Cakes, Cakes and....More Freaking Cakes

What a week!!  This post is going to be very picture heavy - I just want to warn you in advance.  Be prepared to experience uncontrollable feelings of desire for pastry...don't say I didn't warn you...

Each team had 3 days to work on and complete a wedding cake that had to be at least 3 tiers high.  Also, you didn't get to choose your own cake base/icing, you had to pick it out of a ramekin (Chef Katie's project receptacle of choice).  Julie and I wound up with chocolate cake with ganache icing.  Not what I would've picked to work with, but it's good practice.

Day 1, Wednesday, was mostly spent doing a lot of prep work.  We'd already decided to do a 4 tier cake, but wound up with so much batter that we had enough to make an extra cake, thus making us the only team to make a 5 tier cake.  We used a high-ratio chocolate cake recipe that has the benefit of being very tasty as well as making really tall, awesome looking cakes (in baking, just like in life - height is prized...sad little short chef...).  Our tiers were 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12" in diameter.  They don't have 4 or 12" pans, so we wound up baking several layers in half-sheet pans to make the 12" (aka: Big Bessie) and cut down a 6" to make the top tier (aka: Tiny Tim).

We also made a ridiculous amount of chocolate buttercream icing (and by "ridiculous", I of course mean 3.5 batches).  Unfortunately, this also happened to be during the freak heat wave we've been experiencing here in New York.  Do you have any idea how disgusting it is to be in a kitchen with at least 7 ovens on when it's already 95 degrees outside?  I thought I was going to pass out!  I also think that if they don't already, that deodorant manufacturers should test their products in kitchens during the summer time (raise your hand if you're sure!)

On Day 2 (Thursday), we torted and filled our cakes and started making our chocolate ganache.  Thursday was not my friend.  I got really stressed out and started to worry that we'd never finish.  I could tell that my "serious face" was starting to get to Julie too.  Unfortunately I can't really control it, and I try to not let it get in the way of what we're doing, sometimes I just get super-stressed.  I love cakes because I find them so challenging, and this was definitely a challenge.  We managed to cover one of the cakes with the ganache and put the rest of our crumb-coated cakes in the fridge till the next day.

Me modeling the outside cake round from Julie carving down the 4"

cake (p.s. check out my serrated knife, mid torte!)

Isn't it fabulous?  Julie's line of baked jewelry launches this fall!

Final day (Friday)!  Julie proceeded to cover the rest of the cakes with the ganache while I piped out the small and detailed pieces for the front of our cake.  It took awhile and a lot of work, but we finally finished!  It didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to, but I'm still proud of the work that we did together. 

Julie & I with our finished product

Unfortunately, now when I look at it, all I can think about is that it looks like a cake made for leprechauns.  Maybe I can get a good gig on the Irish wedding circuit ;)

Now I want to share with you some pictures of my fellow classmates work!  They all did such an amazing job, and I'm highly impressed with their creativity and attention to detail.  I was taking pictures of one of their cakes when my friend casually asked me if I was going to post it on my blog - I'm famous! lol

Cherry Blossom Cake!

You should have seen how much time they spent on those flowers - aren't they awesome?

Vegas-themed, topsy-turvy "divorce" cake - I'm still in awe

The other team that had a ganache cake, such a beautiful design, don't you think? (Hi ladies!)

Pretty peach cake with flowers and butterflies

Alice in Wonderland themed cake!  Look at all of the details!

Love love love the cheshire cat!

Who Framed Roger Rabbit Cake - there are no words for how amazing this cake is

Our table partner's beautiful mosaic cake

Look at all of those little tiles!

Cute turquoise, pillow-like fondant cake

Phew!!  We're finally done!!  Today was definitely a day when all I wanted to was have a stiff drink after class, NOT go to work.  Damn you responsibilities!  Monday and Tuesday of next we will have our practical exam for cakes (already!), then will sit for our written exam on Wednesday before going into the introductory lecture for the breads module.  We picked from the ramekin of doom to select the cake we'll have to make for our practical and I wound up with high-ratio cake (yes!), french buttercream (no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the theme, "woman's birthday."  I hate the french buttercream.  It should die a slow, fiery death and then be pushed off of a cliff....and then spat on!  Sorry...that got out of hand....moving on now...if anyone wants to have a fake birthday cake made in their honor - make your case!  I'm looking for someone to base my cake on :)

It wouldn't be a stressful couple of days without some classroom drama.  The funny thing is that most of us get along so well, there's just a couple of people who muck it up!  BB has been getting into situations with someone every single day, it's almost shocking the way that she can't go one day without having someone get frustrated with her.  She refuses to do her weekly clean-up chore at the end of the day and is just generally a trouble-maker.  What's especially interesting, is that after much prompting from the rest of the class, Chef Katie has decided to put ML and BB's partners on a separate team together, which obviously means that now ML and BB will be partners!  This should be interesting to watch...I'm definitely happy for their now former partners, who will finally have the ability to fully participate in class without being terrorized.  Also, I'll be curious to see how ML and BB wind up working together.  They're, unsurprisingly, already class friends, but I wonder how they'll deal with each of them trying to dominate the other...should be interesting.

Oh!  I don't know if you remember my post from March 29th, but we got the results from our piping quiz the other day!  It was a rough quiz, most people didn't even finish it.  Chef Katie told us that the scores were out of 10, that we could all use some work, and that the same quiz would also be part of our practical next which means more practicing.  I feel like my writing still needs a lot of work, but I was very happily surprised to see that I got a 9.5 out of 10!  

I'll be working on my piped writing over the next couple of days and planning out my birthday cake practical - have a great  weekend everyone!!