End of Winter?

Today is the start of daylight saving here, and it was an unusually warm day (for winter anyway), so I went out for a walk around Strathcona Park (the park across from LCB Ottawa) in the afternoon. It felt so good to get some fresh air, after hours of studying and practising baking.

Here are some photos I took (click on photo for a larger image):














I love this one. A snowman and a snowdog that someone made. I think the snowdog looks like a Jack Russell Terrier or a Fox Terrier. How cute!!!

My Creations in Production Kitchen

I volunteered in Production Kitchen a couple of times this week, and here are some of the things I made.

Today I made a pistachio and cinnamon sugar Pain Soleil (Sun Bread) for staff meal. You might remember I was interested in making it after seeing a demo by Chef CP the other day. So when I had the chance today, I asked to make a Pain Soleil, and Chef CP said OK.

The Pain Soleil I made was made from a sweet dough (that is similar to brioche or panettone). I cannot provide the recipe here because I do not have permission to do so, but I can show you what I made, so that you can imagine all the possibilities with different flavours (both sweet ones and savoury ones).


This is the Pain Soleil I made. The sweet dough was rolled out to a large circular shape, and placed on a baking tray lined with parchment paper (baking paper). Then I put a small upturned bowl in the middle of the dough before cutting the "rays of the sun" around the upturned bowl. After that, I lifted the small bowl off, egg-washed the whole dough, sprinkled some cinnamon sugar (i.e. ground cinnamon mixed with fine sugar), then I twisted the "rays of the sun". Finally, I sprinkled some chopped pistachios in the middle of the dough.

After proofing the dough for about 30 minutes, I baked the bread at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When it was golden brown, I took it out of the oven. Voila!

Everyone who saw the Pain Soleil (Sun Bread) I made said it was beautiful. I loved it too. It is a simple pattern, but makes the bread look so pretty. I will be making more of these when I get another chance.

This morning, a classmate and I (both of us are regular volunteers for Production Kitchen) were in charge of making two large pizzas for staff meal as well, so we set about making a thick crust pizza, and preparing the tasty toppings. We used (1) duck confit, sliced potatoes, smoked bacon, anchovies, onions, and mozzarella, parmesan and feta cheese, and (2) smoked meats, garlic, onions, egg plants, zucchinis, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and gruyere and feta cheese for the topping. Both pizzas turned out well.

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The following was what I made for staff meal (dessert) on Monday. I used the leftover Kataifi dough (which are very thin threads of phyllo/filo dough) to make Pistachio Kataifi, based on several online recipes that I found.



I'm happy I got the chance to do something other than LCB Ottawa recipes. That is one of the reasons why I volunteer in Production Kitchen.

This batch of Kataifi tasted fine. I wish I had seen the bottle of orange blossom water sitting on a shelf in Production Kitchen, because it would have been good to have it in the simple syrup that I poured over the Kataifi.

I've had a great week. Monday and Friday in Production Kitchen. Tuesday and Thursday at Stubbe Chocolates (where I learnt to make chocolate Easter eggs); Wednesday was the inspiring Bread Workshop at LCB Ottawa.

One more week to go before my final exam. I will be spending most of that time studying, so I won't have much time for blogging. But I promise to resume blogging after my final exam on 16 March 2009.

My Rant about Rude/Selfish People

You might recall that I brought home lots of bread yesterday, because we had the Bread Workshop. The following was an incident which made me so annoyed that I feel the need to rant about it here.

When I came home at around 2:30pm, Y and Z (who are classmates and buddies of W, and they were just visiting) were hanging out with W in the dining room of the House. You see, sometimes the timetable is such that we have a 3-hour break in between classes, a lot of people from School would hang out at Wilbrod House in between classes. The dining room of Wilbrod House pretty much serves as a second LCB Ottawa student common room (and these visitors often help us eat some of the cakes we bring home, which is something none of the pastry students mind at all). I often invite my classmates over to hang out with me too.

Anyway, back to the story ... Y and Z (cuisine students) watched with interest as I placed all my breads on the dining table (which is what we do if we want to share our products with others -- this is one of the rules of the House). Y commented quietly to Z that it would be so good to have a baguette to go with the foie gras demo that they were having next (i.e. the Chef was going to show them how to cook foie gras, and they get to taste it at the end of the demo, and some fresh baguettes would go well with the foie gras). I took the cue and offered Y a baguette (I don't know Y personally; I have only seen him at School). I said he would have to put it in the oven for a few minutes to get a nice crust on the baguette (because, in my rush, I wrapped up the baguette with parchment paper while it was still hot, therefore the crust had gone soft). He proceeded to bake it in the Wilbrod House oven.

When the baguette came out of the oven, it was nice and crusty. You could see the delight on Y's face. He commented that it was like that scene in Ratatouille (I don't remember, but he does), where one can tell how nice and fresh a baguette is by pressing gently on the crust and it makes a crunching sound...

At this point, X (a housemate of mine, and a classmate of W, Y and Z) came into the dining room and, without a word, helped herself to a quarter of the hot baguette that Y had just brought out of the oven. She ate it on the spot. I stared at her and said, "That's his!" (pointing to Y). She replied, without a hint of remorse, "So?" I glanced at Y for his reaction, and he just shrugged and muttered, "It's OK, don't worry about it." He clearly did not want to make a fuss (probably because they were all about to head back to class), so I held my tongue. After all, I had given the baguette to him, so it's his to do as he wished. Otherwise, I would have confronted X about this. Trust me, I don't let things like that slide. Just put it down to the teacher in me.

Where does X get off feeling like she is entitled to take something someone has prepared without even the courtesy of asking if she could have some? It was the height of rudeness and inconsideration.

W, X, Y and Z are about the same age (all in their early 20s), but some definitely show less manners and decorum than others. Could it be that X is an only child from a wealthy family and has never learned to share? Well, if she keeps this up, she will learn the hard way one day ...

Anyway, I usually use the "tit-for-two-tats" strategy when dealing with people. In other words, they get two chances; the third time they annoy me, they lose my confidence. If they don't show any remorse, I have nothing to do with them again. I will not render any assistance in the future, and I minimise my contact with them.

X had used up her second chance yesterday. The first chance was when she "borrowed" some cooking ingredients from me several times and never ever returned them to me or offered to reimburse me. So, that's it!

That's my rant for today.

IP Bread Workshop

Today, in our 5-hour Bread Workshop, Chef CP (who is in charge of Production Kitchen, and who is also a chef instructor in Boulangerie) showed us how to make a variety of breads. The whole lesson was fantastic - we learned so much (esp. techniques and bread-related facts) and it felt good to be able to make our own fresh bread. Completely by hand, I might add.

I was not a big fan of bread before, but now that I have tasted baguettes and breads fresh from the production kitchen and pastry practial kitchen ovens, I am hooked. Like I said before, coming to LCB Ottawa has really opened my eyes to all the things I can make at home in my own kitchen, and to the techniques to make them well.

Here are some of the breads I made and brought home to share with my housemates (I had given some of my breads away to the dishwasher, to fellow students, etc.):

The baguettes I made: (Bottom) three plain white baguettes, and (Top) a baguette made from bread flour, a special wine flour, red wine, raisins and pecan.




This is the Wine Bread I made, with diced onions and chopped pecan incorporated into the dough, to give it a somewhat savoury taste. This bread recipe was modified and tested by Chef CP, so I am very glad he chose to share it with us. You can see a lovely purple-grey colour inside the bread; it is from the wine flour and unsalted red wine. According to Chef, wine flour is made from grinding dried grape seeds and dried grape skin, so it is high in antioxidants and iron. The wine flour, in its dry form, is a light purple-brown colour.



This is the Rye Bread I made. I sprinkled some cumin seeds on top of the bread before baking. My mistake here was to overwork the dough slightly, so it was a bit dry and hard. You can tell my mistake from the way the slits did not expand properly (even after proofing for a long time), and from the very tough crust.






This is Nova Scotia Oatmeal Molasses Bread (shaped in two different ways). The molasses, corn meal, and oatmeal give a light brown-orange tinge to the inside of the bread.


The highlight of the lesson, for me anyway, was Chef CP's demo on how to make a Pain Soleil (literally, Sun Bread). First, you cut the dough as shown in the photos below. Then, you twist the "rays of the sun" before baking. It looks interesting, doesn't it? I really want to try making this at home after my Intermediate Pastry final exam.

Chef CP told us you can also incorporate dried fruits into the enriched sweet dough (dough with sugar, eggs and milk) before rolling it out and making the desired shape.




By the way, here's a bread fact we learned today: When the internal temperature of a bread that is baking in an oven is around 185 degrees Fahrenheit or 84 degrees Celsius, then the bread is done (i.e. the dough is cooked). After that, you can leave the bread to bake longer in the oven if you want more colour on the crust.


Of all the breads we made today, I have to say the wine bread was my absolute favourite. The texture was wonderful and the flavour was most unusual (but it was quite subtle).

Now I just have to see if I can source wine flour in Australia, because I definitely want to make wine bread in the future. (I'm sure my friends and relatives are rubbing their hands with glee now.)

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PS. Many thanks to Chef CP for teaching us how to make bread, and for making it an enjoyable learning experience. This was one of the most interesting things I have had the good fortune to learn about.

Random Reflections X: Attention to Detail and High Standards

I was volunteering in Production Kitchen yesterday, and I was sent upstairs to deliver some supplies (e.g. flour and other baking ingredients) to the pastry kitchen. It was early in the morning (around 7:15am, one hour before class starts), and there was no one around, so I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the practical kitchens (see photos below). I seldom see the kitchens in this state -- so quiet that you can hear a pin drop, so I couldn't resist it (by the way, I always have my camera in my pocket).


Room 2C: The Pastry Practical Kitchen


Room 2B: The Cuisine Practical Kitchen


One of the things that struck me as special about Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa is how clean the practical kitchens are. I know firsthand just how messy the kitchens can get after a practical class -- trust me, a practical kitchen can look as if a cyclone or tornado has just been through; you might find melted chocolate where you wouldn't normally expect to find chocolate -- but each morning the kitchens are immaculately clean again.

Of course, the chefs train us to clean really well after each practical class -- you will incur the wrath of the chefs if you don't do your part in the clean-up after a practical class. But the School also has commercial cleaners come in to clean the kitchens several times a week. I think it is important to stop and consider what we take for granted at School; it occurred to me that commercial kitchens in the real-world are seldom as clean.

It is the attention to detail and high standards that I really like about this School. We are supplied with good tools and equipment to practise with, and we work in clean kitchens. After we graduate and we go out to work in a commercial kitchen, it is up to us to pay attention to such details and to apply those same high standards.

Here's another example of paying attention to detail: During my practical class a couple of weeks ago, I was scaling (measuring out) the ingredients for making caramel. As is my habit now, in order to save time, I would scale the sugar and water directly in the same pot (instead of measuring the water and sugar in two different containers and then putting the ingredients into the pot). My mistake was to scale the sugar first, and then add water on top of the sugar. This is apparently a no-no here at LCB because the sugar could burn more easily when it is in direct contact with the pot. You should have seen the reaction from the chef when he witnessed me doing that (sorry, Chef!) ... The chefs here insist on the proper way to do things, because that little detail could be the difference between a great result or a mediocre result for the cake (or whatever). This is more so for pastry than for cuisine, I believe.

These are just some of the really valuable lessons I am learning, even though I am not always aware of them. When I reflect on what I have learned at School (which I do at least once a week), I realize this is all part of the rigorous training I wanted and expected from LCB, and that is why I know I will miss it when I finish my courses here.

However, the learning continues...

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.