Advanced baking: Cake station

I really enjoyed cake station. We made a lot of really tasty Desserts and I got to work with piping icing using various tips and creating various designs.

This is a tiramisu item we made for Du Jour. Personally I am not too partial to coffee desserts so its not my favorite but it was a good dish. I quite liked the ladyfingers with a bit of the butter-cream filling on it. Lightly sweet with a bit of flaky crunch.

This item was created after another student asked if we could try making marshmallow. It was a success and afterwards we had a bunch of cubes left over so chef came up with a great idea of a S'more martini. We got to try it chilled and I don't know if it was served in Du Jour that way but I think it lost its flavor. The whole point of a S'more is a hot, molten marshmallow. Without that warmth its more like rocky road than anything else.

Kind of out of order here but this is a pistachio butter-cream cake I made for a practical test. The little fans you see on the top are white chocolate colored with what is known as "chefs rubber" it is used exactly like food coloring but is fat based instead of water based because adding any water to chocolate will cause it to seize up and become unusable.

Another cake we made for Du Jour. This one Raspberry.

Yet another cake for Du jour! This time chef gave us control of the flavor(s) and we chose to go with a cappuccino flavored butter-cream and garnish with crushed butterfinger. The chocolate square garnishes were done by me in chocolate station earlier. its a process of laying down some white chocolate and scraping out curved lines with a comb-like instrument, letting it cool and harden and then layering dark chocolate on top, letting that cool and harden and then attempt to cut it into squares without shattering them in the process. Only about half survived the process.

This was a practice run before our wedding cake practical. This is actually done on some layered particle board to save the cakes for actual desserts or practical tests. Real cake is used on the practical tests so students can take it home and share it with their family. Since I am alone in a small apartment so I opt to trash it. This school already allow me to eat so well I really don't need a giant cake waiting for me at home. The white icing is the cheap type you would find at dept. store bakeries. Easy to work with and cheap but tastes incredibly sugary, you know the stuff. All it is is powdered sugar and shortening. not good stuff. Butter-cream is a much better tasting icing. A lightly sweet, delicate taste with a light texture as well.








My wedding cake! It took some time and effort but it was a lot of fun and I really liked how it turned out. I particularly liked the roses and found I did a decent job on them. I made so many that I used more than usual and still had about 3 left over. The wicker basket design on the side takes a lot of time and but looks great when its finished.



This is my fondant cake! We were given full creative control on this cake and I think I made pretty good use of it! Fondant is pretty interesting to work with. After giving it a taste it reminded me greatly of marshmallow but is rolled out and draped over the cake after a crumb coat is added to give the fondant something to stick to. The kokopelli on top was also made out of fondant that we made earlier in the week so it would get a chance to dry. the base coloring of the fondant was mixed into the fondant and the more vibrant colors were done with an airbrush loaded with food coloring. I am not sure how well it comes through but the theme I was kind of going for was the Montezuma Well cave dwellings, represented by the design on the middle tier, and the kokopelli, which represents fertility, followed by the Verde river on the bottom tier and Green shrubbery representing growth or spring.

It looked great, but after a few moves to various places for photos and to be displayed the kokopelli couldn't handle its own weight. he got shorter, while I tried to fix him I broke a little more off the bottom, he got shorter. I came back the next day with my parents for an open house event and while I was gone... he got shorter. I haven't looked recently but I think at this point he is just shoulders, a head and a flute...

Anyway, that was cake station! I have now also completed sugar station and have a bunch more photos to upload so I should have that posted within a few days.