Saturday Baking - Graduation

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Day 91 - Practical Birthday Cake

Today for my practical test I had to bake and decorate a birthday cake. I baked a high ratio cake. Unlike a regular cake, a high ratio cake has more sugar than flour. A high ratio liquid shortening contains microemulsifiers, which allow a batter to hold more sugar and liquid. I frosted and decorated the cake using butter cream. I received my grade and it was 100. Very cool.
Tonight after school, I went to my Wilton Cake Decorating class. We worked on making flower using royal icing. I made: Daffodils, Primroses, Victorian Roses, Pansies, and Daisies. Next week will be the final class of the second course.

Day 90 - Black Forest Cake

Today I made a Black Forest Cake at school. Inside is devil's food cake with whipped cream and cherries in between the layers. Outside is covered with chocolate ganache.

Day 89 - Birthday Cakes

Today at school, I had to make a birthday cake. Above is my work. It's a vanilla cake with butter cream frosting.

Tonight I made another birthday cake. A lady who works for my mother requested a birthday cake for her daughter. I made it with three layers of cake, chocolate, vanilla and chocolate. The icing is a maple butter cream. Above and below are pictures of the cake.

Day 88 - Strawberry Short Cake

Today I made a Strawberry Shortcake at school.

After school today, I went to my third and last cake decorating class at Cook's Warehouse. Today we made a gift box cake that is decorated with fondant on the outside. Above is a picture of my cake. I enjoyed taking the class which was taugh by Chef Matt from Matty Cakes Bakery.

Sunday Baking

I had some fresh Georgia peaches, so I decided to bake a pie with them. I used the peaches and added some raspberries as well. I made a crumble topping. The filling and crumble tasted very good, but my crust came out a little hard. I think it may have been caused by me cooking the pie while sitting directly on a pizza stone instead of the oven rack.

Day 87 - Practical

Today I had to make a Three Chocolate Mousse Cake for my practical. Above is the cake I turned in and below is what the cake looked like inside when the Chef cut it to look. I got a 100 on my practical. Hooray!

Day 85 - Tiramisu

Today I bake Tiramisu. I came out ok, but should have had more cake and less marscapone cream cheese. I thought is tasted good.

Day 84 - Baking good stuff.

Today I made a Three Chocolate Mousse Cake. The three layers from bottom to top are; dark chocolate mousse, milk chocolate mousse, and white chocolate mousse. I love the chocolate glaze on top. It's neat how shiny it is. This is wonderful. I really feel bad that all of you can't taste this.

Day 83 - Practical

Today was my pratical and I had to make a Charlotte Russe cake. This taste really good.
After school I went to my second Cake Decorating class (3 hours) with Chef Matt from Matty Cakes Bakery. I had a good time. Tonight I learned to work with marshmellow fondant. I made a checker board pattern around the side of the cake and then a nice looking bow. Next week will be the third and last class.

Sunday - Baking Practice

Today I baked a small multi-layered chocolate cake with a semi-sweet chocolate mousse icing. The cake kind of came out looking like a topsy-turvy cake. Oops! But my dad tasted it and really liked it. That says a lot since chocolate cake isn't his favorite. Oh yeah, he's brutally honest in his opinions on my cooking, so for him to give it two thumbs up says a lot.

Saturday - Volunteer work

Today I volunteered to work a dinner as a server. I worked for a Chef David Ross from Le Cordon Bleu who was also my Chef Instructor in high school. It was a fun time. This was a dinner for eight people at a private house (a very nice house at that). The home owners had bid on this dinner at an charity auction for the North Gwinnett High School Foundation. The chef brought the food and cooked for the people and their guest.
On Friday night I made Apple Sorbet that came out fabulous. I made this with a combination of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious Apples. This time I strained it and the texture was exactly right. This was my second effort and it was perfect. I brought this so the Chef could serve it as an intermezzo between courses. The Chef and his wife loved it so I was happy. It was served in an ice carved martini glass. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.
Above is a picture of the Apple Sorbet (the two scoops on the left) and a Pineapple-Mango Sorbet (the two scoops on the right). I made the Pineapple-Mango Sorbet on Sunday, but I added the picture to today's post. The Pineapple-Mango came out very good.
Here is a video, from a local news channel, covering the dinner.
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/good_day_atl/good_day_xtra/FOX-5%27s-Tom-Haynes-a-Chef-051410

Day 82 - Friday!

Today I baked a Charlotte Royal (above). This is made with chocolate lady fingers rolled up with apricot jam and then filled with Bavarian cream. This tasted pretty good.

Then I baked some Lava Cakes (above). I really liked these. I made six souffles, but some inconsiderate classmate put their pan in the oven and bumped my pan causing my souffles to fall. I was a little upset with that clown.

Day 81 - Long Day

Above is a Charlotte Russe that I made on Wednesday and plated today. It's made with a base and ring of lady fingers, filled with chocolate mousse, topped with Bavarian cream. All this is covered with chocolate glaze.

The picture above is a dental cake. I made this on Tuesday and plated today. This is made with Jaconde (cake), apricot mouse, raspberry mouse, and topped with strawberry glaze. The red cookie on top is almond twill. This tasted so good, that I ate two. Yummm......

After school, I ate a sandwich at Subway then headed to the Wilton Cake Decorating Course #2. Tonight was the first class. It was cool since there are only four students. They would have canceled this class, but they found out too late that there was only four students. Bad for them, good for me. Tonight we reviewed shell and reverse shell borders. We also worked on rosettes and mums.

Day 78 - Practical and Matty Cakes Class

Today was a practical test and I made a St. Honoré (above). It came out pretty good.

After I left school today, I headed down to The Cook's Warehouse to take a cake decorating class. The class is instructed by Pastry Chef Matt, (owner) of Matty Cakes Bakery. Above is the cake I worked on tonight. I cut the layers, put butter cream between the layers, crumb coated it, iced it, then I worked on the border and then did the gum paste on top. We used a pasta machine to make ribbons. I think there were about 12 students in the class. This is a three night class, three hours per night, and it will continue for the next two Monday nights. I had a good time.

Sunday - Voluteering

Today I volunteered to work at the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show. Somebody at the school didn't do a good job lining this up. First I arrive at 7:00AM. Then I was told we didn't need to be there till 8AM. Later I found out that I didn't need to work till 1PM. So I got to walk around and look. I got to see Bobby Flay and Mario Batali cook. That was fun. Finally when it came time to work, I prepped for the kids area. This is an area that kids who paid, were instructed by a chef from Publix. All in all it was kind wasted day and not what I expected. My school really dropped the ball on this.

Saturday Baking

Today I made an Apple Sorbet. I used green Granny Smith and yellow Golden Delicious apples. I thought it tasted very good. I think next time I would puree it a little more or maybe tried straining it to get a smoother texture. But it still tasted good.

I made a Red Velvet Cake and made a Cream Cheese Icing for it. The cake came out very moist and tasted the great. The icing was terrific. Oops! I forgot to take a picture of the cake after I iced it and before I realized I didn't have another picture, we had eaten it all.