Day 78--Buffet Day

Well, today was it.  It was the last real day of class and I am so very done!!!  I finished most everything in time and I'm happy with the score I got (140 out of 150).  Monday we clean and get ready for Tuesday and then Tuesday is the luncheon and it's over by 2pm.  I am looking forward to a few days off!

Anyway, to the good stuff.  There were some really excellent displays today

This was Amber's.  Unfortunately I got a picture before her set up was complete. Sorry Amber!

Ellen chose to honor Portland with a bike theme

Erica duplicated her furniture in chocolate :-)

Dana's Italian theme was awesome!

Viva Las Vegas from Jennifer

(yeah, unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the side of the house of cards.  She hand-painted them and they looked wonderful!)

Jessica danced through her buffet, just as she does with everything else. :-)

Mary went all-out and brought real china from home!

Adam honored the love of his life, Dolly Parton

Nicole showed her passion for baking

Celeste's Disney theme was great, right down to the Mickey Mouse cookies and the Pate a Choux mice! Love it!

I started off the day by going in a couple of hours early to try and get my sugar showpiece done.  If you remember, it has three components; cast, pulled and blown.  They all had to be put together to make one piece so I was going to do a ? cube from Super Mario with a mushroom coming out of it.

I did 3 cast pieces to make the shell of the cube since I didn't have time for the full thing

I started with a nice lump of melted sugar for the pulled and blown piece

Managed to make it into this (the pulled piece)...

...and this (the top of the mushroom and blown piece)

Now, unfortunately, sugar hates me apparently and decided to break two of my cast pieces...so there went the cube.  But it was alright.  Through the burned fingers (melted sugar is HOT...also, when your latex gloves catch fire and melt...that's bad) and the dropping stuff, I still had enough to get everything checked off, all I had to do was put it together....then I reached for something, brushed the ball you see above and it shattered. Yep.  I was out of time for the sugar piece, I needed to get my actual buffet together...so I finished what I was doing with the cast and pulled and gave up on it.  It means my sugar piece didn't get checked off but...it's one point. Oh well.  Onto the food.

Here we have Key Lime-Tequila Parfait, raspberry rum truffles, puff dough cups with Irish Cream creme Chantilly and mini bourbon-pecan pies

Below the pies are apple turnovers (apples caramelized in Apple Jack Brandy) and next to them are chocolate covered brandied cherries

Candied orange slices (in the brandied cherry juice), chocolate fudge cookies with creme de menthe icing and coconut rum macaroons top it off.

After it was all graded I was able to put all of my pieces together (we were only allowed to have one of our showpieces up for grading) and here's how it all came together...

TADA!

Well, that's it for projects!  Thank goodness it's all over and I can relax this weekend! I plan to have fun.  Yes. Me. Fun. Wow. ;-P

Day 77

I made good progress today and I feel like I'm pretty prepared for tomorrow.  The only thing is really that I haven't done my sugar piece yet.  The plan is to get up early tomorrow morning, run a couple of errands and go into school to finish it. Ideally, when class officially starts, I will be putting the finishing touches on everything and be DONE.

Today I finished up my cookies and pecan pies, made my puff dough cups, made my Key-Lime Tequila Cream, and just generally did better than usual. YAY!

Chocolate Fudge Sour Cream Cookies with Creme De Menthe icing

Mini pecan pies (made with bourbon, of course)

My puff cups pre-baking

I also used puff dough to make apple turnover things which came out really well.  I have some finishing touches to put on them so I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I stayed a little while after class and finished my pastillage piece.  Here's the back of it...

When the royal icing holding the pieces together is dry tomorrow, I will stand it up and see how it does.  Cross your fingers!

I got an email from Emilee over at the Brasserie and they decided that they'd rather I start next week since some things are changing there, so that's cool.  Just means I get more sleep. YAY!

Day 76

I am pretty well on track with the food aspect of the buffet, I made the shells for my mini pecan pies and I finished my cookies.  I didn't get either of my creamy custardy stuff done but it's ok, we have more time tomorrow than we originally thought we would.  I still have to put my pastillage piece together, probably tomorrow and I have yet to do my sugar piece so we'll see how that goes. ...yay!

I do have some awesome news.  I got an externship at Brasserie Montmartre (brasserieportland.com) which is totally exciting!  I start this Friday and Saturday to train with their pastry chef, who is leaving...so that should be interesting.  I'm really stoked about it and I can't wait to start, but it will be a LONG couple of days.  After class tomorrow I will go home, hang out for a couple of hours, go to bed, be at the Brasserie at 7a, class at 2p, work at 11p then back at the Brasserie at 8a on Saturday.  In any case, it's exciting and I am really happy that it's working out!

Day 75

I again got everything on my checklist done for today...but I'm starting to think that my list for tomorrow might be a little over-ambitious...we'll see.  Maybe with a little more sleep I'll be ok.

Sorry for the blurry picture but here's what I did today

I made coconut macaroons (with coconut rum, of course) and raspberry-rum truffles and then dipped those and the last of my brandied cherries in tempered chocolate

My chocolate didn't temper as well as I was hoping, it bloomed :-/ (a layer of fat shows up as light brown streaks on the chocolate)  Oh well.  They were tasty anyway.

Day 74

I finished my goomba today and started on the food for my buffet.  I got everything on my checklist for the day done, which is nice.  I am feeling very time-pressured and lack the energy to meet it.  While I'm excited about the buffet project (I LOVE projects!),  I think the whole menu project just took too much out of me.  I need a break and to recharge.  It's almost over though, this is our last week of class....

I started by candying fruit today.  Just a note, it's WAY better to candy whole slices and cut them into the size and shape you need them afterward than to cut them first....

It's a long process involving 4 pots...3 of boiling water for blanching and the last one on the right is full of simple syrup to simmer the fruit at the end

I candied the oranges in the cherry-brandy liquid that I made.  Hope they turn out!

They turned out pretty, anyway.  The one on the bottom I've already rolled in sugar

I still have to put my pastillage hills together and make my sugar piece but here's my goomba...

This is right out of the mold.  I could leave him like this and it would be fine....

But I felt cutting him out into his true pixelated form was more fun :-)

Day 73

I was able to finish my chocolate piece today and Mr. Goomba is drying nicely.  I'll take him out on Monday and see what he looks like!

In the mean time, I started on my sugar piece but that didn't work out so well (I tried twice before feeling like I was wasting my time and deciding to come back to it later).  Just to get something done, I decided to paint my pastillage with food coloring...

I will put them all together at the end of next week.

One of the pieces broke as I was sanding down the rough edges but I think I can get it back together without too much trouble. Cross your fingers!

Day 72

Now that my pastillage is drying, it was time to start my next project....Chocolate!

Since my theme is Super Mario, I chose to do a goomba for my chocolate piece.

Here he is before chocolating (my printer is running out of ink).  He's all reversed and taped down

I ran out of time before I could finish the white bit but here's most of it traced in chocolate. 

Keep in mind that what you're seeing will be covered up by a block of chocolate and the part that's actually facing the plastic will be the end result.

It's going to be a fun piece I think.  I am excited to see it done. :-)