Culinary School - Q3 Week 2

Introduction to Pastry Arts

Vocabulary Week 2

Angel Food: A type of sponge cake
Chiffon: A light fluffy cake
Crumb coat: A light coating of icing to seal the crumbs on a cake
Flavorings: Vanilla, chocolate, fruit.
High Ratio: Cake: a creamed-fat cake that has a two-stage mixing method
Moisteners: Milk, juice, water
Specific Gravity: the weight of an ingredient or a mixture in relation to the weight of water
Tenderizers: Sugars, fats, egg yolks
Two Stage: liquids are added in two stages
Butter Cake: Butter cakes, also known as creaming-method cakes, begin with softened butter or shortening creamed to incorporate air cells
Creaming Method Cake: begin with softened butter or shortening creamed to incorporate air cells
Driers: Flours, starches, milk solids.
Genoise: A classic European style cake
Leaveners: Baking soda, baking powder, baking ammonia.
Ribbon Stage: The stage eggs are whipped to when they leave a ribbon in the bowl off the mixer whisks
Spongecake: Made by whipping egg yolks and whites. Gently folding flour into yolk mixture and then folding in the whipped whites.
Tougheners: Flour, milk, eggs, anything containing protein.

Objective:

Bake Spongecake
Bake Carrot Cake
Make Carrot twists
Make Cream Cheese Icing
Make Raspberry Ganache
Make Cocoa Gelee
Start Croissant Dough

Specialty Equipment:
Stand Mixer

Mixing methods:
Using dough hook for croissant dough.

Additional Information:
You need to be careful to not over whip the egg whites for the sponge cake. They can get too stiff in an instant!

Outcome & Critique:
Even though my egg whites were almost too stiff, I used them in my sponge cake anyway. The cake turned out well.

What could I have done different:
I would be careful to really keep an eye on the egg whites to make sure I don’t over whip them.

Week: 2 Day: 2

Today’s Objective:
Ice and assemble Carrot cake
Fill and assemble Yule log
Laminate Croissant dough
Make leaves and berries with fondant

Specialty Equipment:
Glazing racks

Mixing Methods:
Kneading coloring into fondant.

The Croissant dough requires rolling out but the butter needs to be cold so that it doesn’t squish out during the laminating process.
Assembly Instructions:
Brush simple syrup on sponge cake, spread with ganache, cut ¼” slice of cake and stack to make rolling easier. Roll tightly using parchment to help roll. Coat with ganache, then coat with cocoa gelee. Make a diagonal cut from each end of roll to look like branches. Garnish with leaves and berries. Dust with powdered sugar.

Additional Information:
Stacked cakes need to be leveled before icing.

Outcome & Critique:
I was pleased with the Yule log, however, I am not a fan of the raspberry ganache. When I make a Yule log at home, I usually use a butter cream or whipped cream for the filling.

I liked our carrot cake. It was a different recipe than the other group used but I liked ours better. I thought our cake looked like a Dale Chihuly art piece.

What could I have done differently:
I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I was pleased with our products.

I did have a bit of a meltdown tonight. Some of my classmates have been treating me really disrespectfully. But Chef held me aside after class and talked to me about it. I am glad that she is aware of things that go on in class. I felt a lot better after talking with her.

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake Decorations

Chihuly Art

Yule Log

Yule Log

Until next week,
Ciao!