who's counting?

One year of pastry classes. Hundreds of pastries. Fifty blog posts. Another term is over.

I have successfully completed my term on specialty cakes and frozen desserts and I have several images to share with you, but first I want to say that I can't believe how far I've come in a year. Do I still have a lot to learn and experience to gain? Yes. But I am amazed at and proud of all of the time and hard work I've put in over the last year that have gotten me to this point. Our final practical last Saturday was two plated frozen desserts and while I was a bit nervous during the process, I also really felt like I nailed it. It's a great feeling to do something you love, actually know what you're doing (and why) and then receive praise for the end product. And a few critiques to work on for the future.

The final two weeks of the term involved more fancy cakes, including the Julianna which I don't have a picture of, all of which have many components and details that go way beyond the simple birthday cake that you're used to. The alternating layers of sponge cake, syrup flavoring, ganache, Italian butter cream and a variety of other filling/topping options, made me long for a simple white cake with white butter cream frosting. Hmmm...perhaps our one year wedding anniversary cake could be eaten nine months early? Doubtful, but I am already excited about it.

My group assisted Chef by making a tiramisu and opera cake for an event at the school this Monday. I was also able to practice my cutting skills to get the fifty pieces we needed out of each cake. Cutting skills practice included cleaning and then heating the knife with a blowtorch after each cut to ensure a clean cut was made every time. Happiness = using a blowtorch confidently without worrying about burning your fingers off. After a few tries, I became a pro. Here are the mini-cakes.

 

Two weeks ago, we made a deliciously tart passion fruit sorbet. Sorbet has way less fat than ice cream, but a heck of a lot of sugar. Mary Poppins would sing gleefully about this spoonful.

Our frozen mousse for our practical was whipped up as well. We chose a raspberry brandy flavor since we also had to pair it with our mango icecream for our bombe plating. The flavor was subtle, but the mousse turned out smooth and creamy after sitting in these molds in the freezer for a week.

And that brings us to the final practical. The plating presentation for desserts can have as much variety, color and tastes as an individual wants, however, I am one to keep things clean and simple. I like a splash or two of color, but nothing crazy or overpowering. I think the food should speak for itself. With that said, here is my frozen bombe dessert presentation.

What you see here is a mango ice cream bombe with a raspberry brandy mousse inside and candied lemons on top. The dessert is sitting in crème anglaise with raspberry and mango sauce accents and shells of whipped cream around the bottom (a requirement). The sidekick is a curled piece of tuile cookie holding a piece of chocolate. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the bombe after it was cut open, but unfortunately I did not. To make up for that, here is my frozen mousse dessert presentation.

My last (and favorite) dessert of the term is a raspberry brandy flavored frozen mousse topped with a curled tuile cookie and a spring of mint (fresh raspberries would have been included if we had them). There is also a side of crème anglaise with mango and raspberry sauce accents and three absolutely scrumptious almond macaroons. These cookies were so good that I was worried Chef was going to eat all of our nice looking ones before plating time! He did not; however, he did eat two of these while grading my desserts (which I took as an extreme compliment). Next time I would go a little less heavy on the crème anglaise, but overall, I was proud of my desserts and so were the chefs. A fabulous way to end the term!

I will not be in the school kitchen for the remainder of the year, but I will be keeping our home kitchen quite busy. Bonus: the oven will help us heat up our drafty old house. It's a win-win situation. First on my list are Greg's slightly belated birthday cupcakes this weekend. Stay tuned for pictures of the birthday boy blowing out a cupcake candle...or 27.