Chocolate Berry Mousse Cake (FINALS!)

I made a chocolate berry mousse cake for my final. I also made three french pastries: lilikoi curd tart with italian meringue, lemon cheesecake dome and a mango saint honore. Yes, that was my final. I got to bake stuff. Whaaaaaat?! Yeah it's crazy (and awesome), because test taking simply sucks.

No bubble tests for me! (Aside from menu merchandising, but that's okay).

It's all over now and I couldn't be happier.

Wanna see my finals? ;)

This was my final cake. What's inside?

Chocolate truffle

Black magic cake

Blackberry mousse

Dacquois

Vanilla mousse

White Chocolate mousse

And it's topped with chocolate glaze and an assortment of pretty thangs :)

These were my French pastries, (from left): Mango saint honore, lemon cheesecake dome (with strawberry mousse inside), lilikoi curd tart with torched Italian meringue

Overall, the final went well. We did have a little written test, too. I'm pleased with my grade and even more pleased now that the school year is over! 

I'd love to show you how to construct my final mousse cake. I'll need to make a drawing or something! I swear, learning how to construct cakes like this has made my brain explode--with so many magical ideas! The possibilities are endless! So, I'll make sure to include a demo/full recipe soon :)

HAPPY SUMMER WORLD!

Wine Gelée (Jello Shots With Class?)

Yesterday I volunteered with Cafe Laufer for St. Louis High School's wine fundraiser event. Different vendors were there offering various samplers for the guests. Cafe laufer prepared about 400-500 cups of white wine gelée. If you don't know what I'm talking about... it looks like this:

This is actually Cafe Laufer's "cake" version. I have yet to try it in cake form, but the gelée itself is surprisingly good!

I think it's such a beautiful dessert. The floating fruits in pristine gelée, something about it looks so refreshing--and it is definitely a refreshing dessert! I'd be happy to get this dessert any day!

You know what  I found funny is how all the women reacted the same "ooh WINE!" Like it was the best idea they've ever heard! And men were like "meh..." when we told them it was a wine dessert. Guess it's not manly enough. I think someone should make a BEER gelée for all the dudes out there. These really are just like classy jello shots. I'm definitely going to experiment with this whole gelée thing...but I do know that alcohol content will mess with the amount of gelatin you'll need. So don't rely on the following recipe to work if you swap alcohols. 

*Also, just a little concern, generally citrus fruits will make gelatin break down. So personally, I'd choose to put berries in my gelée. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries for sure. 

Anyways, I told some people about the wine gelée and they were wondering how to make it. I did a little research and found a Martha Stewart recipe that looks pretty simple. So give it a shot and let me know how it goes. 

Photo: Joseph De Leo

This is what Martha's look like. She cut them up into jello squares. I think it would be cute to make these in little silicone molds! 

Recipe Here!

Crème Brûlée (Recipe Included)

Crème brûlée...mmmmmmm...lil dishes full of fatty joy, topped with a crunchy layer of sugary goodness. They're surprisingly simple to make (with the exception for funky ovens). There are few ingredients required and a lot of flavor variations to experiment with.

Ingredients:

1 qt. heavy cream

2 vanilla beans (seeds scraped, all of it goes in)

3.25 oz sugar 

12 egg yolks

3.25 oz sugar

That's that.

Now to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F) 
2. Heat the first three ingredients in a medium saucepan
3. In a separate medium size bowl, mix the egg yolks & second addition of sugar together with a whip (aka whisk)
4. When the heavy cream mix reaches a boil, temper it into the egg mixture*
5. Return everything back to the pot and cook on the stove for just a minute, constantly stirring
6. Strain everything into a container with a spout-like thing...(we use a gallon measure), if you don't have one just strain it into a bowl and ghetto-scoop it into the dishes with a ladle. 
7. Set up your crème brûlée dishes on a sheet pan. You'll need a large container of ice & another container that will be used to pour water. And make sure the inside of your dishes are completely dry.
8. Pour your strained mixture into the dishes until almost full (not too full though!) 
9. Now, gently fill the sheet pan with ice (arouuuund the crème brûlée dishes). If any water drops into a filled dish, dump it and redo...the water will ruin it. 
10. Remove air bubbles from the surfaces by using either a blowtorch (gently!) or paper towels. 
11. They're ready to go in the oven meow. Put them in the oven, now, pour water in the sheet pan over the ice. 
12. Bake for about 30 minutes. Make sure that there is always water in the sheet pan. Refill if needed. Check the doneness with your finger. They shouldn't jiggle, you should see that it set. If they jiggle, keep em in there. If the top is browning and they're still jiggly...turn the oven off and leave them in there. Check on them in 10 minutes. 
13. Take them out when they're done & chill

*Tempering: stream in hot liquid into eggs slowly (while mixing!) to avoid making scrambled eggs...putting hot into cold gently...yeah. Bein' real casual with the explanation, sorry. 

And right before service: TORCHIN' TIME!

Bust out your little torch and a dish full of sugar. Sprinkle your dishes with sugar (don't just dump it on there) and go over the sugar with the torch. You'll see the transformation. Repeat 3x to get a nice caramelized crust. 

Yeeee pretty easy! 

Now, variations:

• Chocolate: add good quality chocolate into the heavy cream mixture when it's hot. There's no specific amount...but I recommend adding enough so that it looks pretty dark. Remember that you're going to be pouring that into a bunch of egg yolks. The color will lighten and you don't want to end up with a milk chocolate look--cause that's lame. 
• Orange/lemon: add zest (~1-1.5 ea.) of desired citrus fruit into the heavy cream so that the oils can steep and the flavors will come out!
• Chocolate orange: put those two together ^^
• Ginger: add fresh chopped ginger into the heavy cream and let it steep
• You can pipe a little layer of ganache in the bottom of the dishes
• You can spread a little marmalade in the bottom of the dishes, too
• You can add halved berries in the bottom of the dishes
• You can add berries AND ganache to the bottom of the dishes
• ^^for those, just put the stuff in the bottom of the dishes & pour the mix right over

I think you get it, you can really do a lot with this...I really want to try making green tea crème brûlée but I haven't had experimenting time yet! 

Oh yeah, and if you don't want to be a total fatty and eat all of this crème brûlée in one night, it can be saved in the fridge. I'd keep it in there for 3 days max. Just wrap it up and pour it into dishes when you want more! 

Saint Honore (A French Pastry!)

Saint honore (saint on-oh-ree!)...I don't know, I butcher every French word that comes out of my mouth...but I don't actually butcher the pastry! My baking buddy, Mac, and I were instructed to make saint honore. At first it seemed super easy, and it was, until we got to caramelizing the decorative mini cream puffs. Never stick your fingers in a pot of molten sugar! I didn't, cause I'm smart, but Mac thought it would be quicker...so guess who got a sugar burn?

Anyways, that was just the first time we made it. Now we got it down! We're sugar dippin' mastas meow.

Imagine this: A disk of rolled out puff pastry with pate choux (eclair mix) piped around the edges. The pate choux puffs up, the puff pastry is nice and buttery, and the whole thing looks like a shiny golden donut. This is just the base. Now, that donut is cut in half, like how you would cut a bagel. And a hazelnut cream made of whipped cream, hazelnut paste (tastes like nutella!), and pastry cream, is sandwiched in the middle. The top goes back on and now the garnishings...mini cream puffs are filled with more cream. They are dipped in hot caramel sugar--top & bottom!--and are carefully glued to the edges of the pastry. 

Okay maybe my description helped, maybe it didn't...but I'm sure these pictures will :) 

Yum yum, see what I mean? They look like golden cream-filled donuts with caramel cream puffs! So pretty and shiny! I haven't gotten to eat one...but I certainly tasted everything along the way. I snuck a fair share of the mini caramel cream puffs...a chef-in-training is supposed know what her food tastes like, right? ;) 

And now...check out this BIG MAMA

This mama goes by the name of gateau saint honore...basically, a cake-version! It's essentially the same thing, just bigger (the cream puffs, too!) and there is whipped cream for garnish. 

I've actually never seen this pastry in a bakery. So keep an eye out and let me know if you ever see it! It's always cool to see different bakeries variations of a certain dessert. I'm actually trying to get inspiration for my final by looking at different bakeries online...hey and surprisingly YouTube had some good stuff. Check out this white chocolate flower here! (It's the one I used on my midterm cake.)

And for the near future, I'm hoping to make some ghetto-style cooking vids for whoever wants to watch. Because a lot of this stuff sounds fancy and complicated to make, but it really isn't. With a few modifications all of this stuff could be made at home! And I'll have some free time on my hands...so why not? Heheee. 

Culinary School Love. (&baking production)

Maybe you know, maybe you don't...I am going to culinary school at KCC (Kapiolani Community College). The actual culinary school is called The Culinary Institute of the Pacific (I don't really get how that works). There are about 400-500 students in the culinary department and it continues to grow every year. It's only my first year at KCC, and next year will be my last. I can't express how happy KCC's culinary program has made me! I hate to admit it, but I was a little skeptical at first because it is at a community college. The inner college-snob in me came out for a minute. Growing up, I always hoped to go to Le Cordon Bleu, and this is no Cordon Bleu, but it's seriously an amazing school. We could use more ovens and equipment, but I think that's what makes this school much more like the real world. The staff is great, all of the "Chefs" share their personal work experiences with us and sincerely hope for our success. Not to mention the deal we're getting...I won't throw any numbers out there, but holy crap, my parents are saving a lot of money. Those private culinary schools are expensive! Oh and my favorite thing about the school? The sense of community! That wonderful feeling of belonging. It's been such a bonding experience, I feel like my classmates become family because we spend so much time together. Okay yeah, going on a  rant...but I really do recommend this school to anyone who is interested in the culinary world!

So here is where I am in school: since the schedule is a little weird it can get confusing. Basically, I'm finishing my second semester in school. Overall, I finished four modules...so I guess you can say our "module" system is like the quarter system.

I actually really like the module system. Everything is hands on so it feels like we're really moving along. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I was still sitting in lecture halls at UH Manoa...and it makes me SO grateful. I think I'd just explode into a big cloud of dust if I was still at UH. I couldn't wish for a better educational experience. Culinary school was definitely my calling! Not only am I learning about something that interests me, I'm also surrounded by people who feel the same way. We can discuss things in a way I never could with my other friends. Annnnd I think I'm actually liking pastry arts more than culinary arts as of now... :)

At the end of my fourth quarter I can say I've completed: fundamentals of cooking, intro to baking, intro to culinary, safety and sanitation, dining room service. And I'm currently taking intermediate baking and menu merchandising. Intermediate baking is pretty cool since we produce all of the desserts for our school's fine dining establishment, Ka Ikena. 

I love the whole idea behind Ka Ikena. It's student run. So one class is in the back (Asian Pacific) kitchen cooking dinner, my class is downstairs preparing dessert, and another class is learning how to do fine dining--so they're actually serving and managing the restaurant. It's awesome to see how many people come to the restaurant to support the students and our culinary program. I just wish my friends and family from home were here to come eat! 

And to make your eyeballs happy...check out some of the desserts we make!

Sorry, foodporn has become my life. 

This is our dessert cart! We load this thing up with a bunch of desserts, as you can see here, and customers can browse and choose what they want after dinner. Everyone in my class is assigned a different dessert every week so we get a chance to do everything. 

This is our tiramisu. We make it in a cake ring (cake rings are the best! look into them!).  Homemade lady finger  disks are soaked in espresso syrup. Marscapone mix is then mixed and layered, one layer is plain and the second is coffee. The top is combed with an icing comb to get that cool effect when we sift cocoa over it. 

This is just pure amazing. Holy crap. Chocolate mousse (milk & dark) are layered with black magic cake. Chocolate glazed and garnished with a nice fruit bouquet. 

Tropical cheesecake! Lemon cheesecake with caramelized pineapple in it is poured over a yellow spongecake "crust." In the center there is a ring of fresh pink grapefruit & mango mousse layer, disguised with more cheesecake mix over the top. It is frozen to set and then garnished with candied lemon peel and fresh fruit. 

Spring Cleaning!

Well this year has flown by...

Only 3 more weeks of class then it's summer time! But for the moment, I'm enjoying spring. I feel it in the air (literally, stupid allergies)!

Spring cleaning. Yup, I don't know why, but something about this time of the year makes me want to clean up and start fresh. So I was thinking about deleting this blog and starting a new one that I'll actually tend to. But instead, I'll make an effort to posting more often. And I think it'll be easier thanks to my shiny new MacBook Pro (thank you mom!).

Also! I'm feeling inspired to start whipping myself back into shape. Since the weather is so nice, I feel much more obligated to go outside. (Don't judge me, it isn't always sunny in Honolulu...) Damn you mousse cakes and opera tortes! Seriously though: sweets have become my life! I always thought that saying you are what you eat was so stupid, but now I get it, I turned into a muffin or something.

Oh and for those curious cats out there who might be wondering what my plans are with this culinary thing: I'm due to graduate with my AS in Pastry Arts Fall 2013! Then I will continue and get a certificate in Culinary Arts (if I have time to finish my AS in Culinary Arts, I'll do that!). So hopefully I'll be done with everything by Spring/Summer 2014. I feel like I'm on track to finish what I'm working towards and it feels awesome! I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! But that's as far as it goes, don't ask me what I'm going to do after that...because shit, that's too scary. Real world, I'm not ready for you.

I don't know whether I'll stay here in Hawaii or if I'll return to Santa Cruz! I'm thinking I'll go home because there are more opportunities there, but who knows. I'm just going with the flow and so far I like where it's taking me :)

And here's a picture!

Yep midterms have already happened! This was mine.

A lot of people ask me how tests work in culinary school. For my particular baking class, we have practical exams, where we make a cake with certain requirements or something like that. Then we also have written tests, too. That cake up there^^^ was my midterm cake. We were required to make an 8x2" cake with 6 different competencies. 

I made a chocolate-berry themed cake, and it had maybe 7 competencies in it? 

• Chocolate sponge cake
• Black magic cake (moist chocolate cake)
• Raspberry pate fruit (a layer of jelly candy)
• Chambord ganache
• Raspberry mousse
• Blackberry dark chocolate mousse 
• Dacquois (crispy hazelnut cookie)

Overall, I was happy with the final appearance. However, the sponge cake was way too try and the pate fruit was a little too thick. Got a 99% though so I can't complain :) 

Breakfast Love

I love breakfast. I really do. Mostly for the sugary treats. If you really know me...you'll know I have a pancake problem. A chocolate chip pancake problem. It's become a tradition in my life actually. Tom and I make chocolate chip pancakes every Sunday morning. I don't know if I could go a Sunday without them!

We've even experimented with some bacon. Bacon + chocolate + pancakes + maple syrup = holy crap! DELICIOUS. Salty, sweet, fluffy, crispy, gooey. It's truly ideal. Adventure time even has a song about it. Chocolate chips aren't mentioned, but they should be.

Okay, off topic! I'm here to talk about waffles right now, not pancakes! See, I'd love to make waffles...but I don't have a waffle iron!

If you're fortunate enough to own a waffle iron. You should really try out some of these recipes here. Just another good food find on the interwebz.

Oh myyy waffles can be savory, healthy, sweet, dessert, the list goes on. I don't know about you, but I'd love to try the red velvet waffles. The "cream cheese syrup" looks interesting. Definitely gonna test that one out when I have access to a waffle iron!

Aight. Just wanted to share some waffle lovin' with you. So go cook yo waffles. Bye!

Yellow Chiffon Cake.

In culinary school (patisserie side) you learn a lot of different methods. Methods, terminology, everything is very exact for baking. It's not the same as cooking. There is room for experimentation, you just have to do it right. You gotta use the methods.

Specifically, where I'm going with this is cakes. There are tons of different cake recipes. Special cakes have special names. It can get pretty confusing. I'll try to keep this simple though. Chiffon cake. The chiffon method is a special method that I've become fond of. We made a lot of chiffon cakes in class. They're simple, very versatile, and tasty cakes. They aren't very dense and I like that. The reason they aren't dense is because air (and baking powder) is the leavening agent.

The method goes something like this:

1. Make a meringue (egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar)
2. Make a batter 
3. Fold the meringue into the batter & bake right away 

So here, yellow chiffon cake:

Ingredients:

5 egg whites

2.5 oz sugar

pinch of cream of tartar

4 oz cake flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 oz sugar

1/4 C salad oil

5 egg yolks (keep the whites!)

1/3 C water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*Note: ingredients should be room temperature.

Nice n fluffy

Procedure: 

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Prepare 8" cake pan (parchment round on bottom, ungreased). 
2. Set up a mixer (clean bowl & whip--aka whisk--attachment) 
3. Whip egg whites in mixer on highest speed until they form soft peaks. Add cream of tartar and sugar. Whip until firm (but not too firm!), moist peaks. 
4. Scrape out whipped egg whites (meringue) into another bowl and set aside. 
5. In the same (egg-whitey) mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar. Put the bowl back on the mixer, but use a paddle attachment now. 
6. Turn mixer to second speed & gradually stream in the oil. Then add egg yolks one at a time (remember to stop and scrape down the bowl, this batter should be smooooooth). 
7. Stream in water, then vanilla. Keep scrapin' the bowl. 
8. Now, take the meringue you prepared earlier. Scoop out about a quarter of the meringue and fold it into the batter. 
9. Keep adding meringue & folding. Try to do this somewhat fast. Don't over mix! The fluffy air from the meringue is what makes this cake so light and nice. 
10. When everything is combined, pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Or! If you press the top of the cake gently and it springs back, it's done. 
11. Flip the hot cake upside down onto a sheet pan with parchment paper. 
12. When it's cool, run an offset spatula around the outside and pop out of the pan :) 

Woo! Chiffon cake! Next time I'll give you a strawberry shortcake...layering tutorial? Or an attempt at explaining the procedure. Yay! 

Back to Basics (Pastry Cream).

I'm going to share with you some of the basics I learned in Intro to Baking.

Pastry cream is such an important basic to know in patisserie. It's very very basic, so if you wanted, you could add chocolate, coffee, liqueurs -it can be transformed! It's used to fill cakes,  pastries, you can really get creative with it. It's also easily made into diplomat (a 50/50 mix of whipped cream & pastry cream). We used diplomat in class to fill strawberry shortcake. We had a nice layer of diplomat with fresh chopped strawberries in it. Yum!

Yup yup pastry cream, it's easy to make. All you really need to know is how to temper something. Tempering goes a little like this: you heat liquid over the stove in a saucepan and in a separate bowl you have some eggs or egg yolks (maybe mixed with other things, depending on what you're making). You need to slooowly stream in about half of the hot liquid into the eggs while mixing. Then you can add the egg/milk mix back with the rest of the hot milk. It can go back on the heat now. It's like you want the eggs and milk to reach an equilibrium so that the eggs don't cook (yuck, scrambled eggs). Yeah, so that's tempering. Easy peasy.

Creme Patisserie (Pastry Cream)

Ingredients: 
2 C milk
2 oz sugar

2 oz sugar
1.5 oz cornstarch
1 egg yolk
3 whole eggs

1.5 t vanilla extract
1 oz butter

Procedure: 

1. Prep an ice bath: you need two bowls, one larger than the other. Fill the large bowl with some ice  and rest the smaller bowl inside over the ice. Also have plastic wrap ready. 
2. In a medium saucepan, heat milk & sugar. Heat until you see steam, mix the milk so it doesn't burn. 
3. In a medium sized bowl, sift sugar and cornstarch into the eggs and mix together. 
4. When the milk is hot, temper it into the eggs (~1/2-1/3 of the milk).
5. Return the mix back into the pot with remaining milk & put back on the heat (medium/high heat). Continuously mix until it thickens. This should only take a few minutes. 
6. Remove from the heat and mix in vanilla & butter. 
7. If the pastry cream is lumpy, you can strain it. Strain it into the prepared bowl in the ice bath. 
8. Immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap so that a skin doesn't develop on the pastry cream. Make sure it's chilled in an ice bath. 

Viola! Simple, right? Now all you need is some pate choux and you've got eclairs or cream puffs  ;) 

I'm back!

Hello! Sorry for the delay! Life has gotten pretty hectic lately. Finally things are slowing down. In the past month I had my first baking job (that's right, HAD). And it's already the end of my Introduction to Baking class.

You might be wondering about this baking job. I worked in a cupcake store as an assistant baker. Basically, my job was to measure things out, sift, clean, make frostings and little things, it was a great beginning baking job. The downside was that I had to wake up at 5am, worked from 6am til 2pm then went straight to school after (3-9pm). It was craziness. Honestly, it was a good job! My coworkers were kind of quirky like me and my boss was a sweetheart. I can't deny my fear of the large amount of estrogen in the room though...it was dangerous. Anyways! That's done. I learned a lot in the whole month I worked in there, ha! For now, while I'm in school, I don't think I can handle another job like that...I'm going to look for a more mellow job.

Intro to baking is almost done, but that's not a huge deal because I'm continuing to Intermediate Baking! Same teacher, some of the same classmates, so I think it'll be fun. I'm ready to move onto bigger and better things.

As far as recipes go on my lil blog baby...I'm working on posting some new ones! I think from now on though, I'm sorry to say, I will post the recipes in ounces & lbs. Real baker style. If you prefer cups and things, you can convert--trust me it's simple. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Seriously, I finished my math career in high school with algebra 2 (and I barely passed).

Woo! So look forward to some good baking recipes!

Oh, and here's a cool thing I found on Pinterest:

How Sweet It Is

When I think of pie, I think of my brother (and these little egg dudes). He is the pie master. However, I think by the time I finish my fundamentals of baking course...I'll be able to win a pie throw down against him. Wham! Just like Bobby Flay. Nah, kidding! Kind of. But anyways, I'm two weeks into my Fundamentals of Baking class and I'm stoked! We've made chiffon pie, cream pie, apple pie, French silk pie...I feel like Bubba Gump naming all of the pies. But seriously, life has been a baking fiesta lately. 

Let me share with you what I've made so far in the past two weeks.
First off, the pies:

French Silk Pie

French Silk topped with ganache

Lemon Meringue

Apple pie topped with struesel. Yeah, it's not the cutest. But it tasted good...anything with struesel is AMAZING. Butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon. How can you go wrong with that?

Vanilla cream pie with ganache on the bottom and layers of fresh strawberries. Yum!

Now, check out this otha stuff: 

Fruit tartlets

Sour cream muffins

Chocolate chip cookie dough

Soft rolls (bench proofing)

Finished soft rolls

Yellow chiffon cake in the making