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