The Beginning of Cakes..And a Farewell to Viennoiserie.

Well. My camera battery died during class this week, so a friend snapped some pictures for me, which I'll be uploading soon...but until then, here's the start of the cake unit.

This is a silly litte pastry. It's called a Beehive, and is layers of Brioche, soaked with a Honey Simple Syrup, and layered with Pastry Cream, before being coated in Meringue, then torched to get that lovely color. Then, to top it all off, it's drizzled with honey. The little bees are marzipan, striped with dark chocolate and have almond wings. This was a really...interesting pastry. At first, I was skeptical at the thought of making Brioche into a cake. But, turns out Marie Antoinette really said, "Let Them Eat Brioche," so maybe she was onto something. When the Brioche soaks up that honey simple syrup, it almost transforms into cake, leaving behind an incredibly soft, moist cakelike bread. Incredible. But! It's nearly impossible to slice and eat. So, I'm thinking this would make the darned cutest baby shower dessert ever, just in miniature form. How adorable, to have a bazillion little beehives plated around a table to celebrate a new baby. And it's pretty gender neutral. I'm also thinking that you could make tiny lemon curd tarts, pipe a similar shape Meringue beehive on top, and put a single marzipan bee on top. So cute! 

It's a baby bee...

The Pullman Loaf! I am obsessed with this bread. It's just the most perfect slightly crusty, moist, white bread out there. I cam home, made egg salad for dinner, with Farmer's Market Lettuce, used it for Toast the next morning with my Aunt Beth's homemade Apple Butter (soooo yummy) and ate probably four slices in class, warm, with room temperature butter. And, it's a perfectly square loaf. Just so stinkin cute.   I think this one's going to find it's way into my bakery's menu one day. 

This was a really great day in class, because it spurred a conversation about how everyone's mom used to cut their sandwiches - either rectangles, or triangles. It also led to me telling my class how cool my mom is, for grinding her own wheat, to make her own bread. I just love the smell of fresh bread, more than really anything else. There's no dessert out there that smells more homey, comforting and delicious than fresh bread. 

Panettone. I have to say that out of all the dried fruit breads we made (Stollen, from Germany, Kugelhopf from Austria, and Panettone from Italy) the Stollen was by far and away my favorite. It was the perfect balance of sweetness, and citrus zest. This Panettone was a bit too zesty for my liking, and not as texturally enjoyable as the Stollen. (This could in part be due to my affinity - almost obsession - with Germany, and Bavarian pastries). But, the Panettone makes a truly beautiful loaf - the color and height alone are tremendous. 

These are the first two cakes we've made in our new, nine day long cake course. At first, I thought I would enjoy this unit the least, because cakes have never really been my thing. But, so far, it's been more enjoyable than I anticipated. I still don't see any future for me in the cake industry - it's never my favorite thing to make, and certainly not my favorite to eat. Which, is good to give the waistline a break after the Viennoiserie unit, where I ate everything all the time. Such a great unit. 

 This cake is a Chocolate Genoise, with a Chocolate Whipped Ganache filling, and a Chocolate Glaze exterior. It was really fun to do, and I think it turned out really beautifully. The glaze is such a stunning finish, and I think the Cocoa Nibs around the bottom add a nice visual, while still staying in the deep brown color scheme. Then for the top, I crystallized a single Orchid Petal. The school had a random bag of Orchis floating around, so we took them for our cakes. Lots of people (actually, everyone) in my class, including the chef, crystallized entire flowers, and put two or three on top of this six inch cake. I started out with three petals, in a little mound in the center, but then took them away to leave this single petal. It's sort of stunning this way I think. Simple, clean, and stunning. And very fun to make.

This is the cake I was telling you about, Mom. 

My mom would love this cake. Neither one of us is a big cake person, but we both die for Italian Buttercream, and Meringue, baked until it's dry. This cake is built of five layes of Almond Dacquoise, which is an Almond Flour Meringue, baked dry, which are layered with Coffee Buttercream, and finished with Candied Almonds. This one was dangerously delicious. The piping on the top was required, and used as an exercise in mimicking the chef. I don't think I would do it like this again, but the finished product does look quite nice. I would just do the rosettes with the almonds, and leave the shells out. But the color! Just incredible. 

Soon to come...pictures of the most beautiful place on Earth. 

Cheers.