Belated post of final projects

We graduated! How exciting is that? Actually, it happened over two weeks ago, but I've been away. Our final was to make a tart or cake, a viennoiserie item, bonbons, and a petit four item, along with a showpiece to hold the tart/cake, the bonbons, and the petit fours. The theme of the showpiece was to be our favorite place. Some of us took it quite literally and others (myself included) stepped a little outside of the box. So here are (almost) all of our final projects, in no particular order:


Paula


Krystal


Claudia S.


Rachel


Ryan- his broke. It was originally a tribute to his frat


Claudia O.


Jess


Amy T.


Meghan


Kelly- hers broke, it was originally her car


Sofia


Sheron


Troy





Violetta


Josh


Kristy


Kristyn


Mine: A chocolate violin! I had a lot of fun doing this one. I love chocolate, and I love my violin, so it was perfect. The entire thing is chocolate- white, milk, and dark. Though it's not very apparent in the picture, there is woodgrain on the violin itself. I had some challenges making it- primarily in making the strings, which I unfortunately left to the last minute. In addition (After this photo was taken) the front piece of the violin came off, then broke in two overnight- whether it broke itself or someone touched it I don't know. I was fortunately able to repair it so it wasn't completely hideous for it's display after the graduation ceremony.

Wedding Cake Woes

These, in no particular order, are most of the wedding cakes made by other people in my class. Pastry II, the class below us, gave us a presentation detailing a wedding of their own creation, including all details but the design of the wedding cake. The wedding took place in St Petersburg, at the Peterhof. The colors of the wedding were deep red and white.









These are the nesting dolls on top of Claudia's cake- they did actually come apart, and did have dolls inside






Amy's cake- the middle tier is based off of the Peterhof, where the wedding took place
















Kelly's cake- the piping is based off of the bride's veil





And mine:




I felt very pressed for time, but I did complete it, and I'm mostly pleased. The bottom tier is based off of a Faberge egg, called the Lilies of the Valley egg- look it up online, it's quite beautiful. The very top is a miniature sugar paste replica of the bride's bouquet.
The cakes for all of them were the same- hazelnut sponge with creme d'or, and wildberry mousseline

Today we took our written final exam, and started our practical. Only 3 more days and then we graduate! I'll have one more round of photos when we've finished our showpieces.

Last of plated desserts

Last day of plated desserts! This is a tropical tasting plate with exotic fruit couscous, passionfruit and coconut napoleon, and lime rum savarin

These next two desserts are the ones I created for my test on plated desserts- the one where we designed a restaurant and a dessert menu for it. Our teachers then "ordered" two items. After a disastrous (I really mean disastrous) day, they turned out edible at least

Lemon tartlet with cherry sorbet, white chocolate sauce, and blueberry coulis


My baby: Chocolate ginger souffle with lemongrass sorbet and coconut curry ice cream.

Chiboust!

Beaumes de Vignes cake with roasted grape compote, a tuile, and fromage blanc sherbet

Coconut chiboust with chocolate sauce, coconut sauce, and a coconut financier topped with chocolate sherbet

Lemon chiboust with blueberry compote (underneath), lemon verbena clear sauce, cassis and sweet basil sorbet, and a rosemary sprig (I don't know why Chef Cynthia put it there... there's no rosemary in the dessert)

Liguarian Lemon cake with almond gelato, pineapple, and a tuile

Valentine's day cake

Another job! This time to make a cake for a Valentine's day dinner party. It was a flourless chocolate cake with candied pear, creme d'or, buttercream, and fondant. I also made up a sauce with caramelized pear and browned butter. Sorry the photo quality is so bad- I didn't use the flash. The color was a lot more vibrant and beautiful in reality.





Along with these I made bonbon goodie bags for the guests with Rose caramels in milk chocolate, Jasmine truffles in dark chocolate, and fresh mint truffles in dark chocolate, along with a sugar paste rose bud. We're moving into the last couple days of plated desserts- I'll have some interesting posts when I've slept....

Plated Desserts 3!! Almost done!

Pistachio Souffle Pancake with cherry compote and cherry vanilla swirl ice cream


Warm hazelnut cake with caramelized bananas, tuile cup, and white pepper ice cream


Cream cheese souffle in a baked apple with cranberry sauce


Warm chocolate fondant with trio of sauces, chocolate sauce, and it was supposed to have cherry swirl ice cream, but the woman who did it screwed up, so it doesn't have any ice cream


Chocolate souffle with a tuile, coconut caramel sauce, and cinnamon ice cream


Apple Beignets with caramel sauce, caramelized pecans, and caramel ice cream. The beignets were caramelized, flambeed apples wrapped in crepes, dipped in beer batter, and deep fried. It's a real artery clogger


Cheese and basil souffle with bruschetta


Mirabelle plum souffle with caramel sauce and creme anglaise


Cool artsy closeup of the souffle


Bomboloni with caramel, chocolate, and raspberry sauce, coconut tuile, and some kind of ice cream- I forget what. The Bomboloni are brioche batter that's been deep fried, then filled with cream... another artery clogger


Mango Beggars purse with sake-ginger sabayon and ginger sorbet



Asian pear spring rolls with caramel chopsticks, pate a bric cups, raspberry swirl ice cream, and raspberry pepper caramel sauce


Tropical fruit beignets with coconut emulsion sauce and tamarind ice cream