The Local French Laundry

I'm so excited to brag about a lovely pastry chef coming in to visit our school on Wednesday. This lady is a legend who prepared tiny bite(petite four) cakes for the Queen of England, was rewarded some fancy award which basically entitles her to use the words 'master of pastry making' on her business cards and was hand selected by Thomas Keller to oversee the pastry department of the French Laundry. Yeah, I said it, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY. That little ol' restaurant that is booked solid for six months in advance and regarded as one the best restaurant in the US, if not the world. Her name is Claire Clark and she is a master patessier and meeting her will grant me bragging rights till the day I die. I've been reworking the disaster of my entrement from last week and hopefully the new and improved will be edible enough to have a 'master patessier' take a bite. I'll post a picture when all is said and done.

Today we were also introduced to the pretentious world of chocolate tasting. We spent a whole afternoon tasting different kinds of chocolate and like wine snobs pretending to pick up aromas from the chocolate. "I taste tobacco yet smell flora." "Though I liked the earthy tones to it, the snap wasn't crisp enough for my liking." That's the snobbery we threw around today. And just for those wondering what a lady like myself, with a birthday around the corner, likes my new found saying 'the bitter, the better.'

And thanks to the people who raised concern about the bike thief. All I can say is that the situation is taken care of and because of an oath of silence(mainly for legal issues) I can't divulge in any way as to how if got back in my hands. But my lovely bike is home and being ridden on a daily basis.

Sunday Morning

After much debate and headache I had to finalize my choice of flavor for the cake project. I really wanted to do something colorful, full of flavor and something no one else in the class would do. Well, I surely was the only one with this flavor combination but I over did it resulting in a dessert that was too sweet for a second bite.

I'll dissect it for you, starting for the bottom up:

A shortbread crust added for a little crunch

Deluce De Leche smothered a top which is similar in taste to butterscotch and is simply accomplished by simmering a can of condensed milk in water for two(to top a sundae) to four(a toffee texture) hours

Next is an orange sponge, which is light in texture but has a tart texture because of the oranges

Layered with Chai Pastry cream which I let simmer overnight to bring out the millions of spices in Chai

Then comes an Earl Grey Cake, which I thought would compliment the chai and chocolate flavors but turned out bland and unrecognizable with the rest of the cake

Another layer of orange sponge, and painted with a bitterchocolate ganache

Decorated with candied oranges(cause of time restraint they were too wet) and sable cookies sandwiched between chai pastry cream dressed with cocoa beans

I took a peak of Chef when he was test biting my cake and he had the "ohhh, way too sweet" face and I knew I was doomed. I tasted the cakes on there own and concurred they were lovely but once I had a nibble of the final product I knew I did too much. All the flavors were overwhelming but I learnt an important lesson today; less is more. Especially in developing pastries. Chef defiantly credited my creativity in the cake but we both agreed it was too much. The other pastry ladies in my class made some really fantastic cakes, kiwi & mango mousses, banana & hazelnut cake, lemon chiffon & pardon the pun, the one that took the cake was defiantly a pistachio cake with marscapone filling, a crunchy white praline on the bottom & topped with poached pears.

On an extra shitty note, my bike was stolen. There was biblical rain on Friday and with full hands I decided to leave my bike, locked of course, outside of school and when I returned on Monday it was gone. And the cherry on top was when I was walking home Monday I noticed my bike half a block away from my house locked up to a post in front of a huge apartment complex. My conundrum is what to do about my beloved bike. Leave a note on the bike gently explaining how much I miss it? Knock on every door apartment door and flatly accuse anyone that crosses my path? Or let fate have its way?