with chocolate meringues.

Cakes Day 7- Culinary School

Last night had a few challenges, but it was still fun. First off, glazing the sacher-torte with fondant was a disaster for me. You can't really tell by the photo, but it is completely lop-sided. At least my writing came out better than I thought it would. The other cake we made is called a Dobos Torte which is layered dobos sponge and butter-cream. The sponge was very difficult to pipe and we ran out and had to make a second batch, but after everything was baked and built, I got a "very nice" from my instructor. So basically, both cakes had good things and bad things. My favorite has got to be the dobos torte. I had no idea how pretty it would be. We also finished the cupcakes from Wednesday.

Here are pictures:

Sacher-Torte (chocolate sponge layered with apricot glaze and covered in fondant)

Dobos Torte (sponge cake layered with chocolate butter-cream and topped with slices of sponge covered in caramel)

Top of the Dobos Torte

Chocolate Cupcakes

Cakes Day 6- Culinary School

Last night I could barely get everything to the car. We made so many delicious desserts! It was so much fun making and decorating goodies. It was a great night. We made carrot cake, pecan coffee cake, and baked chocolate cupcakes. We also finished the two mousse cakes we made on Monday. Everything came home except for the cupcakes. We didn't have enough time to finish them. We will be doing that tomorrow and I will be bringing them home for the weekend.

Here are pictures of everything we brought home:

Gateau de Mousse aux Deux Chocolats avec Pate a Cornet (White Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake with Pate a Cornet (sponge cake))

Pecan Coffee Cake

Miroir aux Fruits (Fruit Mousse Cake- This mousse is black currant)

Carrot Cake

Cakes Day 5- Culinary School

Last night we made 2 cakes and finished our Charlotte Royale from Friday night. We also learned how to make roses out of marzipan. I practiced today with some fondant I had at home and I think I am really getting the hang of it. I am really enjoying cakes now. I'm not sure how I am going to get everything home on Wednesday because we are making carrot cake, chocolate cupcakes and pecan coffee cake. I will also have the two cakes we made last night that we didn't get to take home because they needed to chill. There will be lots of pictures for my next post!

Here are pictures of the finished Charlotte Royale and my first marzipan rose:

The Charlotte Royale: almond sponge rolled with raspberry jam and cut into discs which are then arranged in a dome and filled with a creme anglais-based bavarian cream. The base is a genoise disc.

My very first marzipan rose.