Day 46 - Madeleines & Lemon Bars

I took a better picture of the Floretines (pictured above) that I made yesterday, so you could see the chocolate on top.

Today I made Madeleines (pictured above), Lemon bars (pictured below). I also worked on Macaroons and Pate A Choux Swans, but I'm not finished with them. The lemon bars tasted good. All of these items I made are being used for the Open House they are having this week.

Day 45 - Florentines and Batens Marechaux

Yesterday and today I worked on Florentines (top of pan) and Batens Marechaux (bottom of pan). The above picture was taken on Monday and they are not complete yet. I baked the Florentines a little to much, making them too dark. The Florentines are a kind of like pralines made with almonds. The Batens Marechaux is like a meringue almond cookie.

On Tuesday I worked on tempering the chocolate then topping the Florentines and Batens Marechaux (see picture above).

On my practical last Friday, I got a 96. Not as good as the 100 the week before, but I'll take it.

Sunday Baking - Vanilla Butter Cake

On Sunday, I baked a Vanilla Butter Cake using a recipe from "Baking" by James Peterson. The cake itself taste very good. It was very light and I slightly over cooked it leaving the crust just on the verge of being tough. One layer domed too much but I didn't want to cut it to level. I did split each layer horizontally to add a strawberry jam filling.

For frosting the cake I used Italian Buttercream using a recipe from "BakeWise" by Shirley O. Corriher. First you make an Italian meringue and then add other ingredients to make the buttercream. It's a very light buttercream that taste delicious.

The Italian Meringue is pictured above and then the finished Italian Buttercream is pictured below.

Above is the finished cake. My cake wasn't level and the Italian Buttercream was so light that it was hard to level. I guess it wasn't too bad for my first attempt icing with a buttercream this light.

You can see in the above picture, that I didn't split the top layer evenly and the top was domed. I'll do much better next time. You can also see the thin layer of strawberry jam. Everybody that ate the cake liked it very much.

Upcoming Class

I'm excited about taking a two day class at the end of this month. The class is at The International Sugar Art Collection School of Sugar Art, which is located in Norcross, Georgia, which is just down the road from my house. The International Sugar Art Collection by Nicholas Lodge is the school where Nicholas teaches all levels and aspects of sugar art, cake decorating and cold porcelain. I'll write about it after I take the class and post some pictures.

Here is a description of the class from their website:
Springtime in the Southern States
This is always a fun and popular classic class taught by Nicholas!
Students will create a life-size southern magnolia. You will have to see this magnificent gumpaste creation to believe it! Other flowers covered in class will include the tulip, cherry blossom, daffodil and a dogwood spray. All flowers will include buds and leaves.

Here are two pictures of gumpaste flowers from their webiste, that I'll learn to make.

Day 43 - Baking bread for Practical

Today was my last practical for this class. I had to bake lavosh (to the left), baguettes (top), plain and braided pain au lait. Monday I'll begin Basic Patisserie Techniques. Patisserie is French Pastries.