Cake Finishing (How to Eat a Whole Lotta Cake)

What I thought would be a rote, mechanical day turned out to be a lot of fun -- the right balance of arts & crafts and practicing technique. Chef G reviewed a few basic terms in a short lecture (a thin layer of filling is a 'stripe', frosting is officially 'icing') and then we chose which cakes we were to spend the day making.

I chose Milk Chocolate. This cake involves milk chocolate ganache for icing, milk chocolate whipped cream for filling, and chocolate shavings for the sides. First step was to make the milk chocolate ganache, which is a rich ganache (ordinary ganache is 1 to 1 ratio of chocolate to cream, which is a bit loose. Rich ganache is 1.5 to 1 ratio of chocolate to cream, which when set is a bit firmer) made by simmering one pint of cream with lemon zest, then steeping for a while. Trash the zest, add 2oz butter, bring to a boil, pour oer 20 oz of milk chocolate and 4 oz of bittersweet. Let the hot, lemony cream soften the chocolate, then whisk to smooth. Let cool to room temp, to spreadable consistency.

While that was going on, the whipped cream was prepared. Yesterday, a pint of heavy cream had been boiled with 2oz sugar, then poured over 8oz of chopped milk chocolate, whisked to smooth, then a pint of cold cream was added. It was refrigerated overnight; today, I just plopped it in the stand mixer with a whisk attachment to get it to, well, whipped-cream consistency.

The cake itself had to be evened out -- with a long serrated bread knife, the blade is lightly sawed across the top to make the slightly rounded top completely flat, and to make the two layers the same thickness. (This resulted in lots of perfectly edible cake scrap, which eaten throughout class, ended up being rather filling.) With a small, off-set spatula, a layer of milk chocolate whipped cream was spread on top of one round, then the second round was placed on top. Again with the bread knife, the sides were trimmed to make them match perfectly.

By now the ganache has set pretty thick, helped along with whisking it on top of an ice bath. First ganache is spread on top to the edge, the the cake is lifted with the left hand and large plops of ganache is spackled on the sides, using a bit extra so that when it is smoothed, there is a bit of a lip on top going higher than the top. Once smoothed, it's put down and with an offset spatula the lip is pushed to the center to create a smooth, seamless edge. Writing this, it sounds easy, but it was surprisingly tricky to make it look good.

Chocolate shavings were lightly pushed into the sides with my palm, done over a piece of parchment paper to collect the and reuse all the chocolate that did not adhere. Once covered, a piping bag was filled with chocolate whipped cream and a line of 'shells' were drawn in a circle around the edge of the cake. With another bag filled with extra ganache, another circle of starts were piped on. It was tempting to go further and make a busier cake, but sometimes you just gotta know when to say when.

After just so much sugar and chocolate, I got so giddy at my creation I just had to take a video. Once I realized that the cake wasn't actually going to do anything interesting other than sit there and look chocolatey, I quickly stopped it:

Tomorrow, we continue on our sweet kick with custards -- crème brulée, bread pudding and the first step to making ice cream.

ADDENDA:

As I was in yoga, I started feeling a bit weak and shaky and unfocused -- it occured to me that not only had I mostly eaten cake and chocolate all day, but drank no water either. I quickly went to the rest room, slurped from the faucet, then felt a whole lot better. Even got into shoulder stand again, albeit briefly.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 9am-11:30am, chocolate pistoles, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate ganache, lemony white cake, bites of 5 or so different flavored cakes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Squarehead made caramel chocolate cake, involving butter ganache and caramel whipped cream on the rich chocolate cake we made yesterday, easily the most decadent, tasty, over-the-top cake of the day.

LUNCH: 3:45pm, Japanese pork fried rice, pork gyoza, a little soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad with oil & vinegar, 3 small school-made croissants, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

Introduction to Cake (Let them Eat Cake...Tomorrow)

Class began with collecting the mise for lemon white cake, then a bit of lecture about the theory of cake. There are 9 mixing methods, three of which we explored. One creams the butter into the sugar, one creates a meringue by foaming whites and yolks separately with sugar, and the third is the Betty Crocker 'dump method' of combining the dry and the wet. Each method will result in a different kind of cake in crumb and texture.

Norbert and I mixed and baked the white cake (white, because it uses only egg whites -- if we used the whole egg, it would of been yellow cake) using the creaming method. Leavened by baking powdered, flavored with grated zest of lemon and a little lemon extract (cheap lemon vodka, really), and certain ratios of the usual suspects: cake flour, butter, salt, egg whites, whole milk. Into some round cake pans and into the oven. Slightly golden and cooked through, onto a speed rack.

The second cake we mised and made was a Pan di Spagna, a European style cake that has no leavener; it is made cakey strictly by the air whipped into the merange. Egg yolks, vanilla and sugar are whipped to soft peaks in one bowl, egg whites and sugar are heated over a hot water bath then whipped to peaks, then cold butter is put in and whipped to smooth. The two foams are folded to mix, but without beating out the air. Flour and cornstarch (both double sifted) are folded in until it's gone, then into pans to bake. No fat is used on the sides of the pan because this style of cake needs some grip when it rises and falls.

Different people were assigned different bits to help with tomorrow's class, cake decorating. I made a milk chocolate cream. A quart of heavy cream and 4 oz of sugar are brought to a boil, then poured over a pound of chopped up milk chocolate. After a couple of minutes, blended to smooth with a balloon whip in the mixer. Another quart of cold heavy cream is added and blended, then into the fridge -- tomorrow, it will be whipped.

ADDENDA:
The scale said 226 this morning, another pound upwards. Drinking a lot of water in bed last night, had a lot of dry mouth. This morning my muscles felt pretty good, no back ache, felt strong, but my stomach was in a knot and while riding to school felt a little nauseous.

I like Chef G, she's a little punchy and scrappy, but when we bake sweets, I feel very uninspired.

AM SNACKING: 9-11am, a couple of pieces of french bread, a couple handfuls of chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Felt queasy when waking, skipped breakfast.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, stirfried shrimp and broccoli with brown rice noodle, 1 quart water, hunger 4/5
Feel like I may be getting a little better at assembling a proper stir fry -- using fish stock (Saturday's had to be vegan) made a big difference.

PM DRUGGING: 2:30pm, 2 tylenol
Got sharp shooting migraine pains in the back of my head, almost blinding. Took these then another quart of water, went away literally a minute after the water.

DINNER: 5:30pm, masala dosai, pakora, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Kosher vegan Indian food, yum. Tastes remind me of my year in England.

EVENING SNORT: 7-9pm, about 1 glass of wine, assorted cheese n' crackers, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Wine class, all about Italy. Except for Barolo, they all kinda tasted samey.