Let Them Eat Cake!

I am really, really enjoying the cake module. Really. It's challenging, and I often feel like I'm running to catch up, because I somehow seem to always end up being one of the last ones to finish things (not just the cakes), but... as I've said before, cakes make a more impressive presentation, and they're yummier than pies. ;)

The past couple days have been a bit of a blur. Ah, who am I kidding? The whole week was a blur. By Tuesday I was sure it should have been Friday. We accomplished a lot of things this week. And over the course of Thursday and Friday, we made and finished four traditional cakes/desserts: millefeuille, New York style cheesecake, Marquise, and Moulin au café.

Millefeuille
We built this millefeuille to look like a cake. We started by rolling out flaky pastry to 2mm, piercing with a roller tool, then cutting out three 9-inch circles and baking them. Once cooled, and everything else was prepared, we tidied up the edges of the pastry circles and started putting it together. First one circle, a thick layer of custard, the next circle, Chantilly cream, and the top circle. Then we covered the sides with Chantilly, then melted white fondant onto the top and with chocolate ganache, did the same design as on the Boston cake, only opposite. Then the covered the sides with almonds and put a cherry in the middle. My fondant went a bit better this time around, but still room for improvement!



Cheesecake
I've never made a baked cheesecake before, so I was really excited about this. First we made a big madeleine cookie for the base, then mixed up the cheesecake batter, which was really runny, and poured into a greased pan lined with plastic wrap (yes, apparently you can put plastic wrap in the oven. I'm not sure how healthy it is, but we do it a lot), and baked in a bain-marie (inside a bigger pan filled with water). After it was baked, we tidied up the edges of the cheesecake to make it as even as possible. Then we pierced the madeleine and soaked with syrup to make it softer, then "glued" it to the cheesecake with a bit of Chantilly. Then we covered the top of the cheesecake with pink gel, covered the edges with Chantilly and white chocolate shavings, then made a pretty little design on top with white chocolate, and finished with some raspberries and a mint leaf.



Marquise
For the Marquise, we made a white genoise, split into 3 layers. We mixed up a hazelnut mousseline to go between the layers, then covered the whole cake with chocolate butter cream and let chill. Once the butter cream had set up, then we covered the cake with a chocolate glaze. The glaze was a bit too warm when I did mine, so the sides don't look as good as they might have. After the glaze was set, we did fancy piping and lettering on the top with white chocolate. I kind of messed up the border, but it doesn't look too bad. :)




Moulin (mill)
The Moulin is reminiscent of the Moka, in that everything's flavoured with coffee, but the Moulin has a chocolate genoise base. So, coffee butter cream between the layers and all over, with some chocolate sprinkles around the bottom, then some rosettes on the top with chocolate triangles resting on them to make a windmill! Cute! And that's it for this week. So, so ready for the weekend. :)


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