A Little Update

I cannot believe that I graduate in two weeks from the Cake Program. I knew it was going to go by quickly, because the Pastry Program went by so fast. I cannot wait to see my friends and family when I get back home! On June 15th I start my next program at FPS, but I was asked to be an intern from May 26th to June 12th. Even though it is only a couple weeks, I am very excited to help out the Chefs, students, and other interns. I cannot wait to be an intern, but I really cannot wait to have a month off! It will be a nice break for me to relax and start to figure out some places to work when I graduate in August. Plus, I get to visit Alyssa in Florida!!

Sculpted Cakes

 The past two weeks we have learned how to scuplt cakes! It takes a lot of practice to get the shape right.

Mommy Turtle and Baby Turtle

Old Voltzwagen Beetle
To me it looks more like a PT Cruiser than a Bug, but this is what I was talking about getting the shape right.

Topsy Turvy

We were allowed to decorate is any wat that we wanted. This was to help us practice any techinques we are using in the next two weeks for our final cakes! 

Mini Pastries

Mixed Fruit Tartlets

Lemon Cream Tartlet

Chocolate Diamants

Diamants means diamonds in French. The turbinado sugar on the outside represents diamonds.

Viennese Vanilla Sable Cookies

The one of the lefts has a turbinado-sugared almond and the one of the right has raspberry jam.

Orange and Cocoa Nib Tuile

Coconut Tuile

Chocolate Mousse Cups

The chocolate cups are filled with coffee hazelnut filling and topped with dark chocolate hazelnut mousse

 Chocolate Fondant Cake
From the name you would probably think that there is fodant in the cake, but there is not! It is a take on a molten lava cake. You are suppose to eat it a few minutes after it comes out of the oven. It is topped with a chocolate ganache.

Green Tea Chocolate Cupcake

Chocolate Cupcake filled and topped with green tea mousseline. Mousseline is pastry cream mixed with whipped cream.

Mini Exotic Cake

What makes this cake exotic is that it has passion fruit puree and lime in it. It is topped with a white chocolate passion fruit whipped ganache, which it DELICIOUS! I had extra left over and ate it with strawberries!

 Almond Cupcakes
These cupcakes are filled with lemom cream and fresh berries. The above is topped with Swiss Meringue and the picture to the right is topped with Italian Buttercream.

White Chocolate Cups

These chocolate cups are filled with bananas, strawberry coulis and topped with green tea mousseline.

Buttercream Wedding Cake

This past week we worked on making an actual wedding cake and decorated it with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I am happy to say that this cake turned out way better than the one I did in the Pastry Program!!  We were told to design the cake in half....one half being a traditional style and the other being a more modern style.

Traditional Style

Top Tier- White Cake filled with Vanilla Italian Buttercream

Middle Tier- Chocolate Cake filled with Chocolate Italian Buttercream

Bottom Tier- Yellow Cake filled with Coffee Italian Buttercream

Modern Style

Chocolate Showpiece (Round 2)

This time I learned a different style of chocolate showpiece! Last time in the pastry program, we learned big elaborate( well for me anyways haha) showpieces; and this time we learned how to make smaller pieces that you. This is a piece that could be offered for Mother's Day or a display during spring!

A Great Oppurtunity with Great Friends

The school offers continuing education courses and we were given a the opportunity to take one for free! So obviously I did not pass up this opportunity! I am so glad that some of my friends chose to do it as well!!

This is Chef Joel Reno! I have had him in the pastry program and had him for the past month in the cake program! Through both of these programs he has taught me so much! One of his biggest pet peeves is when people do not have confidence in themselves and what they are doing. Well that has always been a weakness of mine. I have always been hard on myself and always find something wrong with what I have made. He has helped me have more confidence and realize that you are not going to master something on the first try. A while back in my blog I talked about Chef Jonathan, and how each chef has a quote on the school's website. Chef Joel's is "Pastry is a beautiful craft and I love getting people excited about it. When students of pastry get equally as excited about learning the process and science behind making the recipes as the final product itself, magic can happen." I have always been excited about learning new things, but having him as a teacher has gotten me even more excited. He is definitely someone whom I look up and I am very glad that I was able to study under him im both programs!! Chef Joel has taught me to think more creatively and to try everything (I never was a picky eater, but now I have to try everything haha!)! He is always coming up with new flavor combinations and new recipes (well new for me haha), and they ALWAYS sound delicious! This past week he came up with this pecan cake with a caramel filling, pecan pralinettes, and milk chocolate glaze and we got to taste it! I cannot even begin to tell you how delicious it was!!



If you want to read his bio this is the link: Chef Joel Reno

Wandering the city with great friends!!

 As soon as it became warm out we took a drive around the city and somehow ended up at the Lincoln Park Zoo! Such a fun day and so glad I became friends with her! Do not know what I will do when we graduate and she moves to Texas.

 Random selfie!

 St. Patrick's Day Weekend!!

Finally got to see the Chicago River dyed GREEN!!