To new beginnings and old friends!

Stories have beginnings and stories have ends,
so say goodbye to all your friends.
And now that we've finished the very last rhyme,
We'll close the book until the next time.
- Mercer Mayer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book

To my very first kitchen friends: Thank you for all the dishes you washed that weren't yours, for all the pots you stopped from boiling over, for all the tools you loaned out, for all the baked goods you saved from burning, for all the hands you offered and advice you gave, I will never forget our days together. My love always, Sarah Beth

Sugar Wonderland

My final project ... although nearly obsolete due to snow days ... was a winter wonderland sugar showpiece. It might be the first and last time I play with sugar for a showpiece as it is not commonly used for anything other than competitions. It was fun learning to blow, pour and pull sugar. They are difficult techniques and would take years of practice to master. I did enjoy creating my amateur piece of holiday spirit though. It was even more fun walking home through downtown Portland ... after about 3 blocks of pointing and head turning I was smiling and wishing folks Happy Holidays!

Cajun Night Before Christmas

I'll admit it, I'm in love with my gingerbread house. Even looking at it today after the hurricane came in the night and took out the two trees, I'm still loving it.
I knew months ago that I'd get to make my gingerbread house so close to Christmas that everyone would be in the spirit. I knew too that by then I'd be dying to come home to my beloved Louisiana and all our cajun-ness! Combined I could think of no better gingerbread house than a representation of the "Cajun Night Before Christmas." All credits to "Trosclair" and James Rice for their fabulous inspiration.
It was the best three days at school, period. I even felt a sense of pride when my hands turned a horrible shade of green from making all eight alligators for hours. I made marzipan (one of my favorite candies) into a completely inedible substance by adding herbs de provence, cloves, and nutmeg but I had the perfect swamp dirt afterwards. I made Santa's piro and sack full of toys. I hung garland over the windows as I know the poor swamp family could not afford expensive decoration. I had the most trouble with the cypress trees, they wanted to flop over and I wanted them to stand up. Sure if you are at home you stick something in the tree to make it stand up but if you are a student at Le Cordon Bleu making a gingerbread house, everything has to be edible. Thin spaghetti saved the day but thats about as long as they lasted ...
In case you are thinking of trying this at home ... A couple of tricks: Bake the gingerbread long and cool, dry it out completely, it will make a more stable house. Use well whipped royal icing to glue it together and let if dry completely before moving it around. Then just have fun with it! The more the merrier!
This was incredibly fun and I can't imagine a Christmas in the future without a gingerbread house. They are magical.
"Merry Christmas to all 'Till I saw you some mo'!"

Sweet Dreams

Candy!
We made candy for days. Seriously, we made candy everyday for over a week. It was wonderful. Nothing puts you in the Christmas spirit more than making toffee, brittle, divinity, caramels, truffles, mints, fudge and chocolates.
The technique is difficult. Dipping and shelling takes practice and more practice. Confectioners are highly skilled ... now I know why truffles and chocolates cost so much.
For those of you back home I know you have already seen and eaten or given away most of the 15 pounds of candy I mailed back to Louisiana! Glad I could share with folks back home for once...Merry Christmas!

Wedded Bliss

Well here she is … my first wedding cake. Nearly a week worth of work and our biggest, hardest project in culinary school is complete. It was nerve racking and stressful and incredibly fun. (Except for the bit where the fondant tried to kill me!)

The theme of my wedding cake is inspired by my parent’s wedding day. The cake topper is a “B” for “Barnett.” The magnolia is the state flower of Louisiana, where they met and were married. The green fondant matches the shade of my mother’s wedding gown and the smaller flowers match the lace on the gown. The blown sugar heart represents the month of February in which they were married. The extension lace “snowflakes” are inspired by the fact that completely out of character for Louisiana, it snowed on their wedding day preventing many of their guests from arriving.

Thanks for always supporting me Mom and Dad, this one’s for you. Love, S

Little Monster's Birthday Cake!

I am so excited about my children's birthday cake. I used the book "Little Monster's Bedtime Book" by Mercer Meyer for my inspiration. It was my all time favorite book as a kid and I insisted that it be read to me at nearly every bedtime. It was also given to me by my deceased "Grampie" who I miss dearly.
The cake is a devil's food cake with raspberry jam and chocolate buttercream frosting. I used modeling chocolate to create the little monster and for the painting's frame. After nearly a week finally, the pastillage dried and I was able to do my cocoa painting. (It is just like it sounds ... painting with cocoa powder.) I piped both the side message "Little Monster's Birthday Bash" and the "Happy Birthday" with royal icing.
I wished I could give it to someone with a birthday, alas, no one with a birthday coming up is near by so the upstairs neighbor who held the door for me today and the guy two doors down who loves chocolate got the cake. Enjoy the pics.

Fall is in the air

The final project was to plate four unique desserts created by you. The requirements were hot dessert, custard, chocolate and seasonal.
My menu was very seasonal and is meant to invoke a warm fuzzy "it's FALL!" feeling.

APPLE SPICE CAKE
Hot apple spice cake filled with cranberries and pecans
topped with warm caramel sauce, served with candied cranberries

DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE TART
Rich velvety chocolate filling in a sweet crust,
served with a tart cherry sauce

GINGERBREAD ICE CREAM
Creamy gingerbread ice cream
sandwiched between fresh baked gingerbread cookies

EARL GREY POACHED PEARS
Poached bosc pears served in an earl grey reduction
with dries apricots, cherries, toasted pecans

We had 4 and half hours to create everything for the plates. I've never moved so fast in all my life. Well, I might have some Saturday slinging sandwiches at the old Q ... none the less it was hurried and stressful. I got big props for doing ice cream (very time sensitive and therefore adds extra difficulty.) I spent about an hour cutting out the stencils for the maple leaves (fortunately I could make the stencil ahead!) Chef really liked my candied cranberry garnish as she had never candied cranberries herself. But the star of the show was my standing gingerbread man ice cream sandwich. The perfect man.

It is a Mystery

The deeper we dug ourselves into plated the harder things got. Ever thought about playing with sugar that is 320 degrees? It is as intimidating as you think it might be, but once you start working with it caramel garnishes are a beautiful addition to a plate .... you just have to be really careful.
The last week was amazing. We made pear charlottes. I plated mine with caramel garnishes (spirals and pulled caramel) and a pear chip.
On Wednesday we walked into class not knowing what we would be working with. Mystery ingredient day ... turned out to be one of my favorite ingredients, pumpkin! A lot of the class had never chopped up a whole pie pumpkin and made use of it! It was a really fun day. I had a lot of tricks up my sleeve but I decided to try something I'd never done before. I made a pumpkin mousse with mascarpone (not too sweet) and then I put it in a pate sucree crust brushed with melted chocolate, topped the whole thing off with chocolate chantilly cream and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. I just happened to have the pumpkin chocolate cut-out garnish. I made the colorful cranberry coulis the hard way, cooked down cranberries, pureed and then food milled for a really beautiful sauce. It was so tart and tangy. Chef couldn't believe I went to all the work ... cranberry puree doesn't come in a tub, you gotta to do what you gotta do.

Le Cordon Bleu Chariot

Somewhere among all the plating of desserts and constant search for ideas of plating desserts. I managed to put together a pumpkin for the pumpkin scholarship contest. Unfortunately it won no money but is sure is cute. Big thanks to all the people who helped me put my vision into a pumpkin!

Lavalicious!

Week one was short so week two was demanding.
We spent a day of class learning about chocolate and chocolate garnishes. It was the first time that we spent nearly an entire class in lecture and demo. We made spirals, cut-outs, cigarettes, filigree, tulip cups and I am sure I'm forgetting something (it is my day off!)
We all found it was more difficult to come up with more than one plate design each day. One plate would be great and totally inspired then you fall short on the next plate.
Some of week two was guided, for example we all made mousse cake with untempered chocolate wrapping. We all felt they turned out dreadfully but it is so difficult to do that of the school's instructors only Chef Erica has continued to work on mastering the technique and is the only one who teaches it. Mine is plated with gingerbread anglaise and chocolate sauce.
We all baked lava cake. Trickly little thing. But so rich and delicious that is so worth it. Mine is plated with chocolate spirals and two-tone tuiles with a raspberry coulis.
For the tropical puff project I made a lemon mousse napoleon sandwiched with pineapple slices.

Plate up

Now plated is the first of our four advanced classes. It focuses solely on individual desserts plated with at least one sauce and one garnish.
The really fun part of this class is it is our first taste of freedom. We chose what to make, what flavor to make it, what sauce to pair with it and what type of garnish we want to use. The first week we started with some guidance: we all made ice cream, panna cotta, chocolate mousse ... then we chose the rest.
The panna cotta was our first plate up. Mine is mint panna cotta with strawberry coulis and a tuile cookie. My chocolate mousse is served in a tempered chocolate tulip cup with strawberry coulis and chocolate sauce.

Gateaux!

It has been a while. It has been a whirlwind. Advanced classes are more demanding, which equals more lab time, more homework, bigger projects and overall more dedication. Fortunately it is also the most fun working I've ever had.
Before I begin telling you all about my plated desserts class I thought I should show you how my cake came out. Almond cake with lemon curd filling, frambois syrup and lemon mascarpone frosting, of course topped with little marzipan lemons! It came out perfectly, and is an absolutely fabulous flavor combination. This is a real keeper and God willing will be on the menu at Sweetie Pie's Bake Shop.

The Class!

These guys have been my family for the last several months. I love them.

Where did all the cake go?

I can't believe tomorrow is our final cake practical. The last three weeks have been so fun and amazing that they have just flown by.
This week we made the tastiest of the cakes so far. A few of the highlights include:
Orange chiffon cake, it is like eating air, so light and fluffy. Delish! We made Brasilia ... hazelnut cake with coffee, caramel buttercream and a nougatine top. Stef and I couldn't stop eating the nougatine! Yum! And the Dobos. For all my south Louisiana folks that are familiar with the Doberge this one might actually be more fabulous. It is certainly more spectacular than the New Orleans rendition. Almond sponge cake with French chocolate buttercream, caramel and almonds. Wow!

Everything is Rosey!

It is the start of last week of cakes. So I better give you the run down on the end of last week. We made a Birthday cake with devils food cake and quick fudge frosting. There ain't nothing quick about quick fudge frosting ... the recipe we worked with set up so quick you could barely get it on the cake. Cupcake Jones had a much easier and tastier version that I would have preferred but apparently every bakery in the country uses this one?? I guess I'll let you know more about that later but I didn't care for the flavor of this one, shortening might be cheaper but are we focusing on quality or quantity?
The Alhambra cake was our practical this week. In a change of routine we had never made this cake before (normally the practical is something you have already had the chance to make in a previous class.) The cake was a really dense hazelnut sponge cake crumb coated and filled with ganache and glazed with chocolate glacage. Alhambra has to be written on the top of the cake in glacage or ganache and a natural marzipan rose dusted with cocoa powder is placed on top.
I really enjoyed working with marzipan this week and I can't wait for celebration cakes class where we will work with gum paste.
We have to create our own cake for next week's practical so after class on Friday I played with the prototype ... Almond cake with lemon curd filling and lemon mascarpone frosting. It was so delicious.

Carrot Close-Up!

Slice of Heaven!

I've died and gone to cakes class. It is little slice of heaven tucked away on the fifth floor of the Galleria. My instructor is amazing: helpful, generous, understanding and joyful. Besides the chef's ability to impart her bounty of knowledge to all of us we are making cake.
Now here is the thing. When I came to Le Cordon Bleu I expected to love bread's class. I thought that would be my passion and I'd go on to bake bread everyday. I've always been one of those people that didn't really care what my food looked like as long as it tasted good. Well, I guess I was wrong on a couple points. Bread turned out to not be my passion and decorating cakes is one of the funnest things I have ever done. Making tiny shapes out of marzipan, amazing. Frosting a cake beautifully, amazing. Pretty food that tastes good, actually tastes even better. Trust me, it is true. Remember we eat with our eyes first. Besides who wanted to pay money for an ugly cake they can make at home?
Well, week one was somewhat review for us. Genoise with french buttercream. Black Forest Cake make with chocolate genoise. Triangle cake, jelly roll sponge with chocolate buttercream and chocolate glacage. (Any idea how we put that one together?)
Week 2: So far we have completed banana cake filled and frosted with sour cream ganache (even if you don't like bananas you will like this!) Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yes, we made the marzipan carrots and bananas! So cute and so tasty!