Rate my plate

This week we had the chance to plate and present some of our efforts in our hot dessert module. Its really nice to have the chance finish off and present a dessert in its true glory because ninety percent of the time my cakes have to suffer a traumatic tube ride home before I get to slice into them, by which point they look a little less polished. It also means we can add our own touch to the plates.

The desserts on menu were: a hot chocolate fondant, an individual tarte tatin and an exotic mousse cake. The chefs showed us a few plating ideas, of which I think the mousse plates are just lovely. I think I would struggle to destroy them in a restaurant. The mousse itself has a patterned sponge and is packed with girly pastel shades; I really can't get enough of the mousses these days.

Fancy Fondant

What a mousse

In class we made not only the desserts but the sauces, tuilles, chocolate and sugar work to decorate. We worked nicely as a team again for the desserts and then made our decorations and plated up individually. 

First to plate was the tarte tatin, followed by the fondant. Whilst marking our plates, the chef cut into the fondant to ensure it had the required oozy, gooey chocolate middle. Unfortunately, this tantalised my taste buds so much I ate the whole plate right there and then and by the time it came to take a picture, this was all that was left..

The tarte had only made a short journey into my cake tin, so I quickly re-plated for the snap. I kept the plate simple with a piped sugar apple decoration and sauces sat in chocolate swirls. A bit too much sauce in some cases.

The missing fondant was a plate a really liked so I am quite annoyed to have let my stomach do the thinking. It was sat on a sugar lattice,poured with custard and had fresh sliced raspberrys and sugar spirals sat on top. Alas, you will just have to use your imagination.

The final dessert we made was the mousse. I decorated with an abstract tuille basket and a chocolate crown. The picture doesnt show it up that well but the sponge had an "XOXO" hugs&kisses pattern on which looked particularly cute.

Plating up is a tad nerve racking for fear of ruining your dessert in the blink of a misplaced sauce. However, I feel like I must actually be starting to overpower my messy ways because my plates were smudge free and relatively neat!