More cakes

Dacquoise cake- layers of cripsy baked meringue with coffee buttercream.

Chocolate Ganache cake- layers of chocolate genoise soaked with mirabelle brandy-spiked simple syrup with whipped ganache filling and crumb coat, and chocolate glaze, topped with candied rose petals

Candied rose petals

Marjolaine- some guy a long time ago came up with this for his girlfriend. It's a layer of chocolate genoise, a layer of ganache, a layer of genoise, a layer of creme d'or (chocolate folded into whipped cream), a layer of dacquoise, a layer of praline buttercream, a layer of dacquoise, a layer of whipped cream, a layer of dacquoise, topped with praline buttercream and chocolate glaze, garnished with hazelnuts. She must have been VERY high maintenance!

First day of cake section

This is the first real cake we've made. It uses a very different method from anything I've ever made. Where Americans prize a nice, dense, moist cake, the classic French cake, Genoise, is very dry and bland. You give it flavor by soaking it in simple syrup (We spiked ours with raspberry brandy.... yum!) The filling is just raspberry jam (also spiked), and the covering is buttercream- but not the gross, criscoey stuff you get most places here. We use $11/lb butter, and make it classically, starting with and Italian Meringue or a Pate a Bombe. It's really delicious and flavorful. Tomorrow we're making a chocolate ganache cake- I'll be sure to post again.
In response to the comment from Brian, much of the food goes to waste, unfortunately. We save some of it for school functions or for when we're having a bad day in class and need some sugar. Most of it we bring home, though. Which means that I have 5 cakes, a tart, and two loaves of bread in my refrigerator, plus some danishes in my freezer. But I will never be able to eat all of that, and I don't have enough friends to consume all of it, so I will end up throwing the majority away

Viennoiserie!

This is the section (the first half) including breakfast foods, yeast doughs, and quickbreads like muffins, banana bread, etc. Here's some of what we've done so far!

Croissants and pain au chocolat

pain au chocolat! Yum!

Beehive! This is layers of brioche bread soaked in a honey lavender syrup with Pastry Cream in the middle, covered in Italian Merinque, which is then blow torched, and decorated with Marzipan bees

Close up on the bees!

Apricot tart- brioche base with pastry cream and apricots covered with butter and sugar

CHALLAH!

Cinnamon danishes. They're yummy :)

Swans- these are actually from the choux section, but I made them for my swan sister. They're filled with ice cream

Brioche- a really nice, buttery, wonderful bread

Puff Pastry- the holy grail of doughs

Banana tart with chocolate sauce and peanut ice cream- another one we plated and ate!

Jalousie- a baker caught his wife cheating, and he made this look like blinds as if to say "I'm watching you!" I don't know if it worked or not... But it tastes good! It's filled with strips of almond cream and raspberry jam

Chocolate Mille Feuille, or Napoleon- filled with creme d'or or golden cream- a one to one ration of chocolate and cream!

Throwing brandy on my apples to flambee!!!! I don't have a good picture of the flames, though. That was for a Tarte Tatin

Pithivier- another cheating story. A king was dressed as a beggar to go visit his mistress, and his carriage broke down, so everyone found out. The pastry chefs made these, which look like carriage wheels, as a joke. It's filled with almond cream

Poir en Cage- Pear in a cage! It's a pear poached in caramel and white wine, covered in puff pastry lattice

Mini Apple Galettes

Cheese Straws!

Converasation (puff pastry with Almond Cream, Royal Icing)

Papillon- puff pastry cookies that are caramelized

Mille Feuille- layers of puff pastry and pastry cream, with a design branded on top!

Choux Balls Galore

These are some of the products we made with Pate a Choux, or the cream puff dough. I don't particularly like it, but it's okay, and some of them are cool looking. Unfortunately I forgot my camera on the day we made swans! But I'll make them again and update.

Gateau St. Honore- St. Honore is the patron saint of pastry chefs, and this is supposed to be his crown. The filling is kind of marshmallowy and light.

Austrian Dumplings- cherry wrapped in Marzipan, wrapped in Dumpling dough, poached, rolledin cake crumbs, and plated with cherry compote and creme fraiche. My favorite part is that all of us made this, and then, because they wouldn't keep, just sat right down and ate them!

Croquembouche- aka the devil. I, along with almost everyone in my class, was burned badly when dipping the balls in caramel. It's a traditional French wedding cake.

They look pretty cool all together

Test day! Eclairs and Paris-Brest- a ring of Choux filled with Hazelnut Praline Mousseline. It's supposed to look like a bicycle wheel, because there was a famous race between Paris and Brest, and a pastry chef along the way came up with this.

Tarts 2

Chocolate Bavarian

Chocolate Ganache Tart

Linzer Tart (Raspberry and Almond)

Lemon Tartlets- I got to use a blowtorch!

At last, I have a camera cord! (Tarts 1)

These are just some pictures of a few of the tarts we made. Another post with more will be coming. Tarts were our first undertaking, and we made a million, so I'll just show you the pretty ones. If you want any more information or recipes for any of them, just leave a note, and I will try to get it to you. Sorry for how brief this is. I will elaborate more on things once I get all of my old pictures up.

Tarte Bourdaleaux (Poached pear and almond)

Baked Plum Tart

Tarte Alsacienne (Flambeed apples in custard- that means Sarah with a pan that is flaming up to two feet above her head!)

Fresh Fruit Tart

Raspberry Nut Tart