Happy Birthday Seok !

If you have been reading my blog since I've started blogging, you will definitely know Seok, one of my best friends here in Australia. Today is his birthday so I made my all time favourite Dark Chocolate Tart for him. At first I was thinking about making Lemon meringue tart but not sure that every people will like the meringue, so I played safe with chocolate one... It is the 4th time for me making this tart... you see how much I love it lol.

Dark Chocolate Tart

(adabted from LCB)

Sweet short pastry

150 g butter

95 g icing sugar

few drops vanilla essence

250 g bakers flour

pinch salt

30 g almond meal

60 g egg

1. Sift all dry ingredients and rub the butter with the dry ingredients until like bread crumbs.

2. Add eggs, DO NOT OVERWORK.

3. Refrigerate for 30 mins

4. Line in the baked pastry case and bake at 180 degree celcius for 15 - 20 mins.

Filling

80 ml milk
200 ml cream
200 g dark couverture
1 egg, beaten
(I skipped milk and used 300 ml cream because I bought 300 ml package of cream)

1. Boil milk and cream. Pour over chocolate and stir to melt.
2. Add egg.
3. Pour into blind baked pastry case and bake at 150 degree celcius till set.
4. Serve tart at room temperature with whatever garnish you want.

This time, I decorated with honeycomb (of couse I bought from supermarket..haha) at night, it turned out so beautiful as you see above. Before I chopped the honeycomb, I concerned that the honeycomb will absorb the moisture and get soft by the next day but I have no time to do that in the morning cuz I have to quickly take a 6.58 am bus.. so... no choice...

In the morning when I opened the box...haha... the honeycomb is melted as I thought T_T

Happy birthday to you~~~~

Melted Honeycomb.



Seok, Kimmy and Ja

Graduation !

9 months have gone ! lots of baking, lots of good friends. Yeah, I graduated ! The 11 Feb 2009 is my graduation ceremony day. The practical class I have passed, now I am doing Certificate 4 which is about management.. no more kitchen ! In July, due to a requisite for finishing the program, I need to work as part of our Industry Placement which I can work anywhere around the world..haha ( if I can find). Anyone who knows the pastry jobs available, let me know please :P

haha... for some of us that might not know.. girls always like this

Nicole, Heidi, Ja

4 Thais people.. yeah, just 4!

with Seok, thanks for being such a great friend !

Stella, Nicole, Kimmy, Clair and me

With Heidi, one of my best foodie friend :D

with Chef Andre (my best), Chef Dedier, Chef Karin

Um, Pin, Ayra and Ricky

SP Lesson 22 - 27 : Sugar Work, Pastillage

The last 2 weeks we studied all about sugar ! At first when I knew that I have to study about sugar work, I thought it is not interesting at all, also very dangerous (boiling sugar until 155C). But when I saw sugar work from chef Herve, wow....it is so amazing and very beautiful !

The first day we studied about Pastillage, the mixture between icing sugar and egg white. We mix, roll and let it dry then assemble it on the following Monday.

From chef Keith.

So sad I don't have my showpiece from Pastillage cuz I absented the class on the next Monday :P

The sugar work below are from chef Herve. Sugar work can be pulled sugar, poured sugar, blown sugar, etc.

when watching his demo, looks so easy but the real thing is really really hard !

my showpiece !


Now I knew I am not good at Blown sugar T_T

Other friends made about 7-8 fruits but I did only 3 then ok..enough !

Even it is a lot far different from chef, I am satisfied for now !

hehe...another my apple !

Superior Assessment : Chocolate Box

After finished gateau exam, I am so relax. I went to have a nice brunch at Deli France on George st. before school.

Chicken & bechamel croissant and skinny cappuccino... not bad.

hot and crispy.. woo !

Ok, come back to the exam... Hiah, I am not satisfied with my chocolate.. I think in practical lesson I did it better. This time I tried to make the wooden pattern, my first time, so it didn't turn out nice like I imagined... Moreover, I really like my roses but I was stupid put some cocoa powder on top... looks dirty T_T

Looks not neat at all.


Good idea but ...

I wasted lots of time working with modelling chocolate (to make the rose) that's why I got no time to pipe some chocolate on the top part for nice finish.


Our boxes.

I brought home and my intention is to give it to Aunty Lilian, deryk's aunty, for Christmas present... so I did more decoration which make it a lot better (I think)

Piped the milk chocolate on the lid (first time I tempered chocolate in microwave.. so happy I can do it :D)

Superior Assessment - Gateau

Finally the exam is passed! (anyway, still have to continue studying for 2 weeks) We are so so happy after we passed the exam week, quite nervours and stressful from all theory and practical assessments. In pratical, we have to make our gateau by using the ingredients the school provide. Also make another chocolate box which we did before

At first, my plan was Mousse cake even I don't really like eating mousse. Because it seems easy and the ingredients is very suitable for making mousse. It consists of Strawberry mousse, Kirsh mousse and vanilla sponge decorated with Macarons. Luckily I tried 2 weeks before exam and found out that it was not so nice due to limited strawberry they provide. Taste was a bit boring for me.. So I kept thinking why don't I try to make something I like to eat then I can make it better. So it came to this gateau - '' The Secret''

The first layer is vanilla joconde, top with Grand Marnier creme diplomat, the middle part is strawberry jelly, top with cream diplomat again and Joconde. Each joconde is brushed with vanilla syrup. Masking with Italian meringue and decorated outside with French meringue.


But it looked too plain, I should burn the Italian meringue a bit more. The reason why it is called The Secret because you can't tell what is inside from its look..hehe (actually it is not my intention but I don't have any either strawberry or space left to decorate lol)


Inside.. Chef said I put a bit too much gelatin in strawberry jelly, so when we cut, the jelly and creme diplomat tent to quite easily separate. I was 70% satisfied my product, I mean I like the taste but can improve more... I will have this cake at my cafe (in the future) and try to make it better ^ ^

Some of my friends' gateaus....

all good, we tasted all after class, so full !

Here are the gateau that I first tried making at home..

The first one as I told you, I cut the sponge to small that why you will see there are lots of mousse outside. Also I was lazy to make the glaze, not so beautiful..hehe (also my macaron has no feet !!!)

Since I want to give the cake for others, have to make it nicer, I put the raspberry coulis on top and it suddenly taste much better... My friends like it !

The 2nd cake was the cake in my exam but decoration was different because of laziness :P I like this style more but it doesn't use so much skill.

You know, this cake I accidently put salt instead of sugar in the creme diplomat and Italian meringue..haha..yeah... I have no idea how it happened. I used the sugar from the container that I normally use but then it turned out so salty.. However, I assumed that it should be the mixture of salt and sugar cuz if it is pure salt, it would be a lot more salty. Telling you the truth, even it was salty, I perfer it than the one in my exam... (of course we are not talking about the saltiness)

And the night I made the cake, my friends came over to have BBQ party about 7 people, they like the cake and finished it (maybe they were too drunk to notice the real taste lol)

SP Lesson 21 : Decorative & Showpiece Bread

Today we studied another new dough. It is called '' Dead dough'' also known as Baker's clay. The dough does not contain yeast therefore it does not require proving. This is used for some decorations on showpeice breads because it won't move or change the shape after bake.

Chef Herve showed us the Crocodile bread and Wheat sheaf bread.

Seriously, I think it looks so scary, like lizard.

But after baked, ok .. hehe

My Wheat sheaf bread...

My Crocodile and Platipus. Oh my, the crocodile can't move, his legs are too short lol.

Some products of my classmates... We had fun that day !

SP Lesson 20 : Panettone, Muffin, Focaccia, Stollen

Panettone is a delicate and rich porous festive bread studded with sultanas and flavoured with candied citrus peel. It can be served with cream or mascarpone. To develop the rich yeasty flavours, the dough can be prepared in serveral stages with prolonged maturing times between each stage.

Focaccia derives its name from the Latin word 'focus' which means 'hearth', because it was originally baked on an open hearth. One of my favourite bread- making sandwiches, dipping in an olive oil or even eating plain.

Muffins is a quick bread originated from the United States and now become famous all over the world...I love muffin but at school, chef just show us the Oat Bran Muffin and we were not allowed to make.

Stollen is a German festive cake that is produced at Christmas time. It is usually given as a gift. It is like fruit bread filled with marzipan, really sweet but I like :D

The processes

From Left clockwise : Panettone, Focaccia, Stollen, Muffin

The finished products

From Left clockwise : Panettone, Focaccia, Stollen, Muffin

Let's see my breads...

Focaccia... Don't be surprised that why my Focaccia is so plain. Since I could't find the fresh herbs or olives...

but the texture was still not bad?

Panettone.. After we took it out from the oven, chef put it all together on the wire rack so we didn't know which one is whose... just took it -_-''

It is crispy outside and very rich inside, I like. Because it is yeasted cake, not much gluten texture like normal bread, a bit crumby.

My stollen. haha Just like like fruit bread really !