Before Christmas break, we as a class all did our own plated desserts. We got our own ideas, and started experimenting. I decided on making a peach chamomile mousse. The base of the mousse was a lemon olive cake, the middle layer was the peach mousse with the chamomile, and the top layer was just the chamomile mousse. It was quite a tricky process since it was my first time making mousse. I also glazed lemon slices, and added them as decoration. I think it turned out, but I wouldn't make it again, because it didn't chill properly, and the taste wasn't quite there like it was supposed too.

Walnut Tart

A couple of weeks ago I made a walnut tart for one of my practicals. I hadn't made a walnut tart before but was familiar with pecan tarts. So I decided to make it, and it turned out really well. To add a different taste and for a better presentation look, I drizzled caramel on top. I was happy with the taste and texture when it was finished.

French Silk Pie

I've always liked pie, but this one was probably one of my favorites. I made a chocolate filling, but it had a creamier and lighter texture than most chocolate pies. I just mixed all the ingredients with the mixer on high speed until it was light and fluffy, while gradually adding the eggs. I topped it off with Chantilly and chocolate shavings to give it the final touch. I really enjoyed making this pie and I think it turned out pretty well.

Coconut Almond Tart

One day I was searching through the recipe book looking for something new to bake, when I came across this Coconut Almond Tart. It sounded delicious and fun, so I figured I would give it a try. I am really glad I did! It turned out really well, especially for my first time making it. The only thing I would have done differently is added less sugar to the filling because it was a little too sweet. It had a good flavor though, and the dark chocolate helped to balance out the sweetness of the coconut. After making the tart shell and filling, I topped it off with a feathered design using dark and white melted chocolate. I'm really glad I tried out this dessert.

Florentines

Some time ago I decided to try something new, so I made Florentines. For my first time making them I think they turned out pretty good. The most difficult part was shaping them like a cylinder because it had to be done quickly when they came out of the oven, otherwise they became too stiff to shape. My favorite part was brushing them with chocolate and sprinkling them with toasted almonds. Next time I would chill the batter in the refrigerator longer so they expand better in the oven. Overall, for my first time making them I think they turned out pretty well. The taste and texture was really good in my opinion, and I would definitely make them again!

Pie

I've always hated regular pie crust and usually pie in general, so for the first pie I made I went with an Oreo type cookie crumb crust with chocolate cream filling and I topped it with coconut for contrast. I enjoyed making it and I think it turned out well

Plated desert

For our plated desert assignment I went with something i'd done before so I knew the general idea of how to put it together. I chose chocolate tuile cookies filled with raspberry cream cheese mousse, topped with tempered chocolate and a fresh raspberry. I decorated the plate with raspberry coulis and whipped cream

Cake pops

I underestimated the difficulty of cake pops. Taking them out of the freezer by two's and dipping them in the always ready and not setting bowl of chocolate and dripping them so they don't set in a puddle of their own skin. My first cake pops failed horribly and I was quite frustrated, so i left over half the cake pops to try another day and these faces turned out well

Awhile back in bakeshop I made this fruit tart. I really liked the bright colors of the fruits.

I think cutting the fruits into the thin layer was one of the hardest thing to do. I was scared I would burn the pastry cream but it turned out pretty good. In my opinion the kiwi was a little sour. The raspberries were sweet, it kind of balanced the kiwi out. Overall I think the fruit tart was really good. 

  Two weeks ago, I got to make my first Danish dough. It was a bit confusing at first, but the dough turned out really well. At first I was supposed to make Danishes, but then plans changed and I got to make Croissants. I had to take a whole day making the Croissants because I had to let the dough proof, and do the four/three folds. To make the final product, flaky and delicious I had to roll out some butter, and fold it in with the dough. Once I had finished the folds, I had to cut them into even triangles, and start rolling them up. I let them rise a little bit, and then baked them. I was really happy about the finished result, and how delicious they were. Next time I would want to add some kind of filling or glaze for the croissants. This week I made another Danish dough, and this time I made actual Danishes. After I cut them into squares and folded them, I added almond filling in the middle. Once I had baked the Danishes the filling had spread all over the Danish. Since that didn't work out I added a scoop of raspberry jam, and drizzled the Danish with icing. I am happy how they turned out but next time I would try to organize my time a bit more. 

Black-box Challenge

Monday morning after we finished the big order for the Katie Care so we slowed everything down and did a fun Monday where we decided to do a Black-box surprise ingredient challenge. The surprise ingredient was Pumpkin purée. I decided I would make cute little cupcakes . I found recipe on the internet and which had the cupcake and the icing in one recipe. There was a delicious pumpkin spice icing that was supposed to go on top to decorate in the end. It ended up being too liquid to pipe on top so I used it as filling for the cupcakes which added a very creamy taste to the cupcake. Instead I topped the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and added some of the liquid pumpkin spice just to add some of that same flavor in the toping. It was a lot of fun making them and I would recommend this recipe to others. 

a couple of weeks ago, we had a catering event. We spent most of may testing and making stuff for it, such as puff pastry straws, strawberry tuxedoes, and cake pops. I had a lot of fun and got some experience making lots of macarons. I also helped Mikayla decorate her cake pops.

Catering Event

On May 29 Vern Riemer had a retirement party. We got to cater for it. We made so many desserts. We thought we wouldn't have enough desserts but we had more than enough. I made the cream puffs. I was going to make swans but they weren't elegant enough. So we just filled them with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate.

Other people made macaroons, mini tarts, cake pops, strawberry tuxedos, parmasean straws, chocolate truffles and apple roses. We had sooooooo many parmasean straws leftover we had to throw them out. All the desserts were delicious.

Photo Challenge

 After spring break we did a photo challenge where we had to pick a photo and try to recreate it. this is what I chose:

It looked like a chocolate mousse with a tempered chocolate disk, chocolate ganache rosette and a chocolate curl. This is what I created: 

I got to temper chocolate for the first time. It wasn't really that hard. I had made mousse before so it was much easier this time. I really enjoyed making this.

Frozen Choc. Hazelnut Mousse

                For the frozen dessert practical I made chocolate, hazelnut frozen mousse. I made the mousse and a chocolate cage to surround it, added some whipped cream and toasted hazelnuts on top and I was done.  The mousse took longer to freeze then I expected but it was just frozen enough to handle when I added the chocolate cage.

                A requirement  for the practical was that we make just enough for two desserts,  so the amount of hazelnuts I needed was very small, too small  to use the food processor. I thought if I used a knife and tried to chop the hazelnuts into small pieces it would work, it didn't. Most of the nuts sunk to the bottom before the mousse froze. Next time I would try using a coffee grinder,  and maybe find a faster way to freeze the mousse. The good thing about making such a small portion was that I could use couverture chocolate, which was great because when I tried making the mousse with regular chocolate chips it was grainy and not as smooth. All in all I think I did okay. 

Retirement Party

            For the retirement party I helped to make cake pops and truffles. It was lots of fun working with all that chocolate. The cake pops were easy, Jasmine made them beforehand, and I had lots of help dipping and decorating them!

Several people help me coat the cake pops in tempered chocolate, while Jane and Violetta helped with the delicate bows and flowers. The decorations took the longest, every flower was cut out one at a time then thinned out and finally shaped and left to dry. Once they were dry a little bit of chocolate was piped into center.

 The bows were made from ribbon, Violetta taught me how to make them. The process was time consuming but I enjoyed making them. Jane made the pretzel, caramel ganache used for the truffles. We flicked gold dust into the molds and poured dark chocolate on top. They turned out nice.

Sugar free sweet potato cake

I made this cake for my practical I replaced the sugar with stevia. I would have need a little bit more in the icing, though cause it is a little bitter.

And this is the final torte I made... I had to practice for my practical and that's how I decorated it. The cake itself is a genoise cake and in the middle is a baked meringue and then the filling and the decoration is Whipped whipping cream and Dulce de leche. The hardest part was making the Dulce de leche, I think I had to redo it 3 times because it had burnt. but this is the end project. 

And this is the last blog for ever... so everyone else have fun in the following years.

2 days ago were catering. And that's what I made these strawberry tuxedos; that was such fail I must say. but I hope they were delicious. For this event we stayed at school and we were catering from 4-7 and it was very interesting seeing those teachers I had in those earlier years. The cute little bear is Molding chocolate but Mikayla Thiessen made it. Good job Mikayla😊

On May 17, we went to a chocolate shop. we tried a lot of different types of  chocolate. The chocolate shop was very cool, because there was a chocolate rabbit made of different types of chocolate.