Petite Four Class - Lesson 3

This is from the third and last lesson of my Petite Four Class. This lesson, we were taught to make mainly Petite Fours Sec. What you see in the picture starting from the top:

1. Expresso Cheesecake - Little expresso cheesecakes baked and chilled. Dust with some cocoa powder and snow sugar and decorated with white chocolate and a coffee bean made of marzipan.
2. Hazelnut Focus - A crunchy little cake made of hazelnut powder and meringue, decoarated with ganache and roasted hazelnut.
3. Cranberry Almond Florentines - Made of sliced almonds and cranberry cooked in glucose which hardens when cooled.
4. Orange Kisses - The base is made of Pâte Sucrée, topped with a chocolate orange chantilly and decorated with a slice of oranage and chocolate slice.

My personal preference are the Expresso Cheesecake which has a very strong coffe flavour and the Cranberry Almond Florentines which you cannot stop munching on once you start.

We were awarded with a certificate of accomplishment at the end of the course.

Cake Baking Lesson Stage 1 - Lesson 3

This is what we made for Cake Baking Stage 1 - Lesson 3. The one on the left is the Rainbow Roll, this recipe can be used to make the Rainbow Roll or the Feather Roll. This swiss roll was then filled with whipped cream and a nice strawberry jam. Very light and refershing.

The other swiss roll that we made was the Tiger Roll. The outer skin had to be seperately and after that, roll together with the inner chocolate roll. The reason why the outer skin wrinkles is due to the heat reacting with the flour in the batter. As it is a thin roll, it is also important to try to even out the batter throughout the tray so that the outer skin would bake evenly. As this is a thin roll, we need to be careful not to overbake it as it will result in it turning into a biscuit instead of a cake. Some skill is need to be able to make the skin successfully and beautifully. A ganache mixed with whipping cream was used for this swiss roll.

I like the Tiger Roll better as compared to the Rainbow Roll.

Cakes - Tiramisu and Longan Peach

Last weekend was a super busy weekend, initially having to make 1 cake as requested by my hub's cousin - A for her 21st birthday, but ended up having to make two cakes as A called Wednesday night asking if I could make a small cake for her friend who was turning 21 also. We only have one 21st birthday a lifetime, so I agreed. Not knowing how many people will be turning up for her birthday party, I decided to make a 10" square fruit cake with fresh cream for A. which was the plan initially. With the additional request, I started to think hard again to decide if I should make the same flavour for the smaller cake that A requested for her friend as it would make my job easier. But then I thought that it would look boring if both cakes looked the same during the party.

After some thoughts and some inventory taking to see what other ingredients I had at home, I decided to make a 7" Tiramisu for A's friend.

I started all the baking and making on Friday night as I had some Mooncake orders to fulfil and Cake Baking Class on Saturday afternoon . I used my brand new Spa mixer to whisk up the cake batter for the Longan and Peach cake. This mixer definitely had power and the cake turned out light and fluffy compared to if I were to use a hand held mixer to whip up the batter.

I managed to finish both cakes by 11pm that night. A great sense of satisfaction and happiness to see the two cakes turning out well though I felt that the fruit decoration for the Longan and Peach Cake could be better. The other happy part was to see guests happily finishing up the cakes.

Walnut Moon Tarts

Walnut Moontarts with Pâte Sucrée and white lotus. These were made on request from hub for giving to some Taiwan colleague to bring back to Taiwan. These moontarts are very different from the traditional mooncakes because of how the crust is made.

Some of my friend's have requested to place some orders for these, thus I would be busy for the next 2 weeks with these little pastries.

Petite Four Class Lesson 2

I attended the Petite Four Class 2 last Monday. Lesson 2 was better in terms of pace as some of the items used were prepared in Lesson 1. Our instructor Judy emphasized on Mis En Place which means the preparation work head of time. For the Petite Four class, we made our Pâte Sucrée during Lesson1 and this will be used for the subsequent lessons.

In Lesson 2, we did four items, namely

1. Apricot Passion Fruit Tartlets - a sweet crust pastry, topped with a Apricot Chocolate Ganache.
2. Mini Fruities - Layers of sponge cake sandwiched with custard filling, surround by a layer of heart shaped chocolate sheet and topped with various types of fruits.
3. Angle Head - Made of the sponge cake 'droplets' that we made in Lesson 1, sandwich with lemon curd and decorated with snow sugar and chocolate ganache piped on the top.
4. Rhubard Rolls - Rhubard rolled between a thin layer of sponge, and a lemon curd filling.

Unfortunately no Rhubards where found in the local supermarkets, thus we have to substitute it with strawberries which tasted good with the lemon curd as well.

My personal favourite were the Mini Fruities which were light. We were taught to make various fruit base ganache. However, for some reason, I personally do not like the taste of fruit puree mixed with chocolate.