The demo that Chef H gave this morning was really good. He outlined all the things we had to do and showed us exactly how to use our time efficiently (since we have to do so many things in 2.5 hours). In the past, according to the chefs, students have always had problems with finishing this cake on time, but today we pretty much managed to finish on time (or just a few minutes late). All thanks to the way Chef H taught us to organise our time in the practical class.
The Blood Orange Mousse Cake is lined with a printed joconde biscuit (chocolate cigarette paste scraped with pastry comb and then overcoated with joconde sponge to give it the dark and light-colored stripes) on the outside, then the bottom layer is a disc of lady fingers biscuit that has been imbibed with blood orange syrup, topped with a layer of white chocolate bavarian mousse, followed by a disc of flourless chocolate biscuit, then topped off with a layer of blood orange mousse. The top of the cake is covered with clear glaze and a few drops of food color-tinted glaze (to give the attractive marbling effect). Then the fruit and chocolate decorations go on the cake at the last minute.
Here is the blood orange mousse cake I made:
You can see the printed joconde biscuit on the side. It is an attractive pattern, isn't it?
Chef H said my decoration on the cake was quite nice. It had "movement" (his word) in it.
The chocolate and fruit decorations were the things that took the least time to prepare, and I was lucky my placement of the various elements worked well today.
You can see from the side that the chocolate decorations has lots of curves and I think that's the "movement" that Chef H was referring to.
While my cake looked pretty and the montage was fairly good, Chef said there were a number of weaknesses I had to work on... Mostly to do with my forgetfulness. /sigh!/
First of all, I didn't use up all of my joconde mixture, and it puzzled Chef (I reckon I have a way of doing things that make the chefs here shake their heads in disbelief). Everyone else used up their mixtures, but I had a fair bit left over. I had simply made a thinner printed joconde, that's all. But that is risky, because you don't want the "walls" of the cake to be too thin, right? It might not be strong enough to hold in all the mousse.
Then I made a big mistake with my white chocolate mousse - I forgot to put the whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture. I poured the mixture into the cake ring, and Chef H spotted it and asked me if I added the whipped cream. I said, "Oh no!!!" He said, "Scoop it out and add the cream! It is not too late." Thank goodness Chef H has eyes on the back of his head! :) Boy, am I lucky he caught it in time (or my mousse wouldn't have set properly at all)!
Later in the practical, I walked around the pastry kitchen looking for the blood orange pulp (I even asked Chef where it was), when it was right in front of me in my station. Chef had given each of us a bowl of blood orange pulp at the start of the practical, and I put it next to the mixer and simply forgot about it. Arrrrrgh!!!
OK, I basically had two "senior moments" in one practical. When it comes time for grading, Chef tells me I have to concentrate harder next time (and not to make the same mistakes should this cake turn up in the exam). I reckon I was concentrating so hard today that I forgot the little things. I think that's known as absent-mindedness.
Anyway, the white chocolate mousse didn't set as well as Chef H would have liked it, but everything else was basically OK.
What a day!!!
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PS. I am so sorry to hear that the death toll for the Victorian bushfires has risen to 173 today! It is so sad! I hope the grief-stricken communities recover from this tragedy quickly.
