honey in the sun
I'm supposed to be packing for my San Diego trip but I'm putting that off for the time being to do something else I've been putting off: Posting my backlog of culinary school projects.
Creme caramel with a tuile spiral for decoration. The tuile is maddening to work with because you have to shape it immediately once it comes out of the oven or else it'll cool and cease to be malleable. I finally pulled off this spiral after maybe five tries, and I may have yelled out something along the lines of, "Bow down, spiral!" once I did. And then I totally forgot about the other pieces still in the oven which went on to burn to the point where they scorched my Silpat.
White chocolate cheesecake with tuile and caramel decorations and a chocolate cigarette.
Chocolate decadence, which is basically a flourless chocolate cake.
My chocolate decadence after I glazed it with ganache.
Raspberry mousse with a ribbon sponge base.
White chocolate mousse with a chocolate butterfly for decoration. The antennae broke off right when I went to place the butterfly on the mousse =/
Fruit tart. Don't ask what kind of decorative scheme I was going for because I don't have an answer.
Apple tart filled with frangipane (an almond and pastry cream filling).
Linzer tart, which is traditionally filled with raspberry jam.
Lemon curd tart topped with Swiss meringue. I had to make the lemon curd twice because during the first attempt, I forgot to add the butter while it was still warm and so I melted the butter separately, added it to the curd and hoped for the best. It completely congealed into a solid mass the next day, which is clearly not the best.
Chocolate souffle. Chef Nick said that all off those myths about having to be really quiet and cautious while a souffle is baking so that it doesn't deflate are unfounded. You just need to avoid opening the oven door and letting out all of the heat.
Petit fours glacés, of the bane of my culinary existence. The cake base, which is a dobosh sponge, gave me so much grief. Then you have to cut out the individual pieces and glaze them all individually with fondant, which has to be brought within a very narrow temperature range: too cold and it will be too thick, but too warm and it will lose its shine. THEN you have to pipe the filigree designs on every cake. To add insult to injury, they don't even taste that good! Yeah, never again if I can help it.
Napoleons filled with creme diplomat (whipped cream and pastry cream).
Mini chocolate eclairs.
Paris-brest.
Salammbo. Roland, one of my classmates, would sing Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" and replace Alejandro with Salammbo. I miss him.
Swans.
Carrot cake topped with marzipan carrots.
Chocolate triangle cake topped with chocolate filigree.
Opera cake.
Sacher cake. I think it's rather funny how we had to pipe the name of this and the opera cake onto the cakes themselves, as if you could refer to it just in case you forgot what it was you were eating.
Black forest cake decorated with whipped cream, cherries, and milk chocolate shavings.
Dobosh sponge finished with coffee-flavored Swiss buttercream and slices of dobosh coated with caramel.
Birthday cake draped in marzipan and glazed with fondant. I wish I had taken a photo of the marzipan itself because the color, a lime green/chartreuse, was GORGEOUS. Also, that crack in the upper lefthand corner was not there until I picked up the cake to present it. BOO.
Draping square cakes is a pain in the arse.
Okay, back to packing, I suppose. In terms of entertainment, I've added a bunch of new music to my iPod and I've got a copy of A Game of Thrones that I picked up at Target yesterday (I totally blame zombie-boogie). Let's do this, and by this I mean the eight-hour car ride. Let's just hope that Kimberly doesn't start drooling on me half an hour into the trip.
Creme caramel with a tuile spiral for decoration. The tuile is maddening to work with because you have to shape it immediately once it comes out of the oven or else it'll cool and cease to be malleable. I finally pulled off this spiral after maybe five tries, and I may have yelled out something along the lines of, "Bow down, spiral!" once I did. And then I totally forgot about the other pieces still in the oven which went on to burn to the point where they scorched my Silpat.
White chocolate cheesecake with tuile and caramel decorations and a chocolate cigarette.
Chocolate decadence, which is basically a flourless chocolate cake.
My chocolate decadence after I glazed it with ganache.
Raspberry mousse with a ribbon sponge base.
White chocolate mousse with a chocolate butterfly for decoration. The antennae broke off right when I went to place the butterfly on the mousse =/
Fruit tart. Don't ask what kind of decorative scheme I was going for because I don't have an answer.
Apple tart filled with frangipane (an almond and pastry cream filling).
Linzer tart, which is traditionally filled with raspberry jam.
Lemon curd tart topped with Swiss meringue. I had to make the lemon curd twice because during the first attempt, I forgot to add the butter while it was still warm and so I melted the butter separately, added it to the curd and hoped for the best. It completely congealed into a solid mass the next day, which is clearly not the best.
Chocolate souffle. Chef Nick said that all off those myths about having to be really quiet and cautious while a souffle is baking so that it doesn't deflate are unfounded. You just need to avoid opening the oven door and letting out all of the heat.
Petit fours glacés, of the bane of my culinary existence. The cake base, which is a dobosh sponge, gave me so much grief. Then you have to cut out the individual pieces and glaze them all individually with fondant, which has to be brought within a very narrow temperature range: too cold and it will be too thick, but too warm and it will lose its shine. THEN you have to pipe the filigree designs on every cake. To add insult to injury, they don't even taste that good! Yeah, never again if I can help it.
Napoleons filled with creme diplomat (whipped cream and pastry cream).
Mini chocolate eclairs.
Paris-brest.
Salammbo. Roland, one of my classmates, would sing Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" and replace Alejandro with Salammbo. I miss him.
Swans.
Carrot cake topped with marzipan carrots.
Chocolate triangle cake topped with chocolate filigree.
Opera cake.
Sacher cake. I think it's rather funny how we had to pipe the name of this and the opera cake onto the cakes themselves, as if you could refer to it just in case you forgot what it was you were eating.
Black forest cake decorated with whipped cream, cherries, and milk chocolate shavings.
Dobosh sponge finished with coffee-flavored Swiss buttercream and slices of dobosh coated with caramel.
Birthday cake draped in marzipan and glazed with fondant. I wish I had taken a photo of the marzipan itself because the color, a lime green/chartreuse, was GORGEOUS. Also, that crack in the upper lefthand corner was not there until I picked up the cake to present it. BOO.
Draping square cakes is a pain in the arse.
Okay, back to packing, I suppose. In terms of entertainment, I've added a bunch of new music to my iPod and I've got a copy of A Game of Thrones that I picked up at Target yesterday (I totally blame zombie-boogie). Let's do this, and by this I mean the eight-hour car ride. Let's just hope that Kimberly doesn't start drooling on me half an hour into the trip.