Day 65, 66 & 67 - Chocolate Candies and Chocolate Candy Stand

Tonight we finished up our Chocolate Candy Stands. I have to say I was extremely impressed with my class!!! I thought everyone did a WONDERFUL job! I've posted the pics on Facebook, so take a look when you have time!

On day 65, we made the chocolates to go into the bowl of the stand. We made 4 different types of candies: Chocolate Nuts, Rochees, Carres and another one I can't remember the name of! Shame on me... I know... I do know that it is basically a little bit of chocolate and then before it completely sets, we put 3 different pieces of either nuts or dried fruits on it. It's nice to make them kind of colorful, so we did combos like Pistachio, Coffee Bean and Dried Apricot. The Chocolate Nuts were bad. Well, bad for me because I couldn't stop eating them! It's one of those things that you just can't have one of... They are basically nuts, with crystallized sugar, then coated in chocolate, then rolled in either powdered sugar or cocoa powder. (cue in heavenly "ahhhh"). The Carres were also quite the delectable treat! This looks like a chocolate sandwich of sorts. It is a layer of chocolate with praline paste and feulletine (this stuff tastes a lot like crushed sugar ice cream cones) sandwiched between 2 layers of straight chocolate. Yes, it made the tummy happy!!! As for the Rochees (translated as "rocks"), can I just tell you that I am SO addicted to the Orange and Chocolate and Almond combo, that I finished all the ones I brought home almost all by myself and I still ate more of these at school tonight... And - I still want more!!!

Okay, so on to the Chocolate Candy Stand. We basically spent the last 2 classes completing these. They are made of all chocolate and need to have 2 kinds of chocolate. I chose dark and white chocolate. Another requirement was that it be at least 4 inches high - no problem with mine for this category since it was 8 inches high. Finally, the last requirement was that it should be at least 700 grams. Well, unfortunately, mine turned out to be about 462 at my final weigh in, so I was scrambling for ways to "pack the pounds". In the end, it still didn't add up to the 700 grams, but what can you do? The first picture is me scrambling put more chocolate in my already chocolatey chocolate stand! Then you have pictures of the final product. It's simple but I like it a lot!

Day 59: Fondant Chocolate Roulade Cake with Pistachio Butter Cream filling and New York Cheese Cake

We are another day closer to the end of Pastry 1. I can't believe Tuesday will be our last day in the crowded and warm Pastry 1 classroom! Today we baked New York Cheese Cake with a graham cracker crumb base. Truthfully, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it! =)

We also had a recipe for a Neopolitano Cheese Cake, but we didn't get around to make it. I don't think I have ever had that kind of cheese cake before, but it sounds kind of interesting, except that it has raisins in the recipe. Yes, if you have been following my blog, you know that I'm not a big fan of raisins. Actually, my mother told me that I used to LOVE raisins as a child, but being the very impressionable child that I was, I followed my brother's lead with the raisin hating... He used to say things like, "Ewww... you like raisins?! YUCK!" and that was the end of my raisin eating days.

Anyways, we also finished up our Chocolate Roulade with a Kirsch (cherry for those of you who may be wondering) soak and Pistachio butter cream filling. It was fun finishing it off with the fondant. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have time to decorate it at all. *sigh* Well, at least I think I did a pretty decent job actually putting the fondant on the cake. Fondant is kind of fun to work with... I was secretly reminiscing back to my younger days playing with Play Dough! Take a look at my handiwork. Then take a look at the cake itself - pretty cool, huh?




This one was definitely a fun cake. My husband liked this one a lot because the cake was not too sweet (though the fondant was extremely sweet).


Now, it's time to crack the books and start studying for my mid-term written test. We already started with the practical test by baking and building our cakes. I wanted to do a Kahlua soak, but I couldn't find any, so I went with an Amaretto soak with coffee butter cream. I was a little nervous about the combo, but when I actually tried it, it tasted pretty good! YEY! So, again, wish me luck and send all your happy and studious thoughts my way! =)