Strawberry Chips

Since my oven was set perfectly for slow roasting, I decided to make strawberry chips. The recipe is from (yet again) Wild Sweets Chocolate.

Slow Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes were on sale, which urged me to try this simple yet wonderful recipe. I might have given them more than a few twists of black pepper, but they still taste great. I've been fighting temptation to eat them all at once.

Plated Dessert Diagram

This is my plated dessert diagram for the final practical test. I wish I could have taken a photo or two of the finished item :(

The red tuile was not a coil on the plate. It was more like a group of the big alphabet C's.

I used the Almond Glass recipe on Wild Sweets Chocolate which I love!

Please click on the above photo to read descriptions of the dessert...

Wedding Cake Ver. 4

The fourth and final wedding cake that I made at school was a part of the practical test. I gave myself a plenty of time (two hours, excluding time to make a batch of rolled fondant), and this time I swore to myself (as well as St. Honoré!) that I'd finish the decorating within the self-allotted time. No overtime. No mistake should be made again.

Just like the last one, there were quite a few criteria that needed to be met and, of course, the time constraint. I wish I could have a pastel-coloured cake with all-white decorations, but the cake itself had to be white. (Thanks for reminding me of the criteria, EU!) Besides, colouring rolled fondant takes long, and colouring rolled fondant the way I really want takes even longer; hence all white.

Trio of Summer Berries

Each student was assigned to present a summer-themed plated dessert to Ms. M, our instructor, as well as the entire class.

L to R: dark chocolate strawberry ganache, fresh strawberry slices, roasted almond slices, tuile rounds; white chocolate mousse, raspberry compote; mini fresh bluberry cake with lemongrass-flavoured whipped cream.

The recipe for dark chocolate strawberry ganache is from this awesome book called Wild Sweets Chocolate. (Thanks UW!)

I was aiming to achieve the flavour transition from rich ganache to lighter mousse to super light cake...

Wedding Cake Ver. 3

The third wedding cake that I worked on at school - all on my own this time. Well, this wasn't the first time to work on a wedding cake by myself, but I must say it was pretty challenging due to all the criteria to be met and the time constraint...

I'm happy with the crimped edges... (Thanks a lot for your books, Chiho!)

I'm happy with how the colours worked out, too.

There's always something to think "shoulda woulda coulda" about, but I had a great time overall :D