I cannot believe that I only have 4 days of school left! This past week has been insane, but I have survived. The business project I have been working on is finally over. I think my presentation went pretty great, and I gave out these cute little gift bags with samples of some of my products. I gave away sea salt chocolate chip cookies (the best!), dirt cake, topo chico, and a pretty good recipe for some spicy chocolate muffins.

Cute little jars of dirt cake

After 2 interviews, a trial day, and a math test at Trulucks this past week they finally offered me the job as the pastry chef at the north location! I am pretty excited although this is not the job I ever imagined getting after school.... I just never imagined myself working in a fancy restaurant. I love the small bakery atmosphere, so I am going to try to keep working at Sweet Tempered once a week. They make the most delicious and creative desserts; it has been such a great learning experience working there.

Other amazing news..... My chef selected me to receive a scholarship to take a class by Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes! The class is on Monday, and I am pretty nervous, but really excited to be able to take her class.

Today I finished a cake for a baby shower my sister is hosting. I am not too thrilled with the cake, so I am not going to show it to you. That's about all I have to give as updates. Until later, happy baking!

My last practical went well. I don't have any good pics because I had to get the plates out quickly so that the ice cream wouldn't melt before it got to the judging table. The only pics I was able to take were after my desserts had been judged, so they aren't too pretty. Sorry. A few of my plate components definitely needed some tweaking, but overall it was great! I thought it tasted amazing, and I'm pretty sure my chefs liked it as well. The panna cotta and fruit salsa were delicious; I highly recommend them. Here are the recipes for both of those, and I will post the recipe for the kiwi sauce later. Enjoy!

After the dessert was already destroyed

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

1 Vanilla bean
4oz Sugar
2 1/3c Heavy cream
Zest of ¼ large orange or 1 small orange
2/3c Whole milk
2tsp Gelatin powder
5 Sprigs of mint for garnishing (optional)

Procedure:
1. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Rub the seeds into a small portion of the sugar to distribute them evenly and break up any clumps.
2. Combine the heavy cream, vanilla bean-sugar mix, remaining sugar, vanilla bean pod, and orange zest in a saucepan. Heat to scalding, then remove from the heat and let infuse for about 30 minutes.
3. Pour the milk into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Set aside to soften.
4. Heat the milk mixture to dissolve the gelatin, then stir into the cream mixture. Heat to scalding while stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; remove and discard the vanilla bean pod halves. Let the cream mixture cool until it just begins to thicken and set, then stir gently without incorporating any air before pouring into the forms.
5. Divide the cream into 5 ramekins. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.


Strawberry-Mango Salsa

1lb 8oz Strawberries
¼c Orange Liqueur
¼c Simple Syrup (equal parts sugar and water... boil until sugar is dissolved and is completely liquid)
1/8c Water
1 Mango
1tsp Cornstarch

Procedure:

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut the fruit into small, evenly sized wedges or cubes
2. Places the berries in a bowl and add the liqueur, simple syrup, and water. Toss to combine and coat the fruit pieces with the liquid. Set aside to macerate for 1 to 2 hours.
3. Peel the mango and cut the flesh away from the stone. Cut the mango into small attractive cubes, not slices. Place the cubes into a bowl and set aside for later use.
4. When ready to serve, strain the syrup from the strawberries and place the syrup in a saucepan. Remove a small amount of the syrup and mix with cornstarch to make a slurry. Stir this into the remaining syrup and bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat and allow syrup to cool. Strain the syrup and place in a piping bottle, and reserve at room temperature.
5. In a small bowl set over a warm water bath, combine approximately 2 parts strawberries to 1 part mango to make just enough salsa for the number of servings needed.

Well all.... I can't believe I am actually about to say this, but tomorrow is my last official day of production in culinary school. No, the entirety of the program is not yet complete, but our time in the kitchen is. Business, resumè, and career development will fill up my last 2 weeks. I just can't believe its almost over. Just six months ago I was complaining about how I was aching to start; I've just turned around and now its gone by. Geez!

Tomorrow is my final practical exam over plated desserts. I am making Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with a Strawberry-Mango Salsa, Hazelnut Wafer, and Raspberry-Blueberry Ice Cream. I have no doubt that I can make all of this, and do it well, but so many of the elements take time to set up, so I am a bit worried about time. All I can do is be organized and prepared. I'll let you know how it all goes.

This past week we have been playing around with plate designs. I am not an artist in the least bit, but it was fun to play around with designs and "clean" the plates when I messed up ;) I forgot my camera, so these are taken with my phone, so I apologize for the poor quality.... Yeah, that's right. I don't have a fancy iphone or blackberry like you do. Stop judging me, greedy. I like my phone basic and simple: calls and texts. What do I need all of that other stuff for anyhow? I've got a laptop.

The kiwi sauce was a bit runny, and the plate had been sitting awhile, so just ignore the overrun

Fruit tarts for our painted plates... yum!

Chocolate week!! Chef Todd Champagne from the Renaissance Hotel came to do a chocolate demonstration for our class last week. He has amazing talent, and it was so much fun to watch him create these incredible sculptures.

Wedding Cake Wrecks!!!

Ok, these cakes make me feel a lot better about the ones I have produced thus far. Please look at these! I love this site!

Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Croquembouche. Oh, you haven't either? Well, it is a French dessert served at weddings. It is a high cone made of pate choux filled with pastry cream and held together with caramel and caramel threads. We decided to make one of these during our course over sugar. Although sugar is definitely not my thing it was a lot of fun to play with.

Sugar ball made by pouring sugar over a balloon

This weekend I did my first real catering job. It was not for a wedding, but for a womens luncheon at my parents' church. The luncheon had a wedding theme, so they asked me to prepare the cake. I decided to make one traditional wedding cake, and cupcakes for a little fun. The cake was vanilla with a white chocolate almond mousse filling and Swiss buttercream frosting. The cupcakes were strawberry with old fashioned vanilla buttercream. Yum!