I can't believe it! My classes at the French Pastry School are officially over. I got through my final wedding cake without too much drama and I'm very happy with the final product. We were given the outline for our final cake at the beginning of the program so we had 14 weeks to come up with our designs. The theme of the cakes was winter wedding. We each had to make a storyboard with a sketch of what we wanted our cake to look like. I wanted to make a cake that was rustic but still had some bling and sparkle.

Once again I don't have any pictures of the process of making the cake. My cake was very ambitious so I didn't have much free time. We had approximately 20 hours over 4 days to complete our wedding cakes. I had a lot to do and was busy ever day. I was really busy on the last day and was worried I wouldn't finish, but it all came together in the end and I am so happy with the result.

In the end my cake turned out almost exactly how I pictured it. I did a 3 tiered square cake covered in white fondant. I used a technique called quilting to create the diamond pattern and added edible sliver pearls for some extra bling. Our cakes had to include a monogram so I used my parents, Willard and Deirdre's initials. They never really had a wedding cake so I thought I would make them one. I wanted each tier to look like it was resting on sticks so I used cake separators to raise the tiers up and filled in the space with chocolate sticks.

To make the sticks I used a technique Chef Scott demonstrated. I got a large container and filled it with ice water. I then piped tempered chocolate directly into the water. Because it was so cold it set the chocolate immediately, giving it a natural, rustic shape. I also used this technique for the nest on the top of the cake.

The pinecones, roses and robins are all made from gumpaste. The pinecones were definitely the most time consuming part of the cake. For the large pinecones I molded each needle individually with a silicone former then assembled it all together on floral wire. Each has about 60 needles and took around an hour the make. I love how they turned out so it was worth it.

My time at the French Pastry School was an amazing experience and I'm so sad it's over. It was everything I hoped it would be. I learned so much from some amazing teachers and pastry chefs. It went by faster than I could have imagined. I got to meet some wonderful and talented people and had the best classmates anyone could ask for. Tomorrow is graduation and I can't wait to be with all the ladies in my class so we can celebrate our accomplishment together! Thank you everybody for reading about my time in Chicago. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the journey. I'll have pictures from graduation up soon, but until then.

Happy baking,

Kayla

Well I'm almost done my first week of finals! We spent the first two days of the week with Chef Nicholas learning how to make some new sugar flowers. Here are pictures of what we created.

Stephanotis

Sweet Pea

Cymbidium Orchid

Hydrangea

On Wednesday we began working on our cakes. We were placed in groups of two to create a Sweet 16 cake. We were partnered up a few weeks ago so we had time to plan out our ideas. After combining our two designs we came up with a flapper/fashion themed cake. We had six hours over two days to complete it. 

Each group had to do a sketch of how they wanted their final cake to look. After some thought, this is what we came up with. 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the cake in progress as we were busy trying to get it all done on time, but here is our final product! 

The time went by really fast and we almost didn't finish, but we managed to pull it together in the end and I'm so happy with the final result! Everyone in our class did an amazing job and I'm so excited to see all the wedding cakes finished.

These are all the other cakes made from the people in my class. It was awesome to see them all together. So that's one cake done, and only one more to go before graduation! Our final cake will be a winter themed wedding cake. We'll have around twenty hours over five days to complete it. I'm a bit nervous but I think it will all come together in the end. Here's hoping anyway... Wish me luck! The next time you hear from me I'll be done my Wedding cake! Until then.

Happy baking,

Kayla

Well, my regular classes at the French Pastry School are officially finished. We spent the last two weeks working on Taste and Cake Building with Chef Joshua Johnson. We learned about different types of cakes and fillings that can be used in Wedding and special occasion cakes. It was awesome to be able to do even more baking and to learn so many new recipes. Chef Joshua, who use to have his own chocolate shop also showed us some of his favourite recipes including brownies, chocolate milk and caramels. I currently have five delicious cakes in my freezer so I'll be set for dessert until I leave!

The only bad part about all the baking we were doing was the dishes. Over the two weeks we made over twenty different recipes, so needless to say we had a lot of cleaning up to do.

This is the first cake we assembled. It's components are orange hazelnut biscuit, hazelnut japonais, bitter orange marmalade, coffee mousseline, coffee crumble and coffee buttercream.

Our second creation. Lemon almond biscuit, coconut dacquoise, lemon cream, almond pralinettes, fresh apricots and vanilla anglaise buttercream.

Despite the fact that I don't usually like chocolate, this cake was my favorite! Chocolate biscuit, pistachio cinnamon ganache, chocolate mousse, caramelized pistachios, cocoa nib florentine crisp and dark chocolate ganache. My dad loves chocolate and pistachios so I can't wait to try this out on him!

This cake was a close second! Almond genoise, caramelized almonds, vanilla anglaise buttercream and fresh strawberries. I would like to try making this again when strawberries are in season. I'm sure it would be even more amazing.

We were only scheduled to make four different cakes but we had some extra time at the end of the week so Chef showed us a few extra recipes to make another one. We also used some leftover components from the previous cakes. This is what we came up with. Chocolate genoise, dark chocolate ganache, almond pralinettes, vanilla crémeux and peanut butter mousse all sprayed with milk chocolate.

We had a little extra cake left over at the end of the week. Luckily one of my classmates took mine because I don't think it would have all fit in my freezer.

Of course we had to try all the different cakes we created! Luckily my chef pants have an elastic waist.

I had an awesome time these last two weeks. It made me realize that, although I love cake decorating and making food look beautiful, baking will always have to be a part of my job because I love it so much as well. Besides, it doesn't matter how nice something looks if it doesn't taste amazing. I can wait to get home and try out some new recipes on my family and friends. Next week we will be starting our final projects. First we will be creating a sweet 16 cake with a partner. Then for our final project we will each be creating a winter themed Wedding cake. I am equally nervous and excited to get started. Wish me luck!

Happy baking,

Kayla