Schooooooooool lately

Hola!  So this post is for the last two weeks of school. Two weeks ago, we made cheesecake. SO good. The class favorite was mascarpone.  We made that, NY, Philly and No Frills.  They were gone pretty quickly after I got home. =]  We also made bread pudding, creme brulee and torrone. I got my first test back-93%.  My first final is on Sunday, which I am super excited about.  Who has a final on Halloween? really. We have to make a souffle, creme anglaise and also have a written test. We'll see how that goes!  I'll be making some souffle and creme anglaise if anyone wants some this week!  =]

This last weekend, we made ice cream and sorbet. My partner and I made baked alaska, with vanilla ice cream, blueberry sorbet and praline filling. We also made cream puffs and eclairs. I made a cream puff swan!

Baked Alaska

Cheesecake

Bread Pudding

Cream Puff Swan!

Creme Brulee!

Recreational Class

This last weekend I didn't have class because of Columbus Day, but did volunteer to help with a recreational class. The class was on Red Velvet Cake.  Another student and I were the two volunteers who helped Chef Kathryn with the class.  Though I would like to think that I was a huge help, I didn't actually do that much.  Red Velvet cake isn't too complicated, so everyone had a fairly easy time figuring it out. We used two different recipes for the cake, one that used red food coloring and one that used beets. If you didn't already know, beets don't add any flavor, just color.  We also made two kinds of icing, a cream cheese frosting and a milk based frosting.  They turned out very good.

So this coming weekend, I've got a paper due and my first quiz! The paper is my critique of a few different bakeries.  I tried Monkey Bread from a local bakery in Ridgefield, and it was really good, until i bit into a piece of pastry brush.  =/    

Well that's all for now, I'll let you know how next weekend goes!

This weekend at I.C.E.

So Saturday was Evan's third birthday party and I made him a cake. His party was at the aquarium, so I made a cake with turtles, crabs and dolphins. I also made cupcakes with fish on them. I started making the decorations on Wednesday, started baking on Thursday and finished the cake Friday night.  I went to wrap the cake on Friday night and dropped the roll of cling wrap on top of the cake. At 11:30pm. The night before Evan's party. And I had to be up at 5 to go to school.  So I had to bake a new top tier and make another batch of frosting, and of course I didn't have all of the ingredients. I met Michelle who brought me some Crisco and vanilla. Life saver!  =]  So I baked the cake, had to let it cool, re-iced it and decorated it. I finished around 1:30 which was earlier than I thought it would be. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake, which is always a good thing. =]

So Saturday at school we made Panna Cotta, Gelle, marshmallows and Soufflé.  I got to bring the Soufflé and marshmallow home and everyone liked them. I brought the Gelle and panna cotta home tonight but no one has tried it yet, so we'll see. =]  I sliced my finger open cutting a lemon in class. It looked a lot worse than it was, because it wouldn't stop bleeding. I bled through about five band aids/gauze wraps. It's all good now though, no worries.

Today at school, we walked to six bakeries in Manhattan and had to buy and critique something from every place.  It was fun, but tiring. We went to Baby Cakes, a vegan bakery, and it was pretty cool. Most of the cupcakes we tried weren't very tasty(no dairy or gluten) but a couple were really good. Now I'm supposed to use whatever my budget allows to go to as many bakeries I can and taste test in the next year. Not sure I can handle that much sugar. =]  This afternoon in class we just practiced butter-cream piping.  We had to make rosets and shells. not as easy as it looks. lol  

Well that's all that happened this week! There are no classes next weekend(Columbus Day) but I am helping my instructor with a recreational class, making red velvet cake.  I've got my first test in two weeks too! =/

Wish me luck!   =]