a new twist

The bad news: cake was on the syllabus yet again in class on Saturday. The good news: this cake had a new twist. We made a European torte called a havana cake and it was very different from the wedding and seasonal cakes we've made over the last few weeks. It started with hazelnut and chocolate hazelnut batters that were piped in alternate layers into cake pans before baking. After they cooled, I made a mocha buttercream to spread in between and on top of the cake. Chocolate glacage covered the entire cake and ground hazelnuts were placed around the bottom edge. As a fan of hazelnuts, chocolate and mocha, the end results were delicious. 

We also tempered a bit of chocolate for some final decorations. Here is the final product that Greg and I easily devoured most of during the week.

Can you really blame us? Look at this.

I also helped Chef Pierre fill and decorate some mini fruit tarts for a party he was working at on Saturday evening. It was quite fun chopping up the fruit and making little pieces of art on pastry cream. The goal is to make it seem like there is a ton of fruit on top, even if there is not. Are you fooled?

For another twist on the weekend, I decided to make soft pretzels Sunday for dinner. The recipe I have produces twelve pretzels, so I split it in half. This turned out to be a good decision because we most likely would have eaten all twelve of them. These pretzels give Auntie Anne's and Wetzel's Pretzels a run for their money. Or cheese dip. And they were fun to make. The dough only has to sit for 30 minutes and then you get to roll them out, twist them up, douse them in boiling water with baking soda, sprinkle them with salt and bake them for eight minutes. Easy, right? 

Greg helped me twist them into shape so we ended up with a few different twist variations. All were delicious.

The pretzels were gone within fifteen minutes. I have a feeling pretzels are going to become a new staple on my baking list.


This Saturday begins my last five weeks in the school kitchen. We are reminiscing days past by baking items we've learned about over the last year and a half. Iced petit fours are up first and I'm up to the challenge.