Week Twenty-Four: Piping Skills for Wedding Cake

We did not have class Monday night, as it was a faculty development day. Instead, Mike and I braved the rain and headed downtown to enjoy a special dinner together at Gramercy Tavern.

We sat in the tavern, cozy and safe from the falling rain visable through the large windows at the front of the restaurant. We talked over delicious food and drinks as I enjoyed watching couples swoon over the desserts from my corner of my eye.

Tuesday we were back in class, beginning the final portion of the final module: wedding cakes. This evening was focused on reviewing some basic piping techniques, learned what seems like forever ago, and then a few additional techniques.

After whipping up meringue butter cream as well as stiff buttercream, we set about our list for the evening: rosettes, large shell, star flower, reverse shell, fleur d'lis, straight line, circle, small shells, zigzag, zigzag with large shell, zigzag with small shell, basketweave and rope.

I forgot how difficult the business of piping was and my right arm quickly grew quite sore.

This continued on Wednesday when we spent another four hours learning to create swags, pearls, ruffles, rosebuds, among other techniques.

On Thursday, we piped full-blown roses, which I found incredibly fun to make - it was exciting how little blobs of icing could so quickly transform into something so realistic and beautiful.

After we learned this new technique, we wre able to put our hard work from the previous nights to good use: decorating cupcakes.

I had so much fun sitting and creating the decorations for the tops of the cupcakes.

While the previous two nights were quite tedious, our hard-work was evident.

However, it was also evident how important it would be to continue practicing these techniques - it almost seems as though you could never quite reach perfection.

Running in the Rain

My long run this past weekend was a twelve miler. The half-marathon was less than a week away.

As I expected from watching the weather report the night before, I awoke at 8:00 Sunday to a very rainy morning. It was a tough morning to be a runner - such mornings do an excellent job of enticing a person to linger in bed a bit longer, drifting in and out of sleep.

"Normal people do not go out into the pouring rain and run twelve miles," I thought to myself as I munched on a trail mix bar, fueling up for the looming run and watching the steady rain fall outside the kitchen window.

I thought for a second that I could go do my long run on a treadmill at the gym. But I knew running on the treadmill wouldn't prepare me for the course or the terrain for next weekend's half-marathon. I would be soaked by the time I got to the gym anyway. And, honestly, running twelve miles on a treadmill sounded more miserable than just doing it outside.

So, off I went, much to the disapproval of my doorman who shook his head when he saw me. I was drenched by the time I crossed the street. But that's the thing with running in the rain: as much as the first steps outisde are dreaded, when you're soaked, you're soaked. It's not going to get any better, but it can't get any worse.

When I arrived on the Central Park running loop, I was greeted by hundreds of other crazy people: runners doing the eighteen-mile tune-up for the upcoming NYC marathon. I was running in the opposite direction of the race and my part of the road was quiet and sullen in comparison.

We were all soaking wet, doing a long-run in preparation for an upcoming race. I saw faces of happiness, discouragement, pain and determination. I wondered what these runners saw on my face as we silently passed each other.

Parts of the run made me think of playing in the rain as a child. The carefree kind of playfulness that allowed us to run around without worries of ruining clothes, make-up or hair.

Other parts of the run actually made me consider religion, kind of a hefty thought while trying to finish a strong twelve miles. Religion is something that I, self-admittedly, am still a bit confused about.

But this morning, as I ran quietly along the road with the rain pouring down, searching deep within myself for strength and finding inspiration from other runners when I thought I couldn't make it up another hill - I could not imagine anything else feeling so spiritual.

I gave thanks for the things that are so easy to overlook: for my health which allowed me to run, for Mike giving me a running rain jacket he knew I would never buy for myself, for the food which was waiting to refuel my body, for the apartment which would offer a warm shower and shelter from the rain.

One hour and forty-five minutes later, I found myself again standing in my kitchen, watching the rain fall outside the window. Like every Sunday before, I felt cleansed, renewed, at peace with myself and the world.

Week Twenty-Three: Chocolate Showpiece & Practical

After the previous two weeks spent learning to work with chocolate, the time had arrived for our class to complete our chocolate showpieces.

The class brainstormed ideas for a theme, and we decided on 'nature'. From there, each person was given the freedom to dream and design a showpiece fitting into this theme. The showpiece had to be constructed of 50% chocolate and the other 50% could be from any other medium, such as sugar.

Our chef-instructor has competed in a number of showpiece competitions and he suggested we all sit down someplace quiet and write-down the first five things that came to mind when we thought of our theme. He also encouraged us to have a glass of Maker's close-by "to set the mood". From the list of five items, he said three can usually be grouped and we could take our design from there.

I arrived at class a bit early the next day and found a totally empty and quiet kitchen. I sat and began my list (sans Maker's, unfortunately):

1. Running in Central Park

2. Fall

3. Hiking

4. Waterfall

5. Cascades

And there I had it: I could group the last four ideas together and create a showpiece around the Cascades, a favorite hiking spot not-too-far from Christiansburg.

At home later that night, I pulled-up photos from my hike. And per my request, Valerie also passed a few photos along.

I sketched out my design and met with my chef-instructor the following day. He changed very little in my design, but gave me some very helpful ideas in terms of construction. From there, we had to develop a time line to keep us on track for the following four nights:

Thursday:

- Melt/pour/cool/break chocolate (3 full sheet-pans of bittersweet, 1 full sheet-pan each of milk and white)

- Roll/cut/shape/dry pastillage for rocks

Monday:

- Melt chocoalte for construction

- Begin constructing clif

- Air-dry dark and light brown sugar for trail

Tuesday:

- Finish clif construction

- Airbrush rocks

- Melt/color/pour/dry sugar base

Wednesday:

- Clean-up visable mortar on clif

- Attach clif to base

- Construct trail

- Melt/color/knead (x2) sugar for waterfall; pull waterfall

- Final clean-up; move and present at 9 PM

Each night was a full four hours of work. After Monday's class, I was a bit discouraged as I had not made as much progress on the clif as I had hoped. But I tried not to rush through it Tuesday night, as I reminded myself that this was the focal point of my piece. If it looked rushed, the whole piece wouldn't work.

My mind was more stressed than my body, as I slept fitfully Monday and Tuesday nights, dreaming of nothing but constructing the pieces of broken chocolate into the cliff.

Wednesday night gave me two hold-your-breath moments: moving the clif (which had been constructed seperately) to attach it to the sugar base and then moving the entire showpiece across the hall to present.

All went well, as my piece was solid, and as heavy, as a rock. I was more than pleased with the outcome.

The night after our showpieces were presented, we took the practical exam for the fourth module, as it was focused on chocolate. We had to create molded chocoaltes, which involved: making ganache, tempering bittersweet chocolate, lining and filling the molds and finally, unmolding the set chocolates. I finally ended the streak of 99% on my exams, scoring a 100% for my effort.

Weeks Twenty, Twenty-one & Twenty-two: Plated Desserts and Chocolate

Time to play catch-up with updating you all on pastry school. I cannot believe graduation is only three weeks away. Granted, the next three weeks will be long nights filled with the intricacies of wedding cake design, but the end is more than in sight at this point.

Since the time I last wrote, we finished a second night of plated desserts, took our module three exam and moved into chocolate work.

Crepes Suzette

Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta

Grapefruit, Avacado and Basil Foam

Felchin

Calliops Tropic

Chocolate Souffle

Vanilla Ice Cream

Raspberry Mille Feuille

Ice Wine Granita and Litchi Sorbet

Felchlin

Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse

Lemon Fromage Blanc Mousse

Rhubarb Compote, Carmelized Phyllo, Pine Honey Ice Cream

After the conclusion of plated desserts, we took our third exam. The first hour was again spent on the written portion and then we moved into our practical. Our practical for this module was to split, ice and decorate a cake. This had become second nature earlier in the module when we were spending each night doing these techniques. But since we had moved on to other things since, I felt a bit nervous and out of practice.

Overall, I received a 99% on my module, keeping me on track to graduate with highest honors in October.

It was then time to begin the fourth, and final, module of the program. This module was split into two portions: chocolate and wedding cakes.

We began the chocolate portion by learning how to temper chocolate (bittersweet, milk and white). This was a fundamental technique for all chocolate work, which involves melting the chocolate up to a certain temperature, working a portion of the melted chocolate on a marble in order to drop the temperature back down and then slightly warming the chocolate again.

We used this during the following nights of chocolate work, where we created free-form chocolates, truffles and molded chocolates.

During the first night of chocolate work, I thought this was a medium I was really going to enjoy - perhaps something in which I would eventually want to specialize. But this turned out to be a fleeting thought - the following nights of chocolate work made me realize that this most certainly not something I would want to specialize in.

Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy chocolate work. The skills are something that I know I will use not-so-far down the road. I found molded chocolates beautiful and they will make lovely gifts during the upcoming holidays. I just would not want to only work with chocolate as I felt a bit stifled in terms of creativity, both in taste and design.

Fifth Avenue Mile

This past Saturday, I ran the shortest race ever: a one mile race down Fifth Avenue.

Since the race counted towards the requirement for the 2010 NYC Marathon and would not interfere with my current training schedule, it was pretty much a no-brainer to run. I run mile repeats as part of my speedwork, so my goal for the race was to just get out there and run as fast as I could.

The race was run on Fifth Avenue, from 80th Street down to 60th Street. Runner were grouped by gender and age, so my group of 15 to 29 year old females went off at 9:30 AM.

I went out a little fast from the gate and I could feel my legs pull back a bit after the first 400 meters (1/4 mile). But sprinting down the roadway, with the cool, fall air in my face was exhilarating.

I finished in 6 minutes 20 seconds, the fastest I have ever run a mile. I am now just two races shy of completing the requirements to qualify for next year's marathon.