"Without ice cream..."

"...there would be darkness and chaos." - Don Kardong

Unrelated, but sometimes I read other people's blog posts and think, "Such eloquence. Why can't I write like that?" I try, from time to time. But I find that when I make an effort to write with eloquence, sophistication, finesse, and the like, when I re-read my entry, I feel like I sound pompous and haughty. I guess I just have to resign myself to the fact that I write in a very conversational way. I hope it's interesting. They may not be the most inspiring or concise words you've ever read, but I hope they come across as genuine and give you a sense of having had a nice conversation with a friend over a cup of tea (or whatever your beverage of choice might be).

With that said, I'll move on to talk about this week's pastry adventures. Admittedly, there wasn't much excitement this week, but I try to look at most experiences as an adventure of some sort in any case. Monday and Tuesday were cookie & frozen dessert and days. We made two frozen desserts. We actually didn't make any cookies this time, except for the cake/cookie that is part of one of the desserts and/or decorations.

For the first dessert, simply called a bombe glacée (layered frozen dessert in a demisphere mold), we made a vanilla bean ice cream, and a raspberry mousse. We filled the demisphere mold with the ice cream, leaving a hollow in the middle, and leaving to harden in the freezer. Once the raspberry mousse was ready, we filled the hollow in the mold and let freeze. Once completely frozen, we removed the dessert from the mold and covered with a marbled nappage miroir (clear sugar glaze), piped around the bottom with whipped cream, and decorated with cigarette cookies and raspberries. Tada!

Bombe glacée

The second dessert is called le Rucher which means apiary (which is a bee farm, for you laymen ;) ). For this, we needed a cookie/cake for the bottom and sides. The cake was sprinkled with chopped pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, cherries, and coconut before baking. We then prepared a honey ice cream and a raspberry sorbet. The sorbet we molded in a silicone disc and froze. With the ice cream, we filled the circle mold, leaving a space for the disc of sorbet, and then filling in the rest of the space with more ice cream. We then sprinkled the same nut and fruit mixture onto the top of the dessert, and refroze. Once solid, we glazed with miroir and  decorated with frilly cookies, white chocolate decorations with honey, and raspberries. Voilà!

Le Rucher

Yesterday we spent the day working on our wedding cakes. Had I known in advance, I would have gone to school prepared. As it was, I didn't have some of my tools and so I could only do so much. Today and tomorrow, and one day next week, we are still working on the cakes because the end of next week is the exam, and therefore the end of the module. We also made croissants and a bread we made last year called Cramique, so considering that I made a lot of progress today. Tomorrow will really just be putting it all together and adding finishing touches. Once we finish the wedding cakes, we're supposed to make a 3D sculpted cake. Some of my classmates are already half done their 3D cakes. It stresses me out when other people are so far ahead of me. Anyway, I will get it all done, I still have a couple days... *deep breaths*

By the way? Only 91 days until this chapter comes to an end! I still need to find a placement for my practical training which starts in 10 weeks! *sigh*