Creative Things After Creative Things...

The second level of the pastry course is mostly an assortment of creative projects, which act as exams per unit. So in addition to written tests, we have a series of projects, which have certain contraints.

The first of these, was a medium called Pastillage, which is similar to Fondant, in that is is mostly just powdered sugar and enough liquid to make it pliable, and then it dries super hard overnight, so it can act as a support piece.

The assignment was to create a cake, and a cake stand, and the theme was "Children's Books". So! I chose to do "Little Women," in a very non-literal translation. The pattern on the stand is a Civil War reproduction fabric, and the ruffles were inspired by the ruffles down the bodices of their dresses. The rest, was simply working off of those designs. I STILL think it's interesting that I chose to make something so ultra feminine, given that most days i can be found wearing Birkenstocks with socks, BUT! I am quite happy with how the design turned out. On a technical level, there is a LOT of room for improvement with this piece, but, it's alright. So, here it is.

 The top of the cake...The silhouette of the four girls. From bottom to top: Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy.

A close up of the handpainting...

So feminine!

My finished stand, and the four "gift boxes" we had to make. It is sandwiched inbetween my classmates', which are based on The Lorax (the one on the left) and Mother Goose stories (on the right).

To next creative project, which we just finished today, was a chocolate show piece. For all of these creative projects, the class votes on a theme, and for this we chose to do "Art" as the theme. This is kind of nice because it was such a vague, and open theme, that there was a lot of different directions you could go with it. My classmates chose to do pieces based on - graffiti, comic books, Henri Matisse, and patriotic art, among others. For mine, I chose to create a deconstructed Art Nouveau poster. The entire thing is made out of chocolate, and I am quite happy with how this one turned out! It's a little hard to see in the pictures, but she's got this insanely curly hair, coming out to the right of her face, extending towards the right side of the piece. 

This piece was purely artistic, and didn't have to serve any function, like the candy bowl did. So here it is!

I decided to throw in a little modern flair by splatter painting the circle frame around her face...and the background is all hand painted...

A view sort of from the top...

Cheers!