Welcome back to Superior Patisserie.
First week of school was tiring but good. We have to attend early morning classes just slightly after dawn all the way till dusk, and morning temperatures have dropped drastically to about 10 degrees celcius as we are approaching winter. Nonetheless, we always have cakes and sweet treats to keep us company, don't we?
First up, we made a buche de noel, which is basically a christmas log cake (buche means log). Traditionally, the log cake takes the form of a roulade with a filling like jam or buttercream inside, and decorated outside with ganache to make it look like a fallen tree log. However, the modern approach to making the logcake has changed, incorporating different flavours, textures etc. We did ours with an almond dacquoise, chocolate mousse and cointreau mousse using a bombe mix, and a layer of strawberry and raspberry jelly sandwiched in between, and then glazed with dark chocolate ganache. I still had marzipan leftover from last term so I decided to make a little elf figurine as my decorative piece.
First week of school was tiring but good. We have to attend early morning classes just slightly after dawn all the way till dusk, and morning temperatures have dropped drastically to about 10 degrees celcius as we are approaching winter. Nonetheless, we always have cakes and sweet treats to keep us company, don't we?
First up, we made a buche de noel, which is basically a christmas log cake (buche means log). Traditionally, the log cake takes the form of a roulade with a filling like jam or buttercream inside, and decorated outside with ganache to make it look like a fallen tree log. However, the modern approach to making the logcake has changed, incorporating different flavours, textures etc. We did ours with an almond dacquoise, chocolate mousse and cointreau mousse using a bombe mix, and a layer of strawberry and raspberry jelly sandwiched in between, and then glazed with dark chocolate ganache. I still had marzipan leftover from last term so I decided to make a little elf figurine as my decorative piece.
A Brasilia gateau was next on the cards. This gateau is very similar to the Opera cake we made last term. It is made up of alternating layers of cocoa-based joconde soaked in rum syrup, and caramel buttercream (omg, buttercream again...terribly fattening), then finished off with a shiny caramel glaze and decorative nougatine piece. The caramel glaze was a little tricky as it is best seived through a mousseline cloth twice to get a smooth glaze, and you have to be careful not to aerate it otherwise the glaze will have bubbles in it. Also, if the glaze is too cold, it has a dull look and becomes lumpy; if it is too hot, it runs off the cake and looks too thin/transparent (and probably cause you a headache by melting your buttercream at the same time). I did a simple scroll nougatine piece for my gateau instead of cutting triangles like many others did, as chef did triangles during the demo. Chef said he liked it alot...I like it too but I kind of think this whole cake looks too brownish...I'm going to try doing coloured nougatine if I have a chance next time. Might be a little wierd 'cos of the naturally brownish colour of nougatine but worth a try anyway.
