Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Open House

Today was LCB Ottawa's Open House, where visitors and potential students (and their families) were invited for a tour around the school and to experience what it is like to be a student at LCB.

I was in Production Kitchen at 7:30am, because I volunteered to bake the pastries and muffins to be served to visitors. See the photo immediately below for the pastry platter that another student and I prepared.


A pastry platter with croissants, cinnamon twists, apricot danishes, chocolate croissants, chocolate & pear croissants.



This is one of two fruit platters that Chef A prepared for the Open House. Beautiful, isn't it? (Click on photo to see a larger image.)



This is the other fruit platter that Chef A prepared.



This is Salle Cointreau, which is one of the demo rooms. Here, you see LCB Ottawa staff talking about the history of the School, just before Chef D (cuisine chef, he is standing on the left) came on to do his demo. This brought back memories of what I experienced on Orientation Day in September last year.


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After the baking was done at 9:30am, I went upstairs to Salle Cointreau to help and to watch one of the cuisine chefs and one of the pastry chefs present a short demo. It was an interesting morning. It is always fun to assist the chefs in events like that, because you get to work with the chefs, rather than have them watch you work (and critique your creations) in the practical kitchen. They seem so much more human when you are working for them. :-)

I think I will really miss LCB Ottawa when I finish my courses.

How time flies! Two more weeks to the Intermediate Pastry final exam. I can feel my stress levels going up now, but I have to stay focused and do what I have to do... One day at a time.

IP Lesson 17: Triple Chocolate Bavaroise

Last night, Chef N did the demo on the Triple Chocolate Bavaroise cake, and it is a triple (white, milk and dark) chocolate bavarian mousse cake, with a lady finger base at the bottom.

I made the cake in my practical this morning, but I was not impressed with my own effort. Here's what I ended up with:


My full-size Triple Chocolate Bavaroise, with chocolate fan decorations


A mini triple chocolate bavaroise, used for plated dessert. Here, it is held together by a sheet of acetate, and you can see the layering -- dark chocolate at the bottom, then milk chocolate, then white chocolate, and topped with a chocolate glaze and chocolate fan decorations. It was so hard to keep the mousse from melting onto the plate...

The chocolate fan decorations were made with melted chocolate pasted onto ice-cold marble boards, and then scraped off and shaped into fans. It was the first time I have seen this done. Chef N made it look simple, but it was not easy.

I find this cake too troublesome and difficult to make in 2.5 hours. My cake turned out ok (with a few minor problems that I can fix the next time I make it, e.g. imbibe the lady finger base with more syrup), but I didn't enjoy the experience much. But then, it could be because I was sleep-deprived this morning -- a housemate came home at 2am last night and woke me up by talking loudly outside my room. I ended up not being able to go back to sleep until 5am, and my practical was at 8:15am. /sigh/

Anyway, I am not a big fan of this dessert (I don't like the gelatin in the chocolate mousse), so I gave my cake away to a friend, who told me it was her favorite cake. I am glad someone can enjoy the cake/dessert.

IP Lesson 16: Opéra

Yesterday Chef N showed us how to make the Opéra cake and we did it in our practicals today.

The Opéra cake is one of my favourite cakes. I had never made it before today's practical class, but I used to buy it from the Lindt Chocolate Shop at Martin Place (when I was working in Sydney), so I know quite well what it should taste like.

The Opéra cake is rectangular in shape and basically has seven thin layers altogether. The total height of the cake should not exceed 4cm (or 1.5 inch). The seven layers are (starting from the bottom): joconde biscuit (generously imbibed with coffee syrup), coffee buttercream, imbibed joconde biscuit, chocolate ganache, imbibed joconde biscuit, coffee buttercream, and finally, chocolate glazing on top.

[Aside: It has come to my attention that readers of my blog see the word "biscuit" mentioned in my blog all the time and they think it means the dry, crunchy biscuits you buy from the supermarket. Actually, when I talk about biscuit (French pronunciation: "bis-kwee") in my blog, it refers to a type of soft sponge cake in French pastry. And joconde biscuit is a thin layer of almond sponge cake.]

Here's the Opéra cake I made:


The pattern on top of the cake was specified by Chef N, who told us this was the traditional pattern on an Opéra cake. Chef N insisted we include the accent mark on the "e" in Opéra (I forgot mine until a classmate reminded me). We had to serve a full-size cake, an individual portion, and some smaller pieces as petits fours. Chef N had taught us the techniques for cutting up the cake into individual portions and petits fours, so he wanted to check we could do it properly.

The feedback I got from Chef N was that I pretty much got all the major elements right in my Opéra cake. The taste, texture, glazing, imbibing, height of the cake, layering and so on were all fine. My cutting skills were still not quite up to scratch yet -- the right-hand side of my cake was not cut straight, and detracted from the presentation slightly.

Oh yes, Chef N told me I did well in my Intermediate Pastry written exam (worth 10% of total course marks) yesterday, with a score of over 95 out of 100. I was pleasantly surprised, and glad that my written exam marks will help make up for the low marks I got for some of my disastrous practicals (e.g. the Marquise au Chocolat and the Millefeuille).

All in all, it was a good day for me... I have another practical first thing tomorrow morning. We are making the Triple Chocolate Bavaroise (mousse cake). I hope it goes well.

A Pet Fish Named Sushi

Yes, we now have a pet in Wilbrod House. It's a blue-coloured Siamese fighting fish that the owner of the house, DF, brought home about 10 days ago. One housemate suggested the name Sushi, and it kind of stuck. At least the fish wasn't named Amuse-bouche (apparently suggested by another housemate).

I was somewhat dismayed when I got home from School one evening and found that they had named the fish after a dish... But no one wanted to change the name, so Sushi it is. /sigh/ Trust the people here in the House to have food on their minds all the time!

The fish bowl usually sits on the dining table. Sometimes, it gets moved to the counter near the dining table. I bet the little fish is not happy to be in the middle of such a noisy environment, with the TV going at full blast during the day and 16 housemates coming and going. Poor thing!

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On a sombre note, I saw the flag outside Australia House (corner of Wilbrod and Augusta Streets) flying at half-mast today. I think it's been like this since Sunday. I believe it is for the National Day of Mourning (for the bushfire victims in Australia).



I hope we don't see any more bushfires going out of control in Victoria this weekend.

IP Lessons 15: Pacific Cake

In the demo class this morning, Chef N made several versions of the stunningly beautiful Pacific Cake, just to show us a few of the possibilities with this cake. As I have said before, Chef N's cakes are always works of art -- his designs are simple but elegant, which is quite different from Chef H's more complex but warm/friendly designs. Two different chefs, two very distinct styles. I am glad we get both chefs teaching us at the Intermediate level.

What made it such a good demo today was the fact Chef N shared a lot of little tricks of the trade with us. I have to say he's improved out of sight as an instructor. I am not sure whether it is because he's built up a great rapport with us (perhaps he hadn't done so when we were in Basic Pastry), or whether he's made a conscious choice to enhance his teaching techniques, or maybe a bit of both. Either way, I enjoyed the demo very much. I came away feeling most inspired.

The Pacific cake is essentially a mousse cake, consisting of a colorful Joconde biscuit on the outside and bottom (with multi-colored cigarette paste marbled on the outside of the Joconde biscuit), a bottom layer of strawberry mousse and a top layer of lemon mousse. It is glazed on top with a neutral glaze, and then decorated with fruits. The Pacific cake is supposed to make you think of a Pacific Island holiday...

I cannot resist sharing photos of Chef N's Pacific cakes here, because they were so artistically constructed. I'm sure you'd agree the cakes are almost too pretty to eat.


Chef N made this as a plated dessert. It was fascinating to see how he put this plate together. It was like watching an artist at work.


Chef N's round Pacific cake


Chef N's tear-drop shaped Pacific cake

I was still a little slow in my practical today, but I managed to present both the full-size cake and the plated dessert to Chef N, just a couple of minutes after he called "time". I was a little late mostly because the eleven of us had to wait our turns with the blow-torch (for unmolding the mousse cake from the cake ring).

Below are my full-size Pacific cake and my plated version:







Of course, my designs were a far cry from the Chef's, but I'm happy with them. A beginner like me should always keep it clean and simple until we build up enough confidence to take some risks. And as we are exposed to more and more designs or examples from the chefs, we can gradually incorporate those techniques to enhance our own presentation skills.
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PS. I dedicate my Pacific cake to my beloved sister L, just because it is such a pretty cake, and because she and I both love fruits (including the ones I used to decorate my cake with). I will make her a Pacific cake when I get home later in the year.

My Week in Review

I've been quite busy this week, so I haven't really had time to write about all the new things I learnt. But today is my rest day, so here is my week in review:

Monday: I had trouble with my Marquise au Chocolat (mousse cake), and ran out of time to plate my mini-Marquise. Then I spent the late-afternoon and evening watching Chef H do a demo on the croquembouche. A long day ...

Tuesday: I did my stage (internship) at Stubbe. I learnt to make the centre of the praliné-marzipan chocolate truffle, lemon cream, white wine cream and hazelnut pound cakes, and I practised making marzipan roses and leaves.

Wednesday: I spent 5 hours at School making the croquembouche (French wedding cake). I was pleased with the results, even if my croquembouche was not the prettiest in my class.

Thursday: I did my stage at Stubbe again. This time, I was taught to make a special blend of hot chocolate that Stubbe sells at the shop. I made some dark chocolate glaze for covering cakes. I also learnt to layer and mask the lemon cakes with lemon buttercream (I did about 9 cakes) and to cover some of them with marzipan, to glaze the cakes with dark chocolate glaze, and decorate them with piped rosettes and so on. The tricky part was to get the cakes to all end up the same size (even layering and same height), which I could not do at first, but by the end of the day, I managed fine. I have to say I learnt so much about the techniques for mass producing cakes (unlike at School, where we only make one cake at a time)... In mass production, one learns to be very organised and much more efficient indeed.

Friday: I volunteered in Production Kitchen, starting at 6am. As usual, I made and baked three kinds of baguettes for Bistro Cordon Bleu -- 1. plain baguettes with egg wash and sesame seeds, 2. baguettes with dried cranberries and chopped walnuts, 3. baguettes with chopped kalamata olives. Later I helped with the assembly of some demo boxes, and mentored a couple of Basic Pastry students (on Chef CP's orders). In the afternoon, I went to the Canadian War Museum with some classmates.

Saturday: I went to School to watch Chef B (Cuisine chef) do a demo on Spanish food. I love Spanish food, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to watch the demo. (Aside: LCB students who volunteer to assist the chef are allowed to watch demos when the chefs present short courses to the public on Saturdays. But because I used to attend French language classes on Saturdays, I missed out on those opportunities.) Anyway, I now know how to make Gazpacho, Horchata, Paella and Churros. It was such a stimulating class!!! I really like the way Chef B presented the techniques for preparing and cooking the ingredients. Like Chef H (from Pastry), he too is a methodical teacher! Now I wish I were taking French cuisine courses ... I hope the pastry chefs at school don't see this, or I would end up in their bad books. Heheheh!

[Aside: There's a bit of friendly rivalry between the cuisine and pastry chefs, and pastry students who are interested in cuisine (like me) get teased mercilessly by the pastry chefs about being tempted by "the dark side". :D]

Next week promises to be exhausting too. We have to make 3 different cakes at School (the Pacific cake, the Opera cake, and the Triple Chocolate Bavarois cake), as well as sitting for a written exam on Tuesday morning. I am giving stage a miss for a week, just because things are so hectic right now.

Stay tuned for pictures of the cakes I make next week!

Canadian War Museum

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa with some of my classmates. I volunteered for Production Kitchen in the morning and then met up with my classmates at 1pm. We caught a bus to the Museum. (Aside: It is so good to see the buses running again. Bus fares are half-price on weekdays and free on weekends for the month of February, to make up for the inconvenience commuters suffered during the 51-day bus strike.)

It was a thought-provoking trip to the Museum. I am glad I had the chance to reflect on history and human nature. Here are some photos of the trip that I want to share with everyone:
(You can click on the photos to see a larger version.)


Main entrance of the Canadian War Museum


A definition for "war".


Map of Queen Victoria's British Empire


Scale model of trenches


Scale model of trenches. Can you imagine being in one of these trenches in WWI?


Weapons that were used in the trenches to inflict suffering on other human beings (who are labelled "enemies", of course). A reminder of how violent and cruel human beings can be.


This was the exhibit in the Museum that touched me the most. See the next photo.


Poignant reminders of the painful cost of war. Someone made the ultimate sacrifice and his family paid a terrible price. How sad!


May we never forget that animals suffered as well, when humans engaged in wars.


A photo of the sunset, taken just as we left the Museum at 4:50pm (closing time was 5pm).

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Quote of the day (from the Canadian War Museum):

"Who is to pay ...?"
Who is to pay the awful loss, who will heal the wounds of the broken-hearted mothers and wives, who will take care of the thousands of orphaned children? - William Crosby.

IP Lessons 13 & 14: Croquembouche

We learnt to make the croquembouche (the French Wedding Cake) for Lessons 13 & 14. It takes quite a bit of time to make the croquembouche, that is why we have two lessons on it - the first is on how to make and shape the nougatine and the second is on assembling techniques.

Croquembouche literally means "crunch in the mouth". It is made of nougatine (toasted sliced almonds in caramel, rolled to the required shape) and choux puffs filled with pastry cream, and stuck together with lots of caramel (hence the "crunch in the mouth").

Chef H made a beautiful croquembouche -- complete with pulled sugar flowers and ribbon, royal icing, and spun sugar -- in the demo on Monday night:


Chef H's croquembouche was so pretty that no one in class wanted him to cut it (for tasting). We took some photos and left it at that.

Sometimes pastry chefs use a cone to help with the assembly of a croquembouche, but Chef H did it freehand, and we had to do the same.

For our practical this morning, we took about 5 hours (= two practicals back to back) to make our croquembouche. We had to use at least 50 choux puffs, the nougatine, and some royal icing in our croquembouche, but we did not make pulled sugar flowers (which is something we will do in Superior Pastry).

Here's what I managed, and I must say I'm happy with my first-time effort. Even though it is not as fancy as some of my classmates' croquembouche, I felt I had done my best. I wanted to make something neat and simple, and I achieved my goal. Chef H said he liked the nougatine ribbon I made for the croquembouche, so that's a bonus for me.


Anyway, I left my croquembouche in the staff dining room at School, because I didn't think we could finish that many croquembouche at Wilbrod House (there are four of us in Intermediate Pastry, so four times the cake every lesson).

Here are some examples of the croquembouche my classmates made:

Lovely works of art, I'd say. I have some pretty talented and creative classmates, and I'm glad I am in the same group as them (because they inspire me to try harder and be more imaginative).

The croquembouche below is also by a classmate. It is unusual for a number of reasons. The choux puffs in this croquembouche is filled with pistachio pastry cream, dipped in caramel and rolled in chopped pistachio. I didn't get to taste it, but I imagine it would be quite nice. Also, the butterfly made with white royal icing is so pretty against the green background.



This classmate is one of three selected by the chefs to compete in a pastry competition in May, and I'm sure you can see why.

All in all, it was a good day for me, even though I burnt my fingers a couple of times when dipping the choux puffs in hot caramel. In fact, everyone in my class burnt their fingers doing the same thing, so it is no big deal.

IP Lesson 12: Marquise au Chocolat

Last Friday Chef H showed us how to make the lovely Marquise au Chocolat, which is essentially a chocolate mousse cake, with a bottom layer of chocolate biscuit that has been imbibed with rum syrup, a middle layer of crispy praliné, and the rest of the cake is just dark chocolate mousse. The top of the cake is glazed with a dark chocolate glaze. I have to say, the taste of this cake is simply divine.

Chef H made it look so easy, but I found out otherwise. As I was making it for the first time this morning, I found it quite difficult to get the consistency of the chocolate mousse right.

We were supposed to make a full-size cake and a plated dessert of the Marquise, but I could only manage to complete the full-size cake in the given time of 2.5 hours. I had no time to plate the mini dessert at all. My other mistakes were the overworking of the mousse (resulting in a slightly grainy texture), and the temperature of the glaze on top was incorrect. The glaze should have been a touch warmer and more liquid, so that it covers the cake more evenly.

This was what my Marquise au Chocolat looked like at the time I presented it to Chef N:


It really was the best I could manage on the day, and that's all I can ask for from myself.

Chef N said I had nice ideas for decorating the cake, but that I will need to correct the mistakes I made in the making of the cake. Oh well, I live and learn...

Basically, there's nothing else to do but practice (and gain experience). I guess I will have to work faster in the future, but I worry that my attempts to work faster will result in more mistakes, so I will have to be very careful. I will have to review what I did today and come up with a plan for next time. I really do like this cake a lot and I want to make it well.

Anyway, I am heading back to class this afternoon to watch the chef demonstrate the making of the croquembouche, which we will have to make on Wednesday morning.

Volunteer Event (RCMP)

Yesterday I spent over 13 hours at School (before 10am till after 11pm) helping out with the special event that LCB Ottawa was running. Frankly, it was an interesting experience for me!

You see, sometimes LCB Ottawa runs team-building events for corporate groups or people outside of the School, which means these people (who may be from the same company or organization, but who don't know each other) come into the LCB kitchens to learn to cook a special menu, just as a team-building/networking exercise. When LCB Ottawa conducts these events, student volunteers are needed to assist in the kitchen. And that's what I volunteered for.

Yesterday it was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who were doing their team-building exercise. About two dozen of their senior executives from different parts of Canada were here, and they were asked to prepare all the dishes on a menu created by a consultant (they were given recipes to follow). My classmates and I had assembled all the necessary ingredients beforehand, and we were on hand to assist if they needed help with the cooking. But the participants, divided into teams, basically had to work out how they were to tackle the task of making a five-course fine-dining meal.

I was assigned to assist in the pastry kitchen, while a couple of my classmates were in the cuisine kitchen next door. By the way, here are some photos of the pastry kitchen (where I normally have my practicals):

That station at the end (where my classmate is standing) is my favourite station. If I am lucky (i.e. I get into the kitchen first when Chef opens the door at the start of a practical), I go for that station. It is nearest to all the ingredients we need (sugar, flour, butter, etc.), so that is why everyone likes that station.



This is the other side of the pastry kitchen. Marble kitchen bench with refrigerators and freezers underneath, and stoves/ovens across from the kitchen bench.



The stoves, ovens and pots we work with, along with racks on the side for baking trays.


We assembled ingredients and did the mise en place from 10am to 12noon, then we had a break for lunch. From 1pm to 3pm, the consultant briefed us on what needed to be done (the schedule, procedures and protocols), and then the event began at 3pm.

The photo below shows the simple but tasty lunch that Chef JM (the supervising chef for the event, and LCB Ottawa cuisine chef) made for us - it was French omelette with salad and crusty bread. It was so good!




Anyway, back to the event... As a former educator, I found it fascinating to observe the event participants working in the pastry kitchen. These senior police officers were very good at following instructions - they read the recipes and they followed the steps closely (more so than us students would have, I reckon). They started out working on small tasks as individuals, but by the end of two hours they were communicating and negotiating the tasks as teams (as you can see in the photo below).


The participants working in teams.


Below are some of the dishes the participants had to prepare in the afternoon (3pm-5:30pm). The participants prepared the food for the appetiser and dessert, the volunteers cooked the main course and plated all the dishes, then the restaurant servers took the dishes downstairs to the restaurant below the pastry and cuisine kitchens to serve to the participants at dinnertime (6:30pm), when all of the participants had changed into formal attire and gathered in Salle Cointreau.


Heart of palm cucumber soup, served chilled with sliced ham in a shot glass



Asian beef carpaccio on sushi rice, sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds and served on oriental porcelain spoons



Spicy shrimps sautéed in herb garlic butter, served with zesty ginger mayonnaise



Smoked salmon stack with mâche, avocado and mango, drizzled with a mustard herb vinaigrette and served with a bouquet of sprouts



Strawberries (dressed with Cointreau orange liqueur) and cognac chantilly cream sandwiched in kataifi discs, served with caramel sauce and fresh fruit (the orange fruit on top of the dessert is known as "physallis" or "cape gooseberry")


I didn't get a photo of the main course (lamb medallions, served with seared pâté, fruit-and-nut buckwheat pilaf and garlic butter glazed baby vegetables) because I was busy helping with the plating and it was quite hectic. The main course had to be served hot, so there was no time to waste. As soon as it was plated, it was served.

At the end of the evening (i.e. after service and after the clean-up), Chef JM and all the volunteers each had a glass of red wine in the pastry kitchen to debrief and unwind. Yes, I had a glass, even though I don't normally drink alcohol (I just used to prefer to cook with alcohol, rather than drink it).

In under six months, studying at LCB Ottawa has taught me to appreciate fine food (including the unusual ones, e.g. veal sweetbread) and food I didn't used to enjoy (e.g. lamb, pumpkin), to drink alcohol, and to make some pretty nice cakes and desserts by hand ... I think my friends and relatives back home would be amazed by the transformation. :D

IP Lesson 11: Délice Caramel

Yesterday morning we made the Delice Caramel in our practical. The day before that, Chef H had shown us how to make this cake, which is basically a mousse cake. Chef said we had to make the cake in two versions - a full-size cake, and a mini-cake for plated dessert.

The cake is lined with coffee lady fingers (done with the cartouchiere technique - piping the lady fingers like a cartridge of bullets) on the side, and the bottom is a disc of the same lady finger mixture, imbibed with pear liqueur syrup. Then the disc is covered with a layer of caramel bavarian mousse, studded with diced canned pears, then another imbibed disc of cake goes onto the mousse, and we top the cake with a pear mousse. After that, we put a thin layer of natural clear glaze, and decorate it with canned pear, chocolate decorations and caramel sauce (which is served on the side too).

Here's what my full-size Delice Caramel looked like:

Chef liked the way I marbled the glaze on the cake. I used the caramel sauce and some drops of coffee extract to create the effect.


Side view of the same cake.

Chef said I still need more practice with the chocolate decorations -- it is quite hard to make the chocolate fans and the two-toned chocolate cigarettes, because one has to temper the two kinds of chocolate and then complete a series of steps before using the metal scraper to create this "chocolate curl" (which we call "chocolate cigarette"). I still haven't quite mastered this technique yet.


My delice caramel as a plated dessert. I served the mini-cake with the caramel sauce, and a quenelle of caramel bavarian mousse. I was pressed for time to complete this, so my plated dessert didn't look all that special. I basically created this plated dessert in 5 minutes - I threw a few things together and served.

Chef wasn't impressed with this plated dessert, but at least I served on time. He also said my lady fingers were a bit too thick, which, I realised, made lining the outside of the cake a bit difficult.

Anyway, I am not a big fan of pear cakes. You might recall my least favorite cake in Basic Pastry was the Pear Charlotte.

I gave my cake away to the neighbours when I got home. I kept the caramel sauce for myself, though. :)

Then I went out to lunch with a friend at a sushi restaurant, called Banc Sushi. It is a nice restaurant about 10 minutes' drive from Wilbrod House, where it is all-you-can-eat for around $14. As a foodie, I have tried out many restaurants before (esp. in Sydney, Australia), and I rate this as one of the better restaurants I have ever visited.



After lunch, I went back to School for a demo class, where Chef CF demonstrated how to make a showpiece with pulled sugar, something we will be doing when we get to Superior Pastry (we are just getting a taste of things to come).


Chef CF's sugar showpiece, with a flower, a bird of paradise, ribbons and an apple (demonstrating a number of techniques for working with pulled and blown sugar).

I have to say Chef CF's demo was inspirational. I loved the way he got us all excited about making a sugar showpiece in Superior Pastry, even though I know working with pulled sugar is a "torture" - you work with sugar that is over 70 degree Celsius with your bare hands. (The hot water from your hot water tap is usually below 60 degrees Celsius, so you can imagine 70 degrees would most likely make you say more than just "ouch!")

No Rest for the Wicked

Well, I haven't had internet connection for a couple of days now, hence I'm a bit behind with my blogging. Besides, this has been a really busy week - when I'm not in class, I'm volunteering in Production Kitchen (and that means being there from 6am). Today I was in Production Kitchen from 6am, and I had a demo class in the afternoon (3:30pm), which meant I didn't get home until after 6:30pm... A long day at School.

Tomorrow (Saturday, and Valentine's Day) I am volunteering for an event at School, which starts at 10am, and goes on till late evening. So, as they say, "no rest for the wicked." (I do want to learn as much as I can while I am here at LCB Ottawa, so I am grateful for all the opportunities we get to volunteer for events.)

This week in Production Kitchen, apart from doing the usual pastry-for-staff-breakfast tasks, I learnt to make, shape and bake different kinds of baguettes (for staff lunches and for Bistro Cordon Bleu). It took me a while to master the techniques for rolling out the baguettes by hand, but I'm getting there.

Chef CP also asked me to make a batch of orange-pumpkin loaves, and they turned out quite well (even though this is the first time I'm making it). Chef CP said that he has had many students make this recipe before, but mine had one of the best textures he's ever tasted (it was moist like a banana cake/bread). That is high praise indeed.

Of course, I didn't tell him that I modified the recipe slightly as I was making it. :) What happened was, the recipe (from the Internet) required something like one-and-two-thirds large oranges (ground to a pulp with the food processor). I simply rounded it to two oranges, because the oranges we have in Production Kitchen are not all that big. Then I added almost an extra egg, because the recipe called for three-and-a-quarter eggs (which, in my opinion, is a ridiculous figure anyway). After rounding the figures up, I figured I'm adding extra moisture into the recipe, so I had better reduce it somewhere else in the recipe. And I reduced the amount of water. Anyway, the end result was quite good. I think I am slowly getting a feel for the science/art of baking.

In the afternoon, before my demo class, I helped a couple of my classmates assemble ingredients for tomorrow's event, but because we didn't get to complete the task before our demo class, we decided we would have to go back to school tomorrow morning to finish it (i.e. the mise en place), and that's how I ended up volunteering for tomorrow's event...

Anyway, I had nothing planned for tomorrow, so it was fine to volunteer for this event. I'll update my blog with details later.

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PS. Happy Birthday to T!

IP Lesson 10: Blood Orange Mousse Cake

Today's cake - the Blood Orange Mousse Cake - is supposedly the most difficult cake to make in Intermediate Pastry, but I beg to differ. Towards the end of the demo, Chef H said some people might find the Millefeuille Praliné harder, which I have to agree (given my lack of success there).

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.