Wedding cake!

I survived the 2011 California blackout! Recently I took a trip to CA to do a wedding cake for my brother in law. I gave myself 4 days to do it in, but unfortunetly it went down to 3 days because of the blackout. On Friday the day before their wedding I was in panic mode, I started making the cake early that morning and didnt stop until 2 am that night...okay maybe for an hour. Hey! we were at a beach house and everyone went swimming, can you blame me? It turned out better than I thought, at the end though I hated it. That always happens when I work on something really hard though. I end up hating it and then I look back and think I did a pretty good job. I could tell all the flaws that I made but hey everything cant be perfect. I think I spend just under $200 bucks to make this cake which in my eyes is a pretty good deal. Plus it tasted better then any cake you can get out there. Now I have to return to school to do 3 tiered cake for my final project, at least I will have the tools to make it easier but time will not be on my hands. 10 hours or 2 days to do it in is not that easy. To be continued...

Peanut butter Mousseline!

Last weekend I was asked to make another Princess cake for a 3 year old. O how many princess's we have this world...I have a cake for everyone of them. What do kids like? Peanut butter and jelly, but that would be kinda yucky unless people knew what was coming and Im not sure the parents would be okay with that. So peanut butter and chocolate. Always a favorite! My decision was final, chocolate cake with chocolate ganach and peanut butter mousseline! I got good reviews so I thought I would share the recipe:

Peanut butter Mousseline:
1 c milk
73 g sugar
3 egg yolks
25 g cornstarch
1/2 c peanut butter
1/2 c butter (room temp)
Bring the milk to a boil.
In a bowl whisk (in this order) the yolks and the sugar, then the cornstarch.
(Temper) When the milk starts to boil, remove it and add a little to the whisked yolks, whisk the yolk mix and put the milk back on the stove. Slowly pour the yolk mix into the milk mix while whisking. When it is all added, whisk for 1 full minute and then remove.
Wrap the top of the custard with plastic wrap and place in the fridge till cool. It should look like one big lump after awhile.
Remove and add to a kitchen aid (handmixer optional) with whip attachment.
Start whipping and add the butter in cubes. Add the peanut butter after. Should be able to pipe this!
Now with the recipe above, any flavor is possible. Just substitute the peanut butter for anything you want, Nutella, lemon, orange, etc. Enjoy!

Fraisier Ooo lala

On this journey of discovery I have been racking my brain on the combinations to put together for a wedding cake that I have to do for my brother in law's wedding. "I love strawberry shortcake," he says. Well gosh, there are a ton of combinations to strawberry shortcake. The considerations to make though are crucial. They are getting married in San Diego (HOT) and its on the beach (SAND) and they arent sure if its inside or outside yet (?) of course strawberries dont last that long in a cake (SPOILAGE) and...not to mention, this is...alot of pressure. Not only will the whole family be judging this, it has to taste good and look good and stand up to all these elements that are against me. However, I am confident in what I can do, but when I break it down like that it is totally intimidating...
This week in European cakes we made what is called in French "Fraisier" aka strawberry shortcake. Making this dessert I think I have found my combo for the middle of the cake. The genoise sponge we made was so light and fluffy and it soaked some of the juices of the strawberries that it was a perfect couple together. So easy to make too, you mix two batters together. A batter that looks like a sweet mayo and a meringue plus the dry ingredients and perfection is what comes out. Vanilla mousseline is what makes this cake so delicious, its not too over poweringly sweet its just right. O! and i must not forget the lemon simple syrup, thats that SURPRISE! that no one can put thier finger on. I love this journey to dessert enlightenment...i dont know if i would call it light though...i think ive gained 5 pounds this quarter lol. I leave you with a tip to decorating the top: keep it simple..simple is gourmet and simple is an art form. Watching chef switch around fruit and essemble the ingredients on top I realized that this is an art form. Things in 3's and 5's are appealing to our eye and its okay to have a random blueberry to the side...it keeps things interesting.

A NEW cake filling

Thanks to European cakes I have found a new filling. I have tried pastry cream as a filling before, but it ended up too sticky to spread to where they would be cake crumbs all in it, but alas! a new filling has arrived. Take pastry cream and add butter to it! Its stiff enough and spreadable enough for a cake filling.
Last week chef was inspired by this video from France. He made us do a strawberry pistachio tart. As seen below.

Now this has got to be the most delicious non chocolate dessert (cuz I like my chocolate) I have ever had. The only negative I have about it is its really hard to eat a giant strawberry...you kind of have to take it off the tart and cut it. But beautiful it is, and to make it more fancy baking it in a square pan rather then a round one so you can slice it 2 inches makes for a prettier presentation. It is made as follows:

Sugar dough

Almond pistachio cream

Strawberry jam

Fresh strawberries

Pistachio mousse

Secrets of the pate a choux

It pastry class on Wednesday we made Eclairs! Also known as pate a choux. Along with cream puffs and what our french teacher called "nuns" I have no idea why. We filled the eclairs with chocolate mousse but our recipe ended up like chocolate pudding...result was very messy. Also we used fondant for the topping. Now time for the honesty, in European cakes means you have already at least taken Baking and Pastry classes. The class has made pastry cream a million times before you reach this class, yet for some reason everyone always burns thier pastry cream to where they have little chunks of cooked eggs in there. Let me tell you a secret...STRAIN IT! Even if the teach says dont strain it (which has happened), its all about your instincts. Do you want chunks of that in your mouth? No! So do what you think is best. I know some rules are the chef is always right but if you can fix it why not do it? Also another secret to Pate a choux...mix it until THREADS if you make it all the time you know what I mean. Theres a science of water to egg ratio and if there are not enough eggs added and you pipe it and bake it, it turns out a deformed poof ball. Looks unattractive and doesnt keep its shape. Buttercream was also used on the Nuns, buttercream is basically a meringue with cubes of butter added. But oh yes! There is a secret to that too, if you add the butter too soon the whole thing gets soupy and liquidy. Why? because when you add the hot liquid to beaten egg whites the hot liquid needs to cool way down before you add the butter. The butter will melt otherwise, seems like that would make sense right? Well if your product does end up soupy theres an easy fix. Stick it in the fridge so the butter will harden again. Before using, whip it again.

Nuns (Cream puffs filled w/pastry cream)

Eclairs (Pate a choux)

Week 2 Breads/European cakes

(Sigh) Week 2 is a sigh of relief. Everyone relaxes and gets into the groove of the kitchen. Teams form and bonds are made and everyone can relax unlike week 1 where everyone has to establish theirselves and who wants to lead or has the upper hand. Week 1 is exhausting, and the products show it I think. This week however, all products turned out nicely as shown. Continuing on with pullman loaves these came out exceptionally well. I love this picture.

It looks like a bread door. "Knock, Knock," Whos there? A delicious perfectly golden piece of bread.

A mountain of these things is just heaven. I could make a bed of these loaves and float around on just the aroma of how good these smell.
As for European cakes we did alot of building. Yes, building. The building of cakes and the spackling of mousse and the painting of paste. We are the contractors of food. The result, a perfect work of art.

A passion fruit mousse cake with coconut daquoise and vanilla joconde. Passion fruit glaze and an assortment of fresh fruits as eye candy. When this cake came together I thought to myself, I could paint the paste (orange stripes) any design I wanted to. As long as the customer liked mousse and daquoise, hell I could even put ladyfinges instead and pass it off as a birthday cake. For example, say I was doing a little girls cake, I could paint bows or do stripes of purple, and then the joconde could be pink. Make it simple and do chocolate mousse with ladyfingers. How delighted would someone be to get a unique cake like that...I would be at least.

Buttercream vs. Royal

Two rivals of the cookie toppings. At one corner Buttercream, winning taste then over all look on a cookie and at the other corner Royal icing winning look over taste. I guess it al depends on the preference or who these cookies are for. I tried both out on my three year old and of course a cookie is a cookie whether its overpoweringly sweet or not. As for adults the one to always win is the buttercream, adults go for mouthfeel as well as taste and royal icing is just too sweet. However, both win over store bought cookies anyday. I can always taste the flavoring they put in and whatever unhealthy ingredient they put in there so it doesnt taste like a natural cookie out of my oven would. Who wins in your eyes?
Buttercream icing: yield 6 cookies
1 stick of salted butter
2/3 c sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
(your choice) food coloring

Trail Run Cookies

Buying those sugar cookies at the grocery store always end up with a weird texture in your mouth and a sugary coma of whatever that icing is made of after. They look cute but taste gross so I decided to make my own. I only made 5 to see how I like the royal icing..and the result is the same. So buttercream is the next batch I will try out. Royal icing is good for decorating but buttercream tastes better. My concerns with buttercream is the consistency, it seems like after awhile the buttercream will smear and be messy and not stay on the cookie. I will have to find a balance.