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!