wedding cake

For our final project in Advanced Baking, we had to come up with a wedding cake - either a real one or a styrofoam model. Most of us chose styrofoam - less to worry about, but also it can be kept forever. At first I was going to make both, but then I quickly realized that it would be nearly impossible so I settled on a styrofoam one.

I started brainstorming early, because I knew the end-of-semester crunch would inevitably come along (as Chef Mark described it, an avalanche that would snowball and gain speed, taking down everything in its path including us).

For the theme I started thinking about marriage and what I feel married to. It didn't take me long to think "my bed!" and start basing my cake entirely off my bed. I took some photos of what's on/around my bed to try to incorporate it into the whole design.



Here's the duvet, faded lavender with a fern/lavender-like design.



Here are my pillow cases, white with a swirling flower design.



Here's the tissue box, light purple with flower designs, sitting atop lavender sheets.



So from those three elements I thought I would make a three-tiered round cake - faded lavender on bottom, white in the middle, and lavender on top.

I included the lei around my lamp because the flowers were purple and white.



The mattress, although blue, has a silvery-pink rose pattern on it. I thought I could find a ribbon like that to decorate the top and/or sides of the cake.



So the first step of constructing the cake model was fondant (kind of like edible playdough) and styrofoam rounds. To get the colors I wanted, I could have used food coloring with white fondant but I chose to use up colors left behind by previous classes. I mixed a rose-hued one, an indigo one and an off-white one to create the lavender I wanted.



Once I kneaded the colors enough till they all blended, I rolled out the fondant to a big flat round and then draped it over the styrofoam round. Because the fondant I used was leftover, it was drier than fresh fondant and parts of the drape cracked. I had to rework it with some shortening so it wouldn't crack as much.



Once the three tiers of rounds were done, I set to decorating the bottom layer. Unfortunately Chef Mark didn't have a fern pattern cutter, but he did have dozens of other leaves so I picked two that I liked - one lotus-y and the other tulip-y. The cutters saved me from having to cut out leaves by hand, which would have been exhausting. The stems I was able to form using the wavy side of a bigger cutter shape. Although the design didn't come out looking exactly like my duvet cover I still liked how it looked.



Chef Ng caught a picture of me in action, pasting the fondant shapes I cut onto the fondant "cake" with the help of some water.



For the top layer I used the ribbons I purchased at Michaels. Couldn't find any silvery-patterned ones like I had imagined, so I settled for two different kinds of purple. Cut sections of ribbon and pasted it into a loop with the help of some royal icing (mostly egg whites and powdered sugar, but kind of like glue). I also used the same ribbon to surround the base of each cake layer.



Once the ribbon loops were arranged they made a flower pattern.



On top of the loop I inserted a fake white rose (also from Michaels). I would have made one out of molding chocolate like this one Chef showed us, but then it would've been off-white (because of the white chocolate) and not the bright white to match the middle layer of cake.



The last thing I did was pipe royal icing designs onto the middle layer. Royal icing itself is harder to pipe because it doesn't flow like whipped cream or buttercream. But not only that, I had to pipe sideways, which meant that I was working against and not with gravity. It was harder than I expected, so the designs I'd previously practiced on paper had to be vastly simplified.



Overall the cake was very enjoyable to make because of the whole design process - idea/theme, gathering of materials, working with material constraints, etc. There were things that I could have made better if I was willing to redo them - the cracks in the fondant, the blemishes in the piping work, etc. But I'm happy with how my first wedding cake turned out. The colors and the flowery details still remind me of my bed.



To see my classmates' final projects, click here and scroll left through the pictures!

plated dessert project

For the plated dessert project we were tasked with coming up with a single fancy plated dessert (or alternatively, working with a partner and coming up with a mini dessert buffet). While searching for inspiration on epicurious.com I found this recipe for a buttered popcorn ice cream sundae. It was reminiscent of the popcorn/carmalized poundcake/banana/almond dessert I'd eaten not too long ago at AQ. Plus, it reminded me of the ever-popular buttered popcorn jelly belly jelly bean. And the prospect of making a savory sweet ice cream was exciting. So I decided to go for it.

The ice cream flavors I've had experience making have all been flavored with the addition of a spice/extract (cardamom, vanilla, etc.). This was the first time I would be steeping the ingredient (popcorn from the bag, buttered and salted), pureeing it, cooking it, and then straining it out at the end.



The popcorn was steeped in milk and cream, puree-ed with corn syrup and sugar, then cooked with a beaten egg yolk and sugar mixture.

Once strained and cooled, I experienced some difficulties with the school ice cream makers (both were the cheap kind where you have to pour in ice and ice cream salt and refill as necessary). One flat out didn't work and the other kept stopping mid-churn. I eventually got the latter to work by taking all the ice and salt out, letting it start to churn first and then putting ice and salt gradually back in.



The ice cream I made came out to about 10 scoops (which I prescooped and froze as half-spheres).

Next I decided to make peanut pound cupcakes, which I thought would work as a pedestal for the ice cream to sit on. Pound cake recipe is easy - known in French as "quartre quarts" or four quarters, it's four ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour) in equal parts. I did a half pound of each ingredient, which was enough to make 10 cupcakes. Added some roasted peanuts in the batter. They came out nicely but weren't as moist as I had hoped, so I decided to cut them up as pound cake bites so it wouldn't be this whole chunk that one would have to dig into.



Besides that the other toppings I had were caramel sauce, chocolate peanut butter halva, peanut brittle bits, and chocolate shavings.



The caramel sauce was exciting because it was my first time making it. Basically it's butter and cream added to sugar syrup cooked to the caramel stage (important to remove it from heat as soon as the sugar starts to brown so it doesn't burn).



Making peanut brittle (another epicurious recipe) was similar to making caramel sauce, except it's adding butter and peanuts to caramel sugar syrup. Oh and baking soda, which makes it foam and... helps it set?



Whatever the case, I poured the mixture out onto marble so it would cool and harden. I tasted some pretty immediately and it was delicious - crunchy and caramel-y but not too sweet. Reminded me of the sesame peanut candy I had growing up. I passed out some pieces to people around me and they liked it a lot too.



For the chocolate peanut butter halva I took the peanut brittle and puree-ed it with some melted chocolate and peanut butter. It came out like a gritty paste - hard to dispense so I mixed it with the pound cake bites. I imagine that it made the cake bites a little bit more moist.

Since I made enough for 10 portions but only had to have 4-6 portions for the plated dessert project, I sold the extra portions as a plated dessert in the PCR dining room.

To assemble the sundae I put a handful of the cake bite mixture at the bottom, a few popcorn kernels, then the pre-scooped ice cream, then piped whipped cream, drizzled caramel sauce, then topped everything with peanut brittle bits, chocolate shavings, and a few extra popcorn kernels. (This display dessert that I had to make was difficult because instead of meltable ice cream I had to use shortening, and that was sticky/oily and messy.)



For the project version of the dessert I went a bit further and added bananas brulee. I also decided to practice my plating skills and go beyond the sundae glass to the more traditional flat plate. This version had a whipped cream quenelle on it, which I had to practice making.



This version is a more modernist take, more landscape-y and scattered, with the ice cream even cut in half.



I liked the sundae glass the best though. One of the most gratifying moment ever was me watching this girl in the PCR digging her spoon into the glass and scooping everything out from the bottom, so clearly enjoying her dessert.

To see my classmates' plated dessert projects, click here and then on the "<-- Newer" button for more.

san francisco baking institute

For Advanced Baking one day we had the honor of visiting the San Francisco Baking Institute. The facility started as a showroom for professional baking equipment. People would come from all over to test out the high capacity mixers, ovens, etc. But then there's was a lot of interest in the baking side of things (as opposed to the equipment side), so classes were formed. Nowadays the institute is a combination of education and production facility, though it still serves as a showroom. But also the masters of baking there get flown around the world to troubleshoot baking/equipment issues.

So first of all, the workrooms are giant and immaculate. This room is filled just with dough sheeters.



True the nature of it being a production facility, we got our hands dirty (well, just floured) rolling baguette.



Andy, tour guide and baking master, showed us around. After rolling baguettes we were shown to the wood-fired oven, which regularly sustains temperatures above 800 degrees Fahrenheit. It was no wonder that this naan bread he inserted into the oven (on a long wooden paddle) bubbled up pretty much immediately.



It was done in less than a minute (and devoured in roughly the same amount of time).



Then he inserted a rolled out piece of pita dough, which poofed up like magic after it went in. After he took it out we got to try our hand at rolling out and baking naan/pita.



Here's the pita I put in, burnt because of the extra seconds it spent the oven (too much traffic around the oven for me to take it out on time!).



After that we went back to the baguettes, which had proofed, and laid them out on the deck oven belt. We scored them (cut slits) and sent them into the oven.



They came out nice and crispy-crusted, and as an extra surprise we got to take all of it home :)



I signed up to volunteer with the bread-making class this summer, and hopefully there will be more opportunities down the road!

mousse cake

In Advanced Baking we've been preoccupied with making mousse cakes. Since the class only meets once a week, what would usually be a multi-day affair became a multi-week affair for us.



Since we were making fancy mousse cakes, we started off first with the decorative sponge (the ring of cake with designs on the side).

The pattern design was made with something called pâte à cigarette batter. Powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, all purpose flour (4 oz each), and some pink food coloring (to reflect the guava layer in the middle of the cake).



Marianne and I decided to be cute and use the polka dot template. We basically spread the batter over the template and scraped the surface clean, then lifted the template up so the pattern remained. Then we spread a layer of joconde sponge cake batter over the pattern and baked until just golden.



Then we moved onto the cake middle, which was to be guava gelée. You can make gelée out of any fruit - it's basically fruit puree with gelatin, or fruit jelly.



Once the decorative sponge had cooled, we cut it into strips and lined a spring form pan (cake pan whose bottom can be released from the sides) with acetate tape (hard, clear plastic).



Next to the acetate went the decorative sponge strip. On the bottom went half of a white cake layer. The cake was soaked with passionfruit simple syrup, in keeping with our theme of tropical fruits.



Once this was done and we had all the rest of the cake materials in place, we made the mousse. The mousse is made last because you want the assembly to go fast so the mousse can set. We did mango mousse, which was 16 oz mango puree cooked with 5 oz sugar, plus 6 bloomed gelatin sheets (or 7.5 tsp gelatin powder), then cooled and incorporated with 2 cups of whipped heavy cream.



Poured the mousse over the bottom cake layer, then added the guava gelée layer (which broke a little as we transferred it).



Over that went another cake layer...



And more mousse to finish.



The mousse cakes went into the freezer to set (would be refrigerated if you were to use it the next day). Then came the decorating part.

We added passionfruit simple syrup to mirror glaze, which comes from a bucket and bridges the gap between solid and liquid. As such, we could spread it over the cake, and it would stay in place with shiny glory.



Originally we were going to use real passionfruit seeds to garnish, but unfortunately no passionfruit came in with the produce order. I decided to scoop out little balls of mango instead.



Marianne arranged the mango balls in a flower shape, and then I cut "leaves" out of the green mango peel. To prevent the cake from looking too sparse we colored some pearl sugar with pink food coloring and I placed the sugar crystals in curved lines around the cake using acetate tape as a guide.



Besides our pretty mousse cake, check out our classmates' cakes (click on "<-- Newer" to view cakes individually). All of our mousse cakes were displayed nicely, then cut and served up to taste. I think by the end, we were all mousse-caked out.

This was our cake after a slice was cut out of it. Perfect layers, but doesn't it look strangely enough like a ham sandwich?!

macarons with marshmallow middles

In Advanced Baking we moved onto confections, and we had our choice of what to make: marshmallows, fruit jellies, caramels, hard candies, etc. Half the class opted for marshmallows - to distinguish ourselves, Marianne and I opted to sandwich ours between French macarons and forgo the usual layer of jam.

Marshmallows are one of those things that are readily available in the grocery store so you never really think about making it. For me, those are the things that are most fascinating to make, the ones you take for granted (ex: mayonnaise, peanut butter, most condiments really). The freshly made versions also end up tasting better, not just because the ingredients are fresh there are no additives/preservatives but also because you can customize the flavor!

To make marshmallows I had to soak sheets of gelatin - which start out like sheets of thin plastic but become soft and rubbery once it sits in water:



This bloomed gelatin sheets are then whipped into italian meringue (sugar water cooked to 240F softball stage and poured into egg whites whipped to medium peaks):



Then I added flavoring (rose water) and food coloring (pink) to customize the marshmallows. We were a little limited with flavoring since they had to be in essential oil form (and not, for example, fruit puree form), since otherwise it would change the consistency of the marshmallow.



Here's the finished product on sheet tray. It had to sit a bit in order to firm up. And to prevent it from sticking, we oiled parchment paper and put it both beneath the marshmallow layer and on top.



Meanwhile Marianne set to work with the French macarons. Here she is piping them the batter (with a little green food coloring added):



They had to sit out and develop a skin on top before they were baked. See them rising?



Then came time to assemble. We cut the marshmallow into ridged circles (for the macaron sandwiches) and hearts (just for fun), which were then rolled in a half cornstarch half powdered sugar mixture. Other groups cut theirs into even funner shapes like octopus for example.



The circle shaped ones were sandwiched between the macarons:



Mine before I ate it :)



I really liked the contrasting textures, the crispy/chewy macaron exterior with the soft marshmallow interior. Apparently one of the dishwasher ladies liked them too, because she asked Chef to buy a whole box to take home. First time anyone has ever purchased my treats!