Day 17: Croquembouche

Yes! The croquembouche!!! This is the traditional wedding cake in France!!! Ever since I saw this on Desperate House Wives, I have wanted to see one up close and personal. I never imagined that by getting up close and personal, I would be the one making it! It is a lot harder than I thought and since I haven't really seen more, I wasn't too sure about how to decorate it. I made a bunch of decorations, but I made them too thin, so a lot of them broke when I tried to attach them to the croquembouche. Since this is a wedding cake, I went ahead and made me and my husband's initials with the heart. Well, I made lots of hearts, but again, they broke. =( Actually, Mike's "M" broke too, but I just put it on anyway...

Without further ado, I present my very first Croquembouche!




















Here is my partner's croquembouche. I think she did an awesome job! Go Gina!!!
















This one is a picture of the whole classes' croquembouches! I think we all did a pretty good job! Chef Cynthia seemed impressed!

Day 16: Gateau Saint Honore, Gougere

Oh Gateau! So apparently, Saint Honore is the patron saint of pastry chefs! I went over to the Saint Francis of Assisi Church Bookstore to see if I could find a Saint Honore medal, but I guess he's not that popular... At least we have this wonderful Gateau (pronounced ga-tow with the accent on the tow part) to commemorate our saint! This was made with a Pate a Choux base and as you can see from the pictures, caramel topped cream puffs! The filling for both the puffs and the center was a wonderfully delicious Chiboust. A chiboust is a combo of pastry cream, gelatin and Italian meringue.





























The Gougere was also yummy! It is basically a classy cheese puff!

Day 15: Paris Brest, Profiteroles, Cygnes (Swans)

So here is the Paris-Brest, a Pate a Choux ring with a hazelnut praline Creme Mousseline filling (that's a type of butter cream). This one is one of my many favorites. My family was rather happy when we had to make this for my test, so they all got a taste! I was thinking about adding this cream to our product line, maybe pairing it with chocolate cake or something like that... We'll see... =)















Profiteroles, profiteroles, who does not love profiteroles?! These were made in the traditional way - with Vanilla ice cream and Chocolate sauce. I still love these as regular cream puffs, actually, the best profiteroles I personally had were in France (go figure)! When I can make the perfect Creme Legere, I will hopefully add these to the product line too, substituting the ice cream for the Creme Legere. Maybe a flavored one? Hmmm...















Cygnes or swans. I love the way these look! I was so excited that my swan bodies came out pretty decent! We actually used to sell these at the bakery early on - Chantilly Swans. In class we did not used Creme Chantilly, but rather Creme Martinique - Creme Legere with Rum and Brunois cut pineapple.

Day 11: Mini Tart Tatin, Caramel Nut Tart, Bourbon Pecan Cookies

Day 10: Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Bavarian, Pate Sablee Cookies

Day 14: Eclairs

Here are the Eclairs we made on our first day learning about Pate a Choux. We learned a lot about eclairs, for example, the standard size of an eclair is 4 inches. Also, there are 3 traditional flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate and Caramel. In class we made Vanilla, Chocolate and Coffee. I have to admit that the coffee one was my favorite! It should be one of the new traditional ones!!! Anyway, everyone seemed to be having trouble with the Creme Patissiere that day, and so the next class, Chef Cynthia gave us some great tips to help with making non-lumpy Creme Patissiere! That's the advantage of having an experienced instructor.

Day 12: Quiche Lorraine, Linzer Torte