Very zesty

Another week, another topic. This time we have turned our hands to some classic, basic cakes and the theory that goes along with it. Current theory hot topics are aeration methods closely followed by cake mixing methods. For those of you not privaledged enough to be fed this information in school, the three menthods of aeration are chemical, natural and mechanical. Heres a quick break down. Chemical aeration uses products such as baking powder to create the rise in the cake. This is what is most commonly used in home cooking and what I have relied on for many years. Natural aeration is what we saw last week with the breads where a cheeky bit of yeast is used to give the lift. And finally, most painfully, is mechanical aeration. Opposed to what the name suggests this is pure man power. The batter is aerated by hand - whisk till you can't whisk no more.

Thankfully lesson one on cakes we stuck to the tried and trusted chemical aeration and only had to endure the minor pains of creaming butter into a frenzy. In demo the chef taught us four such cakes. A fruit cake, lemon cake, almond and pistachio and some lovely little madelines. Anyway, enough chat from me, here are the pictures your waiting for.

Chefs mirrored plate of delight

Madelines, described aptly by a coursemate as 'baked love'

This week we were out of demo and straight into the kitchen to make our lemon cake and madelines. It was our first, and eagerly anticipated, lesson with the head of patisserie so we creamed and zested till our hearts content and hoped for the best. Feedback this week was really good and detailed, by which i mean chef literally tore our cakes to pieces to show us where we went right/wrong. The more specific you can get your feedback the better, for example chef said my madelines were good but would have been better if they were slightly less whisked - perhaps just a minute too much. Madelines are definatley something I dont mind perfecting at home, they are cute, bite-size, tasty and (with a few tricks) relatively easy to make - whats not to love?

Start with a tart

Before I begin, I appologise in advance if this blog is a little lacking. For some reason school has truly exhausted me today, I'm going to blame the early morning sugar rush. After my second helping of chocolate tart, I definately peaked a little too early - well worth it though. Anyway, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Today we started a new topic: Pastry. We began our new adventure by making tarts with a shortcrust base (pâte brisée) and will continue by making sweet, puff and choux pastry. Shortcrust pastry is great because it can be filled with sweet and savory so if, god forbid, I tire of sugar, I can adapt the recipe accordingly. Chef taught us two examples of tarts using this pastry: lemon meringue and chocolate. After our three hour demo my savlation glands had had a pretty hearty work out, so I lept from my seat to grab a slice of each. And yes, I went back for seconds. Hopefully after you see them this will seem a bit less greedy:

 Lemon Meringue goodness

Chocolate actual heaven

 

After an extended lunch break with my group,we made our way back to school to make our very own lemon meringue pie. Lesson today was pretty hectic because the group before us was running late due to a mid-lesson fire alarm. This meant the precious time we had to make our pastry crust, lemon curd, italian meringue, candied lemon as well as put it all together was cut short. One pie in two hours? Surely not! But dont worry guys, I pulled myself together and tried to keep my piping as neat as possible. It has turned out a right zesty treay. Surely one more slice of pie today can't hurt too much?

Feedback was good overall. Again negatives focused on improving my piping to neaten the whole thing up a bit. Looks like I'll have to make myself another pie. For practise reasons only of course..