A few pictures..

(top to bottom) My Black Forest Cake! It was my test for the Cakes station. It's layers of Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Chocolate Buttercream, Kirsch Simple Syrup, Cherries and Chantilly Cream. YUM! | My Chef demonstrating how to assemble and decorate a Black Forest Cake. | My friends Rosie and Ian always make me laugh. | A tempering machine, keeping this milk chocolate at the perfect temperature to coat chocolates.

(top to bottom) Fruit Tart | Dacquoise: layers of Japonaise (meringue with ground hazelnuts) and chocolate buttercream | Torching a Lemon Raspberry Meringue Cake | A finished Lemon Raspberry Meringue Cake | Mousse Bombes

My perfectly frosted cake for my test (turned into a Black Forest Cake) | Marzipan Roses and leaves

Butterfinger Pictures

(left) My Butterfingers were a tad crumbly; maybe from overmixing? They were still delicious! And even more so when dipped in milk chocolate! (below)

Walnut Biscotti

These twice-baked cookies are a favorite of mine because they are great by themselves, dipped in coffee, or halfway dipped in milk chocolate like I tried tonight! An extra benefit: they are only 70 calories per cookie! (Top picture: 1 rectangle of biscotti dough before being baked. Middle picture: After baking biscotti for 10 minutes, slice biscotti into 1/2" wide pieces. Bottom picture: Biscotti laid out on a baking sheet, ready for it's second bake.)

Walnut Biscotti

(Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies)

¾ cup walnut halves, toasted

1 cup flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

3 egg whites

Heat oven to 350.

Pulse walnuts in a food processor until walnuts are the consistency of coarse meal. Mix ½ cup of the ground walnuts and the remaining ingredients except the egg whites in a large bowl. Stir in egg whites thoroughly until stiff dough forms.

Sprinkle remaining ground walnuts on a cutting board or waxed paper. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 7x3 inch rectangle on top of walnuts. Carefully transfer rectangles onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes.

Transfer each rectangle onto a cutting board and cut into ½ inch slices. Put slices back on cookie sheet, cut sides down.

Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until crisped and browned. Remove from cookie sheet and place on wire rack until completely cooled. Store tightly covered.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

This light, airy sponge cake is used for many different delicious things in my school bakery. Mousse Bombes and Black Forest Cake are my favorites. The recipe for Black Forest Cake will be up soon!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Makes approx 5 8-in rounds (or one full sheet pan)

Ingredients:

10 oz cake flour

8 oz granulated sugar

0.25 oz salt

0.5 oz baking powder

2 oz cocoa

5 oz vegetable oil

6 oz egg yolks

9 oz water

0.25 oz vanilla extract

10 oz egg whites

5 oz granulated sugar

0.05 oz cream of tartar

Sift the first 5 ingredients together into a mixing bowl.

Using the paddle attachment, turn mixer on low. With mixer running, pour oil into bowl, trying not let the oil touch the side of the bowl or the paddle. Mix until the dry and oil form a crumb-like texture. Stop the mixer; scrape the bowl.

Add the yolks all at once and mix. It should now look like fudge. Stop the mixer; scrape the bowl.

Add the water in thirds, scraping thoroughly after 2nd addition. When all the water is added, mix for 2 mins. Scrape the bowl and mix for another minute. It should be a very smooth batter.

Stir in the vanilla. Pour batter into a big, wide bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites, 5 oz sugar and cream of tartar until medium peaks form.

In thirds, carefully fold whipped egg whites into batter with a rubber spatula.

Pour into ungreased, paper-lined, 8-in round cake pans (or one full sheet pan – ungreased and paper-lined). To cook evenly, they should all weigh 12 oz. In the bakery, this is 4 pans with a full 12 oz, and one with the leftover few ounces (we don’t waste anything!). At home if you do not have a scale, measure out 1 ½ cups per pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Because this is a sponge cake, a toothpick test will not work. Test doneness by pushing lightly in the center of the pan. If it gently springs back, it is done. If your fingerprint stays, let it bake for a minute or two more.

Extra info:

As I said in an earlier post, it is SO easy to overdevelop the gluten – even in moist cakes! However, chiffon cake is a special because it has oil in the recipe. When you add the oil to the dry ingredients, the oil encapsulates the flour and prevents gluten development. So you can’t really overdevelop the gluten in this recipe. Sweet! =)

The purpose of the cream of tartar with the egg whites and sugar is to stabilize the egg whites. As we saw in class when the cream of tartar was accidentally forgotten in one batch, it helps with the volume of the batter and finished cakes, and helps them to set up more. The acidity of the cream of tartar is what does this, so in other recipes you may see lemon juice or another acid to be whipped in with the egg whites, serving the same purpose.

Butterfingers

My chef made these yesterday in class - yummy! They're not as airy and crumbly as Butterfinger candies you buy, but I think I like them better that way. He has so many tools I don't have, as he makes chocolates every day. So the metal bars I mention are long 1-in square metal bars used to enclose a candy when it is in liquid form, until it cools. Then you take the bars away and cut the candy into a set size. I will improvise with what I have on hand when I make these. Have fun =)

Butterfingers – Ian Titterton

10 oz peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

7 ½ oz granulated sugar

4 ½ oz corn syrup

3 ½ oz water

Milk chocolate, melted (optional)

Over a double boiler, heat the peanut butter and vanilla. Keep warm.

Boil the sugar, corn syrup and water to 290 degrees.

Quickly stir into the hot peanut butter, just until combined. Do not over mix, or it will become crumbly.

Immediately spread onto a Silpat or buttered half sheet pan. (to make even squares, pour onto Silpat, with 1" high metal bars set around edges to create a rectangle – set to whatever thickness you want). Cut as soon as cool into 1" squares (or.

If desired, dip completely into melted milk chocolate.