Baking 220 Day 15. Last day at Le Cordon Bleu.

The day has arrived. My last day at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.
I have enjoyed every single minute of class time. I have learned so much, and I feel extremely prepared to hit the work force.

For the past two days I have been using hot sugar to make pieces for my last practical. Chef drew a showpiece, put it together, then told us we had to make one just like it for our sugar practical. 

Pieces from the past two days. 

Today I put all the pieces together to make this:

I was one of the lucky ones today. Nothing fell before she graded it! (There was about 3 or 4 people whose showpieces collapsed or broke in some way before Chef could grade them.) 

Want to know what this showpiece earned me? A freaking 100!!! =D 

What a way to end the day! 

I am off to Colorado to put my skills to use! 

Wish  me luck. ;)

Read more...

Baking 220 Day 12

I have no pictures from yesterday because my entire underwater showpiece collapsed before I could snap a picture. But I don't mind too much. I thought it was rather ugly.

Today we practiced making this evil-looking flower. There are going to be three of them on our practical showpiece. I am glad we get to start our practical tomorrow! 

evil looking flower =) 

Read more...

Baking 220 Day 10

We finished our blown sugar fruits today by airbrushing them. We made a fruit showpiece by gluing them to a base. A couple of my fruits broke =( so I ended up with this. 

I thought it looked sorta bland.
Chef told us there is going to be a huge laminated ribbon bow on our practical, and I am not very good with laminated ribbons. With my extra time today, I practiced making ribbons. I made a small bow and because I didn't want to throw it away!, I attached it to my fruit showpiece. =)

Monday we are making an underwater showpiece with little fishys and a small crab! =D 

Read more...

Baking 220 Day 8 & 9

Despite blistered fingers, I am having a blast in this class!

Yesterday we learned the blowing sugar technique. In order to learn spheres we were instructed to make snowmen. We also had to learn laminated sugar ribbon. We were only required to make one snowman, with a laminated ribbon scarf, but I was having so much fun, I made two. =) 

Today we also learned how to make fruits. We will airbrush them tomorrow and build a small showpiece. We also will be making candy canes. =D Yummo! 

Read more...

Baking 220 Day 7

Today was the first day of working with sugar for this rotation. For the rest of the rotation, we will be learning different techniques each day. Here is today's showpiece.

Read more...

Baking 212 Day 3

Results from the last three days:

Finished Croquembouche

After three tries I finally got the ribbon to work.

I am so glad we are done with hot sugar for this rotation!

Tomorrow-marzipan fruits and a pastillage (edible plaster of paris) sculpture. Fun fun!

Read more...

Baking 212 Day 2

My fingers hurt! They aren't kidding when they say this sugar is hot. Luckily, tomorrow is the last day that we will be working with sugar for this rotation. Next rotation, we will work with hot sugar 8 days in a row...oh boy.

Today, we made flowers for our Croquembouche. Tomorrow we are going to finish it off by making a sugar ribbon that wraps around it, and then we will glue on the flowers.

sugar

my flowers

Read more...

Baking 212 Day 1 Intro to Cake Decorating

I am back from break and ready to get done with these last two classes!
This is the cake decorating class. We only have one practical and that is, of course, a wedding cake.

Today we started making a Croquembouche. It is a French wedding cake made out of pate a choux and nougatine. For a wedding, the pate a choux balls would be filled with a bavarian cream, but ours were left empty. We are going to finish it off tomorrow with pulled sugar ribbons.

nougatine base. pate a choux balls

Read more...

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!

Read more...

Baking 113 Day 2

We are learning about set custards this week. I tried creme brulee for the first time today. O my goodness. I thought to myself, "WHY in the world have I never had this before?!" It was amazing.

We also made Chocolate Pots du Creme (not pictured) and Creme caramel.

Creme Caramel

Creme caramel

We learned to brulee three different ways. The first is what you will typically see in a restaurant. It is the "american" creme brulee. The second is a "french" brulee. The sugar is bruleed until it is really dark. The third is a mixture of brown sugar and sugar. It gives the creme brulee a maple taste. Personally, I liked the "french" brulee the best. The bitterness from the overdone sugar goes really well with the custard. It takes away some of the richness, making it easier to eat the whole thing! =)

1)"American" creme brulee. 2)"French" creme brulee. 3)"Maple" creme brulee

Not a great picture. But it shows the different types of creme brulee.

Creme Caramel:

For the caramel, boil 8 oz of sugar and 1 oz of water until the sugar turns to an amber or light honey color. Pour into 4 oz aluminum tins. Let harden.

Eggs 4 oz

Sugar 2 oz

Salt 1/8

Vanilla .125 oz

Milk 10 oz

(this is a 1/4 of a batch. it makes about three)

Heat sugar, salt, vanilla, and milk in a pot. Slowly temper the steaming milk mixture into beaten eggs. Pour onto hard caramel. Bake in a hot water bath in a 300 degree oven. The custard is done when it slightly juggles from side to side. Let it sit in a cooler overnight.

To serve, turn out onto plate.

Read more...