We made a classic genoise, or whole egg foam cake, and topped it with homemade buttercream icing. We're just beginning our pastry portion of the level, but are quickly realizing that its very different and much harder than the savory dishes. In pastry, you must be meticulous about measuring your ingredients, maintaining proportions and keeping everything cold, whereas my general attitude is "Yeah, that looks about right," or "Sure, throw it in!" That does not work for pastry....reminding me why I would never make it as a pastry chef.
A genoise is made by whipping eggs and sugar over heat until they thicken and triple in size. You then very quickly fold in sifted flour, a little bit of melted butter and immediately pour it into your cold cake pan and then into the oven. They're fickle little cakies, and can lose their volume in seconds if not done right, leaving you with a hockey puck instead of a fluffy delicious cake.
We had free reign to decorate our cake, and were given close to 30 options: fresh fruit, dried fruit, liquers, flavored liquids, nuts and herbs, to name a few. I chose to dab an amaretto simple syrup on each layer of my cake, coat the sides with chopped pistacchios, make a spiral pattern on the top and fill it in with chopped almonds. Yum. This cake is disgustingly fattening, even without the full buttercream icing, so I've given most of it away. Most of it....but not all. :)
P.S. Chef Marc won "Chopped"!!! He's hilarious on the episode, telling the other competitors, "Doon't vorrie, I vill vin." (That's a terrible typed French accent) Check it out at www.FoodNetwork.com/Chopped
Wow! That cake looks yummy! By the way, the link didn't work. Would love to see your instructor.
ReplyDeleteYum, Yum. Would love to know how to do that!
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