Sorry about that, I just torted...

Today we learned how to "torte" our cakes.  For those of you who don't know, torting is what happens when you make horizontal slices into a single baked cake to make several layers.  I could see a lot of my classmates getting frustrated but, to be honest, I loved it!  I made some kick ass layers and am pretty darn proud of myself.  I guess all the time I spent watching my mother decorate cakes (hi mom!) really stuck - it was actually kind of fun.

After we torted our cakes, (genoise, for those keeping track), we brushed each layer with a simple syrup, before putting a dam around the edges.  This is when you pipe a ring of icing around the edge of each layer, thus providing a "dam" that keeps the filling (today's was raspberry jam) from oozing out everywhere.

It kind of looks like a giant linzer torte

After affixing each of the layers, Chef Katie taught us how to crumb coat the cakes with our icing to seal them in, so that you could refrigerate them and come back later to decorate them.

We wound up taking them home in this state, so I decided to have a little fun trying some piping on mine.  Nothing jaw dropping, just fooling around with some chocolate icing and a cornet.

Ah! Ah! You said death first!

I meant cake!

p.s. I would like my own cake turntable (this, not that)
p.p.s. I still don't understand why my classmates don't know who John Larroquette is (I heart Meatballs II)
p.p.s. Why don't I own this hat?

Goodnight friends!