Birthday cake: lime/cherry mousse cake

This is make-up for an ugly birthday cake I made two years ago, with lime and blueberry.  I wanted to include similar flavors, but it is cherry season. Lemon olive oil chiffon cake base, topped with poached cherries, then covered in lime mousse (lime curd and whipped cream, slightly set with gelatin), cherry gelée, tempered dark chocolate plaques inscribed with tempered white chocolate, and “twin” cherries in the middle, with additional cherries (and whipped cream) propping up the plaques, and candied lime zest around the perimeter.

This one is less blinding, but is slightly out-of-focus.

Or, in the dark.

The sweet, sweet innards (utilization alert: I used the syrup the cherries poached in as the syrup for the gelée, so I hope it tasted of extra cherry):

Clearly I was going for a striped effect around the cake, and I wanted more stripes, closer together, but it’s hard to get zest straight (or to hold well).

It didn’t turn out too bad, though the process was painstaking enough that I decided to just space them out. Easily the most frustrating part of the whole endeavor. I was mostly satisfied with my ambition, so, unlike usual, I didn’t beat myself up too much about it.

Overall, quite proud. Birthday, so obviously I wanted to make the effort worth it. I would’ve liked to try some, but it wasn’t for me. Although, I do have all the components to make more, if I want to sample for myself. In other Saturday news, I successfully, quickly (first try!), parallel parked someone else’s car. (I’m sure if we were driving my behemoth, it likely doesn’t work out.)

Impeccable curb-spacing. It was a good day!

THE final exam

I forgot about this, my capstone exam over four weeks ago. B+ on the practical,written bumped it up to an A- though. I was hoping for a B- on the practical, so a mildly nice surprise. Cardamom genoise, filled with lemon curd and lemon-zested italian meringue buttercream. The filigree was slightly out of temper, at least my curls were good. The ganache for the rosettes (not the pour) was slightly broken, damn it.

Ginger bavarian with lemon gêlée, ginger was weak though, boo hoo. There was supposed to be a raspberry underneath the gêlée but due to a misunderstanding, my chef didn’t have them that day. So I thought I’d use them as a garnish, but he forgot them the second day. Not blaming, just explaining why it looks so plain. The red was supposed to make it pop a little. It doesn’t look as bad as I thought, for something with color. The crème brulée had a soupçon of both ginger and cardamom. Unfortunately I had to rush to get everything done on time, so that last couple weren’t burned so well. Oh, and the lemon zest kitty tuile. Which fell over. Nice job distributing the caramel sauce, eh?

That’s better, slightly. Hide it….

And croissants. No cross-section, I forgot to get one. Not so thrilling to look at. Yes, that’s how they look. They were arranged more nicely, but I didn’t get to photograph before they were disassembled (for grading).

The model for the tuiles:

If she were really the model, the tuiles would been fatter. But then they would’ve dwarfed the dessert. The inspiration, anyway.

One last time:

Fun time, school, but exhausting. At least now I’m getting paid, rather than paying, to wake up early.

Honey dough wine press

Speaking of belated pieces, this was a showpiece at a fundraising event here on campus in January. Honey dough is just a type of gingerbread, but it sounds a little nicer, and less familiar, than gingerbread.  I did everything but the bread, which the bread quarter students did, of course.

I wish I had gotten photos against a more picturesque backdrop than the lab, but it got moved around a lot. After I finished constructing the piece, it was spray-painted (unpainted piece is at the end), then filled with bread products, neither of which I was there for. This was the only time I saw it after I built it and before it got carted off to be displayed at the fancy dinner.

This high-angle photo is the best I could get, as far as photogenic quality. Slightly better than the hard edges and fluorescent lighting of the lab. Plus the leaves, which were made out of I-don’t-know-what by not-me look cute.

I didn’t know they were going to paint it, I thought it looked nice and rustic as it was. Though probably too plain for a ritzy banquet.

Floral-themed pulled sugar showpiece

A small one, anyway. This is almost three weeks old. I took a continuing education sugar class taught by one of my chefs, for kicks, to expand my horizons, etc. Fun, but also painstaking. I thought it would be rough on my baby-smooth hands (this is hot sugar– isomalt to be precise– after all), as the one or two times I’d handled it previously in the lab in previous quarters, it was ouch. Most of the pain came from the friction of manipulating, or “kneading” big hunks of sugar. The heat didn’t bother me much.

We didn’t pour our own bases, but the rest we each did it all. Pulled rose, crocus, dogwood, branches, and leaves. The stones are pastillage, which we didn’t make, but we did shape, paint, and glaze them.

Good thing it all looks nice together, as the individual detail (read: petals) were unpolished. I got the hang of it, only after lots of practice and asking for advice after the fact. It was all so simple. So much wasted time. Oh well.

These last photos are pretty much the same as the others, though at inferior angles, but what the hell, it looks pretty.

Banana cream hazelnut torte

More catching up with last week’s production. Two layers of hazelnut sponge, with a rope of crème chantilly around the circumference of the bottom layer, thin banana slices overlapping in circles inside the rope, then the second cake layer on top, dredged with powdered sugar, then twelve cream rosettes with a banana chip in each one. If you don’t like bananas, don’t touch this one, that’s what I say. (Bonus points award to those who get the terribly obscure Izzard reference, found at 19:00–  ”F— off!” “I heard that!”) A lot less extravagant than a mousse cake, but, as I was told, we’re going for a rustic look. And this fits the bill, in its unassuming appearance and simplicity of design. I didn’t get to try this one, I’m sure it was delicious, not to mention a lighter eat.

The cake layers are made with hazelnuts roasted and carefully ground in a food processor (RoboCoupe!) by pulsing. Why pulse? Because if you don’t, and don’t continually sift out the powdered bits, you get a paste, which later clumps with the flour, and thus an ugly, unusable cake. Trust me. I should’ve snapped a photo, rats. Like night and day.

Not shown: a cake that was sliced too high (not by me!), and, being a cake that typically sinks in the middle upon cooling, one of the layers had a hole. Consequently, I took the remaining bottom and sliced that one in two, 1/4″ or so each layer. Pretty good for a sponge, and this one is even more tender than your typical sponge and was room temp, rather than easier-to-slice cold. But hey, I got a thumbs-up from the people watching through the window. I felt them staring, but it appeared to be a compliment of my utilization, and knifing, even. That cake was not as tall, and not as pretty, but at least I got the max of three cakes out of it. So, another look at one of the others:

And a fatty:

Mint chocolate mousse cake

From last week. Bombe base folded with milk/dark chocolate ganache and whipped cream, a little gelatin, with a gelatin-set disk of crème brûlée in the center, and a chocolate biscuit (joconde) cake bottom. Sprayed in chocolate, with a dark chocolate plaque, and the numbers out of some kind of icing. I did everything but the plaque, so I don’t know.

 

I couldn’t care less about the Seahawks, or football, for that matter, but what the heck. I guess it would’ve looked plain without the colors and accoutrements. They are pretty, and if I were a big fan of chocolate, I probably would’ve enjoyed the taste even more. Not minty enough, in my opinion, but that was my chef’s call, ha. And less sweet than normal cake, always a cook thing. I like these kinds of desserts better.