Week 42 Chocolate box

Chocolate! It is not only intimidating, it is temperamental too. There are so many things that you need to look out for when tempering chocolate. Temperature, timing, dust, humidity and I think luck too. The correctly tempered chocolate has a beautiful shine and a nice snap when you break it. Some would describe chocolate to be like women. Beautiful, snappy and temperamental at times. 

Moulded chocolate

Last week, we tried tempering with the tabling method where we cooled the chocolate down on a marble slab and the addition method where chocolate blocks were added to melted chocolate. This week we tried the direct method which is also the easiest method. First the chocolate is melted over a bain marie to 45˚C - 50˚C. The water should be about 60˚C-70˚C and make sure no moisture goes into the chocolate. Then the chocolate is placed in the fridge to cool down. The chocolate has to be stirred occasionally to even out the temperature. 

Once the chocolate cools down to 27˚C-29˚C, it is reheated to 30˚C-31˚C and now it is ready to be used. I think I might have picked the hardest mould to try on. There are so many edges and corners. It was hard to polish and to brush in the chocolate to make sure you don't miss any corners. 

Nice shine 

Next we made a ganache with malibu for chocolate truffles. Then piped into little balls and left to set on a baking sheet. 

Little ganache balls

 The next item was Orange sticks, first the orange skin is blanched 6 times to remove away the bitterness from the oil on the skin. Yes 6 times! Then it is cooked in sugar syrup for almost an hour. Then it is placed on a rack to cool overnight. 

Orange peel

Brusseler nut Croquant is the next one the list. I don't even know how to read that name. It is made of marzipan and caramel. I don't normally like marzipan but this is actually not too bad. Firstly we cook the sugar then added in warm cream to make caramel. Then it is poured over the marzipan and slivered almonds were added in as well. Then it is kneaded to combine. We left it to cool and then rolled them into long sausages about 1.5cm wide, over cornflour. Then we left it to crust overnight. 

Brusseler Nut Croquant

So that was Thursday, now Friday morning we continue. We tempered more couverture chocolate and dipped half the orange peel into the chocolate and placed it on the baking sheet to set.

Enrobing the orange sticks

The piped truffles were ready to be rolled into balls. Now will be the time when it is good to have cold hands, because you don't want the truffles to melt and be sticky. Then these balls are coated with tempered chocolate. With gloves on, I dapped some chocolate on my palm and rolled the truffles to coat it. It is such a messy job but it was quite fun. Then we dropped the ball into whatever coating we wanted. So we had crushed roasted slivered almonds, roasted desiccated coconut, dutch processed cocoa powder and another was just rough edgy look with the couverture chocolate itself. I like the almond topping the most. 

Rolled truffles

With the marzipan filling, we used the chocolate dipping fork and dipped it in the tempered chocolate. Rolled it to coat and gently tap to drip away excess chocolate. Then gently place on baking paper. Notice there is a lot of gently involved in this? Well chocolate is a very delicate work so got to be gentle. Besides being gently, speed is important too. You got to be quick otherwise the chocolate will set before you can put any topping on it.  

Brusseler Nut Croquant with almond topping

Our trainer showed us the effect of using compound chocolate in moulds and you can see the shine is different to the couverture chocolate. 

Moulds made with compound chocolate

 Chocolate box was the highlight of the day. It was very interesting to make. We had to make a triangular box out of chocolate. We had 2 acetate sheet where we poured white compound chocolate and dark compound chocolate on to make a marble effect. The other acetate is placed on top and air is pushed out from the centre and also to flatten it. Then a rolling pin was used to roll it even. I had too little chocolate on the sheet and it was rather thin. That was a bit dangerous because it means it might crack easily when I have to cut it. I like to live dangerously!! haha.... not really. 

Marbled chocolate sheets

 Then it was chilled in the fridge to set for a short while. Once it is set, it comes away from the acetate a little, that is an indication that it is ready. Then we peel off the acetate slowly and gently, making sure not to break it. Then let it come to room temperature before cutting into it. If you cut when it is still cold, it will crack easily. Now, since my chocolate is so thin, I was extremely careful when I cut the chocolate. It took me quite a while but I didn't break any. Yay! 

Triangle template

Now it is time to assemble the box. We melted some of the marbled chocolate and got milk chocolate. We used that to glue the sides of the box on the base. Because we used compound chocolate, it sets really fast. Now that it is glued together, we are supposed to pipe some beads around the box. It is harder than it looks. The chocolate consistency has to be just right. Either it was too runny or it set inside the piping bag. Haha... I am blaming all my tools when in actual fact, it is all about practise and more practise. 

My triangular box 

Can you tell which piping line is done by my trainer?

Chocolate goodies 

It only fits 3 chocolates! 

Now time to present our chocolate box. Well my chocolate box was rather thin and the corner broke after presenting it. I blame the plate. hahaha....

Chocolate assortment

We were given wrappers and ribbons to wrap our chocolate box to take home. I ate so much chocolates this week. But you know what they say about chocolate, it is a food that makes you happy. So I must be very happy now. 

Life is like a box of chocolate, hopefully it doesn't crack as easily as my chocolate box though. 

Coconut topping, rough edges and cocoa powder truffles

Week 41 Moulded Chocolates

Finally it is time to start the next stage which is also the final stage. It is about chocolate work and sugar work. First week back, we started with chocolate. Michelle is back and I am very happy that she will be teaching us chocolate and sugar work. She is an amazing chocolatier herself and she is generous with her knowledge. 

After a whole term of theory, I almost forgot how to put on my full uniform. Haha. The first day was a full demo day where we were shown how to temper chocolate. I have to say there were so much to learn about chocolate. The amount of theory on it itself was overwhelming. I felt a little intimidated by this "food for the gods" but I was also very excited about it too.

Well on practical day, we were to make chocolates with fillings in it. We made salted caramel, raspberry ganache filling and another one is a buttered fondant with liquer in it. 

First off, we need to make the fillings and chill it so that it is ready to be filled into the chocolates. 

Raspberry and cream to be boiled 

Salted Caramel filling

 Then we melted the couverture chocolate over a double boiler but had to make sure that the temperature doesn't exceed 50˚C. It is harder than I thought. I think chocolate work is also about learning to be patient. You just cant rush it and since it was my first attempt with chocolate, obviously our chocolate exceeded that temperature. Well then we had to cool it for much longer than we planned. Got to learn to be more patient. 

Tempering chocolate, I dont even know how to explain it. All I can say is you heat it up to 45˚C to 50˚C then cool it back to 27˚ to 29˚C then warm it back up to 30˚C to 31˚C. 

The moulds are all polished with cotton ball before the chocolate goes in. This is to give it the shine. A tip that Michelle taught us was to brush the chocolate into the mould first before pouring the chocolate into it. That reduces the air pockets. Then the messy part was to pour the chocolate into the moulds and tap it out again. This makes the shell of the chocolates. This has to be done quickly so that the temperature of the chocolate is still at 31˚C and not too cool. Otherwise the chocolate will set too quickly. 

Chocolate is brushed into mould

Tempered Chocolate ready to be poured into the mould

After the shells have set, then we filled it with the prepared fillings. I like the salted caramel and the raspberry filling more than the fondant, so I only made 2 fondant fillings and the rest were the yummy ones. 

Make sure not to overfill with the filling

 I was not too happy with my tempering as there were some streaks on the inside of the chocolate shells. It is so hard to temper so little chocolate. We were given 300g for 2 people, so meaning I had only 150g to temper. Once the chocolate touched the marble slab, it got cooler than the wanted temperature. Plus with zero experience with chocolate, I was slow and that made it harder. 

Michelle said I could give it another go, so I quickly grabbed the opportunity and melted another batch of chocolate. This time, I wasn't going anywhere, I was standing there with my thermometer and checking the temperature every minute. Once the temperature got to 47˚C, I took it off the heat and poured 2/3 on the marble slab. Michelle showed me the technique on how to cool the chocolate and I gave it a go. Then quickly poured the cooled chocolate back into the warm chocolate and once the temperature got to 31˚Cm it was ready. 

Filling in with Chocolate

There weren't any more of those deep moulds, so I was left with the shallow ones, I got a disney cartoon character mould. I still practised how to do the shells before actually filling it up with more chocolate. Then with the rest of the tempered chocolate, we did the back of the filled chocolates. I think it is called backing off the chocolate. The chocolate had to be slightly warmer than 31˚C, ideally 32˚C to 33˚C for backing off because the filled chocolates were a bit colder and it won't stick on if the chocolate has already set. 

Everything has to be done rather quickly. Pour the chocolate on, scrape off the excess with the spatula and not to mess with it too much. Then chill to set. 

Backing off

 Once it is set, we knock them out on a baking sheet that has a tea towel underneath. The moment of truth! They all just popped out beautifully, much to my surprise. Then the edges were trimmed off with a small knife. 

Yay! It is a success!

Popped out from moulds

My first batch of chocolate

Chocolates anyone?

It was so nice of Michelle to bring us packaging boxes for our finished products. I hope the school reimburses her. With some beautiful boxes and our chocolates looked like they were from the shops. Well, mine needed a bit more work done to it like some ribbons and labelling. 

Packaged Chocolates

 The disney ones had some air pockets in it, got to tap them more to release the air next time. Now, how does it taste? Hmm..... tasting time. It was lovely. It had the crisp snap of tempered chocolate and the couverture chocolate was a 53.8% cocoa mass which was dark and smooth. The filling was silky smooth and the flavour was beautiful. I gave some away to friends and took 10 of the filled ones home. After 2 days, they are all gone now. Can't wait till next week's lesson.

Plain Disney Chocolates

Raspberry filling chocolate

Vanilla Salted Caramel Chocolate

Yoga Cake

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had planned to make a yoga figurine for my sister's birthday cake. I have never done human figurines before, unless you count Fireman Sam as one. Well, I guess it counts, so this is the second then. 

I thought of so many yoga poses that I wanted to do but I also had to make sure that it could stand on the cake without breaking a limb. I watched a few youtube videos on human figurines and they seem to make it look so easy. It is always harder than it looks, so I picked an easy pose. A sitting yoga pose with both hands on the lap. There will be lots of stability, I thought. 

OK, first off, I made the legs with grey colour to look like tights. It took me so long to make mainly because my fondant was rather hard. Finally managed to get the even length and size for both legs. Then I pushed a toothpick into the centre for the body to be attached on later. I let it sit and harden overnight and then made the feet.

Made the body with an extra large breasts because one advice from YouTube was that you start with it bigger and it gets smaller when you work on it a bit more. (Sounds a bit rude...)

Anyway, then I made the arms but I forgot I wanted to make the arms rest on the thighs so somehow I made it into a prayer pose. 

I am not an alien

Then I made a sleeveless red tee for her, which made the breast look even bigger. Hahaha.... I forgot the extra layer of fondant will make it bigger. Then I made the head and it looked so much like an alien head. Did the eyes, teeth and lips. The hair was the fun part to play with. I gave her straight hair with a side part. It looked a bit like Medusa at first but then all started to fall into place. Drew the eyes and gave her a soul now. She looks like a girl now and not so much like an alien. 

Giving the hair some texture

What big eyes I have!

Ready to exercise

Happy Birthday Pei

The cake was the one that I wanted to eat, it was a flour less chocolate cake covered with chocolate ganache and a layer of white fondant over it. 

I made 2 yoga mats, textured it and rolled one up. The purple one actually looks very much like my yoga mat. Made 2 yoga blocks and a strap as well. Placed the yoga girl on the mat and it was ready. 

Even though she looks a bit funny with the extra big eyes and breasts, I am pretty happy with it. She looks energetic! haha....  I wish I gave her a bit more of a chin though. Happy birthday Pei, wishing you good health and may your life be filled with joy and positive energy. Namaste.

Yum

Yum Yum

Tiramisu Birthday Cake

A whole term has past since the last assessment but I didn't do any post on it. Reason is that there is nothing interesting to post. It was a full term on Occupational Health and Safety. Not that it is not important to learn OH&S, just don't understand why we need a whole term on it and zero practical days. 

So basically there were no hands on class at all for the whole term. That doesn't mean that I didn't bake at home. So today I will post on my birthday cake which was in August. Don't ask me why it took so long to do a post. 

To talk about my cake, I need to also talk about my sister's cake. Because our birthdays are only 2 days and many years apart, we always celebrate together. This year, Pei wanted a Tiramisu cake and I wanted the same cake as I had last year, which was a flourless chocolate cake. 

I had planned to make a little yoga figurine made of fondant for her cake. But it wont look nice sitting on a tiramisu cake as the surface of the cake is mascarpone cheese. So I decided to swap our cakes. I will have the tiramisu cake and Pei will get the chocolate cake. We still get to eat both the cakes anyway. 
After searching and searching on the internet for a tiramisu cake recipes and comparing them, I chose rasamalaysia.com 's recipe for the cheese filling and the sponge cake was from Annie Rigg's Make, Bake & Celebrate book. All set and ready to bake. 

Sponge base 

Almond Praline

The sponge cake was a little different to the normal sponge cake, it had almond meal in it. It gives it a bit of a texture and I guess it will hold its shape better after pouring in the coffee syrup. Then for the sides of the cake, instead of leaving it plain with mascarpone cheese, I decided to make almond praline to cover the sides. Then the topping was just classic shaven chocolate. I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate, yumm.......

Tiramisu Cake

Happy Birthday to me :)

The cheese filling was a mixture of whipped cream and mascarpone cheese. It didn't have any raw eggs in the filling which was good. I feel more comfortable when there is no raw eggs in the cake. 

Want a slice?

Verdict of the cake, I think it needs double share of the mascarpone filling and maybe next time I will add in some stabilized whipped cream to the mixture so that it holds better. Then the cake can probably be thinner or maybe add more coffee syrup into it. Absolutely love the almond praline and chocolate shavings. Overall, I like the cake and will try making it again with some adjustments. 

Next cake up will be the Yoga cake.