What I Ate This Week

So it gives me a moment on my “lunch break” to share my final culinary-school creation.  Our final practical was Monday night– by the time I left the building at 10:15pm that night, the snow and ice had started, ultimately closing the school the next two days.  So I got it in just in time!

The idea I had back about 3 months ago was about patriotism.  After all, this year is the first year in recent memory (a decade or so?) when I’ve actually had some excitement about politics.  Given that the practical was within a week of the inauguration… it only seemed right to celebrate!

So this is it, in all its glory.  For the pastry techies out there, it starts with three thin layers of red velvet cake.  Making the batter for this was awesome… I had the bloodiest-looking apron in the joint, and it tasted phenomenal.  (I always get worried when adding food coloring to pastry, but you really couldn’t tell.)  I baked the cakes a couple weeks ago and they came out beautifully thin.  Really thin.  Like European thin.  Nervous about Chef’s reaction to that, but I pressed on!

Between the layers was a creme de cassis (blackberry liqueur) dessert syrup and a thin layer of a diluted pastry cream.  They both added a nice touch of flavor to the finished product, although I didn’t get the color contrast from the cream that I had hoped.

The cake is iced with a white French buttercream.  Simple and really delicious.  Decorations consisted of buttercream rosettes which prop up 12 red and white chocolate stars, made of red and blue coating chocolate applied with gold-star chocolate transfer sheets.  In the center is a 13th such (larger) star– 13 stars.  Get it?

Alongside the torte is some homemade blueberry ice cream and a blueberry coulis (which is made with strained blueberry puree with sugar, thickened with a little starch).

And how was it?  Phenomenal.  I even impressed myself!  The cake was really moist and a lovely deep red color.  The ice cream was rustic (read: chunky) and nicely complemented the cake.  Texture and temperarture across the three elements.  YUM!

So… that’s it.  The end of the road for culinary school.  It made for a wild and wonderful year, full of mistakes and awesome food, long hours, and leaving work early.  Whew!  It’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.  Now… I might actually get to cook at home since I’m not spending hours in a pastry kitchen!

And as my friends and family have asked repeatedly, I’ll succumb one time.  After getting home late Monday, exhausted but happy with snow falling all around… here’s the last of me in my cook’s uniform.  Have a great week everyone, snowy or not depending on where you are!