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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Montreal- bound!

Hi lovely people!!

I am off to Montreal tomorrow directly after baking class (I suspect my guy will have the car running and I'll have to jump into a moving vehicle) so I won't be able to show you delicious pictures until much later!!

I am very excited to be going to Montreal- it's going to be a week filled with fun, friends, exploring and I guess homework.

Have a lovely week!

McGill campus, if I'm not mistaken

Monday, February 21, 2011

Petit-Fours

On Friday, we finished our Petit-Fours. So cute!! We used Pate Sablee and Linzer paste as our bases. Most of the day was spent dipping, piping and decorating! Lots of fun had by all.

I love these little guys!
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I had a wonderful one, filled with lots of friends, family and food! Lots of food. To recuperate, I've spent most of my day crocheting and watching The Big Bang Theory. Back to school tomorrow!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Opera cakes

Are delicious. I actually ate some of this cake- my guy said that it tastes like a Coffee Crisp, but in cake form. Paraphrasing from my theory class, Opera cakes were invented in France to celebrate a very important opera. To let everyone know that it is a real Opera cake, the word "Opera" must be written on it somewhere. Opera cakes have two kinds of ganache, and so much mocha buttercream! They're made with an almond sponge, and you brush the sponge with rum syrup. So that's three layers of sponge, with buttercream and ganache adding extra layers.
Even typing this out, I want a piece. This never happens!


Apologies for the terrible pictures- we were running around and cleaning up, so I hardly had a chance to take a good picture!

Music notes!


We had to cut half of our cake into 18 pieces- I think I cut my pieces really well! I'm usually really terrible- you could say that I have no eyeballing skills. And I'm pretty proud of my writing. I had such trouble with the Os and Ps, but they turned out alright!
The ganache glaze layer was really hard to work with- you have to get it on the cake immediately. The more you work with it, the more it sets and the worse it looks. The reason why is butter. Ganache generally does not have butter in it, but it makes it easier to cut and the glaze doesn't drip down the sides.
All this being said- I'm going to go and get myself a piece! Happy Saturday, everyone!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Mousse cakes

Last Monday, we started working on mousse cakes. With a snow day and me getting sick for the rest of the week, we weren't able to finish them up until this Thursday. I was only around to make the sponge bases, and to decorate them. My amazing partner did the rest (aka the tough part)- she seriously rocks!

We decorated them on Thursday. We made the ganache topping for the chocolate mousse- I think it looks pretty awesome! I have also grown to love making those chocolate filigrees. I filled up an entire huge tray with them! Without much further ado, here are the pictures of the mousse that my partner and I decorated!

Mango mousse

I only posted this so you could see all my filigrees in the background!

Chocolate mousse with ganache


All together now!
You might be wondering about what is wound around the mousse. It's a plasticky material (for the life of me I can't remember what it's called!), and it keeps the mousse from both drying out and from spilling all over the place when it is set.

Since I wasn't around for most of the creating, I don't have too much to say.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday! I'm going to a bakery with a classmate for homework- not even lying!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Yarn, oh yarn!

I was feeling a bit low yesterday, so I decided to go to Mary Maxim for some quick yarn shopping!! It closed at 9pm, and I left my house at 8. I was home within the hour!

I was in and out in less than 20 minutes- if I stay longer, I either start to rethink my purchases or I decide to buy way more than I can afford! However, I've justified it by saying that people spend their "fun" money on different things: for me, it's crafting supplies! They make me happy.

I made a beeline RIGHT for all the bright colours- I almost got some teal and yellow yarn, but decided against it. For now. Oh, I'll be back.

There's more pink...it's just hiding!

I'm really excited- this is the one of the first times that I've bought yarn with a project in mind. Usually, I just buy one or two skeins of a pretty and insane yarn that catches my eye.

I was definitely grinning like a fool on the subway ride home, and I couldn't wait to display all my yarns on my couch!

What's been inspiring you lately?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Special Occasion cakes

This past week, we worked on Special Occasion cakes! We used a three layer sponge cake, with German buttercream for the filling. And, the best part? Italian buttercream on top! (I love me some buttercream.) One of the cakes was cut into an 8x8 square, and the other cake was cut into a heart! We piped shells along the borders and combed the sides of the square cake.

It was exciting to get the opportunity to decorate the cake however we wanted! I think everyone just ended up doing Valentine's Day themed cakes. We used coloured marzipan for the decorations- it's really hard to make a rose out of marzipan, as opposed to fondant. I made the mistake of leaving it exposed to just a bit of air- as soon as that happens, the marzipan cracks and doesn't look as pretty. Marzipan also gets quite sticky when you work with it too much. I think everything turned out just fine, though! I wanted my cakes to look a bit plain, as I can go overboard with decorating anything.

The first cake!

Marzipan roses on the second cake!

In class, most people know me as the person that will save anything from being tossed. This usually means a packed to the rafters freezer. A few extra cakes were made yesterday, so I took one home! Today, I had some buttercream and chocolate decorations left over, so I took those home too.

This is what happened instead of homework! I had to use a rubber scraper instead of an offset spatula, so I had to spend a lot of time smoothing down the buttercream. I'm still trying to think of something to write on the top of the cake. I'm pretty excited about it- I haven't decided if I should bring it to a family dinner, or if I should eat it all myself!

Homework cake!

On another note: I think it's time I splurge on a cake plate. And a cake lifter, for that matter.

What's your favorite type of cake? And icing, for that matter?