Day 115 - Plated Dessert

Here is a dessert I had to plate for class today.

Day 114 - Practical

Today I plated the dessert shown above for a practical grade. It's a Pear Walnut Tart with caramelized pears on the side and caramel sauce on the plate. My grade was a 93. I thought is was good. The worst part was the uniform color.

Extra curricular baking

Friday night I baked a couple of cakes and today I decorated them. These cakes are for the first birthday party today for the granddaughter of a lady that works with my mom. I made yellow sheet cakes, filled and decorated with chocolate ganache. I decorated the top with designs I made with butter cream. Because of the number of people attending the party I decided one cake would would not be adequate. I could have made a smaller additional cake but decided to go ahead and just make the same size again, but I didn't bother doing the figures on top. I'll have another order from the same lady to make another birthday cake for July 2nd. It will be different cake, icing, shape, and decoration design. I'm having fun getting the opportunities to make more cakes.

Day 110 - Inspiration from a candy bar.

The above picture is the result of an assignment I received this week in class. This dessert was to be made for a practical grade on Friday. We were tasked with creating a dessert based on an inspiration from a candy bar. I didn't want to just use any common candy bar, so I look around and choose a Lindt Filled Pistachio Bar. This is Lindt's description of the Pistachio bar, "Experience the luxury of whole pistachio nuts, covered in a smooth white almond creme and enrobed in Lindt's finest Swiss milk chocolate." I choose this chocolate bar cause it tasted good and was a little different with the white almond creme and the pistachio nuts.

To make my dessert I started with making a almond spritz cookie for the bottom layer. On top of that I made a no-bake pistachio creme brulee. Next it's covered, top and sides, with a milk chocolate Bavarian creme. Then I poured a milk chocolate ganache over the top and sides (this is not shown in the picture below, see the top picture). Then I sprinkled chopped pistachios and almonds around the bottom edge. For the plating I used a raspberry sauce and I included a small piece of the Lindt Pistachio bar so the chef could compared my dessert to the candy bar that inspired my creation. I also topped my dessert with some chocolate garnishes. The picture below is one of the pieces I brought home for my family to try. The chocolate ganache was already a little cool so I wasn't able to pour it over like the dessert I turned in for my grade. Everybody that tasted it thought it was excellent.

Below is a picture of the candy bar I purchased for my inspiration. It taste great as well.

Day 107 - Monte Carlo & Bananier

Today I plated my Monte Carlo (above). Inside, from bottom to top: A meringue disc, a layer of jelled spiced apricot compote, a layer of chocolate sponge cake, a layer of almond cream, a meringue disc, then all the outside is covered with a thin layer of almond cream. Then crumbled up meringue disc is used to coat the outside. It is topped with whipped cream, a raspberry and a chocolate garnish. The plate has lines of raspberry and caramel sauce. Unfortunately, I didn't really care for the taste of this. I executed it well, but the flavor was not my cup of tea.

Above is a Bananier. From bottom to top: a layer of Jaconde sponge cake w/ rum syrup, a layer of lime chibouste (like a mousse), a layer of Jaconde sponge cake w/rum syrup, a layer of caramelized banana slices, a layer of banana mousse. Then caramelized joconde sponge cake is put around the sides. This is topped with whipped cream, a raspberry and a chocolate stick. The plate has a smear of raspberry sauce.

Day 106 - Julianna

Today I platted my Julianna. It is made with genoise (cake) with coffee syrup. It also has praline cream and vanilla cream. So it assembled from bottom to top: layer of genoise, layer of praline cream, layer of genoise, layer of vanilla cream, topped off with a coffee marble glaze. Around the sides of the cake is a wood grained chocolate strip. The stripes on the plate are raspberry sauce. It tasted very good.

Day 105 - Advanced Pastry Techniques

This week was the first week of a new section called Advanced Pastry Techniques. The last few days I've been working on several items. These desserts are named: Monte Carlo, Julianna, Bananier. Although they are basically finished, we didn't plate them because we still are making chocolate garnishes and sauces for plating. I'll take pictures when I do the plating.

Day 102 - Mille Fenile

Today I had a mystery basket of ingredients. I made Mille Fenile with it. It is made with blitz puff pastry, a coconut mousseline, a lychee mousse, fresh strawberry slices and raspberry sauce.
It taste great.

Volunteer Work

Today I volunteered to work at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Atlanta. They were cooking for a big party at the old Macy's Building that has been converted into an event facility and is called 200 Peachtree. They were serving a 1,000 people. I worked from 8 AM till about 7:30 PM. I was doing preparation on a few different desserts. I was tired by the time I finished, since I was up till 2:30 AM last night finishing up the graduation cake. Well, time to get some rest.

Extracurricular Baking - Graduation Cake

Yesterday I baked and decorated a cake for my little sister's friend, Lois, had a graduation party tonight. I made enough cake for 30 people. This cake was excellent, the people at the party loved it as well as all my family. I used a white cake, with fresh strawberries used as a filling in between layers. I took the fresh strawberries and tossed them in apricot preserves before using as the filling. I used a Swiss Butter Cream for icing.

Cherie (left) Lois (right)

Day 101 - Friday

The above is just another picture of the L'Exotique that I turned in yesterday for my practical. I made a score of 100 on it. Yippee!

The picture above is what they call a Yule Log that I made yesterday and today. The inside is Genoise (cake). It also has chocolate mousse inside. Outside is covered with butter cream and chocolate shavings. It is decorated with mushrooms and snails made of fondant.

Day 100 - Century Mark

Today I made a Fruit Bom (above). It's made with a Blueberry Sorbet on the outside, Raspberry Mousse on the inside over a disc of sponge cake. It wasn't my favorite, it was just OK to me.

Above is the L'Exotique I made. This was made with a ribbon sponge cake on the outside. Inside it has three almond coconut meringue disc, with passion fruit moose (the creamy stuff) and a mango gel center (the dark stuff). I liked it other than the real coconut inside the meringue disc. I just don't like the texture of coconut.

Day 98 - Marjolaine

On Friday I started making this Marjolaine, and I finished it today. Marjolaine is made from Marjolaine sponge cake, Frangelico ganache (dark chocolate in the center), a hazelnut meringue disc (thin disc in the middle), hazelnut butter cream icing. Then milk chocolate is sprayed on the outside of the butter cream icing. I thought it tasted good.