Strawberry Fields Forever

Finally the reveal of the finished product....

My poor butterfly lost part of his little wing...normally I would just make another one, but when it is 8:00pm and you have been at school since noon...dinner seems much more important. 

This cake felt like I was carrying the equivalent of 3 bricks. 

I knew this was the type of cake I wanted to do for a long time...actually I have been imagining what my theme would be since last May when I officially decided to continue with culinary school and put of the 'real world' for another year. With Spring wafting through the air in London this past week, strawberries, butterflies, and flowers seems to be the only appropriate expression of happiness we all felt to see and feel a little sunshine.

This is a fruit cake through and through. Admittedly I did end up trying a bit of the fruit cake that has been soaking in rum for the past 2 months....well I will just leave the taste to your imagination. My flatmates said it tasted like Christmas and they ate it right up. People say that at some point cultures do eventually collide and apparently they collide over fruit cake.

I am now officially a Superior Patisserie student and I couldn't be happier. Stay tuned everyone, because Monday starts pulled sugar and a few new classmates. I have a feeling these past few months have been a mere 'amuse bouche' to what I am about to sink my teeth into.

Food for Thought

If "summer afternoon" are the two most beautiful words in the English language according to Henry James,  then surely he would agree that the two worst words in the English language are "exam week". Apologies for delays on updating my blog these past few weeks.

"the cosmic mystic of the souffle" -Chef

To anyone who has attempted to make a souffle ever in their life, then the above quote should most definitely resonate with you. I know it resonates with me, because you see the cosmic souffle and I have a history together. Last December I threw a dinner party and made a blue cheese souffle. A few days before the party I decided to practice just in case...I made two souffles that night...two for lunch the next day...and two more for dinner that night. They either fell flat, or came out perfect and then fell in 2 seconds, not enough cheese, the list goes on. Finally on the night of the dinner party I was just crossing my fingers that it would turn out and taste good, especially since I was taking a bit of a gamble on sneaking in the 'blue cheese factor' with my friends. I guess the souffle has a bit of a sense of humor or may be felt the magic of having so many people I love in one room, but it turned out perfect and everyone loved it. My 6 hour lecture and practical on sweet souffles went great. We learned how to make Souffle Chaud, Pudding souffle, and Crepes Souffle, needless to say they were amazing. Since we could not take them home with us for obvious reasons we all just stood around our huge marble slab table top in the practical kitchen with spoon in hand and ate all of what we had made that day.

At school we call it the $4000.00 exam....the dreaded practical exam at the end of term that determines whether we pass our class or not. First we take a written theory exam where we must know everything form last term and our current term, things from recipes to the densities of sugar to the chemical bonds that form during tempering chocolate. Once that is over we all frantically start memorizing our recipes for our practical exam. Let me walk you though this exam....first we line up outside of our practical kitchen, then as we walk into the kitchen and draw a recipe out of hat and we have 15 minutes to write down the recipe, a detailed method of production, and a sketch of the end result. Then we all must leave the kitchen and walk into the kitchen in 5 minute intervals. We have EXACTLY 2 1/2 hours, if you go over time you automatically fail. If you fail the practical class your fail the entire class and you must take the class and pay for it again. No pressure right?! The cake that everyone was dreading pulling was the Sabrina cake....guess who picked the Sabrina...yup that is the cake I got. To be honest during class it took us a really long time, but in the final it was not that bad. There were naturally things wrong with my cake, I mean how can there not be with that kind of pressure, but over all I finished with plenty of time to spare. It was a bit of an empowering moment. Our results don't come out until Wednesday, I am fairly confident that it is a cruel joke to have us all worried for a week. Beside the fact that my chocolate top looked like a car ran over it and my chocolate piping was definitely too thick, I was really proud of the rest of the cake. Fingers crossed everyone!

My final grade for my Intermediate term is the celebration cake. So anyone remember that fruit cake I made 2 months ago...well now its time to decorate it! I made all of my elements out of gum paste and then painted them with edible colored dust. My design is a wood bucket with wild strawberries inside with a yellow butterfly perched on one of the wood slats. I had the design in my head and I was ready to go shop for supplies with my friend Nicole. That afternoon when I got home all my flatmates were showing off all of their new lovely 'high-street purchases' they had made that day and I was showing off my new baby rolling pin and boarder cutters.

After going to Jane Asher, a cake decorating store here in London, my knife kit has grown exponentially and my bank account has shrunken exponentially. Butterfly cutters, have to have them. Sugar flower sculpting tools....essential, tiny rolling pin and small cutting board...I mean I would not be able to call myself a pastry chef without them. The edible glitter was definitely when my purchase got a little out of control and a shop-o-holic intervention was needed.

after working on these for almost 10 hours I still have a few more finishing touches to make them look natural ...this is the point where I could see my cake start to take shape


A very wise literature teacher of mine once told me to never put a title onto a paper or essay until after you have written it in it's entirety. Only then can you properly give a name to the piece. I am taking the same approach to this cake. So for now it is just called "Fruit Cake No-Name" and is celebrating heaven only knows what, but you can never rush the creative process right?!

Chicken Noodle Soup Topped with a Tuile Cookie Spiral

I have 12 of the molten chocolate cakes or Fondant au Chocolat with a ginger orange syrup in my freezer right now. I was so excited to learn how to make those. 

Good morning monday...

"[the apples in hot caramel] tends to burn your fingers [as you pull them out of the caramel with your fingers one by one] 'ohh lala you zee its hot even for me' but then it will gradually drop to 100 degrees (212 degrees F) so you will be fine" -Chef

"we start sugar work next week, so it will be good to have some good blisters started on your fingers" 

-Chef

....oh good...cant wait!

Just a few quotes to get the week started off right. Now even though I do have several burn blisters from pulling all of those little apple (6 apples in total) slices out of  searing hot caramel, I have to admit, it was worth it. Normally on a menu I would go straight for the chocolate dessert, but this apple tartin will make you rethink your dessert choice of the evening and asking for 'a la mode' would just be an insult. 

When a person takes the time to hand place all the 1-2mm thick apple slices in the tartin tin you know that this is more than just food, it is edible art that can actually touch more than just your taste buds. I have been thinking a lot this week about personal touches. Even the imperfections are more beautiful when you know that someone has taken the time to try to make something special.  This week we focused on plating our desserts as well. It seems like an easy enough task to decorate a plate with a little tempered chocolate, caramel drops, and raspberry coulis...but when those 3 dots of sauce on your plate have all been made from scratch just to make the plate and dessert more beautiful visual and in taste, somehow it seems like more than just 3 dots of sauce. Those three dots are drenched in substance and become personal in a strange way. I have been lucky enough to be reminded of those personal connections made through food by my friend Jasmine and my roommate Ann. I have been dog-sick all week, but have still had to attend class...3 hour practicals in an extremely hot or extremely cold kitchen while sick...oh yeah now thats a challenge. Ann, my roommate, made me a home remedy with pears and left me a sweet note! My good friend Jasmine made me homemade chicken noodle soup. Its times like these when you realize that food is so much more than a meal. 

Delices aux Fruits Exotiques...or in English the Exotic Fruit Mousse. This dessert actually was one of the more relaxed practicals we have had so far. I know it is hard to believe considering all that is on the plate, but the assembly is basically something we could all do in our sleep at this stage. I decorated mine with a piped tuile halo, fruit, passion fruit coulis, raspberry coulis, mandarin caramel, and tempered chocolate twists. I re-plated my dessert about 3 times, because I just could not decide on my design...and my piping bag broke...twice. My piping bag disasters must be a bit of a joke now, because I was mocked several times today. Even though I did not get as much hight as I wanted with my chocolate twists, it was a great feeling leaving the kitchen today after getting to use some creative plating. 

PS: I am pretty sure this dessert is a product of the 80's...mainly because of the neon green pattern we put on the outside of the sponge cake....it was done against my will.