Aw Honey Honey

In our binders for school we have all the recipes we will ever need labeled and neatly organized. In my opinion, the names of the classes never reflect what we're really creating. Tuesdays class was called "Custards & Bavarians" and while I was picturing a slab of custard on a plate, our finished products were delicious cakes with intricate details.

Presidents Cake

Inside the cake are layers of chocolate mousse and raspberry mouse with layers of ladyfingers, apricot glaze and a lot more chocolate. To decorate, we topped this cake off with simple melted chocolate. 

The mixture of rich chocolate and raspberries would satisfy any sweet tooth. 

Next, the cake everyone was buzzing about (Ha!) 

The Beehive Cake

This cake was based on two key components -- Lemon & Honey. 

It was layered on the inside with lemon mousse, lemon chibouste, honey mousse and lemon hazelnut dacquoise. The outsides of the cake were pure mousse just left to settle in the freezer. The amount of softness and rich mousse flavors made this cake easy to eat and plenty moist. The best part about making this -- decorating. Due to its honey theme, we put a beehive on top with some italian meringue which we blowtorched. Next we made bees out of almond paste and almond slices for wings. And for the honey-comb effect on the outer ring we poured melted chocolate into some bubblewrap and let it sit in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

The third and final cake was a Brazilian. 

This was my absolute favorite due to the combination of white chocolate mousse and coffee bavarian. I am a HUGE white chocolate fan and definitely put a generous amount in the mousse. This was topped off with a coffee glaze and some walnuts. An extremely simple decorative outside.

Not quite sure why it's called a Brazilian .... Brazilian nuts? Brazilian coffee? Oh well, Go Brazil!

Holy Crêpe !

These past few days I've found myself walking in my apartment, throwing myself on the couch and saying "Holy crap -- I'm stressed." And well, we made crepes in class last week, alas the title name Holy Crepe! I'm finally starting to settle down in the new apartment and found some time for a long overdue post.


Last week we had one of the simplest classes yet. We made those thin little guys called crepes. The only other time I have tried a crepe before was at a friends house and for some reason I thought they were complicated to produce. Yet when we were making them, following the recipes was one of the simplest things we have made in class yet. You just take the ingredients, throw them in a blender and voila you have crepe batter. In class we used small thing pans to produce the exact size and shape we needed and by my second time up I was flipping the crepe in the air and landing it in the pan. Simple and fun! 


Aside from crepe-ing we played around with Sabayon, a light foamy dessert made with either champagne or wine. Again, one of the simplest and most delicious recipes. And the presentation for this looks great.

Sabayon

Beautiful Sabayon with 

Blueberries & Raspberries

The Crepe Production

Different Crepes filled with Pastry Cream

The Crepes I Helped Make

We drizzled dark & white chocolate on them,

then let them harden in the fridge over a cup sooo ....

We could fill them with some Sabayon!

More Filled Crepe Cups!

Oh Meringue !!

While it has been awhile since my last post, a lot has happened.

I moved into my new apartment Saturday ... and it was quite a crazy day. To sum up move-in day, we had a 16-foot U-Haul pulled down a one way street going in the wrong direction and unloaded all of my stuff faster than a Nascar Pit Crew. During all this ruckus, pretty much the entire neighborhood came out and was watching and laughing at us. A few kind neighbors even helped, handed out some beers, and made quotes like "Yeah, it's a one way street ... but you only gotta go one way." Once I was all settled in, I realized how much I love my new apartment. In fact, I won't be referring to it as an apartment but as my new mini home.

And the other good news I got this week -- I got a new job at a bakery in Newton! 

Between the new apartment and job,  things are looking up for me! And I know I have an exciting future ahead. 

As for class today, we started a new focus on meringues. We took the entire class period to make all different types of meringues such as a Success, Progress, Japonais, Walnut Dacquoise, and Lemon Hazelnut Dacquoise.

We took one of the meringues and made a Jaconde cake. It took me awhile to figure out how we were going to combine the layers we made today were going to come together, but they did beautifully. We were introduced to Pate Decor and made a decorative design which we put in the freezer till the cake was finished mixing. Once the cake was finished we poured it on top of the design and baked it for 4 minutes. After baking, the design imprinted itself upon the cake, which we cut into thin strips and lined an 8" Pastry Ring with. Then inside the cake lined ring layered pieces of meringue and coffee-cognac whipped cream then finished with decorating. 

The hard sticks are actually pieces of Meringue Italian just baked and hardened.

We experimented with different designs. 

A close-up of the decor detail