Monique's Patisserie & Baking Experience

First Full Week of the Semester

2012-01-27T20:45:00.003-05:00

On Monday I had my first class in Garde Manger (the art of preserving for later). Of course, typical of all first days of class, they go over the syllabus and what is going to be done during the semester. It looks like it is going to be a fun class. Plenty of homework, but it would not be college with out it. We did get to go into the kitchen today. We started on the topic of preservation and curing. Not everybody got to do each of the techniques individually. Each group perform a technique and not every group did the same thing. (Nothing new there.) But my group did dill pickles, bread-n-butter pickles, pickled beans, and cured salmon/grave lox. The other groups did pickled okra, kimchi, pickled ginger, sauerkraut, corned beef, pastrami, and bacon. I haven't tasted anything that we have made yet. But last semester, I know we used some of the products the other class made in garde manger and it was pretty good.

On Wednesday, we had our first production for Fundamentals of Restaurant Operations. the first half of the semester, I'll work back of house (cooking) and the second half of the semester, I'll work the front of house (serving). The week before I was assigned to work with one other partner on soup and salad. So, he did the salad and I made the soup. The soup just happened to be Creole Gumbo. (Now I love a good gumbo.) Now the fun part begins. That's were I learn a lot from my mistakes. Our weekly homework for this class is to create a menu plan containing a Mise en Place list (list of everything needed - food & equipment), order sheet, equipment list, time line, and templates (how we would plate the dish). So, as I go through the recipes at home I immediately started to have some questions and concerns. I have eaten plenty of gumbo in my life, watched my dad make it, and I have made it once. The way the Chef Instructor had this recipe laid out did not look right to me. But it is what I was given. So, I go to class and I start scaling and prepping out my ingredients. While working, I asked the Chef how he wanted me to do the chicken, cut the sausage and the shrimp, because the instructions did not tell me what to do. And I don't know what he envisions for this recipe. When I scaled out half a can of tomato paste I started to question myself, "Um... this is a lot of tomato paste for that little amount of chicken stock. This can't be right." (Here is where the mistake comes in.) I didn't speak up right then, and I just went with it. As I started to make the gumbo and I add the paste, then I asked the Chef to come over and take a look because I don't think this is right. He asked, "Did you use tomato paste?" Of course my answer was yes. And of course the recipe didn't specifically say how much tomato paste, it just said 1 can of tomato. (So I figure the Chef knows what size cans of tomato paste we have which is only one size, which is huge, like 110oz) But, the Chef helped me fix my mistake. It did bug me at the end when the soup was finished, because it didn't taste like any gumbo I have ever eaten. But the definition of gumbo, "everything in one pot", meaning what every you have, put it in a pot. And Creole does refer to tomato base. In the end all the customers loved the gumbo. I even got ask to come to the front of the house by the Chef to talk with one of the customers who wanted to meet the person who made the soup. They happened to be from Louisiana and they loved the gumbo. I was embarrassed, because I didn't think it was authentic as I'm used to eating in New Orleans. Even my class mates thought it was good. A happy mistake in the end.
Lessons Learned: If you think something is wrong and question it, it most likely is. So, ask first or go with you gut feeling. There is no such thing as a stupid question. (I had a valid question that needed to be asked.) Next time, I'll write down all my questions ahead of time. That way I can ask them all at once.

On Thursday, in baking class, we started off with quick bread and used three methods of making them. Creaming, biscuit, and muffin methods. It was not truly what I was expecting, as how the class would run, but it was better than the cooking class was taught last semester. Each group got one recipe that used one of the three methods we were being taught. Each group put the recipe together one at a time so that the teacher could talk about it and the rest of the class got to see it be done. I still liked how Le Cordon Bleu did it better. They demonstrated each method in the beginning of class and then the students went to their station and made what the teacher demonstration. At least the Chef is teaching how it is done for the whole class. We made biscuits, cranberry orange scones, blueberry muffins, chocolate banana cake (I made this.), and cornbread with bacon and cheese.

I can't wait to learn more next week!

End of 1st semster

2011-12-29T19:40:00.007-05:00

Well, I made it through the first semester with all A's in my culinary classes. I made an A and a B in my two hospitality classes.

In all I wasn't too impressed with the program so far at Gwinnett Tech. Of course it was not what I was expecting, and in part I did not ask all the right questions in the beginning. Live and learn is the lesson there. ServSafe and Foundations of Culinary should have been combined into one class or into half-semester classes. It was a waste of time for a 7 hour and a 5 hour class separated when in each class we got out early and the other one you meet every other week. Ridiculous!

Sorry, about the lack of writing last semester. But I would have written much of the same thing on every new topic that I have all ready presented. The following topics were covered after week 6 (this is what was made for lunch on that day):

Week 7 - Pork, Lamb, and Veal
The meat made : Pork Ribs, Blanquette of Lamb, Veal Cordon Bleu (Yum!), Veal Scallopini (came out good), and Lamb Chops.
The sides : Grits & Cheddar Souffle (Yum!), Lyonnaise Potatoes, Brown rice, Brussel Sprouts, Fresh green salad with Dijon Vinaigrette, and Escalope de Porc Normandie

Week 8 - Fish and Shellfish
The seafood prepared : Deep Fried Catfish (The bomb!), Lobster Thermidor ( I actually liked this even though I am not a fan of lobster), Pauplettes of Sole, Steamed Salmon, Steamed Mussels, Red Snapper Pappillote, Oysters Rockefeller, Sole Bonne Femme, Terriyaki Salmon, Seared Scallops

Week 9 - Vegetables : Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnip Puree (First time having parsnip. Really liked it.), Stirfry Asparagus, Beer Battered Onion Rings (Yum!), Ratatouille, Brussel Sprouts, Tempura Vegetables, Braised Red Cabbage, and Stuffed Artichoke

Week 10 - Fruit : Candied Citrus Rind (Delish!), Apple Fritters (Yummy!), Cranberry Relish, Poached Pears, Mango Chutney (wonderful), Figs with a Honey Mousse, Braised Rhubarb, Warm Baked Nectarines, Baked Apples (wonderful as well), and Dried Fruit Compote

Week 11 - Potatoes, Pasta, and Grains : Bulgur Pilaf, Deep Fried Potatoes (Who doesn't love French fries), Risotto Milonese, Potato Gnocchi, Hoppin' John (First time I have ever liked black eyed peas), Creamy Polenta with wild Mushrooms, Quinoa, Potato Pancakes, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Goat Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Red Peppers and baby spinach (was really good), and Fried Rice

Week 12 - Healthy Cooking : Falafel (I actually really liked), Veggie Wrap, Saffron Vegetable Risotto, Pan-Seared Tofu Provencal (The tofu was not so bad), and a salad with Garlic Yogurt Dressing

Week 13 - Eggs : Egg salad with Smoked Salmon Sandwich (absolutely loved), Eggs Benedict (The Best my Hollandaise sauce has come out so far), Shrimp and Avocado Omelet,and Garden Frittata

Week 14 - American Regional Day : Each group had there own region assigned to them. My group was assigned Cajun/Creole which works for me being that my family is from down there. My group made Crawfish Etoufee and a White Chocolate Bread pudding. The Bread pudding was absolutely wonderful. The other groups had the regions of Carribean, Southwest, New England, and West Coast.

Week 15 - Practical : For the day of the Practical we had to individually produce 8 knife cuts and a conquesa of tomato, minced garlic, sheffanod of basil, and minced parsley. Everyone also had to break down a chicken into 8 parts. We were also put into new groups. Fun! We were given a "mystery basket". Not so mysterious, because we are on a budget now. Because everyone fabricated a chicken that was the groups meat along with 12 shrimp. We where given potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, and some other basic cooking odds and ends. We had to use 6 cooking methods and four knife cuts, and produce one platter and a single plate (for the teacher). My group did really well. We served roasted potatoes, sauteed vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, and carrots), pesto marinated grilled shrimp, and pan-seared chicken thigh. It was really good.

Week 16 - Deep Clean the kitchen and practical : I have to admit that I totally thought the teacher was nuts when he said we are going to clean first then take the final. I wasn't to happy with that idea. I mean think about it. We are all awake and ready to take the test when we first walk in. If we clean first we get tired. mmmm...... It didn't matter too much, I did well on the final. So I'm all good.

In ServSafe, I passed the test with a 95, which was two points higher than when I took the ServSafe test at Le Cordon Bleu. Yay!

I'm still disappointed in the fact that every class was based on putting out a lunch instead of working on the basics. They told us that if we had not made over a "B" on our knife cuts test to drop out or not sign up for Fundamentals of Restaurant Operations. Ummm.... if you have to say that, then why didn't you prepare the students better. (Yes, everybody should have been practicing outside of school.)

Next semester I am signed up for 3 classes: Fundamentals of Restaurant Operations, Baking Principles, and Gard Manger. I couldn't get out of taking the Baking Principles class eventhough I have a Baking and Pattiserie certificate from Le Cordon Bleu. It's supposedly due to the accreditation agency that Gwinnett Tech uses being different than the agency that Le Cordon Bleu uses. The real issue is money, they just want more of my money. If any one figures out how schools work let me know. In Fundamentals of Restaurant Operations, for the first half of the semester I will be in back of house (cooking) and the last half of the semester, I will be in front of house, serving. Garde Manger means preparation of cold foods (i.e. salads, pates, and presentation of the food. Garde Manger also tries to use up scraps and make good use of them to make money with every part of what you purchase for the restaurant. So if you by a chicken or fish, try to use as much of it as possible.

6th Week - Beef

2011-10-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

Top left corner: Baked Apple Top of plate: Salisbury Steak, wilted spinach, Roman flat bread, pepper steak covered in pan gravy, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, beef stroganoff on egg noodles with peas and carrots, and Chateaubriand with roasted peppers.

Today was beef day. We did not necessarily fabricate beef, because of time constraint and money. The teacher showed us how parts of the beef are fabricated. The thing that did not make me happy today was that we had to cut parts of our day out and some recipes, due to the fact that some students signed up for an event that they had to leave at three for. I'm sorry, but I payed to go to class and learn. Not to rush and accommodate others for lack of commonsense. Students should not be allowed to sign up for events that occur during class time. It is not fair to the other students that come to learn. I do believe that going to events are good for learning experience, but not when you ruin class time for others. I had to get on my soap box, because it is something I strongly believe in. We were supposed to have a knife test today, but it didn't happen.

Team 1 : Pepper Steak, Risotto Radicchio, Grilled Asparagus, (Roasted Potatoes).
The pepper steak was good. The Grilled Asparagus was wonderful. Chef said it was spot on. Yeay! We did not make the risotto radicchio. Instead we made roasted potatoes, because of us cutting class short.

Team 2: Chateaubriand, Chateau Potatoes, Bearnaise Sauce, (Tourned Root Vegetables).
The Chateaubriand was so tender and flavorful. Yum! The teacher made a comment about what happened to the tourned vegetables and the chateau potatoes. Well, we did not have our knife cut test to give the group the potatoes, and they didn't have time to make them in the shape requested.

Team 3: Beef Stroganoff, Buttered Egg Noodles, Peas and Carrots.
The Stroganoff was wonderful. The only time I can remember eating something close to this was when my grandpa made it.

Team 4: Aunt Ruthies' Pot Roast, Roman Flat Bread (Finally came out right), Baked Apples.
Because of the time it took to make Pot Roast we did not get to eat it today, but we will next week. The flat bread came out right today. Along with not having time to let it rise the previous times, they were also stretching the product out to thin on the sheet pan. So, today they doubled the recipe and gave it plenty of time to rise. The baked apple was good. I had never had a baked apple served to me in tack with the core taken out stuffed with raisins and a batter. The only thing I would have done different would have either not served it in a small ramekin like bowl, or maybe have mixed cut apple slices in the raisin batter and baked that in a bowl.

Team 5: Salisbury Steak, Broiled Tomatoes, Wilted Spinach.
Well, I have never really had Salisbury steak, but it looked like a meatloaf patty. Not a huge fan of most peoples take on meatloaf. I am very partial to my mom's which has no added vegetables and the meat is grilled with a yummy homemade BBQ sauce. The tomatoes and Spinach were good.

Made my own Birthday Cake!

2011-10-01T18:20:00.005-04:00

Today I finished my birthday cake. It took a little over a week to finish it. Of course I waited till the last three days to bake and put it all together. The longest part were the leaves and the flowers. My leaves were my favorite part of the cake. Yes, parts of it were not what I wanted it to be or perfect. But I'm still learning and practicing. Which is why I made my own cake.
The inside of my cake is the triple layer devil's food cake from the Cake Bible and a spice caramel crunch butter cream. It was absolutely delicious. I was sceptical about combining the chocolate cake and the spices in the butter cream. But many confectioners or chefs pair chocolate and different spices. It worked out great.
Also today I start to practice the classic knife cut, tourne. The biggest mistake was that I did what I thought I remembered being taught. Wrong! I learned that I should look up what I'm doing before I do it. I was practicing the cut the wrong way, and I ended up cutting my left thumb. Boy was that fun. NOT! This is not my first cut, but it is the worst so far. Knives are the one thing that scares me the most, and the fact that you perform this cut in your hand and not on a cutting board. The other thing I dislike is how the teacher has us cutting the onion. We hold it in our hand and carve the root and top end out. We already had one girl cut the area between the thumb and the index finger. Ouch! Well life goes on.

5th week - Chicken

2011-09-30T23:11:00.000-04:00

Top left clock wise: Chicken tenders with chipotle dipping sauce and beer battered onion rings, Roasted Chicken with Gravy, Chicken sauté with garlic mashed potatoes, Wing with SE Asian Style peanut Sauce, and in the center Chicken Fricasse with Broccoli.

Today we butchered chicken. The way the teacher showed us was different from what I learned in high school, and it was a whole lot better this way. The first step is to cut the back bone out. Then you pop the keel bone out of the chest. From there you can take the legs and wings off the body, and debone the breast. Lunch was full of chicken.

Team1: Breast of Chicken Saute with Red pepper coulis, Garlic Mashed PotatoesThe chicken was yummy. I would make it again. The garlic mashed potatoes maybe a tad more flavor. We did not make the red pepper coulis. We made the sauce that was with the chicken recipe. It did contain roasted red pepper though.

Team 2: Chicken tenders with chipotle dipping sauce, Beer Battered Onion Rings

The tenders were my absolute favorite. I did not care for the chipotle sauce. I loved the onion rings.

Team 3: Chicken Fricasse with Sauteed Broccoli Rabe, Curly Endive, Apple & Gorgonzola Salad

This was good as well.

Team 4: Roast Chicken with Chestnut Dressing & Giblet Gravy

The breast meat was maybe a tad dry.

Team 5 : Deep Fried Chicken Wings with SE Asian Style Peanut Sauce, Asian Slaw. The wings were okay. I like my wings wet. The Asian Peanut Sauce was complex in flavor, but heavy in my opinion.

Sorry, for the messy plate. We go around a table as a class and hold our late and get food.It's a bit crowded.

A picture of me working at Sucre

2011-09-27T01:18:00.003-04:00

I was looking at Sucrés Facebook page and ran across a photo of me. What a surprise! I probably could have held the bag better, but if I'm not mistaken I am making the Kalamansi Chocolates. You can see that some of the cavities are not coated with chocolate. That is because they had cracked. Oops! Somewhere the temperature went wrong. Most likely they got left in the freezer a tad too long. Chocolate, if you don't know, is very temperamental. Any slight change or not paying attention could mess it up. I looked so peaceful.

4th week - Mother Sauces

2011-09-23T23:10:00.000-04:00

From top left clockwise: Mesclun Salad with Rasp. Vinaigrette, Roman Flat Bread, Macaroni and Cheese, Broccoli Almondine with Maltaise sauce, Tomato Sauce pasta, Pan fried chicken with carrots and pan gravy.

There are 5 Mother Sauces : Hollandaise, Tomato, Brown, Bechemal, and Veloute. They were classified this way under Auguste Escoffier after simplifying Careme's work. Each of these sauces makes many small or intermediary depending on the types of added ingredients desired.

Each team in our class was assigned a mother sauce to make.

Team 1 : Hollandaise, Broccoli Almondine (roasted almonds, Maltaise)
Maltaise is a small sauce of Hollandaise You add Orange zest and juice to the finished product. I believe it needed a bit stronger orange flavor. Hollandaise is still not one of my favorite.

Team2 : Tomato, Meat balls (pasta)
The group was missing a person today so they did not get to making the meat balls for the pasta. I would not compare this sauce to a store bought sauce. I have never tried making one from scratch so I have no bases to judge off of.

Team 3: Brown Sauce, Mesclun Salad with Rasp.Vinaigrette, Roman Flat Bread
This was the only sauce we did not get to taste today, because of the time it takes to reduce it down. We will try it next week. The Romain Flat Bread which was supposed to be thick came out rather flat, like a cracker. Just did not have time to let the dough rise properly.

Team 4 : Bechemal, Macaroni & Cheese
The mac and cheese was good. I would have loved some more Cheddar in it. I'm not sure I love bechemal sauce. I find it heavy.

Team 5 : Chicken Veloute : Pan fried Chicken with Pan Gravy
This came out good.

3rd Week of School

2011-09-17T20:34:00.005-04:00

During second week of school, I only had two Hospitality Classes and Fundamentals of Cooking, since Labor Day was a Holiday.

No holidays this week, so I had all my classes. On Monday, in Principles of Cooking, we started in the kitchen for the first time. Even thought is was the first day, it still seem more chaotic than it should have been. We started the class by going over a few things. We did a measures conversion test (not graded) on tablespoons, teaspoons, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. I missed two due to simple math errors. Oops! Need to slow down a little and think. Then we did the morning line up, where everybody lines up and the Chef checks the uniforms. Then we went into the kitchen and got ready for class. Getting ready meant washing our hands, getting a sanitation bucket and wiping down the tables, and then get a cutting board.

Then the teacher demonstrates a few things and then we started cutting vegetables. Some different cuts, ex. Julian, small dice, medium dice, and large dice. The instructor did not truly pay attention to the correctness of the cuts. All of our cuts were going to be used for the stocks. The funny thing was, we did not get to make stock. I know that our class is not long, but it made me disappointed. What is the point of attending culinary classes, if you don't do any hands on. I want to learn, which is why I went back to school. In my opinion there is only one way to learn cooking and that is hands on. There is only so much a person can get out of a book.

The next thing we started was making our lunch that we the students were all going to eat. It seems like making our own lunch is more of a concern than teaching us how to cook. My group was responsible for making the Caesar salad. The other groups made other dishes. The only part that didn't turn out correct was the foccasia bread, because that group didn't have the right amount of time to let it rise. It turned into a flat bread. The teacher almost did just about everything for each team. The instructor put together my teams salad dressing, team 3's pasta, and team 4's soup. After all the dishes were finished we sat down and ate it, and then it was time to clean up the kitchen. The soup was pretty good, the pasta and cookies were good too.

First full week of school

2011-09-03T20:52:00.008-04:00

Oh boy! Lots of work got handed to me this week. It is like a never ending list. Talk about me being overwhelmed. You would think I was studying to be a doctor. But it is all good and it is important to my education. I just need to buckle down and get my self organized. The tough thing about school these days is that just about every class has a different source (program) on the computer where you get assignments, turn in homework, download articles to read, and take quizzes on. I like the old paper method. That way I don't have to get on the computer 50,000 times a week to check and make sure I didn't miss anything. Technology today is driving me insane. Yes, it has its good points, but please give me a break by just giving me one location/platform on the web to find all my school information.

I start in the kitchen on Monday, September 12. I can't wait! The only thing that bothers me is that we work in teams. Right now I am only in the kitchen one time a week for roughly 4 1/2 hours. So the first day in the kitchen we are making stocks. Well, what it boils down to is that each team is assigned one stock to make, and then next week we are assigned one mother sauce. So, for example, I will have made chicken stock and Hollandaise sauce in school and never make the other ones. Now, I do realize the school budget and class time are both small, and what we pay for the class is a lot smaller than the bigger schools. But ....., this seems a little weak to me. So hopefully somewhere I will gain the knowledge from observing what the other teams are doing or I'll be able to fit it in at home. But in my opinion it is not the same learning by yourself.

The one thing we also do in this class is make lunch for the culinary students to eat. The same principle applies to making lunch as the things we make in class. Not all students get a chance to make all the items (in fact, a very small percentage will we even get hands on with). I believe the first week my team gets to make a caesar salad. It should be really interesting to see how this all works out. I'm hoping for the best.

We also got to take a tour of the kitchen and boy is it the cleanest kitchen you have seen. For as many years as this kitchen has been used at Gwinnett Tech, the kitchen looks bran spanking new. They are very strict on keeping it clean. As the Chef said, for the most part, they always get 100's on their heath inspections.

Hollandaise Sauce

2011-08-28T17:21:00.001-04:00

(Eggs Benedict)

Upon my dad's request, for his new found liking of Eggs Benedict, I tried making Hollandaise Sauce for the first time today. The first batch scrambled on me. Too high of heat maybe, and I stopped stirring for a second to check the temperature of the egg yokes. Oops! It was a good thing that only that part messed up, because I had just enough clarified butter for one more batch. The second batch worked. After having successfully completing the Hollandaise, I tasted it, and it was a bit on the tart side. Hollandaise should taste buttery, but not so much that it covers the light lemony taste. So, I added some salt, white pepper, a little cayenne, and a little more clarified butter. It tasted much better. Then my dad poached the eggs, and heated the ham. We put it all together on a English muffin. Yum! I have never eaten eggs Benedict before today. I wouldn't say it is my favorite, but I have never tried it before. My mom and dad liked it a lot. Even though by the time dad got his eggs poached, muffins toasted and assemble the Hollandaise sauce was broken from the temperature changing. I felt bad, because he was the one that wanted it. Oh well. He says he can't wait for me to try it again next weekend. Nothing but trial and error to make you better.

Welcome Back!!!

2011-08-27T15:00:00.007-04:00

Sorry, It has been so long since I have written anything. I was taking a three week vacation from the world. I'm back home in Georgia and boy am I happy to be home. Since I have been home I have been doing more cooking, mostly dinners, but I can use the practice. One of the things I made for the first time was gumbo. I even made the stock from scratch. It came out pretty good, but it was missing something and I couldn't put my finger on it. But if anything I'm sure of, it was lacking a little flavor. And next time I might try and get the roux even darker than I did. I have baked two kinds of muffins from scratch as well, Cherry Chocolate and Cinnamon Raisin. They were pretty good! Yum! :)
I also made Ricotta Gnudi, a recipe from a cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis. It is kind of like a gnocchi with cheese instead of potato. It needed more flavor in the chicken stock, and the prosciutto could have been sliced a hair thicker. But the important thing is that I tried something new. To go along with the Ricotta Gnudi, I tried frying ravioli, which was breaded. It was the first time I made this and boy was that good! Maybe next time I will make the ravioli from scratch.

I started school at Gwinnett Technical College last Wednesday. I'm working on an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts. This is a two year program. My first class was Fundamentals of Culinary Arts. The rest of my classes will start this coming Monday. In all I'm taking Principles of Cooking, Safety and Sanitation (Servsafe), Event planning, Food and Beverage Management, and Fundamentals of Culinary Arts. I feel a little overwhelmed by my first class, so I'm a little afraid of what the rest will look like. I have taken/read the Servsafe and passed two times already. So, hopefully that class won't be too stressful. Well, more to come soon.

Last Day at Sucre

2011-07-16T23:08:00.021-04:00

Chef Tariq Hanna and me in the Sucré kitchen.

Well, my last day at Sucre was a bit sad, but I managed not to cry. It was a fun and good experience for me in New Orleans for the past 11 1/2 months. I have learned a lot about myself. Maybe not as much about my field as I would have liked, but I did learn. I'm on to a new adventure now. Yay! Thank you Sucre for everything you taught me!

Good News and Sad News

2011-07-08T21:54:00.004-04:00

Last week I went home to go to orientation for school. I am now registered for classes, have ordered my uniforms, and have all my knives for school. I'm so excited! :)

Well, today I was asked that next week be my last week at Sucre. Business is slow and since I had already told them I was leaving at the beginning of August, they asked if I would go ahead and make next week my last week. That I was leaving to go to school, saves someone else's job. I am kinda sad about it, but I would have been sad when I left in a few weeks as well. I have enjoyed my time at Sucre and will miss my co-workers dearly.

Argyle Birthday Cake

2011-06-17T22:31:00.005-04:00

I was asked to submit a potential cake design for use in the stores. The goal was to make a birthday (or any-occasion) cake for any gender. They already have several cake designs that can be changed in color. I chose to do an argyle design after seeing a sweater vest in a store. I thought the design was different and could be done in any color combination. I didn't do a full pattern all around the cake and left negative space. I utilized bright colors to draw attention, as a birthday is a joyful celebration. After doing this cake I realized that I needed to listen to my dad and practice pipping often. The lack of quality was evident in my yellow piping on the cake. And no, I'm not to proud of it. I wish that I could do the cake over again. To make it look better. But you know what, I learned from making the cake. I made the Gerber daisies that are on the cake. Most likely, you would not find the flowers on the cake in the catalogue or on the display in the store as they are cost prohibitive for most people. The cake could have been executed better, but I'll get better with each cake.

Delivering cakes

2011-06-08T22:00:00.012-04:00

My co-worker, Jen, went out of town this week and intrusted me with delivering and putting together the cakes at the delivery sites. I was so happy to do so. These are the cakes above. The scound is a 6 tier cake and the first is a 5 tier cake. It was my first time putting together such big cakes. They are heavy so you do need some help if your not strong enough to move and position the cake. But I had lots of fun, and really enjoyed it. The 6 tier was delivered to a museum and there were people all around watching me put it together. Talk about presure to do it right and not mess it up. I can't wait to get more into cakes. I'm working on it! :)

Going back home

2011-05-27T23:08:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm human, and I changed my mind. I am going to school. And I am excited.

I have plenty to plan. Goals included!

I'm working on it all.

Orchids for a wedding cake

2011-05-24T22:50:00.014-04:00

Before I took a week off work for the Nicholas Lodge class, I had learned that Sucré had an order for a wedding cake with orchids. I asked if I could make them. When I got back I volunteered again, and was given permission to make the orchids. I was super-excited, especially since I had just learned to make three different types of orchids in the class.
I asked my co-worker how many, what type, color, and size. I spread the work out over five nights. I was volunteering to make these, so I wasn't getting paid for my time or materials.

1st evening) I made the gum paste,
2nd evening) made centers and started a few petals,
3rd evening) finished petals,
4th evening) attached the throats,
5th evening) assembled and dusted with color.

I think they look beautiful!

Well, I brought the orchids into work the day before the cake was due and found out that the couple had canceled the cake order. Talk about a way to completely bum you out. I spent all that time and money and the flowers would not be used. It's easy to understand why a bakery should require deposits on special order cakes. And the deposit should not be refundable once work is begun.
The good thing is that I got good practice even if they are not being put on a cake. But the flowers would have been beautiful on top of a wedding cake.

Nicholas Lodge's 5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flowers Class

2011-05-15T22:27:00.015-04:00

The last five days my mother and I attend Nicholas Lodge's 5 Day Ultimate Gumpast Flowers Class. We had a lot of fun. This is my second class with Nicholas (see blog from previous class). Below are the flowers I learned to make this time. The first picture is of all the flowers together.

Below are: left - Cymbidium Orchid, right - Cattleya Orchid

Below are: left - Gerber Daisy, right - Calla Lily

Below are: left - The Ultimate Rose and rose bud, right - Lisianthus

Below are: back - Dendrobium Orchid, middle - Sweet Pea, front - Carnation

Below are: back left - Hydrangea, back middle - Daisy, right - Stephanotis, front left - Lily of the Valley

Below are: back left - Fern, back center - Eucalyptus, right - Fern, front center - Variegated Ivy, front left - Birds Foot Ivy

Below are: Gardenia

Below are: Stargazer Lily

Sad but Good News

2011-05-01T21:19:00.008-04:00

Well, after the two weeks of working two jobs, I reached my limit. It was too many hours and too much stress. Don't get me wrong I could do either job well, but either is the operative word. I was getting better at Commander's Palace each day. But, it was just not for me. So it is sad news in a way, but it is good news because I'm learning and narrowing my goals toward my profession.

I have learned a lot about myself in the last few weeks;

· I can get a job all by myself. Just like at Sucré.
· I am a fast learner.
· Speed is of course needed but takes time to build up.
· That most likely, working in a restaurant is not for me.
· I can do anything I set my mind to do.
· That no matter what you are doing you can't under perform at any job.
· Finally, communication is the absolute way to make life a little easier and work better.

So, it’s back to working at Sucré only, and my little world of chocolate. I enjoyed my learning experience at Commander's Palace even if it was a brief period of time.I know have to reevaluate my goals and decide whether or not going back to school for culinary degree is really what I want to do. Now that I have discovered how I feel after working a Commander's Palace, I have more experience to help in my decision. If I decide not to go back to school, then I will need to figure out what, where, and how to go from here. As the saying goes, life's not always easy.Next week, I'm traveling back to Atlanta to take the 5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flowers Class from Nicholas Lodge. This will be my second class with him and I'm so excited! :)

Second weekend at Commander's Palace

2011-04-25T22:25:00.001-04:00

Boy was it busy! Of course it was Easter this Sunday, and they served just under 800 for brunch. I got to try working on the souffle station. It was a good day to learn a new station because it was Sunday dinner service and there was only 250 for dinner. But I did learn that once you get behind in a service it is hard to catch up quickly. It's also important to prep enough so that you do not run short. On Saturday, I almost cut it close but I made what I was told too. You never know what each service is going to be like.

Work at Sucre is going well. I just got done making Easter Chocolates and now I am working on Mother's Day Chocolates. We have a collection of lemon, raspberry, and rose.

First weekend at Commander's Palace

2011-04-18T23:45:00.001-04:00

Wow, am I tired. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I worked at Commander's Palace. The first two days I went in to work at 2 pm and then 2:30 pm on Sunday. Friday was my first full day. I wasn't sure what to expect. I started out prepping (make partial or whole recipes) for desserts. This prep work is not necessarily to be used for the night shift. During the time frame from 2pm to 6pm I have to do prep work and set up for that night. All weekend I did ice (plated desserts). I plated pie, cheese cake, starwberry short cake, chocolate bread pudding, and ice creams. After service everybody cleans up the kitchen from top to bottom. Their kitchen is really clean. I found out the approximate numbers they serve every day for brunch and dinner. On Saturday night we served over 450 guest. Sunday for brunch they served just over 700 guest, and dinner was just over 250 guest. I was suprised since I had never really given it much thought as to how many people are served by a busy restaurant. It is tough trying to switch my schedule from working from 7 am to 5 pm for 4 days and then the next three days working 2 pm to almost 2am.

People ask me what I think about working two jobs, and if I like the new job. To be honest, it is very tough and demanding. But I will adjust to it. There are many things to learn and I have lots of improving to do. But, hey, that is the whole point. So far, I have only worked 4 days at Commander's Palace and I'm still trying to grasp how it is done. Don't misunderstand, I can do the work, it's just getting used to a new environment and learning to do things their way.

New Adventure

2011-04-08T23:59:00.004-04:00

Well, tonight I had my trail stage at Commander's Palace. Since this was the first time I've tried out for a job, I was excited, nervous, and scared. Of course, I worked in the pastry department. Since it was a Friday night, it was called a sink of swim shift for people doing a tryout for a position. I did a little prep work and then I helped plate desserts the rest of the night. At first I was a little slow, but as I got more comfortable I picked up the pace. Of course I will have a lot of learning to do and will continually work on increasing my speed. At the end of the evening the head Sous Chef pulled me aside to talk, and he told me the people I worked with during the evening liked me. He said he would hire me to work part time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Each day will be approximately 11 hour shifts.

Back to Chocolate & Culinary School Choice

2011-03-22T21:21:00.008-04:00

Well, I have started back in chocolate world. Yay! We have started making the Easter chocolates: dark chocolate bunnies with a milk chocolate carmel center, peanut butter eggs, and hollow milk chocolate bunnies. The other new products are toffee and a strawberry chocolate. Work is going well.

I had someone ask me this on my blog: "Do you think you'll continue on for the diploma? Or do you not think it is worth it? I'm considering to do the same thing -pastry school with Le Cordon Bleu. I wanted a diploma, but I'm wondering if I should bother, considering the price, I might settle for a certificate. What's your opinion?"

After completing my Associates Degree in Business and then attending another semester at GA. State, I decided to change career direction. I wanted to pursue a Culinary Arts degree and a Patisserie and Baking certificate. I quickly looked at what was available in Atlanta. I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to start the culinary program at the local vocational-technical school until the next fall. Also, they didn't really offer a good Patisserie and Baking program. Sitting out of school till the next fall did not appeal to me. So, I bit the bullet and took the certificate course in Patisserie and Baking at Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) in Atlanta, as I could start that in January. At the time, LCB only offered the certificate (a 9 month program). After I graduated they started offering an Associates degree as well. I completed the program, served my externship and have been working ever since.

This coming fall, I will pursue an Associates degree in culinary arts at a Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville, GA. It is much, much cheaper than somewhere like Le Cordon Bleu. It doesn't have the big name, but from talking with several chefs that I know, it has a very good reputation.

What would I recommend? Everybody learns differently. Some people can learn from books. Some learn by doing. Some learn best by being shown. For me, being shown how to do things helped build the confidence I needed to move on. A culinary school can not make a person a chef. The role of a culinary school is to teach the fundamentals so that a person can be somewhat knowledgeable in a cooking role in the industry. In other words, hopefully, someone graduating from culinary school won't walk in the professional kitchen on the first day and totally make a fool of themselves. I believe that after graduating from a culinary school you face far more learning after landing your first job. Based on my experience at LCB, I would search for the best culinary program available at a local state vo-tech school. Spending the big bucks will not necessarily get you a better education.

As to deciding between a certificate and a diploma program, I think it depends on your goals. A diploma program generally has more business type classes which may help if a management or business is the goal. Since I had planned on getting an Associates degree in Culinary Arts, it wasn't necessary for me to also get a diploma in Patisserie and Baking. Both diploma programs would have the same business classes. Personally if I was going for only one of them, I would go for the diploma program as I would one day like to own a bakery/restaurant.

Sorbet and Mardi Gras

2011-03-06T00:22:00.006-05:00

Today, I went to work and made my apple sorbet for Tariq, the Executive Pastry Chef. He told me to come up with some flavors for the new menu. I put apple sorbet as an idea. You may have read a while back that I made it for my high school chef for the charity dinner party he was catering for. Tariq told me the only problem was that it comes out grainy. I told him I could make one that is not grainy. So, he told me go ahead. I went to work to make it and let him try it. He liked the texture but said it was a bit sweet, so he told me to add a little salt, and a little more glucose. Glucose lets the sorbet stay soft while in the freezer, and helped it melt a tad. His helpful critique made the sorbet 10 times better. He thought I had a very good apple sorbet. Even my Grandparents and Aunt loved it.

The other night I went to go see three parades with my Aunt. I saw Knights of Babylon, Knights of Chaos, and Krewe of Muses. It was the first time in years I had been to a Mardi Gras parade and I had a blast.

Sarah's Baby Shower Cake

2011-02-12T19:54:00.021-05:00

Well, this week I was busy prepping for Valentine's Day weekend at work and then making the baby shower cake for my cousin's baby shower. Oh boy, did I work hard.

The cake is white chocolate cake, raspberry jam filling, and almond Swiss butter cream. It was absolutely fabulous. Even the fondant tasted good. I had lots of fun decorating the cake with fondant. I made the blocks out of rice crispy treats, and the cherry blossoms are gum paste. I'm tickled pink over my 1st real fondant cake. Yes, there are still things I need to work on, but it's all in the practice. That makes it all the more fun for me.

The shower announcement was the inspiration for the theme of the cake.

Here I am working on the cake at work.

The baby shower cake.

First week of Gelato

2011-02-07T00:21:00.006-05:00

I started my very first week of making and running the gelato station at work. Boy is it busy and fun. This is the first time I am in charge of something this big. Well, big to me. I got the order in Monday and both stores together ordered 142 pans of gelato. That's about 31 to 35 spins (a process in the ice cream batch freezer) depending on what type of gelato or sorbet they request. If I did nothing else but set up spins and run them in my scheduled time, I could only fit in 11 spins each day. But since that is not the case I might only get to 9 spins. I also got an order on Wednesday but it was not as bad.

I'm enjoying all the hard work I am putting into my new position.

The funny thing is that the girl I worked with while doing chocolate has now decided to leave. So either at the end of February or after Mardi Gras season I will be back to making chocolate and the king cake maker will be making gelato. My career is not boring that's for sure. :)

Graduation from Le Cordon Bleu

2011-01-22T15:34:00.004-05:00

Today I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta

I earned a Patisserie and Baking Certificate.

I also graduated with High Honors (gold cord) and Exemplary Attendance (red cord)

Culinary School

2011-01-21T23:45:00.005-05:00

Today I went to Gwinnett Technical College and tied up a few loose ends and pushed things through in the admission process. I got lucky in that the head of the culinary department was able to fit me into her schedule so I could do my interview with her. So now all the paper work is done, interview done, and my last two transcripts from Le Cordon Bleu and high school, should arrive early next week. Basically I just have to wait for a formal acceptance letter. It's exciting to think about going back to school to learn some more. It will be nice to be at home as well.

Something New

2011-01-11T20:33:00.007-05:00

Since the busy season is dying down, the bosses are going to have me start working with Larkin, the gelato man at Sucré. I'm really looking forward to learning more. Speaking of learning more, I am applying to culinary school to learn the hot food side now. YEA!

I made my first white lasagna on Monday, and it had lots of good flavor. The only thing is I should have used half and half (instead of heavy cream) for the sauce and more spinach. I had fun making it.

I am on count down till my graduation ceremony for Le Cordon Bleu in Atlanta. I'll have to fly up to Atlanta for the weekend. I graduate with High Honors and Exemplary Attendance. I'm so happy!

Christmas

2010-12-24T10:00:00.003-05:00

This week I made candy canes and truffles at home. They came out ok. Work is a bit crazy this week, as we are making sure we produce the items for the store and for a party that we are providing desserts for on Thursday. I'm going to work that party, so it should be lots of fun. It's a very big party and it is sorta based of the idea of snow white. I believe from what I heard it is basesd on her name or something like that. But everything we are making for this party is flavored with apple in one way or another. It all looks wonderful.

Making Croissants

2010-12-19T22:00:00.005-05:00

Last Friday I made croissant dough to make ham and Swiss croissants today. The first ones took a bit long to bake, but the second batch came out beautiful. I learned that it is a better idea at home to only proof the dough out at room temp for a while then put it in the oven without water and ice cubes to create steam for a little while then take out the pan with the water so that the oven does not have constant moisture in the oven. But I'm learning and having fun.

A busy and sad week

2010-12-10T22:22:00.010-05:00

Last Sunday, I baked my first German Chocolate Cake for my uncle's birthday. It was a huge hit. I tried it, but I still do not like the texture of coconut. But the cake was good.

The New Store by Lakeside finally opened on Monday, December 6th. Not too many customers yet, mostly because they haven't done any major advertising for it. I went in early Monday and helped get products ready to ship to the store, and was under the impression that I was going to go help set up the store. But it ended up that they needed me more at the bakery, so I stayed. On Thursday I had to empty out the dark chocolate tank and put in milk chocolate to make milk chocolate bark. And I found out the tank holds about 50 pounds of chocolate. That is a lot of chocolate and it made me think about how much chocolate I must go through each week. I haven't really added it up, but it must be several hundred pounds a week. Mostly we use dark chocolate, some white chocolate and some milk chocolate.

On Wednesday, I got sad news about of my doggy, Noel. He passed away and it was totally unexpected. Noel who was a 7 year old papillon, was the first puppy we added to our family. He was the sweetest and most loving puppy anybody could ever want as a part of a family. He is greatly missed.

Grandpa's Cheesecake

2010-12-01T22:24:00.004-05:00

Grandpa liked his Cheesecake with Blueberry topping.

I made my grandpa a cheesecake for his birthday on Wednesday. It tasted really good, and was light and creamy. Yum! And I made a blueberry topping, because he loves blueberries. It was a hit even though I know it could have been a bit better. I could have baked the cake a little longer or either not have used a water bath. Even though I wrapped the spring form pan in foil, water still seeped in and the graham cracker crust was soggy. I'm still learning.

Sucre's new store is not opening on Friday, Dec. 3rd. They are shooting to open it on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Baking For Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T20:00:00.004-05:00

Well, I made two pies for Thanksgiving, a cherry and an apple. The cherry filling is not from scratch because they are not in season, but I did make the apple from scratch. After tasting them, I was disappointed in myself. I knew that the pie dough was not going to be like it should because I had put it in a container while it was still warm. So, the dough got soggy. :(
Well, the lesson I learned is to not bake when you don't have time to do everything right.

I also made a small version of my pecan peach cake at the request of my dad. Well it didn't come out the same as the last time I had made this cake. Next lesson learned is that I need to work harder on cconsistently putting out a good product.

At work I was asked to come up with a standard design cake. The goal is for the cake to suit ages 16 and older regardless of gender, with the option of changing colors as needed. The intention is for the cake to be a little fancier than a stock cake, but still be an affordable custom ordered cake, kind of the next level up. Because of the broad goal, it makes it a little difficult coming up with a new idea that fits the criteria, is easy to reproduce and is appealing to all. Maybe I'm making it more difficult then it is. After all, millions of cakes have been made so it's hard to come up with a new idea.

Our new store is scheduled to open Friday, December 3rd, if all goes as planned. I'll be working there the night before helping setup. That will be fun.

Dead Dough Showpiece

2010-11-16T18:15:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while, I look at the history of the hits my blog receives and I am surprised by the search term that leads a lot of people to my blog. Bet you can't guess?
OK, I'll tell you. It's Dead Dough.
I'm guessing that it number of hits are high right now due to Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up and people are wanting to make Dead Dough Sculptures for the table.
While I was in Le Cordon Bleu, studying to be a Patisserie Chef (I'm still working on that), we had to make a Dead Dough Showpiece.

Click below to see the post from back then.
My initial Sketch of the Dead Dough Showpiece.
My completed Dead Dough Showpiece.

Busy week and weekend!

2010-11-14T23:33:00.009-05:00

After work on Friday I went to work at Emeril's event. The music was kicking and the food was moving. I even got a picture of Emeril and I. We served our Pear Tiramisu, which is my favorite fall dessert. Yum!

My Aunt brought my Peach Pecan Cake to her church on Saturday for the Pecan festival. I put my cake in the best use of pecan's category. Later after dinner I went with my aunt to see what happened to my cake. I didn't win. :( I lost to a younger kid's cake that was absolutely covered in pecans and was in the shape of a cornucopia. I was very proud of my cake, and I think I went for more of the taste of the pecans throughout the cake than decoration. Come to find out they didn't even taste the cakes. It was all about looks. Duh? But I got to bring my cake home and I have to say that this was the best tasting cake I have made yet!

Today I went and worked for Joel's catering company. I helped put food on platters and plates to be sent out to serving stations. It was different and a lot of fun! The most important thing is that I got the opportunity to learn. Whew! Working seven days in a row this week is a first for me. But it was fun.

Home Baking

2010-11-12T05:48:00.006-05:00

Tonight I did a little baking at home. I actually baked the cake earlier in the week and tonight I decorated them. The first two pictures are of a Peach Pecan Cake. This cake is for a cake baking contest at the Pecan Festival which is held at a local church. It is a pecan cake with Swiss butter cream, peaches and candied pecans in middle, and toasted pecans on the outside. The top picture is the finished cake. The next picture shows the peaches and candied pecans in the middle.

Next I baked my cousin Anne a birthday cake. It's a white chocolate cake, with poached pears in the center, and a whip cream outside.

This weekend will be busy for me. After work on Friday, I work a function for my boss. It will have a few celebrity chefs and I'm excited about working it. I'll tell you more about it afterwards. One of owner's of Sucré is Joel Dondis who owns Joel Event Catering. I'll be working an event for him on Sunday from 2pm till 9pm. I'll tell you more about it after I work it. I'm excited about this as well. I figure anything I can work provides an opportunity for me to learn. Oh, yeah, the added bonus is that I get paid. Sweet!

Marshmallow Test and Work

2010-11-05T21:16:00.016-04:00

Top left: Cookies n Cream Marshmallow, Top right: S'Mores Marshmallow

Center: Lime Coconut Marshmallow, Bottom: Mint Chocolate Nib Marshmallow

This week I helped Tariq test three different marshmallows; Cookies n Cream, Mint Chocolate Nib, and S'mores. He coated the Mint Chocolate Nib and the Cookies n Cream with chocolate, and half-dipped the S'mores in chocolate. My favorite is the Mint Mint Chocolate Nib. It has this really nice minty cooling effect on your mouth and the nibs give it a little crunch. It reminds me of yummy mint chocolate chip ice cream. I was also allowed to come up with a marshmallow flavor myself and make it too. So, I came up with a lime-coconut marshmallow. Boy was it good, and I'm not even a fan of the texture of coconut. The best thing was that Tariq was impressed and really liked it. YAY! :)
I forget which day it was, but I went to pull a plug out of the receptacle, my hand was a little wet and I accidentally touched the metal part of the plug. Yep, you guessed it, I got a little shock. Oh Fun! My fingers felt weird. I won't make that mistake again.
This week I have also been working on a huge order of truffles for a new customer. It's starting to get real busy at Sucré. We have a new 2,000-square-foot-store opening Thanksgiving week at Lakeside Mall in Metairie. The store is outside the mall next to Bravo Italian, near the intersection of Veterans and Severn Avenue. I've heard they expect to open locations in Houston and Dallas by the end of 2011.

Aunt's Birthday

2010-10-28T00:40:00.008-04:00

I made my aunt a birthday cake, and boy was she excited this past week about it. She told everybody that her niece (me) is making her birthday cake. She was like a little kid excited about going somewhere. It came out good, only I would liked the cake to have been a little moister. It is a white cake, with a strawberry and raspberry gelee, and a whipped chocolate ganache. It was good! Next time I think I should pour the gelee on top of half the cake then put the other on top so that the cake doesn't slide around.

Work was good, I made and cut some marshmallows, and unmolded chocolates and boxed them. I love our marshmallows they are so light and fluffy. They are melt in your mouth good!

Finding my Externship

2010-10-22T22:00:00.006-04:00

Did you ever wonder how I found my externship? Externships for Culinary or Pâtisserie students are typically required by all schools. For the Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) Pâtisserie and Baking Certificate Program, a 6 week externship is required. I set my sights on searching for restaurants or bakeries that would let me do a 12 week externship. Although 6 weeks would satisfy the requirements for my LCB certificate, I felt 12 weeks would look better on a resume and I would learn more. Face it, you only learn so much in the school.

Externships are usually unpaid. Since I was looking to work somewhere for free for 12 weeks, I looked in Atlanta (where I lived) and New Orleans (where I had family to stay with). One of these two cities were the best choice for me to save money.

Next I considered that if I was going to do some on-the-job training, I wanted to learn from a Pastry Chef who was among the best in the industry. So how to find one. Well, can you say GOOGLE.com? Yep, I just started searching. I looked for pastry chefs, bakeries, restaurants, food reviews, contest, etc., in each city. I read everything I could about each Pastry Chef. I looked at the restaurant or bakery websites. I read reviews for deserts on foodie websites. I looked for menus which listed the desserts they made. I narrowed my choices down and selected 6 places to send my first set of resumes and cover letters. Out of the 6 places, I really only had two places that I really wanted. One was in Atlanta and the other was in New Orleans. Out of the 6 places, I received 3 responses within a week, which surprised me. The other 3 places never responded at all. Choice number 3 was a bakery in Atlanta, which is high volume, has a good reputation, but to be honest, I wasn't impressed with the taste of the pastries. So I had to decide between the other two places.

Hmm! Which to choose. The Pastry Chef in Atlanta is nationally known and is very talented. It was probably a 20 mile drive one-way with a lot of traffic. Not my idea of fun, but I would have done it to work with that Pastry Chef. The Pastry Chef in New Orleans had a great reputation and the bakery was very cool. They had great reviews and the pastries were interesting and looked great on the website. The bakery was only 12 miles from where I would live and no traffic. One more thing, New Orleans is a food town, Atlanta is not. There are not very many great food towns in the United States, but New Orleans is one of them. If you have read my bio, then you know I'm partial to New Orleans and I love the food there. So I picked Sucré in New Orleans and planned to do a 12 week externship. I started my externship on August 16th. As it worked out, they hired me full time after my 6 weeks required by LCB. It couldn't have worked out better for me. If you are searching for an externship, I hope my story helps you plan your search.

Painting

2010-10-21T23:00:00.000-04:00

Tonight I was taken to Corks n Canvas for my birthday present from my Aunt Adrienne. My two cousins, Anne and Sarah also came. Corks n Canvas has classes on how to paint. You pick a night that they a teaching a specific painting you are interested in doing. A bottle of wine can be brought in to drink while you are painting. We had a great time and I was happy with my painting. You can easily pick me out in the picture above as I'm the short one.

20th Day of Work

2010-10-19T21:03:00.018-04:00

Well, last week I got told that I would only be working on chocolate. YAY! They hired two people to do just macaroons. I've been very busy with work, but I'm thoroughly enjoying every moment. Sucré just put out their fall desserts. Two of them that struck my interest the most is the Pear Tiramisu and Pumpkin Chai Dobash. Yum, yum! :) And the garnish for the Pear Tiramisu is a bird's nest made out of chocolate. I get to make these by putting strips of tempered chocolate on a frozen metal sheet, and at just the right time you move them and form it around your fingers to form the nest. It's so cool, but messy.

Also last week, was the cake decorator's birthday, and as a joke they bought a cake from a grocery store. (see picture below) It was quite funny. Now, I guess you may be wondering why we thought it was funny. Remember, there are many pastry chefs and cooks working here and instead of baking this girl a cake, they gave her a production made sheet cake.

Just today we found out that Whole Foods Grocery stores in Louisiana are going to be carrying Sucré's chocolate bars. I get to make them! :)

Click here to see the chocolate bars without the wrappers.

French Macaroons Recipe

2010-10-10T21:17:00.006-04:00

Want to know how to make French Macaroons? One recipe is posted on the Sucré website.
Click here to see the recipe.

There is a cool video on how to make French Macaroons,
Click here to see the video.
When watching the video, after the macaroon is baked, you'll see the final assembly of the macaroons. After the macaroon is cooled, we match the halves so each half are approximately the same size and pipe the filling and put them together. During this final assembly I can do about 350 per hour.

5th Day of Work - Macaroons

2010-10-04T23:31:00.007-04:00

I would have to say that by far the toughest things I have done at Sucré is lifting the 40 qt. mixer bowl in order to pour out the marshmallow on the sheet pans. The second toughest to do is all the leaning over required in working with the macaroons. I think it is the height of the table tops and the distance that I have to reach over the table while piping.

On part of Thursday and Friday, I matched and piped the filling in about 2,000 macaroons in a little more than 6 hours. This is much faster than when I started doing this. Averaging around 333 macaroons an hour is a very respectable rate of production. I was impressed with myself and am quite proud of picking up the pace.

On Saturday, I helped make the macaroons for breast cancer month. They are pink and beige macaroon shells, and are filled with a toasted almond butter cream and strawberry jam. They are yummy. My first week as a paid patisserie cook went really well.

1st Day of Real work

2010-09-28T20:11:00.009-04:00

I've done it! Last Saturday was the final day of my externship. I have sent in my last time sheet and journal to Le Cordon Bleu. After 144 days of school and 30 days of externship, I have completed my Patisserie & Baking program at Le Cordon Bleu. I will still have to attend the graduation later.
Today at Sucré I made candied pecans and worked in chocolate world. Then I heard the good news for the day. They realized that I have completed my externship and so now I am going to be paid five days a week. Meaning I have my first full time job. Yay!!!! :)

Monday - Day Off

2010-09-27T14:49:00.008-04:00

On Thursday (Externship Day 28) and Friday (Day 29) I got to work in the chocolate world again. I like getting to work in chocolate world. The two pluses are that the room is cooler and it is quieter. The Executive Pastry Chef, Tariq, pulled me aside on Thursday to talk to me, and told me they are going to start paying me three days of the week filling macaroons. Yes, it’s not the most amazing job but it is something that really needs to be done. I’m not complaining. The other two days I will help out in chocolate world. This really made me feel good and I feel like he must appreciate the work that I'm doing. I still want to work on my speed and I'm confident that I'll get much faster. Also, I now get two days off in a row as before my days off were split apart. Yeay!

On Sunday I made a Roasted Poblano Pepper and Cheese soup. It came out really good. This was the first time I had made a soup from scratch. I made it for dinner on Monday night, to have with my grandparents, uncle, aunt and a cousin.
Sunday evening, my brother and I went to John Besh’s restaurant August in New Orleans. The dinner was my birthday present from my parents. The food was good. I would have to say my most favorite part was the gulf shrimp pot stickers. Mmmmm….. those were yummy! For dessert I had got their version of a napoleon. It had a chocolate cake, then a chocolate nougatine, on top a chocolate mousse, another nougatine, and on the very top was a scoop of salted toffee ice cream. It was yummy!

So today is my birthday and I'm just getting better.

My brother Stephen and I getting ready to go to August for dinner.

Day Off

2010-09-22T23:00:00.003-04:00

Today was my day off. I had my hair cut today and cooked dinner for my grandparents and aunt. I've been cooking dinner for them every Wednesday and today I cooked Chicken Parmigiana. It came out terrific. Today I'm posting a picture of the chef jacket that Sucré gave me. Also there is a close up picture of the embroidered Sucré logo on the jacket.

27th Day of Externship

2010-09-21T23:00:00.003-04:00

Sucré.

3025 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70115

Today I made more BAC dough, scaled out cake mix and other stuff for Tariq. I made some interiors for desserts, an order for a restaurant (customer) and then 50 pecan squares. So I was busy all day. Even though it's work, I get a great sense of accomplishment from doing it.

I thought I would just include a picture of the Sucré store front. I don't work at the store location. I work at the Confectionery (kitchen) which is much larger and a few miles away from the store. There, the baking, chocolates, gelato, etc, is done. Also internet orders are fulfilled from here.

26th Day of Externship

2010-09-20T20:29:00.000-04:00

Boy am I working hard. I come home so tired. By the time I lay down in bed at night, I'm out like a light bulb. Last week we had huge orders of cupcakes (because of our Saints Cup Cake that we sell), and a huge order for a hotel. I got to work in the cake world for a change on Friday. I covered two square cakes with fondant to make them look like presents. They came out beautiful. Then I put together a Doberge cake (on a large scale to be cut into smaller pieces). After I put it together and let it cool, it was time to cut and Tariq said, "No you can't use that b/c of the slant." The problem was a flexible sheet pan, so as a solution I looked for the flattest sheet pans I could find to bake the cake on Saturday morning. When It came to butting it together I used a fiberglass sheet pan (it doesn't flex like the metal pans can in the center). Also Tariq showed us how to make the icing level even if one part of the cake is to thin the icing can be thicker. Well, I knew how to do that but I listened, because there is always an an opportunity to learn new techniques. On the cake I did Friday, I did do the icing correctly, but because of the metal sheet pan flexing down in the middle, well it only looked level. Once I took the cake off the sheet pan and put it on a flat surface, the cake was bowed up in the middle. After the lady cut the new one there was only a slight slant so I came close to being right. Next time I'll get it perfect. I was also presented with a new chef jacket with Sucre embroidered on it. So cool! This week I was given an evaluation from my Sucre supervisor so it could be sent to the Le Cordon Bleu externship coordinator. The review was excellent and I was so proud of myself. I will keep putting 110% into my work.

20th Day of Externship

2010-09-11T23:03:00.010-04:00

Sorry, I have been busy this week. Last Saturday I got my first burn at work, then I got another one on Tuesday, and then again today I burnt my fingers again. It is not too bad though, I will live. This week I worked more on making parts of desserts so that they could be put together not only for the store but for a wholesale order. The Saints played on Thursday. It was their first season home game. And in honor of the big day Joel and Tariq made us amazing hamburgers. The buns were even made fresh (I guess you would figure that at a bakery). Also on Thursday, Joel showed me how to cut a pineapple the right way to save as much of the fruit as possible. I can't wait to go to school and learn knife skills and tricks of the culinary world. Today, I was alone by myself, at least as far as the task I was doing. There were other people there in other areas. I took pictures of the six types of cupcakes that I was making at Sucré. They are really good. Especially the chocolate salted caramel cupcake, also known as the Saints Cup Cake. I am learning a lot and having loads of fun.

From top left to right: Chocolate/Chocolate, Vanilla/Lemon, Chocolate/Salted Caramel. From bottom left to right: Chocolate/Caramel, Vanilla/Chocolate, Vanilla/Strawberry. (cupcake/frosting)

16th Day of Externship

2010-09-06T21:31:00.000-04:00

Well, the past few days I started working in chocolate world (that's what I call it). I worked from start to finish twice on the gingerbread chocolate candies for the Christmas holiday season. It was fun, and my arm is sore from how I have to hold the chocolate mold container. I also did more macaroons, and finishing touchs on some desserts. I baked off some more BAC's. Which turned out right today. YAY! :) The only downer, that I'll live from, was burning my forearm on the hot sheet pan when pulling it out of the oven.

14th Day of Externship

2010-09-02T20:22:00.009-04:00

Well, today was fun. I got to work in chocolate world all day. I made two different ganaches and completely made some molded chocolate candies, except for the foot that I will put on tomorrow. It kinda felt like it ought to be Friday the 13th. When I was spraying the the molds the air compressor fell down three times. First it fell off the the plastic bin it was sitting on that was near the table, but it was okay. Next it fell behind the plastic bin and severed the power cord. Wow, did that give me a scare, even though I know it wasn't my fault. The air compressor vibrates around on its own. So I showed Tariq and we striped the wires and put it back together. Yay! It worked again! Then it fell down again. So Tariq moved it to the bottom of the table. The next thing to go wrong was the electricity went out in the building, but only for a few minutes. Thank goodness. (Apparently we are located on a weak power grid, so it happens often.) Then when I pulled the chocolate macaroons they were purple. So, I was told not to work with them and wait till Tariq looks at them. On my way home, when I went to go fill up my gas tank. The gas station was running low so all I got was 5 gallons. I'll have to go back and finish filling up another time. What a crazy day.

11th Day of Externship

2010-08-30T18:07:00.004-04:00

Today was fun. I matched and filled macaroons. Then I got to work in the chocolate world for the first time today. First I spread the molds with gold colored coco butter. Then I filled the molds with milk chocolate to make a shell. Tomorrow I get to put the foot on the chocolate. The Lady that showed me, filled the center with a gingerbread ganache filling. It's a holiday flavor. On the way home I got to experience my first time driving in BIG puddles of water on the road. To people in New Orleans, deep water on the road is a common occurrence. What fun!

10th Day of Externship

2010-08-28T23:54:00.004-04:00

Sorry, the past two days were pretty much the same as Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I got so tired of the BAC's and the feeling of not doing anything right that I had a break down. I put too much pressure on myself in trying to make a good impression at Sucre. Which led me into only failing myself. So, today I went in with a smile and a positive attitude, and ended up having a better day. The BAC's finally came out right. YAY!

7th Day of Externship

2010-08-24T20:17:00.005-04:00

Well to start off I forgot to mention that I met Joel (the owner) yesterday. When he came up to meet me he wanted to shake my hand and of course my hands were all dirty. I wasn't sure what to do and he told me it was okay. I didn't give as firm a hand shake as I usually do because I felt so bad about my hand being dirty.

Today, I made chocolate caramel, cut marshmallows, and scooped BAC's. Fun Fun! Tomorrow is my day off, and I'm going to make pizza for my grandparents and my aunt. Thursday I might get to work with chocolate. Yay!!!

6th Day of Externship

2010-08-23T22:04:00.005-04:00

Well, today was much of the same as last week. Baking off BAC's, storing baked goods, and other miscellaneous tasks. When I started cutting chocolate caramels, the assistant pastry chef said it was all wrong. I felt horrible, but I was doing it the way I was being shown by another girl in the kitchen. The assistant pastry chef told me not to take it personal, but I can't help it because I take my work seriously. Also, I believe I fixed the problem I've been having with the BAC's because the recipe told me dry then wet, but in school it was always wet then dry with the creaming method. So, when it came time to make another batch of BAC's today, I asked the assistant pastry chef, about the correct method. She confirmed that I had learned correctly in school and should do it that way. And so I did what I thought was correct and the batter looked like cookie batter. So I will see how that bakes off tomorrow. After that, I did another batch of chocolate caramel's for the store.

5th Day of Externship

2010-08-21T20:57:00.005-04:00

Today was much better. Each day keeps getting better. The only things I made from scratch were a sugar free coconut mousse and a base for a chocolate mousse dessert. Both came out well. I packed cup cakes after I baked them. Last thing I did was fill an order for a restaurant in New Orleans. I got to watch Tariq and a co-worker make a wedding cake and a groom's cake for tomorrow. The cakes looked really nice. I'm so glad I have a day off tomorrow. I need it.

4th Day of Externship

2010-08-20T18:58:00.005-04:00

Well, today was much better. Mostly because I didn't have to make anything from scratch. I baked off cup cakes, and the BAC's (which are yummy cookies by the way). I weeded through chocolate macaroons and filled them with caramel ganache. Well, I take back the not making anything from scratch because I did. I made a chocolate caramel that we use for the center of the BAC's. Then I packed cup cakes and the cookies.

3rd Day of Externship

2010-08-19T20:42:00.011-04:00

Well, today I had a tough time trying to keep the pace up. First, I had to make a big batch of pastry cream, and I burned it. I burned it because I didn't stir quick enough, and I think that maybe the flame was set to high for the speed I was stirring. I felt horrible and got teary eyed. But Tariq (the executive pastry chef) was happy to show me how to do it. That made me feel a bit better about it. Then I filled, iced, and decorated 210 cup cakes. Because I was being shown the way to make each flavor of butter cream, and how to decorate each cup cake, I felt like I was moving slow. There where six flavors of cup cakes; vanilla - chocolate, vanilla - strawberry, vanilla - lemon, chocolate - chocolate, chocolate - caramel, and chocolate - salted caramel. In between the cupcakes, I made a batch of lime curd for the Gelato chef. I also helped pack up orders for tomorrow. Today was crazy with all the different things going on, and boy did it make me tired. Also I get tired because working in a real production bakery is a lot different than working in school. When you stir huge pots of pastry cream or mix up 30 quart pots of cup cake batter, well let's just say it's a real workout for my arms. I'm sure my muscles will build up over time.

Oh yeah, I'm off on Wednesdays and Sundays. So that's why I didn't have a post yesterday.

2nd Day of Externship

2010-08-17T20:05:00.007-04:00

Well, today was a little better than yesterday. The first thing they had me do was to scale out a double batch of BAC cookies (which is kind of a basic cookie dough). Then they had me finish mixing the chocolate cup cake mix that I had started the day before. I then stored the cup cakes that I baked off yesterday and this morning, and put them them away. After that was done I scooped around 300 BAC cookies. Wow, did my arm hurt after scooping 300 cookies. I didn't get a chance to bake off the chocolate cup cake mix today, but a lady will do that tomorrow. I also made some strawberry mousse cakes for a hotel. When I started making the strawberry mouse and piped it out, I ended up short a few cakes. So I had to make more. Now I'm not sure if it was because I incorrectly scaled it or just that the recipe didn't make enough. I boxed xocolate's for another day. I also boxed some pecan rolls for a well known restaurant in New Orleans. Apparently we do wholesale orders for many other businesses as well as our own store.

Today I met Tariq Hanna the Executive Pastry Chef of Sucré. Tariq is a very pleasant and laid back man. He asked me a few questions, like where I am from, and why I chose Sucré. Tariq found it funny that I didn't want to travel the hour or more to any of the bakeries in Atlanta, but that I wanted to move to New Orleans to bake. I told him it was for the experience, as well as his and the shop's reputation.

First Day of Externship

2010-08-16T21:03:00.005-04:00

When I got to the bakery this morning, my supervisor showed me around the shop and gave me an apron and two towels. Then I went strait to work on matching up macaroons by size and filling them. It was a bit time consuming, because the bakery just got a new machine to make the macaroons instead of doing it by hand (in order to make the macaroons faster) but unfortunately, the machine was having problems keeping the size consistent. After that, I scaled out a huge recipe for cup cakes and mixed it in a 30 qt. mixer. Boy was that heavy! When it came time to put the mix in the cup cake pans they had this machine that pumped out 4 cup cakes at a time. It helped make the process move quickly. The top of the machine where I had to pour the mix in was high up and the bucket of mix was too heavy for me to lift all by myself. So I had to politely ask one of the guys in the shipping room to help me for a quick second. Next, I started with the chocolate mix they had made the other day, but when I went to pour it in the top of the machine, I made a mess. Oops! :( I was embarrassed. I thought I could handle it myself since it was a much smaller batch of mix. I should have thought through the situation before diving in. I won't do that again. I baked off half of the cup cakes and had to save the rest for tomorrow because I didn't have time to bake them off today. After storing them, I cut up one pan of vanilla marshmallows and coated them with powdered sugar. I was not given too much to do, but I felt like I was moving to slow, and a burden on the other three workers. But I guess everyone has a first day. We all have to start somewhere. The one nice thing is that they have a dedicated dishwasher, but of course you still have to wash the small things when it's needed more than once. All things considered, my first day was not so bad.

New Orleans

2010-08-14T19:34:00.003-04:00

Today I arrived in New Orleans. After unloading the cars, we had to have some Fried Shrimp Poboys and some Fried Shrimp plates from Bobby's Seafood on Jefferson Hwy. Afterwards, I drove to the Sucré Confectionery Studio to make sure I knew the route to get there and then back home. I can't wait to start work on Monday. My family and I rode to the Sucré store on Magazine street. My brother lives here in River Ridge where I'm staying and so he was with us also. It was probably the first time I had to actually parallel on a little narrow street. But I made it. Magazine Street is actually bustling with activity. The are many little restaurants, stores and shops with people all around. Sucré was very busy. We tasted many different chocolates and purchased quite a few to bring home to family. We also purchased some pastries to bring home. My mom and dad had a vanilla malt which they loved. On the way home, my sister and I stopped and each had a snowball. Yum.

Day 144 - Last Day of Class

2010-08-13T23:28:00.000-04:00

Today is my last day of class and my final practical. I made the pulled and blown sugar sculpture above. I was able to go in to class early today so I could get on the road heading to New Orleans. I'm excited to be finished school and I'm even more excited about starting my externship at Sucré.

Day 142 - Geisha

2010-08-11T22:20:00.001-04:00

Today was more practice with pulled sugar. I made a Geisha girl holding fans.

Day 141 - Pulled Sugar Fish

2010-08-10T22:17:00.001-04:00

Today was more practice with pulled sugar. I made a fish, sea shell, and stand.

I also made a crab but I didn't get time to air brush it with the other colors.

Day 140 - Making Fruit

2010-08-09T19:56:00.003-04:00

Today I fiinished up my Fruit made with blown sugar. The fruit is sitting on a stand which is casted sugar.

Day 137 - Blowing & Pulling Sugar

2010-08-04T18:45:00.003-04:00

Today I was blowing and pulling sugar. The snow woman was what I made while practicing blowing sugar. It was a little difficult blowing the white balls. A hand pump was used to blow up the balls. The difficulty was keeping the sugar hot at the correct temperature and keeping the thickness kind of uniform so that it would blow up evenly. I was just being funny making the snow woman wear a grass skirt. I also gave her a little bow for her head. I had a great time doing it.

Day 136 - Pulled Sugar

2010-08-03T18:54:00.003-04:00

Today I had fun pulling sugar to make the flower pictured above. I wore three pairs of latex gloves and it was still very hot to work with. It was a lot of fun working with it. We will be doing more pulling sugar the rest of this week and next week.

Day 135 - Chocolate Box

2010-08-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

Today I finished my chocolate box and candies for my practical. Above and below are pictures of what I turned in. I guess I was satisfied with my second attempt. I wanted to do a better garnishment on top but I had difficulty tempering the white chocolate.

Day 134 - Chocolate Box Practical Day 1

2010-07-30T23:17:00.002-04:00

Today was day 1 of a two day practical. I made the box and lid above using chocolate. Also I made the six molded chocolate candies to put inside the box. The two disc are made from caramel and will be cut into small squares to be placed in the box as well. On Monday, I'll finish up and take some pictures before turning it in the a grade.

Day 133 - Chocolate Box Practice

2010-07-29T23:16:00.002-04:00

Today I was practicing making a box out of chocolate. I also was playing around making garnish out of chocolate.

Day 132 - Chocolate Candies

2010-07-28T21:51:00.003-04:00

This is our first week of of our Advanced Techniques Module. I've been making chocolate candies the last three days. Above is a picture of some of the truffles I made; Lemon, Mimosas, Salted Caramel, Banana, Coffee, and Rochere.

Above are White Cherry Fudge, Caramel Pecan, Praline.

Day 131 - Honors Student

2010-07-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

Hooray! Today I received my blue cravat for having a 4.0 GPA during the program. It was awarded during an Honors Society meeting today.

Wedding Cake Revisited

2010-07-25T21:40:00.004-04:00

I was playing around with the wedding cake I made on Friday. I wiped off the Fleur De Lis that I had painted with silver dust. I then used black royal icing and piped some Fleur De Lis around the sides of the cake. I did some scroll work around the Fleur De Lis with the silver, but it didn't show up well in the picture.
On Monday, I start my last three week class at Le Cordon Bleu. This class will be the Advanced Technique Module which is chocolate, truffles, and sugar. After this class is complete, I will move to New Orleans to serve my externship at Sucré. Yippee!

Wedding Cake

Day 129 - Wedding Cake

2010-07-23T21:28:00.000-04:00

Today was my practical on making a wedding cake. Above is the picture of the wedding cake that I turned in for a grade. The cake is really just Styrofoam disc. I covered it in fondant. The black bands are fondant with some black royal icing piped above and below each band. I put super pearl dust on the black and that didn't work so well, as it made it look faded. On the sides I used silver dust/vodka mixture to paint the Fleur De Lis, but I put too much vodka and they we very light. On the top layer I used black royal icing piped to make my initials. I really lost a lot of time this week making the flowers. I had planned to put roses and peonies on the cake. The rose I was comfortable with. The peonies were new to me and I was not satisfied with what I made. Instead of the peony, I made a few tulips to add to the roses. This was certainly a learning experience. I learned a lot but was not satisfied with my execution. I just didn't have enough time to produce what I had planned.

Day 127 - Flower Sprays

2010-07-21T09:29:00.003-04:00

Above is a picture of some flower sprays I made for class and they will be graded. These are meant to be placed on wedding cakes, but I will not be using these on a cake. These flowers and leaves are made out of gumpaste.

Day 125 - Great News!

2010-07-19T09:43:00.000-04:00

This past week, I nailed down where I am doing my externship at. Last Monday I mailed my cover letter and resume to six places I would like to serve my externship. Three places responded quickly. Two of the places where my top two choices. By Saturday, I had made a decision, then firmed up plans to go to New Orleans and extern at Sucré. I had read about the Pastry Chef, Tariq Hanna, in several places and was very impressed by his skills and success. Also all of my family is basically from New Orleans and N.O. is one of the great food towns in the country.
My externship requirement is for 6 weeks and then I will be finished with the Patisserie and Baking Program at Le Cordon Bleu. But hopefully I will continue working at Sucre for 6 more weeks. The required six weeks is just not enough time to learn very much in my opinion. I am very excited and can not wait to start on August 16th. Who knows where this could lead, the sky is the limit.

Day 122 - Fondant and Piping Practice

2010-07-14T21:37:00.001-04:00

We haven't been doing a lot of things that I can actually take a lot of pictures of lately. So I just threw this picture on the blog to show you some of the practice that I've been doing. This was to learn to use fondant and to practice different techniques of royal icing piping. This was not for a grade. Actually, on the other side of the cake, I practiced different piping techniques but I don't have a picture of it.

Day 120 - Pastillage and Marzipan

2010-07-12T23:01:00.003-04:00

Here is my sugar sculpture made out of pastillage. Pastillage is a sugar dough used for modeling. The white sculpture you see in the pictures is pastillage. The minature fruits you see are made of marzipan. Marzipan is basically made from sugar and almond paste. The sculpture wouldn't be good to eat, but the marzipan fruit would taste good.

Day 117 - Croque en Bouche

2010-07-07T23:10:00.000-04:00

Today I made a Croque en Bouche in class. I had fun pulling the sugar to make the bows and ribbon. The sugar is very hot to handle but it is manageable. Just think about jumping in your car on a hot summer day and grabbing the very hot steering wheel. That's about how hot the sugar feels. But it's fun.

If you are wondering about the lack of post to my blog, we had a school break all last week and on Monday of this week. But we are back at it now.

Baking Practice

2010-07-02T22:58:00.000-04:00

I baked a birthday cake for some practice. The request for the little girl's cake was for a pink cake with maraschino cherries and snow white on top. The cake filling had chopped up cherries. I wasn't real happy with the results. The pink color was not to my liking. The snow white design was hard to pipe due to the detail and being small, mainly the face. I probably spent way too much time working on it, but I'll build up speed with practice. This was the first time I used an 11" cake pan. Each time I make cakes, I learn a little more. It's frustrating when I have an idea in my mind but then I end up being less than satisfied with the results. But I still enjoyed the challenge. It's great to have a real purpose for making the cakes, so I'm very thankful for the people that allow me to make cakes for them. I love the feed back I get as it helps me improve.

Day 115 - Plated Dessert

2010-06-25T22:57:00.000-04:00

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

Day 114 - Practical

2010-06-24T21:24:00.003-04:00

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

2010-06-19T11:41:00.003-04:00

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.

2010-06-18T23:40:00.004-04:00

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

2010-06-15T17:56:00.003-04:00

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

2010-06-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-11T23:30:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-08T23:30:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-05T22:12:00.003-04:00

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

2010-06-05T15:02:00.008-04:00

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

2010-06-04T18:55:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-03T23:47:00.001-04:00

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

2010-06-01T18:40:00.000-04:00

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.

Saturday Baking - Graduation

2010-05-29T23:28:00.001-04:00

My little sister, Cherie, graduated from high school last night. She requested a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Below is a picture of Cherie and I. Oh yeah, I taught Cherie everything she knows. OK, stop laughing!

Me (left) and Cherie (right)

Day 96 - Practical

2010-05-27T23:55:00.001-04:00

Today I had to make another Dobos Torte for my practical test. I came out fine and tasted great. I received a grade of 91.

After school I went to my last class of the Wilton 2nd course. Above is the picture of my final cake. The basket weaved icing design is very cool. I also like the rope border at the bottom and top. The flowers are made of Royal Icing. The bird and bird house are made of color flow.
Color Flow is royal icing but with plain egg whites instead of meringue powder. Everybody loved my work. I really enjoyed the class and the teacher.

Day 95 - Brasilia

2010-05-26T19:03:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I worked on making a Red Velvet Cake and a Carrot Cake. Neither came out well so I didn't bother taking a picture.
Today I made a Brasilia. This is made with a Almond Jaconde Sponge Cake moistened with rum flavored syrup. It has a caramel butter cream filling. On top is a Nougatine, which is caramel with almonds in it. The bottom is a thin layer of chocolate. The Brasilia tasted very good.

Day 93 - Alhambra

2010-05-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

Today I made an Alhambra, which is a chocolate hazelnut cake, filled with a chocolate ganache, covered with a chocolate glacage with a ring of pistachios around the bottom. This wasn't my favorite. Oh well, can't win them all. I thought the recipe made it too chocolaty.

Sunday Baking

2010-05-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

Today I did a little baking. I was just trying out a few recipes. Above is a picture of a slice of each cake.
On the left is a spice cake with caramel butter cream icing. It was good but I should have used less cloves, as it was a little strong. The icing was very good.
On the right is a caramel cake with chocolate butter cream icing. This was really good. Yum!

Day 92 - Dobos Torte

2010-05-21T23:59:00.002-04:00

Today I made a Dobos Torte. This is a seven layer cake made with almond sponge cake. It has a chocolate butter cream filling and a caramel butter cream frosting. The top is decorated with a layer of sponge cake covered with caramel. Around the side I have almonds and chocolate butter cream. This was excellent. My family really enjoyed this cake.