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. 

Week 40 Assessment Day

First of all, I am frustrated to do this post again. I had already written a long post and was ready to publish it a few days back and suddenly the internet wasn't working and all that I wrote disappeared. Anyway, I won't be able to remember what I wrote, so now I will write what comes to mind today. 

The day has come for our final assessment for Stage 4. We were required to prepare 6 desserts and again I will be working alone. But luckily I have friends, Di and Megan offered to help me with some of the things. Things like chantilly cream and cream patisserie which were accompaniments for the desserts. I was a little relief that I will get some help but I knew I still had to plan my workflow carefully to make sure I can complete everything. 

After looking at the workflow for a few days, I decided that it will have to do. As long as nothing gets burnt, nothing sinks or deflates and nothing too bad that it cant be saved, then I should be ok. Let the fun begin. 

Menu of the day  : Iced Orange Grand Marnier Parfait

                                 Meringue Poached Pear

                                 Glazed Petit Four

                                 Strawberry Frangipane Tartlets

                                 Flourless Chocolate Cake

                                 Olive Oil Profiteroles

Accompaniments: Chantilly Cream

                                  Cream Patisserie

                                  Fruit Marzipan

Now looking at the menu, parfait needs a few hours in the fridge, therefore it needs to be started first thing in the morning. I struggled with the meringue poached pear a few weeks back and now it is back to haunt me. Petit four another a pain because it is very time consuming to make. Strawberry frangipane tartlets and the flourless chocolate cake are both rather simple and lastly profiteroles which we have made so many times. I know this term is about special dietry requirements and so this is a butterless recipe but can't we do something more interesting?

Knowing that it was going to be a long and stressful day, I asked this guy in our class whether it was ok for me to use the 2 ovens near my workbench and he use the ones near his workbench. The reason I asked was he likes to use whichever oven and whenever he wants to all the time. So for assessment, I wanted to make sure the oven temperature was not messed with and no one opens the oven when something is in there. Things like profiteroles will deflate if you open the oven too soon. Anyway, he agreed and I was happy. Now I am all set for the day. 

Iced Orange Grand Marnier Parfait

I started with the parfait as planned. I lined the dariole moulds with cling wrap and set them aside. Then whipped the cream to soft peak and chilled it. Creamed the egg yolks with sugar and added melted gelatine together with orange juice and grand marnier. Then the egg whites were whisked till stiff peak and folded into the egg mixture in alternation with the whipped cream. Then poured into the dariole moulds and freezed. 

I peeled the pear and gave it to Di to poach together with theirs. This saved me some time and also we didn't have to make and waste 2 big pots of sugar syrup just to poach the pears. Now I was ready to bake the sponge cake for the petit four. Once that was done, I left it to cool completely and then cut into 4 pieces. Sandwiched them back together with apricot jam and placed a layer of marzipan on the top layer and cut into cubes. The original method was to cover each cube with marzipan all around but our trainer said we can save some time by doing it this way. I then cooked the fondant icing and coloured it pink. I dipped each cube in the fondant and left it on a wire rack to dry. Then I shared the fondant with others. 

Petit Four in the process

Then I made the choux pastry and was almost ready to put it in the oven and suddenly I saw the guy that I mentioned earlier was opening my oven to put his meringues in. I quickly went there to stop him. He said his tray was too big for his oven but I wasn't going to give in. I said No! my choux is ready to go in. He actually changed my oven temperature without telling me. I got my oven back with some help from others to convince him. I was so annoyed by this person. Now I had to wait for my oven temperature to go back up to 200˚C. Finally choux was in the oven. 

Choux pastry and tartlets

The choux were filled with cream patisserie and dipped in chocolate. Then I drizzled it with some white chocolate. I played with some chocolate drawings on the plate because I was inspired by a youtube video that I saw but my work  was miles behind compared to hers. But it was still fun to try. 

Olive Oil Profitroles

Then I made the sweetcrust pastry for the tartlets and chilled it. While that was chilling, I did the chocolate cake. Once the chocolate cake was in the oven, I took the sweetcrust pastry and pressed them into my little tart cases. Some of them blind baked their tart cases before filling in the frangipane but I decided to bake them together. This will save me some time and because the tart cases were small, it should cook at the same time. Fingers crossed and into the oven it goes. After about 20 minutes, it came out golden brown and I was so happy. 

Strawberry Frangipane Tartlets

The chocolate cake was to be presented as a whole cake. I just placed the fruit marzipan on top as decoration. We were required to make an apple, a strawberry and a banana. Well they are not made to scale but as long as it looks like the fruits, I think it is ok. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I initially wanted to decorate the petit four with royal icing but then realised that there weren't any icing sugar left. So I used melted white chocolate instead. I drew some snowflakes on each petit four because I thought it represents season now and reminds me on how cold it is. Unfortunately it wasn't a very tidy work. 

Glazed Petit Four

Remember what I said about the meringue poached pear is back to haunt me? I had trouble plating it up because everything was white in colour. So this time I coloured the meringue with a little pink and managed to get some strawberries to give it some colour. Honestly, this time I am pretty happy with the plating up for the meringue poached pear. What do you think?

I have to say my plating up is really simple. One because I personally like it simple and secondly it saves time. As you can see, most of the plating up is with strawberries, haha that is because that was what we got. I consider myself lucky to even get nice strawberries. 

Meringue Poached Pear

All done! I have to say I am quite happy with my work. With the help from Di and Megan, I manage to finish my work pretty quick. I think some of them had much more complicated plating up than me. So I presented my work and was so glad that the trainer said that it was Excellent! Haha! So happy! Thank you Di and Megan for your help. 

Work of the day

Week 39 Fondant Anniversary Cake

I was actually quite excited about this week's practical lesson. We had baked our fruit cake last week and this week we got to decorate it with fondant icing, royal icing and marzipan. I researched and googled for some examples that I would like to try. I decided to do something with flowers on it because I have never made flowers on a cake before. What flowers should I try? What colour cake do I want? hmm..... the flower will have to match the colour I choose for the cake.

Filling the gaps with marzipan

So after looking at so many pictures on the internet, I chose purple. Now, what purple flowers do I want to try that is not too time consuming and yet looks pretty. I don't have a lot of time to do decoration in class, so it has to be simple. I found one, it is hydrangea. It has different shades of purple and coincidently I have the cutter for the flower. Great! it is decided then.

Covering with a layer of marzipan

 We are required to do some decoration with royal icing too. So i decided to have the icing on the sides of the cake. I just hope I can do it because I haven't done much of royal icing before. 

So after covering the cake with marzipan, I covered it with another layer of light purple fondant. Then I coloured the balance of the fondant with 3 different shades of purple. Made the hydrangea flowers and let it dry on the egg carton to get the nice curve. After making about 25 of them, I thought it should be enough and maybe I should start decorating the cake with it. 

Then I was told that we have to use marzipan to make something. So I quickly started making roses. Oh! I also wanted to try to make some white lilies and so I did. Even though these flowers were not part of the design for my cake, it was still good practice to make them. 

Hydrangea flowers

Roses and white lilies

Marzipan roses

Now that the hydrangeas are dry, I can start to place them on the cake. I glued them on the cake with royal icing. Then I started with the royal icing piping on the sides. It was quite challenging to keep the hands steady. 

Almost done, now I hear we need a figurine! Oh no! What am I going to make? I don't want any figurine on my flower cake but I still had to make something. I quickly coloured the fondant green and a little with yellow and made a small dinosaur. She has big eyes and looks a little funny. hehehe..... Well I think she is quite cute and Andrew named her Dorothy. 

Small dinosaur

Hi, I am Dorothy

Yay! all done now. Royal icing done on the sides, flowers placed on the cake, figurines and marzipan roses done. Since I am not a fan of fruit cakes, I gave the cake to Rob and Julie, I know they like fruit cakes.  I just heard from them recently that they really liked the cake. I guess I better find the recipe and file it. I hope I remember the small changes to the recipe that I made. 

Purple Cake

Royal icing on the sides

Though I am very happy with the cake, I feel if I had more time, I could have made the flowers have more 3 dimension effect rather than lay flat on the cake. I think I need to practise more on royal icing piping. I read that the consistency of the royal icing as important as the piping skill. To give this cake a theme, I think it looks like an anniversary cake. So lets just say that it is.

Fondant Anniversary Cake

Week 38 Dessert Trolley

We were preparing a dessert trolley that day. A dessert trolley is where a few selection of desserts are placed on a trolley and customers get to choose what they like. We had 5 items to plate up and I wondered if I will be the last to finish because I was working alone. 

I started with the vanilla panna cotta. Panna cotta is basically cooked cream with gelatine and chilled in the fridge for hours before serving. It needed time to chill so it had to be made first. I brought my small silicon muffin moulds for the panna cotta. I wanted it to set faster so a small mould would be good. I sprayed the mould with oil and poured in the cream and chilled it. 

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Some of the components were made in advance, like the meringue cases and the frangipane tartlets. With the meringue, I filled it with chantilly cream and fresh fruits. I did 2 designs for this dessert. I prefer the one on the rectangular plate. I think it looks neater and I like it being simple. I gave the plate a little colour with the raspberry couli. Raspberry couli is made of raspberries, sugar and a little glucose. It is boiled and blended in the food processor and sieved to get a nice red sauce.

Meringue with fruits

Meringue with fruits

I drizzled chocolate over the frangipane tartlets and plated 2 on the plate with a little crushed almonds and had 2 simple lines of chocolate on the plate. 

Frangipane tartlets

I also made a fresh fruit salad in a martini glass and served with chantilly cream and raspberry couli. Seems like we didn't do much except panna cotta and cutting some fruits, well there was on more thing that we had to do. We had to bake a fruit cake for Week 39. Next week we decorate the fruit cake. 

Fruit Salad with chantilly cream and raspberry couli

Products of the day

I like the panna cotta plating up the most. It looks simple and sweet, maybe because it was on a square plate. I think I just love square plates and everything looks nicer on it. HaHa...