The Pastry Project

And Eating It Too....

Recipe for Martha Stewart's Butter Cake

Yields One 9" Cake

180 grams butter
360 grams sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
270 grams all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
180 grams whole milk

Preheat oven to 325F convection oven or 350F deck oven.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla slowly until incorporated.
Sift dry ingredients and mix alternately with milk.
Mix until just combined.
Pour into a butter and floured 9" cake pan.
Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes, or until done.
Cool to room temperature and unmold.

This cake was filled with passion fruit curd, but you can fill it with anything you want - buttercream, lemon curd, raspberry jam, chocolate buttercream, etc.

Session 20: Celebration Cake & Grand Finale

And just like that...it's over.

I walked down to school this morning for the last time. The last time to this school at least, under these circumstances. It was sad. I got a little teary, I admit. I've come to expect the ritual of the Saturday morning session with my new friends, some of whom have become a little like family.

Today was the day we put or final cakes together. Chef reminded us to save a little time at the end of class for the party -- and for the handing out of our final certificates. We've graduated! While we aren't graduates with diplomas who've just been "toqued" as new chefs, we are walking away leaps and bounds more skilled than when we entered that classroom nearly 6 months ago with a certificate stating we've officially completed 100 hours of pastry essentials. I truly believe many of the folks in class will go on to use what they've learned in entrepreneurial pursuits of their own.

I still have a weak spot for primarily for chocolate, but at least I'm consistent. In the time it took to learn everything from basic tarts to breads to full-fledged cakes, I learned a lot about how doing something you love can make time go by more pleasantly, but quickly. I lost myself for 6-8 hours every week in something completely new to me, and I'm glad I had that opportunity. It's something I will always remember, and the skills I have learned will stay with me moving forward. (And my friends, family and coworkers will all benefit as well!)

Below are some final pictures from Essential Pastry Techniques at the French Culinary Institute:

As most of you know, I'm starting culinary school at the Institute of Culinary Education in 3 weeks, first class is October 13. I am a glutton for punishment and have signed away my weekends through next June to complete the diploma program. If you want to check out what I'm learning, I'll be posting here on all things culinary related.

Fondant Design Hints for the Celebration Cake

Session......19: The Beginning of the End -- Celebration Cake Part 1

It's kind of sad. So much has changed (and yet so much hasn't) since I first started this class 5 months ago. I can't believe it has already been 19 classes worth of time. One more left. We were all acutely aware of the fact that next week will be...the end. Or the end of classes at least...I do think many of us will continue to keep in touch long after we hang up our chef's coats and 'kercheifs.

Today we started part one of two toward our final projects: a themed celebration cake. My theme is celebratory and simple though represents no specific occasion other than a transition from summer to fall. Which is fitting I suppose since I'll soon be transitioning into culinary school. The end is not here, in fact it's just the beginning.

Below are some great shots of our work in action. I will reveal to you the inner-state of my cake at this point, but nothing more until next week's final pictures. I have made a deliciously moist vanilla cake a la Martha Stewart, with passion fruit curd as the filling for my 4 layers (each cake is a stack of three thin slices).

I am happy to report that my cakes grew tall in the oven and baked fairly firm. I was early in, early out. I did have a slight mishap in that one of my sides crumbled slightly upon removal from the cake pan, but I was able to smooth it out in the layering/crumb-coat process. I was able to do the cooling that was needed in order to sufficiently fill and coat the cakes before leaving and get them into the freezer. The task of the day was as follows:

Make your two cakes -- one 9" and one 6"-- with the flavor/recipe you'd be using, either vanilla, chocolate, or red velvet. Bake, then cool, then slice into 3-4 equal layers each.
In between all of that, make the filling - either a lemon curd, passion fruit curd, chocolate ganache or special buttercream.
Fill the cool layers with your flavored filling of choice; coat each cake with a "crumb-coat" of buttercream. Chill, then wrap and freeze.

Lots to do in 6-7 hours time.

Those who faired least well were perhaps the red velvet lovers. The cakes were beautiful to look at initially, everyone's palms were stained and their coats and aprons looked like they belonged in a butcher shop not a bakery, but alas, the moistness of the cakes required a cook time that was a bit tricky it seemed. They'll be coming back in mid-week to make them again. I'll be thinking of them!

PS - Yes, that's a massive sheetpan of buttercream frosting...

Truffles: Take One

Like I said, over vacation I became obsessed with truffles and bon bons. So to try them out for real, I started 'simple' -- dark chocolate ganache laced with a little grand marnier as the centers, coated in tempered bittersweet chocolate.

As I mentioned after the chocolate session, tempering is a challenging process that really tries one's patience. First you must melt the chocolate up to around 110 degrees. If you dip your finger into the melted chocolate, it will feel slightly warm to the touch. Given that we are 98 degrees generally speaking, this makes logical sense.

Once it melts to that temperature and is all mixed in, the whisking begins. Tempering happens through a process of agitation and cooling, to 80 degrees. You MUST keep whisking it the whole time and you MUST test the chocolate repeatedly to see if it "sets up" on a flat surface once you think you are starting getting close. 80 degrees will feel cool to the touch. it's actually a weird sensation to have melted chocolate that feels cold. I found that my kitchen is too warm so I had to use a bowl of ice underneath as I continuously stirred, as well as place a fan nearby blowing on me and my bowl. Whisking whisking whisking, as if I had 4 hands to do all this at once! yes, my forearm is sore.

Once it sets up (finally!!) you must then keep the chocolate between 80-90 degrees. If it rises above 90 it will then be out of temper, and you'll have to start over again bringing it back down to 80 until it sets up again. This can be a challenging process. Since I had the fan on it stayed almost too cool. But I'd rather have to keep reheating my chocolate a little over a bain marie than have to keep re-tempering it.

I took my ganache centers out of the refrigerator (they had been chilling overnight, coated in cocoa powder). I tried once truffle with the dipped method. This was useless. I decided to go the messier route -- just using my plain old (clean) palms. Basically I'd pick up a gob of melted chocolate, the truffle, and rolled it all around between my palms. This was a surprisingly fun and kind of therapeutic process. Melted chocolate feels good in the hands.

Once I had them all coated I had to pop them back in the fridge, but not before I popped one in my mouth! Really tasty.

I did notice that as some of them started to harden the shells of the newly coated chocolate cracked....I must investigate further as to why this happened and how I can prevent it from happening again. I had read this can happen if your ganache centers are too cold, but as my kitchen was quite warm I find this nearly impossible. But what do i know. Like anything, I imagine it will take some time, practice....and patience.

Session 18: Fondant, Cheesecake....and Some Thoughts on Chocolate

So because I was on vacation this past week I had to miss this 3rd to last class.

Red kindly took notes...it sounds like we made & rolled fondant from scratch, then made a small cake to practicing covering one. We also made some kind of yummy cheesecake.

So while I can't really comment or share pictures of this class -- the only class I've missed! -- I can share wtih you what I thought about on that day (and the many days surrounding it).

So with only two classes left, my brain is taking me back to where I started on the cold nights in February when I signed up for this class to begin with....I'm thinking about chocolate and what I can/could do with it.

While on vacation it was seemingly all I could think about. Truffles, bon bons, whatever you want to call them I wanted to learn all I could and find as many flavor possibilities as possible both in books as well as in special chocolate shops in the towns we visited; in Asheville, NC and Charleston, SC, specifically. There was one shop in each that I thought offered great selection of beautifully crafted truffles. Still, the pieces were often quite large. Rather than bite size spheres or molded shapes, they were double or triple the size and more true to replicating truffles found in nature.

Don't be surprised if you get some truffles in your mailbox...I'll be experimenting here and there with some treats...guess what I'll be giving for Christmas if it works out! :)

Apple-Almond Tart with Lavender-Rosemary Shell: A Photo-Journey

I had a fair bit of lavender-rosemary shortbread dough leftover from the cookies I had made on Friday. I didn't want to just make more cookies (and had coincidentally bough a bunch of apples from the store this week), so decided to try my hand at an apple tart. I lined the tart ring with the dough, cooled it, and filled it with an apple compote I prepared last night. I topped it with almond slices and a little sugar and popped it in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 F. I have to say, it's one of the most delicious make-shift desserts I've ever made!

Session 17: Marjolaine

These are definitely the dog days right up in here. I woke up at 8 am -- LATE, given I usually LEAVE by 8am. It's been hard to sleep. Even with the AC on, the nights are restless. There are officially only a couple of classes left.

I rushed to get ready -- ironed my uniform, packed my bag, decided against bringing a carrying case for the cake we were about to make since it probably wouldn't fit anyway (better to try a make-shift one there). I made sure to bring the two drawings I had done for my final celebration cake project.

I ended up taking a cab down...which would have been fine except that because of the heat today I also took a cab home! It was just one of those days.

The heat was seriously unbelievable, both outside, and inside....because it figured, our freaking classroom AC was broken! On the 4th floor in 100 degree heat is always good times. Of all of the classes we've had -- fast-paced, multi-task-involved, etc. -- this was by far the most challenging for everyone.

We were making the Marjolaine.

Don't let the beautiful name fool you. She's a tireless chore of a cake. The fact that she tastes so lovely is only a testament to the hard-won efforts to get her to where she is today.

To shorthand, the Marjolaine is a classic, in fact famous, multi-layered cake. She puts all layered cakes I've ever eaten to shame with just one bite of her nutty, crunchy, chewy, chocolate-ness. "The marjolaine cake was created by Chef Fernand Point, one of the great creative geniuses of French gastronomy. His restaurant, La Pyramide in Vienne, was famous for a special cake named Marjolaine, apparently named for a special lady, but who she was remains a mystery. The cake was considered one of Chef Point's masterpieces. Years of trial-and-error experimentation went into its creation, not to mention pounds of ingredients, before he was satisfied that he had achieved just the right combination of tastes and textures and could serve it proudly to his guests. Marjolaine is a time-consuming cake to make, as there are many steps involved; good mise-en-place, advance planning, and organization are all extremely important." -- Essentials of Pastry Handbook, The French Culinary Institute

It is comprised of (in order from top to bottom):

1 layer nut meringue crisp
1 layer stabilized whipped cream
1 layer nut meringue crisp
1 layer praline flavored buttercream
1 layer nut meringue crisp
1 layer creme d'or (like a chocolate mousse)
1 layer nut meringue crisp
1 layer chocolate ganache
1 layer chocolate genoise, soaked with a hazelnut liquor

Mind you, we had to make each component. This cake literally took 7 hours to make and we could have used more time.

The rectangular cake was chilled then coated with a thin layer of the praline buttercream. Over that we glazed the cake with a chocolate glaze, scored the top with hash marks, then added toasted hazelnuts as a border, lengthwise.

Luckily for me, I've gotten quite good at construction of the "box" to bring these things home -- nary a mark to be found! Jedd thinks this (next to the chocolate mousse, also a top fave) has been his favorite creation from my class thus far. He better enjoy it while it lasts, because there is no way I'm making this thing anytime soon. It will take a far larger kitchen and proper AC ventilation before I try it again. (Imagine dripping with sweat yet trying to keep composure while layering this thing. Again, thank goodness for my brief but meaningful time in hot yoga class!)

Another bit of fun news -- my fearless partner in crime, the lovely Miss Red, has decided she is going to Pastry School full up at ICE, the same place I'll be going! She's also going on the weekends starting just a couple of weeks after I do in the Culinary program. Go team! Hopefully I'll be running into her once in awhile even though we'll be on different floors.

We have off next week for Labor Day, and Jedd and I will finally be taking a vacation together through the Smoky Mountains and down around the South -- our annual roadtrip! I'm missing the 3rd-to-last class as well, in which we're supposed to be doing a nut cake and practicing with fondant. The last two classes are all about the BIG FINAL CELEBRATION CAKE PRODUCTION! I have a final (or near final) design, but you'll have to wait and see!

Recipe: Lavender-Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

Since I bought my rosemary plant I've been wondering how to best put it to use aside from everyday cooking. Taking a familiar cue from the lavender-rosemary spiced walnuts, I decided to try them in cookie format. They are mildly scented and flavored with the herbs, but still a satisfying cookie treat.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2/3 cup white sugar, plus 2 teaspoons held separately until the end
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon cooking lavender, pressed in a mortar & pestle to release the oils
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir in the flour, salt, lavender and rosemary until well blended. The dough will be somewhat soft. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Use your favorite cookie cutter to form your cookies, if you have leftovers, set aside and let rest for a little while before rolling out again.

Place cookies 1 inch apart on the lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the tops.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden at the edges.

Cool on wire racks, and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Putting Meringues to Good Use

As a topper for chocolate mousse...