What a Wednesday!
I have a full class on Wednesday starting at noon and ending at 7 in the evening. Met two of my friends, Mew and Sonya and we headed to the Central World at Pra Ram 9 in the morning in search for waffles & pancakes and eggs type of breakfast.
Having cereals and milk for breakfast can be a little boring sometimes, you know? I do missed waking up and heading over to Hatched with Ben for a sumptuous meal of egg Benedict or smoky salmon toast with scrambled eggs...or even calling for a delivery of McDonald's Deluxe Breakfast meal with a cup of Iced Milo!
Here, McDonald's is usually found on the top floors of a shopping mall, not on the ground floor (Not easily located, if you blink, you'll missed the restaurant!) and I have not found a Breakfast place yet!
So, we dined in at some "Home Bakery" Cafe, and I had ordered a Ham and Cheese Omelet, expecting it to be really cheesy when it arrived - but alas, sometimes, I shouldn't expect too much. They didn't melt the cheese together with the omelet, instead, they sprinkled the cheese OVER the top of the omelet like some fried onions.
=( Disappointing? You bet! I'm craving so much for Eggs Benedict right now!
Wednesday's class was relatively a breeze! We laughed so much at both Chef Marc and his assistant, I had tears in my eyes.
Check, this out!
Chef Marc wanted to show that a Christmas Yule Log can be decorated using different items, such as figurines made out of marzipan or using meringues to do snowman, etc.
The Santa Claus was made by his assistant, who proceeded to shake her head behind his back when he was explaining that he got his assistant to made these because he knew how much they love doing it! That got us roaring in laughter while Chef Marc remained clueless as to what just happened!
The snowman had a top hat made out of Chocolate fondant, and his carrot nose was piped using royal icing...his eyes and buttons was dotted using pate a glacer. They looked super cute!! I can't wait to bake some myself! Chef Marc says these types of decoration can be made Misc En Place, and stored well in a container with silica gel, he also advised that kids loved them, and they will usually clamber to the store with their nose pressed against the windows exclaiming "MAMA, MAMA, I want to buy this!".
Again, imagine a french men in mid forties, perhaps; calling out in a somewhat high pitched voice. We would basically run out of class room floor area if we had all roll on the floor laughing!
Next, we have the bûche de Noël de tradition, which is what we will bake during practical class. Traditional yule log, as Chef Marc explains, is usually made with coffee and decorated with meringue mushrooms and what not. He says that kids and adults will always fight for the mushrooms.
Man, look at the whole look of that log, if it's me, I'll fight for that piece of mushroom or snowman with all my strength! But if I fails...oh well, who cares, I can pipe another piece! *smirks*
The yule log is made up of a génoise cake, also known as sponge cake, and the volume is created by hand beaten meringue and not through chemical leavening. It is then brushed with a base syrup and spread with a thin layer of coffee butter cream, before being coated on the outside with more butter cream and creating lines using a fork and decor with meringues and other items.
Here, we have the buchettes au chocolat, which is a smaller version of the yule log. Chef Marc explains that anything with 'ttes' means smaller, like Tarte and tarttes (Tarts and Tartlets).
The right side picture is the praline buchettes, They are made exactly the same way as the yule logs, the only difference lies in using only half of the sponge cake to do the rolling, and they can be served individually as that's the whole point of making them smaller.
They really looked like little tree logs, don't they?
What do you think of mine?
I decorated mine only with one Christmas tree, mushrooms and a rosemary by the sides. Medicated cherries was also available, but I didn't want to add that splash of red. I had a hard time trying to whisk the coffee butter cream to a right colour, but at long last, I achieved that smooth, brown shade.
I'm sorry for the quality of the below photo, it was taken out from my instagram account. The thing about transporting cream cakes is that, the sides tend to be damaged and smeared by the time I get home, So I took a few shots right there and then in class. I didn't have the log to myself, I gave it to my residence manager, and she said her dad ate up 70% of the cake! I guess that's a compliment! =)
Chef Willy, who's in charge of the class told me that my cake board has to be clean (the other side has a little smudge) but overall, it was good! I guess there's still a lot to work on, as this is my first time doing a génoise cake and a sheet cake at that! At least my sheet cake came out beautifully and even, at all corners!
Still, there is still much more room for improvement; frosting a cake in any manner is still not my forte and I'm quite bad at that. I hope the next time I share my cream cakes, it's smooth and clean and much more presentable than this!
On the other hand, I have an upcoming post on my Cheesecake as well as share my trips out with friends to Chinatown and Asiatique, please bear with me while I try my best to churn out the posts and compile the photos soonest as I can.
Till then!
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