Week 9 Lab - :(

Unfortunately, I missed lab tonite. I was sick with a fever at home. I was pretty bummed I couldn't be there. I even got myself a fancy candy thermometer to bring to class. Sucks!

Week 9 - Lecture - Frosting

This week we learned about different types of frosting. Just a small change in preparation can change what kind of frosting it is entirely. Niki and I actually went to Michael's today to pick up some tools for lab on Wednesday. Got some tips and disposable pastry bags along with a baby offset. Ooh, and I got a bunch of food coloring paste!

Week 8 - Cakes - Chiffon and Yellow

Tonite we made some lemon chiffon cake. It was made my making a meringe mixture and a mixture that has the yolks. You fold the meringue mixture into the yolk mixture, but very delicately, so that it is light and fluffy! I got to pour my batter into an angel food pan. It has little "feet" on it so you can turn it upside down when the cake is done. Doing this prevents the cake from falling. Then I made the yellow cake. The batter itself was thick as hell and was pretty difficult to level in the cake pan. Chef later said that the recipe may be incorrect. The one that I had said to add 6 yolks, but he had a few people add 6 whole eggs to the batter to see how it turned out. Mine turned out okay. I didn't think it looked wrong at all and it smelled pretty great. When the chiffon had cooled, I took it out of the pan and drizzled some glaze that I made from powdered sugar, lemon juice and grated lemon peel. My mom took it to work and her co-worker thought it was delicious and ended up taking the entire cake home. I get enough sweets at the bakery and really don't need them hanging around the house.
Forgot my camera, so no pics! Sorry!

Week 8 - Lecture - Cakes!

This week we learned about cakes. We are going to make a chiffon cake and yellow vanilla cake that we will frost next week. We went over the different ingredients in cake and the roles that they play in the structure. Pretty interesting stuff!

Week 7 - Lab - Pocky, Sugar, TuillesI

Lisa and I met up in the library before lab and set up a bit of a game plan. We figured we would get of the ingredients together for each recipe before we began. We started out with the pocky. Lisa pretty much handled the assembly of these and they turned out exactly as they should have. We then got started on the tuille cookies, which were pretty hard to manipulate. I tried to get some nice little "cigarrette" rolls going, but it was pretty hard to do, since the cookie hardens up very fast and it difficult to work with. And it was very hot and I burnt a few fingers in the process. Then we finished with our sugar cookies. We made the dough earlier and by the time we started rolling it out, it was nice and firm. I made mine into little hearts and pumpkins. I decorated the hearts using a glaze made from powdered sugar and egg whites. I made it pink! What we also did in lab this night was test out every groups cookies and discuss them. It was great to see what other people's take is on the same cookie. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the cookies. And I even remembered my camera this time!

Week 7 - Lecture - Cookies

This week we learned all about cookies. I am working Lisa this week. We are going to be making pocky, sugar cookies and tuille cookies. I'm a little bit nervous about the pocky. I've seen it before but never tried it, so I'm curious as to how it'll turn out. Gonna bring the few cookie cutters I have for the sugar cookies.

Week 6 Lab! Swans and Eclairs!

So, tonite we made more pastry cream. I am becoming and expert at this as I make it a few times a week at the bakery and this is the second time we have made it in lab. After I finished with the pastry cream, I started on the choux paste. It started out with some butter and flour in a pan that you just keep cooking until it's at the right consistency. Then you add it to the mixer with a paddle attachment and just let it mix for a bit to cool off. Then you add eggs one at a time until it gets to a nice pastey texture. I think I used about 7 eggs. I then piped out little dollops and logs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment. Then I piped out little "2"'s that would serve as the necks for the swans. Then I made the chantilly creme, which consisted of whipping cream, vanilla and sugar. You basically just whip it up all together until stiff peaks form. Now comes the swan assembly! I just cut off the tops if the puffs I made with the pate a choux, cut those in half. Then I coated the bottom part of the puff with a little bit of pastry cream. Then I piped out a layer of chantilly creme. I then put in the neck and covered the bottom part with another piping of chantilly cream. Then I just put the wings on and, wa lah! A Swan! I used the little logs I piped out to make eclairs. I just poked a hole in them and filled them up with pastry cream, then I dipped them in some chocolate ganache that Chef Mark made.