Baking 211 Day 11

Last practical of the year!! Whoohoo!

AND....

I made a 100%!

Today's plate's theme was Tarte Tatin-a classic French dessert. It is basically an upside down apple pie with with caramel sauce.

So, I made a puff pastry Vol-A-Vent (sort of like a well, or little cup), filled it with saboyan sauce (egg yolks, sugar, and white wine), and let it over flow with sauted apples. On the side I added a caramel parfait.
The components of the plate were great...I just wish I could have plated it better. Chef loved it. I didn't. I couldn't get a good picture of it...for some reason it just looks messy in the picture.

Well, that is all for now. =)
Merry Christmas!! 
See you next year!

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Baking 211 Day 11

I wasn't thrilled with today's plate.

But hey, I wasn't thrilled about anything today. It has just been one of those days.....

BUT! I do have good news. I made a 100% on the practical. =)

Chef said it tasted yummy....and it was really good, if I do say so myself.

Just in case you may have forgotten, today's plate was "Caribbean."

I made a Bavarios-three layers of different flavored Bavarian cream.
The bottom layer was Rum Bavarian cream. On top of that was Mango Bavarian cream, and the top layer was Coconut Bavarian cream. Oh, and it had a coconut sponge cake on the bottom.
The traditional Bavarios is made with three different chocolates, which makes it easier to see the layers.

Very tasty!

I am glad today is over. I'm so ready for Christmas break!

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Baking 211 Day 10

Today went well. Chef really liked my plate. She also said the creme brulee and the coffee ice cream both tasted really good. She had to remove points from my grade though, because the creme brulee didn't set up.

I still can not figure out why it wasn't set. It seemed set yesterday....
Chef couldn't figure it out either. Oh well. I still got an A. =)

Apple Cinnamon Creme Brulee, Coffee Ice cream

Wish me luck on tomorrow's "Caribbean" plate!

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Baking 211 Day 9

Surprise, surprise.

Our practicals are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as expected.

I was expecting to have tonight to think over what I would do for each practical. But no...I had to make a dessert for tomorrow's practical today. I spent today just a little stressed.....

Before we plated our hot and cold desserts, Chef told us that Tuesday, we would present a plate with a "comfort food" theme. Wednesday's plate theme is "international". Thursday's plate is "classic dessert."

We passed around three different bowls to see which plates we would present.
I drew for
Tuesday's : Apple Pie
Wednesday's: Caribbean
Thursday's: Tarte Tatin (an upside down fruit pie...sort of)

I'm glad I have tonight to go over what I am going to do for the Caribbean plate and the Tarte Tatin plate.
While flipping through my notes at school, I decided on an apple cinnamon creme brulee for the Apple Pie plate. I also made coffee ice cream for a second component because some people like ice cream with their apple pie, and some people like a cup of coffee with their slice.  I will find out tomorrow whether or not I made the right choice!

On to today's plate.

We had to have a hot component as well as a cold component.

I made candied bacon served with spiced ice cream.

Chef loved the candied bacon. She usually just has a little taste of everything on the plate, but she ate two slices of bacon! Everyone who tried it said it was amazing.

I got a 5 out of 5 for my plate. =)

Now only if I can do that well on my practical tomorrow....

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Gingerbread House Competition

Get ready for it.

Here it comes.

Loads of pictures.

Jill, my partner, and I looking at the pieces of gingerbread.

Jill assembling the house

Working on the roof pieces

Me

Jill

The roof pieces waiting patiently to be put on

It's coming together....

I absolutely loved this piece. Isn't it the cutest abominable snowman?!

So cute!! The winning team had these pieces on their display. They made them about of marzipan.

Almost there!

Done!

Jill and I both had a lot of fun putting this together. I absolutely love working with Jill. Even though she had previously been out of school for three days because of strep throat, she still showed up. She is amazing!

This is the winning team's gingerbread house. It was amazing! They had little Cindy Lou on the inside of the house.

*All pictures were taken by my gracious boyfriend, Kyle.

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Baking 211 Day 8

There was only one thing wrong with class today. It was freezing.

Other than that, today was a great day! I got a 5 out of 5 on my frozen plated dessert! =D

I made a orange white chocolate parfait with cardamom macaroons. 

When Kyle was in Foundations 1, he had to learn and memorize different spices and herbs. He use to tell me that cardamom smells like fruit loops. I remebered this while looking for a way to flavor my macaroons. So, I gave it a try.

The macaroons tasted just like fruit loops. No lie. Everyone who tried it agreed. They were so tasty! I might make a batch here at home just for myself.  =)

Monday's plate requirements-the plate must have a cold component along with a hot component.
My key ingredient-bacon!

Tomorrow, I am participating in a gingerbread house competition. So excited! Wish me luck ;)

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Baking 211 Day7

I can not express how much I love this class. This class tends to stress people out, yet I have not stressed one bit. I am the stress queen! I stress about everything. It is unbelievable how I am relaxed and just having fun. It is amazing.

So, for my peanut butter cup plated dessert, I made a baked alaska.

We had chocolate ice cream in the freezer, which worked out great since our ice cream machine is broken.
I used the chocolate ice cream and a peanut butter cake. I melted chocolate and peanut butter together and put a thin layer of that between the cake and ice cream. It froze overnight and this morning, I went to class early and made a swiss meringue. I piped the meringue around the frozen icecream/cake, torched it (almost overdid it!), and then plated the dessert with a creme anglaise sauce.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten that our plates were getting graded today. If I had remembered, I would have done something more complex, like a bavarian cream.

I received a 4 out of 5 for the overall plate. Hopefully, I will do better next time.

The requirements for tomorrows plate are simple-the dessert must be frozen, and it must have a secondary component on the side.

What I came up with, in my opinion, was really tasty!

Tune in tomorrow to read about a "fruit loop" macaroon!! =)

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Baking 211 Day 6

Today was loads of fun. Before I get to the fun part....I'll post my plate. I did not like this plate at all today. But, I ran out of time, and couldn't change anything. I made a raspberry chiboust and froze it overnight. For some reason, it did not set up all the way, so it was partially melted. I plated it with lemon madelines, and a blackberry compote sauce. The sauce thickened up way more than I expected it too. It didn't work for me like I wanted, which was part of the reason I don't like this plate. Even though I was frustrated with it, I recieved a lot of complements on the plate.

After plating, Chef passed around a bowl full of little pieces of paper. On each paper was written a different candy bar name. Chef told us that we had to take the flavors from that candy bar and make a dessert. She gave us all day to work on it, and we will have an hour tomorrow to finish it off and plate it.

I received Peanut Butter Cup!!! I was so excited when I saw that. I had a lot of fun with it. So many different ideas banged around inside my head, but I finally chose one.

Come back tomorrow to see what I made! =D

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Baking 211 Day 6

I absolutely love this class. It is my favorite so far. Chef said that a lot of people dread this class. I can not imagine why! It is amazing!

We started our day by making more garnishes for our upcoming plates.
Yesterday, we made a frozen dessert named Julianna. It is made of praline cream and vanilla cream with layers of Genoise (sponge cake) on the inside. We finished the desserts today with a glaze before plating them.
After each student presented her plate, we worked on a dessert for tomorrow. I got done early, so I tempered chocolate to make chocolate garnishes. I managed to get chocolate everywhere. It is so messy. I hate tempering chocolate, but it is something I need to get used too.

One thing I really do not like about this class, is that the school only provides round plates. There are no square, rectangle, or triangle plates. This morning, I convinced Kyle to let me borrow his square plate, just for one day.

I got loads of complements on my plated dessert. Everyone, including Chef, loved it. I am happy with the way it came out. =)

Yesterday, my partner and I made chocolate squares with a woodgrain pattern. I shingled those against the base of the cake. I used caramel and chocolate for the sauce. For garnish I used a poppyseed wafer, whipped cream, and a blackberry.

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Baking 211 Day 5

Today, each student plated a Monte Carlo. It is a frozen dessert made of almond cream, a meringue disk, a chocolate almond sponge cake, and apricot compote.

Here is my plate

While I was waiting on the other students to finish, I played around with some garnishes I had made.

The rest of the day, we made another frozen dessert we will be plating tomorrow. 

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Candy Cane Workshop

Kyle and I had a blast today learning to make candy canes. It really is so easy. Very doable at home.
They ran out of peppermint oil, so we used strawberry and lime to flavor our candy canes. Very sweet!

Sugar before it is pulled.

After it has been pulled

Candy Canes!

Yumm!

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Baking 211 Day 4

We didn't have time yesterday to make chocolate garnishes, so that is how we started our day today. I usually hate tempering chocolate, but I didn't mind it today. I had fun with it! After we finished making chocolate, sugar, and cookie garnishes, we plated the cakes we made for our practical last Monday. Chef critiqued each plate, and then we made a small dessert named Monte Carlo. It is a frozen almond cream cake with a meringue disk, an almond chocolate sponge disk, and an apricot compote on the inside. We are going to plate it Monday.

Chef is doing a candy cane workshop tomorrow. Both Kyle and I signed up. I can't wait! I love candy canes and we are going to have a blast learning how to make them!

plated dessert from today

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