School's out for summer!

School's out forever! Mostly forever, anyways. Today was my last day of class and we made Paska and Chelsea buns. We all got to try some Chelsea buns straight out of the oven!

mmm...sugar.

I'm sad that my schooling is over- I'm going to miss the friends I've made. But now I'm on to bigger and better things! First stop: a week-long trip to San Francisco with a good friend! Pictures to follow!

I've been thinking about writing a post about all the things I've learned this year- stay tuned!

Bread, delicious bread!

This past week, my class has been making bread type goodies in preparation for our exam. Which starts tomorrow- eeek!

Here's some pictures that I snapped! Also, I have no idea why I decided not to take a picture of my croissants. I would have taken one at home, but I ate them too quick!

Bagels!

Baguettes!

Challah bread with various braiding

My freezer is well stocked with bread now, that's for sure!

We had made baguettes and challah bread in first semester, but they are going to be on our exam. So we made them again- which was great, because I need the practice!

Bagels and croissants were fascinating! Bagels are fun because you boil them in a bit of water first, then bake them! And croissants are amazingly delicious, with lots and lots of work. I think I might make them at home sometime- because they're just SO GOOD. We decorated them with cheese, chocolate and almonds (not all together). I should have bought more than eight, I'm just saying.

Happy Sunday, everyone! Wish me luck on my exam tomorrow! We're making vanilla sponge and dipping petit-fours glace into fondant!

Martha Stewart cookies!

For the past few days, I had a chocolate chip cookie craving. And not just any kind of chocolate chip cookie- the kind that is really chewy and not at all crispy! Apparently it's really hard to find a recipe for them, because the last few times I have been met with crunchy, terrible cookies!

No! They have to be soft, and they can't spread too thin while baking. After doing a little bit of research (the fourth link instead of the first on my google search), I found these Martha Stewart cookies! Now, reading the comments about this cookie- my favorite went along the lines of "it's not the recipe's fault if they don't taste good"- I decided to give it a go!

And they were JUST what I was craving! Hoooray! I used half milk chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips. Which in my opinion, is awesome. Check 'em out!

Yes!! Chewy at last!

Needless to say, I bookmarked that page and I'm going to use it as my go-to cookie!

Now who wants some cookies? I think I have about 300. Oh, what a problem! :)

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!

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!

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!

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?

Gateâu St. Honoré

Today was a much better day!

I got to school in the early morning, with the intention of going to another class. However, it had been cancelled, so I found myself with a lot of down time. I took the time to do some homework and take an online test. I was in my uniform and into the baking classroom half an hour early today. And boy, I was determined to not let today kick me in the butt!


Today we made Gateâu St. Honoré. It's quite the cake! My baking theory teacher loves talking about this cake! No joke. It was made to honor the patron saint of bakers, St. Honoré. Either that, or it was named after the bakery where it originated. No one knows for sure.

This cake is made up of a pie dough (or puff pastry) bottom, with caramel covered cream puffs and pastry cream. Choux paste (which makes up the cream puffs) is such an interesting paste. You have to boil shortening and add some flour to make the paste, and it's leavened completely by steam. It's really neat how much it puffs up while in the oven. We learned how to make caramel today and spent a lot of time playing with sugar. So much fun! We made caramel, and then once it had cooled a bit, we used an open ended whisk to whip the sugar and create little nests! We also learned how to make corkscrews out of the caramel.

Can you see my little corkscrew?

I forgot my camera at home, so my lovely baking partner took some pictures! She keeps saying that she'll upload them all at the end of the year...so I'll put them up when I get them. Meanwhile, the pictures here of the extras that we made- I made a few extra pie shells and cream puffs. I'm very excited, because I also got to take home a bit of pastry cream, so I'm definitely filling these bad boys sometime in the near future!

Close up of sugar nest

I would have taken more pictures of the extra cakes, but I promptly ate them as soon as I was done taking that picture. I was excited, what can I say?

I'm back!! I'm excited about school again, which is just grand. Happy and cheery posts to follow!

Black forest and strawberry short!

Today was one of those crazy days!

I'm still trying to calm down from class. We decorated two whole cakes in the span of four hours! I know that amount is absolutely nothing compared to what we're going to be doing in the industry, but this was my first time decorating a cake! I like to get things perfect, which often means I spend most of my time re-doing something over and over again. I also get a bit tripped up because we are given a demo example, which I feel like I have to replicate exactly. Then I beat myself up because I made my rosettes a bit too big so there won't be enough room for the chocolate shavings. Then I spend some time thinking about what I should do. I'm working on not doing that anymore, though!

The bane of my existence today was the masking of the cake! The hardest part was trying to keep the icing covering the cake. I kept smoothing things down, and then the cake would peep through! So I'd have to do that spot all over again. And don't even get me started on the crumbs that would find their way back into the whipped topping!

Strawberry Shortcake

We also had to do all of our decorations/extras today- marzipan title flags, little chocolate garnishes, chocolate covered strawberries, whipped topping, and kirsch and triple sec syrup. I was in charge of whipping the 35% cream (we used a mix of whipped topping and whipped cream) and I looked away for one second and it was over-whipped! Luckily, we were able to save it- if I had left it on a second longer, it would have indeed turned to butter! That seems like an interesting experiment unto itself.

I am very thoroughly excited for tonight, as I am having my first slice of a Black Forest cake that I've made!  I'm even more excited because the cherries we used for the inside are very fancy cherries. Very fancy cherries from France, soaked in brandy. I can't wait! I also got to take home an extra sponge cake. Does anyone have any suggestions with what I could do with it?

I had no time to take pictures during class (as I was running around trying to clean things and get everything organized) but I was able to take some pictures before I walked these two lovelies home!

Black Forest Cake

It's days like this where I have to remind myself that I need to be confident in what I do. Questioning what I've done and re-doing things is what slows me down. It's in my nature to do things perfectly, but I really need to get that combination of quality and quantity that is needed in the baking industry. I know that this comes with time and patience and hard work and I know I'll get there!

Brownies!!

I have a not so secret confession: I love brownies.

When I was a footloose and fancy free University student, I had a few friends that worked at the University's Women's Centre. I remember spending an entire spring afternoon (procrastinating, no doubt) going through their collection of zines. All of the ones I read were interesting, but only one sticks out in my memory, purely for it's bizarre and amazing topic. This happened at least three years ago, and I think it's kind of funny that I still remember it!

A guy took it upon himself to create an entire zine about brownies! What a great idea! He said that he made brownies for himself every day, which is quite an undertaking. His zine had tips on what a "perfect brownie" is, which is free of walnuts and chocolate chips. He added in a few recipes of his favorite brownies and some tips for making brownies. He also put in some pretty rad drawings! After a quick google search, I've found it! And I've definitely emailed them to ask if they can restock it.

I also remember that he had an email address listed, and I remember emailing him (even though the zine was made 5 years prior). He never responded. I'm still a bit sad about that.

I love brownies. They're delicious. When I want to eat what I bake, I usually want to eat brownies. In fact, I have a pan cooling on my stove AT THIS MOMENT.

And now they're on my rad spider plate!

I love sequins. I really really do!

Today I was feeling a bit low...or bored. I guess I couldn't decide. This recipe popped up on my twitter feed, and I got up right then and there and started baking! I decided to add a few extras, with some chopped up white chocolate and a Cadbury creme egg and they turned out great! I liked them, as I love all brownies, but these were a bit too "cakey" for me. Right after taking that picture, I promptly sat down and ate all three brownies. Delicious!

Do you have a favorite brownie recipe? Do you love brownies as much as I do?

My story of pie

Why the Pie Window, you ask?

My dearest and best friend used to always say that when she grew up and bought a house, she would love to have a pie window. With this pie window, she'd be able to put a pie to cool and then shout "WHO WANTS PIE?!" in her most southern accent imaginable.

This used to always make me laugh- what a great idea! What an eccentric window! Who has a window just for pie? I know I want one!

Fast forward 10 (ish) years later...

I'd always been way too scared to make my own pie crust. I had heard horror stories of how you had to get everything just right, and I had no idea how to do that. I didn't want to waste a perfectly good filling and end up with a bad crust! So I stuck to buying a pie shell and filling it with lovely things.

I would judge a baker on how "good of a baker they were" if they could make a pie crust. And by judge, I mean I would be rather impressed/intimidated. It was my standard of baking, I suppose. Needless to say, I was intimidated by those who could.

When we made pie dough in class, understandably I was quite nervous. I was Chef's partner that day, which meant that she would see how everyone else was doing before seeing me. So naturally, I worked the shortening (we use it for most things because it's easier to handle than butter) too far into the flour before she could stop me. Eeep! I had to remeasure everything out and start again. This time, I knew what the paste shouldn't look like, so I could make my second batch with confidence. And it turned out alright! I was quite proud.

I've made a few pies since then, and I'm still learning! It's been really fun, and I'm glad I got over my fear.

I won't lie. I still want a pie window.

Me with my stylin' Christmas apron and my mincemeat pie!

Christmas baking

With the break upon me, I finally have some time to bake! I have been given the duty of baker (and by given, I asked to bake a bunch of things) for my family gathering on Christmas.

I've decided to go with a few family favorites- namely, Nanaimo bars. I used to bake them for my American friends all the time! In high school, my friend and I just HAD to make them! Without an oven, it was quite an adventure. We ended up using up my advent calendar chocolate, and borrowed an oven from a nearby house. The only pans we could find were very small and circular. But they turned out! When there's a need for Nanaimo bars, there is a way.

I'm also going to bake a cheesecake and top it with some crushed candy canes, to make it a bit more festive. I can't get enough of peppermint! I drink peppermint tea nightly and put peppermint extract wherever I can! This cheesecake is going to be off the hook, because I'm going to use some crushed up shortbread cookies (rescued from class) instead of the generic graham cracker crust.

I've also typed up a post all about pies, so I'm going to bake a mincemeat pie in honor of that. I can't wait to share the post and the pictures to follow!


I also have some sugar cookies and fruitcake from class that have been waiting patiently in my freezer just for Christmas!

Needless to say, I'm quite excited. Pictures to follow!

Gingerbread houses and snowflake trees

Yesterday was our last day of Baking Skills class for the semester. For the past month, we've been baking all sorts of Christmasy goodies! This week we focused on building and decorating our gingerbread houses. I hadn't decorated a gingerbread house by myself, well, ever! Lots of my classmates had really fancy ideas (an ice palace and a Nintendo house, perhaps?) but I decided that I wanted to do something colourful as it's in my nature. After a few tribulations with the generic "candy coated chocolate bites" not sticking properly to the roof, my Chef walked by and gave me a few helpful suggestions. I put a very light coating of royal icing on the roof, and the M&Ms were able to stick much better. For the top where the roof sections meet, I put some peppermint balls to look like Christmas lights.

We were all supposed to use an extra portion of dough to make a tree for the front section, but I wanted to do something different. A table mate had brought some snowflake cookie cutters, and voila! An idea: a snowflake tree. I think it turned out rather nicely!

 To top it all off, I used a light dusting of coconut flakes to give things a 'just snowed' look.

All in all, I'm pretty proud as to how it turned out. I was going for an old school/lots of sugary candy theme, and I think it worked!

I will truly miss my class- we all worked really well together. We had a mix of seasoned bakers and newbies (I'll admit I'd fall in the newbie category), and we all helped each other out. I know I learned a lot from my Chef, and I am truly sad that she will be in Florida next semester (I'm also jealous!). Enough cannot be said about my Chef without me getting all starry eyed. I was also unbelievably lucky in the partner area- all my partners assigned to me were really helpful and I learned a lot from them.

With the impending Christmas break, I feel a bit lost when I realise that I can paint my fingernails and wear earrings or sleep in to a normal human hour (class at 7:30 means wake up time in the 5am area). But I'm also ready for the break, and I'm especially ready to do some baking on my own! And okay, I'm pretty excited about the nail polish and earrings thing.