Chocolate Mousse Cake/Chocolate Genoise

Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Genoise
_____________________________________________
Chocolate genoise soaked with simple syrup, dusted with cocoa powder, topped with chocolate decorations
(swirls, dark and white chocolate stripe -my fav!)

Passionfruit Mousse & Chocolate

Cake Craft @ Niagara College

Passionfruit Mousse with an almond dacquoise
___________________________________

piping chocolate designs, passionfruit glaze, chocolate decorations

Vintage Inn Competition

Sunday @ Niagara College : Vintage Inn Competition

Tasks within 5 hours (too long)

Construct a chocolate box (8'' x 3'')
Choux paste (cream puffs)
pastry cream

This is what I came up with.

Chocolate

Chocolate: the main existence in my life for the past 5 months-year. No matter where I go it always seems to find me. We have a love-hate relationship. :)

Things I love about chocolate:
1. the glossy shine it has when you pour it on a marble slab right before tempering it.
2. way it moves so freely when your pushing it with the scraper (forgiving)
3. consumption of the finished chocolate piece

Dislikes:
1. too much chocolate = really bad stomach ache
2. can get really messy

**more to come: pralines, desserts, more chocolate!!!**

Moving Day!!

This week my journey living in St Catharines/Niagara ends for less than a year. Moving in December and coming here to live for pastry school comes to a bittersweet end.
Bitter: miss my roommates, school, teachers, chefs, amazing people I've met (once strangers-now life long friends) from the hilarious cab drivers to the random guy on the street selling socks (oh yeah, this actually happens every Thursday). Bitter--probably gained some unnecessary weight from all the baked goods and desserts made in class :'( It's been a slice.

Sweet: school is stressful, gained too many white/gray hairs from classes, tests and exams. Finally glad it's over!! All the knowledge and experience gained in the past four months.

So this chapter in my life comes to a close and will be re-opened next January.

Food & Love: 2nd Annual Barry Callebaut Intercollegiate Chocola...

Food & Love: 2nd Annual Barry Callebaut Intercollegiate Chocola...: "This past weekend, Friday April 8th to Sunday April 10th was the 2nd time I competed in the National Chocolate Competition. Brief: On ..."

Fruit Carvings

Jaimie and Ryan's Wedding Cake

Chocolate Brownie topped with White Chocolate Buttercream, Silk flowers, Fondant Flowers. Beautiful cake!! 6 tiers high

Cakes for Laura's Mom

White Chocolate Buttercream, fresh flowers

Strip Cakes: Mocha Buttercream, Chocolate Buttercream, Vanilla Genoise, chocolate decorations

Black Forest Cake: Cherry filling, supermoist chocolate cake, whipped cream, cherries

Sacher Torte: Chocolate Genoise, Apricot Jam

Fruit tarts, Franipan Tarts, Fresh Fruit Cold Cheesecake

Pastry Class

Boston Cream Pie!!

Elmo Cupcakes!!

On April 1st, I made Elmo Cupcakes, roasted coconut cake and a Strawberry Shortcake for a Birthday and Baptism for my neighbors in St Catharine's.

2nd Annual Barry Callebaut Intercollegiate Chocolate Competition

This past weekend, Friday April 8th to Sunday April 10th was the 2nd time I competed in the National Chocolate Competition.

Brief: On Thursday the night before the competition, I create well in advance a sculpted mermaid piece and a rolled out chocolate octopus. This was 4 weeks in advance. Unfortunately, the pieces broke and i spent all night trying to repair it, but no luck.

So I decided to not go to the competition. (for those who don't know me, I'm not a quitter :) My Chef emailed the head judge and said I wasn't attending. Shortly after some tears, running home, I received an email from the lady from the Academy encouraging me to come. I called her and after an hour or so, many solutions later.. I hopped on a greyhound to Toronto and went to the competition, after one of the generous ladies picked me up from Yorkdale mall.

_________________________________________________________________

At the Competition College..

When I had arrived at Humber, I was surprisingly calm. I entered the kitchen with no expectations. I was greeted with a warm hug from Lianne and many "hello's!!" Very warm and inviting atmosphere. I glanced around the room with a familiar sense of relief. I walked over to my station, workstation #8. ***Might I note that this station was infront of everyone, the audience. ****** this was extremely nerve racking.

I put all my chocolate equipment away, rolls, spatulas, etc.. I was incredibly fortunate to have the chefs at Humber college assist me in all my ingredients that I needed and equipment that I needed for that day. ******FOREVER GRATEFUL!!***

Fortunately, I had a hotel room booked to stay in for the nights at the Comfort Inn. Everything was going to be awesome, just from going and participating in this exciting event.

______________________________________________________________

Showpiece Day

Saturday morning at 6:20am, I woke up extremely calm and ready for the day to come. That day we had to create a showpiece with the theme, "Under the Sea" . I made mine all on site, for those of you who don't know, showpieces take months to prepare for. It turned out pretty good considering what I had done.

______________________________________________________________

Moulded Bonbon, Dipped Bonbon, Plated Dessert Day

Sunday Morning, at 7:20am, I entered the college kitchen with a mild plan of what i was going to create. The first deadline was the moulded bonbon, I made a dot of green white chocolate with St Dominque chocolate coating filled with mango mousse and white chocolate ganache finished with a crunch, quite tasty.

Dipped Praline was Soft Caramel with a hazelnut ganache dipped in Cuban Chocolate. Plated dessert was a parfait nougatine layered with chocolate brownie, with chocolate decorations, roasted hazelnut truffle, toasted coconut ice cream.

Overall, GREAT WEEKEND!!

J

Meringue!!

All my years in the Culinary industry, I always made meringue, however meringue and I don't get along, we're not exactly friends. :P Everytime I've made meringue I've over whipped the egg whites or not whipped them enough.

A funny thing about egg whites, when making a meringue if you get egg yolk in them, it doesn't whip up properly or to the voluminous stage you want it.

The key to making a good meringue is a clean bowl and whisks. Any oil, grease or unwanted impurities will not support the volume of egg whites being beaten.

There are different stages of whipping meringue that you can achieve: soft peak, medium peak and hard (stiff) peak. hehe.

When separating an egg, I find using your hand as a separator is helpful. That way, you can feel the texture of the egg yolk and egg white and also preventing any unwanted bacteria from the egg shell contacting the egg.

The tip to a shiny meringue that I was completely unaware of til now is using a kitchen aid mixer, add egg whites and begin to beat then slowly add the sugar! It sounds simple enough, but I had never heard the explanation to this!

The case of the missing marizipan carrots

On Tuesday's Lab, February 1st 2011, we made carrot cake the previous lab and marzipan carrots to decorate today. Unfortunately, my marzipan carrots went missing..I went up to watch the chef demo and I noticed my name on the paper was there, but my carrots were gone!

The mystery is how the heck did marzipan carrots grow legs? Upset and confused I went searching for my carrots.. eventually I did find them.

I know and remember precisely how i created these carrots. I rolled the orange marzipan into a ball then shaped into a cone like figure, used my pairing knife to roll and move the knife back and forth to create creases (wrinkles) in the carrots. I was the only one in the class that made vines out of the green marzipan for stems. Unfortunately the damage was done, it was placed on someone else's cake who wasn't there the previous classes. What's done is done. :(

Marzipan as defined is: a paste made from ground almonds, sugar, egg whites.
Carrot Cake Ingredients:

• all purpose flour
• baking powder
• cinnamon
• baking soda
• salt
• nutmeg
• sugar
• brown sugar
• eggs
• vegetable oil
• vanilla
• carrots
• walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese Icing:

• cream cheese
• vanilla extract
• icing sugar
  
• butter

I've concluded that carrot cake is NOT healthy for you, but is delicious to eat! yum!

Alternate Icing in case there is no cream cheese:

• Butter
• Icing sugar

----Incorporated until icing consistency------

Niagara College - First Day of Class- Lab!

Pastry Craft

We made lemon poundcake, banana bread, bran muffins and tea biscuits!

Lemon Poundcake contains a lot of fat! no lie!
I have never made tea biscuits before but the trick i found while making them is not to over work the mix.

Barry Callebaut Intercollegiate Chocolate Competition

Barry Callebaut Chocolate Competition 2010

3 day Competition consisted of:

#1-Chocolate Showpiece
#2-Plated Dessert
#3-Dipped Praline
#4-Moulded Praline

This was my first competition. A great experience!