Friday, July 1, 2011

Blueberry Lemon Mascarpone Tartlet

I guess this is proof that I am learning things because most of this I did from memory or by winging it based off of what I had around the house. However it was created beautifully and resulted in a very nice light summer dessert. Perfect for the 70 degree thunderstorms followed by a humid 97 degree Chicago day.


Formula: yields about 12 tartlets with extra dough for cookies
1/2#  Pâte Sablée Dough

17.14 % Egg yolks, cooked, 14 g

81.43% Butter, soft, 67 g
0.29% Salt, a dash (a quarter of 1/8 t)
42.86% Powdered sugar, 32 g
17.14% Egg yolks, 14 g
14.29% Almond meal*, 11 g
100% Pastry flour**, 83 g
Total: 273.15%, 0.5 lbs
*If you do not have Almond meal you can substitute this flour for pastry flour. 
**Pastry flour can be best substituted with AP flour.
Lemon juice, 28 g
Sugar, 46 g
Lemon zest, 1 t.
Eggs, each, 0.5
Butter, 42.5 g

Blueberry Compote*
Blueberries, IQF or fresh, 1/2 pt.
Sugar, 56 g
*might have left over compote
5 oz. Mascarpone



MOP:
  • Make blueberry compote. Heat the IQF or fresh blueberries with sugar over a medium to high heat until it boils. Stirring occasionally. When the mixture boils reduce heat and let it simmer until thickens, like the consistency of cooked fruit for a pie. If you cook it too long it will form into a jelly consistency. Cool before using.
  • Make pâte sablée dough, cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour, or until ready for use.
  • Take dough out and roll out to 1/8th of an inch. Press dough into molds, mini muffin tins is what I used for these tartlets. If you are using a larger mold roll dough out thicker, if you are using smaller molds roll dough out thinner. If you have extra dough you can roll it out again for cookies. Roll dough to 3/16th of an inch and then cut out with cutters, makes perfect window cookies. Do not roll out more then twice because the flour will start to build up in the dough.
  • Make lemon curd. Cool before using.
  • Bake sablée dough at 350°F until firm but not browned. If you see bubbles forming during the bake, press them down gently with your fingers and continue baking. Should take approximately 7-10 minutes. Cool.
  • When cooled you can start to assemble. Spoon about 1 t of compote into the bottom of the tartlet. Let set up.
  • Pipe lemon curd (use a piping bag or squirt bottle for best appearance) into the shell so that it is 3/4 of the way full. Let it set up.
  • Soften mascarpone, when soft add about 1/3 of a cup lemon curd to the mascarpone. Add the lemon curd by sight, you want the mascarpone to be stiff enough to pipe but smooth.
  • Use a piping bag and a large star tip and pipe a rosette with the mascarpone mixture on top of the shell. If the lemon curd is not completely set up then press the bag to the shell to aide it in catching. Let set up in the refrigerator.
  • Garnish with compote and lemon curd as done here, or fresh blueberries, or candied lemon.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Wisconsin Cheese Tour

A little change in pace. I'm not going to be in school over the summer but instead will be traveling a little bit. I've decided that while I'm not traveling to try to do as much experimenting with baking and cooking as I can. I hope any readers I have will enjoy the change of pace and entries.



These past few days I went to Wisconsin on a Cheese Tour arranged through the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. We visited the following cheese makers: Widmer Cheese, Crave Brothers Farmstead, Carr Valley Cheese, Meister Cheese, Uplands Cheese, Hook's Cheese, Bleu Mont Dairy, and Sassy Cow.



Windmer's Cheese Cellars was the first stop on our trip. Joe Widmer is a master cheese maker who learned the craft from his father who opened the cellars in 1922. They practice in the traditional swiss style of making cheese. They specialize in Wisconsin Brick Cheese and Colby Cheese. We were fortunate enough to taste several varieties including Colby, brick, Colby cheddar spread, 2 year old cheddar, 6 year old cheddar, jalapeños cheddar, caraway cheddar, and a vegetable cheddar.


The Crave Brothers Farmstead are doing quite amazing things in the field of cheese making. They built an anaerobic digestion system to produce energy from the organic waste into methane gas. This produces enough electricity to power the plant, the cheese plant, and neighboring houses in the town ship. We saw how the cheese was turned from raw milk, to pasteurized milk, to pulled and shaped mozzarella. We were able to taste their Les Frères cheese, which is a classic European style cheese that is cured to form a rich rind washed cheese. We sampled the cheese on a cheese block, and also baked with several varieties of mushrooms. Both very exquisite and brought out the creaminess of this cheese in different ways. We tried different preparations for mozzarella cheese including a stringed rope-part-skim cheese, and different sizes of fresh mozzarella cheeses.

 




Carr Valley Cheese is a larger cheese making facility. The multi certified master cheese maker Sid Cook created around 80 varieties of very different and distinct cheeses using sheep milk, goats milk, cows milk, and blending the varietals of milk. Some of the more interesting cheeses that I tried were the:

  • Ba Ba Blue, a good sheeps milk cheese that is strong and smooth and easy to cook with.
  • Marisa, a seasonal sheep milk cheese that had a sharp bite to it, but also a short finish.
  • Virgin-Pine Native Blue Sheep, very musky earthy taste with a strong long after taste.
  • Cardona, is a sweet caramel flavoured goat cheese with a slight nuttiness.
  • Cave Aged Cardona, a goat cheese that gives a slightly more complex flavour profile due to being cave aged.
  • Sweet Vanilla Cardona, very sweet vanilla flavour that out powers the cheese flavours with a thick rich finish to this goat milk cheese.
  • Black Goat Truffle, strong earthy truffle flavour that out powers the cheese flavors.
  • Cocoa Cardona, this goat cheese is rubbed with cocoa which gives the mellow cheese a gritty feel on your tongue.
  • Snow White Goat Cheddar, this cave aged goat cheese is smooth with a nice bite to it.
  • 4 Year Cheddar, simple smooth cows milk cheddar with a slight tang from the aging.
  • Bread Cheese, this baked cows milk cheese is smooth when served cold and tastes like a grilled cheese sandwich when baked. This is inspired by the Finnish cheese called Juustoleipa.
  • Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar, a cows milk cheese with a slight mild sweat crunch to it.
  • Apple Smoked Garlic Cheddar, a balanced smokey flavoured cows cheese.
  • Creama Kasa, this cows cheese is very rich and at room temperature is very spreadable. It is a good cheese for baking.
  • Gouda, this aged cows milk cheese has a light flavour with a smooth fresh finish to it.
  • Benedictine, this sheep/goat/cow mixture is similar to a limburger cheese with a dry moldy earthy taste.
  • Bessie's Blend,this combination of goat and cows milk is cured for four months and produces a nutty and simple yet full tasting cheese.
  • Mobay, this is similar to the French Morbier with a creamy layer of sheep milk cheese and a white layer of goat milk cheese separated by a layer of grape vine ash down the center. Gives a very flavourful and complete palate.


Meister Cheese is another large cheese maker that has done a few interesting things toward being more energy efficient and sustainable, taking advantage of the neighbors in the industrial area that surrounds where the plant is.

Uplands Cheese was probably one of my favourite cheese makers to visit. Andy Hatch makes cheese seasonally in the spring through fall and spends his winters occasionally still apprenticing with cheese makers in Europe. They raise their own cows and grass feed their cattle which provides a very pure unpasteurized raw milk that they make the cheese from. They have two types of cheese the Pleasant Ridge Reserve which is produced from the flavours present in the spring and summer grass and the Rush Creek Reserve that is made only in the autumn which draws from the distinct flavour profile that is present with the grass from the mixture of the pastures and the winters dry hay. The Pleasant Ridge Reserve is probably my favourite cheese that I tasted on this trip.















Hook's Cheese is a small operation that has been making cheese for 
over 35 years. They make small batches of cheddar and of blue cheese, for the farmers market season they also will make parmesan and swiss. They are known most for their award winning blue cheeses, the Paradise Blue and the Tilston Point were the ones I preferred but I am also not a huge blue lover. The complexity in the aging process of the cheddars is very astounding from the 2 year to the 12 year, I settled on purchasing the 10 year as the 12 year was a little too sharp or had too much of a bite for me.









Bleu Mont Dairy was easily my favourite cheese maker. Willi produced my second favourite cheese, but the complex flavours he achieves with his cave aged bound cheddar is really quite amazing. The other favourite of mine is the Renegade Alpine cheese which is aged in a room that is just overpowered by the ammonia that is released in the first few weeks as the cheese ages in the unique caves that Willi built. His caves are built underground covered by 10 feet of ground on top of the three chamber caves. There is a small entry way work area and two curing rooms, one that is filled with the strong ammonia produced by the raw milk Renegade Cheese. The second room has the mellow musky smell of the lard covered cloth bound cheddar that fill this room at different stages of aging. Here is a good article on the cheese maker from Cheese by Hand.


 







Sassy Cow is a creamery that produces mainly milk and ice cream. They produce a string cheese and a oaxaca cheese that Ceaser makes in the traditional Mexican style of cheese making that his grandmother taught him. His hand pulled string cheese has a unique taste and texture of a vertically pulled cheese that really aligns the proteins much more successfully then a machine would, a success that is transfered to the taste of the cheese. The milk and ice cream use all natural ingredients that is pasteurized and is the freshest creamiest I've tasted. They have two different herds, one organic and one regular which they offer in their milk products. The creamery has a very community and education based approach to milk and cheese making which shows greatly from their layout of the facility.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Petit Four Deguise

Deguise are cute little desserts that are disguised as something else. Usually it is a sugar dessert that looks like fruit, or animals, or whatever. In this case tuxedo strawberries are really easy and also really cute play on making the strawberry dressed up (no pun, I promise)
Since there isn't really a formula for this item I'll throw out some pointers:
  • Pate glace does not give such a hard mouth feel to it when the chocolate dries or sets up. Because of that it is actually preferred to a tempered chocolate.
  • White pate glace does not dip too well so you might need to dip it twice, just make sure the layers dry before re dipping.
  • "Wash" the strawberries like you would mushrooms, with a wet paper towel. You want to clean it without removing the texture that the chocolate is going to grab on to.
Need:
White pate glace, chocolate pate glace, melted chocolate, strawberries

MOP:
  • Wash strawberries, dry before use
  • Dip the strawberries in white pate glace (shirt). Let it set up before dipping a second time. When you set the strawberry down try to let the excess chocolate drip off to avoid getting large foots. You will also want to pick up the strawberries and move them to help not create foots (pools of chocolate on the bottom).
  •  Dip on an angle, then on the other angle with chocolate (jacket)
  • Use a fine tipped piping bag, or parchment cone works best to draw a bow with two connecting triangles, or a bow tie with a small diamond and then an elongated diamond. If you piped a bow tie give the shirt three buttons.

You can also easily dip and decorate other fruit or dried fruit in this same style. Here dried apricots are dipped to resemble little cookies. And below the strawberry is given a corsage out of a cut apricot, a bride, and a groomsman in the background.




Verrine

Verrine is French for pretty glass. This essentially means a dessert that is built in a glass. When you do this you have to keep in mind layering and air bubbles that might form while layering. You also have to keep in mind that all the layers are going to be exposed. And to have the design play with the shape of the glass, something like a flower might flow on the inside of your glass if its a circle and has that organic shape to play with but might not work with the sharp edges of a square. The dessert usually has many components including, but does not have to include, a crunch layer to break up the space and also provide a different mouth feel.

Below is an example of a verrine that we did in class:

A play on a mojito: yields aproximately 14 verrines
Components:
Rum infused mousse: pâte à bomb method (adapted from Saus, 745)
100%, 35% Cream, 7 1/8 oz.
100%, 64% Couverture, 7 1/8 oz.
30% Egg yolks, 2 1/8 oz.
30% Sugar, 2 1/8 oz.
10% Water, 3/4 oz.
100%, 40% Cream,  7 1/8 oz.
80% Rum, 6 oz.

Rum Gelée:
8 oz. Rum
8 oz. Simple syrup
4 sheets gelatin*
*use approximately 3 oz. of gelatin per cup of liquid

Lime Mousse: anglaise method (adapted from Saus, 741)

27% Lime juice, 1 7/8 oz.
46% Sugar, split, 3 1/8 oz
33% Egg yolks, 2 1/4 oz.
26% Butter, 1 3/4 oz.
Lime Zest, 1 each
100% Whipped cream, 6 7/8 oz.

Mint Gelée: puree
4 oz. mint
6 oz. simple syrup
3 sheets gelatin

Entremet

Entremet traditionally a term that refers to a composed cake of a small size. This word also is used to described the dish that is served between courses at a fine dining establishment. In modern usage it sometimes is used to describe any mousse cake.

Other books that we looked at, aside from the Saus book were:
Stephane Galcier's Verrines et Petits - Gâteaux
Carole Bloom's Bite Sized Desserts
Flo Braker's The Art of Making Bit-Sized Desserts


Entremets usually have several layers of mousses in them. A review of what is in a mousse: base + stabilizer + lightener. Below are some flavour combinations that you can use for en entremet and then some examples of what we did.

Base: anglaise, ganache, puree, chocolate fortified with butter/hot water/cream/coffee/puree/liquors. (Chocolate needs to be fortified so that it doesn't seize with the temperature shock; so that it stabilizes.)
Stabilizer: gelatin, pate a bomb, Italian meringue, cocoa butter/mykreso (natural brand of cocoa butter), agar agar (vegan option)
Lightener: pate a bomb, Italian meringue, whip cream, common meringue, babayon (egg yolks + sugar + liquor heated over double boiler to nappé)


An unfinished entremet: chocolate fuietine base, joconde sponge, filled with chocolate mousse and raspberry mousse (mousses not shown in picture)

Tuile Paste pattern for Joconde Sponge

Joconde sponge is a very nice cake to use for decorations or visual enhancement for the sides of cakes or mousses because it can be spread very thin and can also be decorated with tuile paste very easily.



Formula:
1 recipe of Joconde spread on a full sheet pan
1/2# tuile paste (100% Butter, 100% Sugar, 100% Egg whites, 100% Pastry flour, 1% salt)
Colouring




MOP:

 



    Gisslen, pg. 410
  • Make tuile paste using the creaming method.
  • Add colour to the appearance. You can easily make a cocoa tuile paste by adding cocoa powder, or colour it with food colouring.
  • Apply stencil over a silpat lined sheet pan. Its really important to get a sheet pan that is not warped.
  • Spread tuile paste very thinly over the stencil. You can also use your fingers to texture it, or you can use a brush (very much like we did in second block).
  • Put in blast chiller to let set up.
  • Make Joconde sponge while the tuile sets up. You dont want to spread the joconde sponge over the tuile unless it is frozen. Mixing it before will damage the two coloured layers.
  • MOP: Melt butter and let it cool to room temperature. Place sifted almonds, confectioners' sugar, and flour into a your mixer. On low speed add whole eggs in stages using your paddle attachment. Increase speed to high and continue mixing until the batter turns into a pale yellow colour. Transfer to a stainless steel bowl.

    Clean mixing bowl throughly and whisk egg whites until foamy. Add sugar and continue whisking on high to a medium-firm peak.

    Fold egg whites into egg yolks, fully incorporate both batters. Drizzle butter slowly along the sides of the bowl and fold in the mixture. If you can assist someone else then have them drizzle in the butter while you whisk (like with mayonnaise).


    Make sure your stencil paste is set before pouring Joconde over the paste. Use your offset spatula to even out the batter. Use your fingers to clean the sides of the pan before baking.

    Bake at 375°F in a convection oven, bake until it is slightly golden in colour. About 7-15 minutes. In a deck oven bake at 400°F.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Petits Four Glace

This is very much a bakeshop staple. Coming out of Europe where marzipan and pouring fondant is a common finishing for cakes, usually they are enrobed in marzipan like it is done here, but on a larger scale even.

Formula:
1/2 recipe Almond cake
8 oz. Marzipan, more if you want to use for decorations
12 oz. Poured fondant
2 oz. Jam
2 oz. Simple butter cream for garnishing



MOP:

  • Turn baked almond cake onto a parchment lined board. If you want to have take the caramelized crust off the cake to achieve a single colour through the cake then refrigerate the cake and gently brush off the caramelized layer after the cake has set.
  • Spread a very thin layer of jam on top of the almond cake.
  • Stack another layer of cake on top and press down gently, then spread another layer of jam.
  • Place the last last, third, layer of cake down and press down gently to help the layers adhere. Spread another thin, very thin, layer of jam across and chill or freeze to allow the layers to set up to prevent shifting when cutting.
  • Roll out marzipan to 1/16" on a very clean surface. The large amounts of sugar in the marzipan will pick up everything that is on your work bench and when the marzipan is so thin, it will show. Dust with confectioners sugar to aide in rolling out.
  • Place the marzipan over the top of the cake, as a top layer. You will cut away the edges so you do not need to drape it over the sides, just make sure it covers as much of the cake as possible.
  • Let the cake fuse together in the refrigerator or freezer.
  • Take the cake out and trim down the edges.
  • Cut the cake down to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares (or proportionate sized circles, turn the cake upside down and cut with a circle cutter for cleaner circle cuts). It should be proportionally wide to high.
  • Re constitute pouring fondant, if it has set up. You can reconstitute it with simple syrup (or hot water) and you can test it for consistency like you do with your finger and ganache. Be aware that if you heat the fondant over 110°F then it will be in danger of cracking and of loosing the shine.
  • Place cake cubes (or circles) on glazing rack and enrobe the cake. Make sure you go slowly and get the fondant over the whole cake. It is less forgiving then ganache. You can colour the fondant when reconstituting it, just know that the colour goes a long way.
  • Tap the cooling rack to allow the fondant to roll down the sides of the cake in a smooth manner.
  • Lift the cakes off the cooling rack very carefully and transfer to a board to set up completely. 
  • You can pipe designs on top of the cakes at this time.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Marzipan

This is a paste that resembles a dough as you can roll it out or mold it easily. It will be of a hard playdough consistency when properly made. It needs to be covered at all time after it is made or else it starts to harden as it dries out.


Formula:
Equal parts almond paste and confectioners sugar, small amount of glucose.
8 oz. Almond paste
1.5 oz. Glucose
8 oz. Confectioners sugar



MOP:

  • Using a paddle attachment, mix glucose and almond cream to a paste
  • Add sifted confectioners sugar to the base as needed. Add it until it absorbs fully. You might not need to use all of the confectioners sugar. The dough should look stiff without a shine to it.
  • Clean your workbench really well because the sugar will pick up anything that is under it. Knead the dough by hand to soften and incorporate it a bit.
  • Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Poured Fondant

This is usually a purchased product because it is pretty labour intensive to make from scratch. You will want to warm the fondant over a double boiler to 100-110 degrees, adding simple syrup to help thin out the mixture. If you make the fondant too warm it will loose its shine and start to crack, if you add too much liquid to it the same thing will happen.

Battenburg Sponge

This is another kind of almond cake, it is mixed with a combination method which gives it a little bit more stability then the one stage almond cake. This cake is usually made into two different colours and then arranged similarly to a checkerboard cookie.


Formula: yields two half sheet pans
225 g    Almond paste
150 g    Confectioners sugar
120 g    Egg yolks
55 g      Eggs, whole
5 g        Vanilla extract
180 g    Egg whites
75 g      Sugar
30 g      Cake flour
70 g      Melted butter, at room temperature


MOP: separated egg sponge

  • Sift confectioners sugar
  • Cream almond base with confectioners sugar, it will not form a paste but should incorporate roughly.
  • Add yolks, yolks help the mixture emulsify, in thirds. This will smooth out and form a paste.
  • Add whole eggs and flavouring to the paste. When paste forms stop mixer. Set aside.
  • Sift flour, twice. Set aside.
  • Make meringue with egg whites and sugar. Bring it to a soft peak.
  • By hand, fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the base, this will make the base less stiff.
  • Fold in half of the flour, then 1/4 of the meringue, then the rest of the flour, then the rest of the meringue.
  • Temper a spatula amount of batter into room temperature butter. This will lighten the density of the butter and help the butter not sink to the bottom of the bowl when folding it in.
  • Fold the tempered butter into the base. Fold until uniform.
  • Dive batter in two. 
  • Pan one portion, run fingers along the edge and pop down on the counter.
  • Colour the second portion slightly, remember that a little goes a long way with artificial colouring! 
  • Pan the coloured portion, running fingers along the edge and popping down to release air bubbles.
  • Put both half sheets on a full sheet tray and bake at 350°F (to 370°) until it springs back at your touch. Approximately 15 minutes.

Almond Sponge

This is a really sweet almond sponge cake, the addition of sugar leades to a longer shelf life, and when this cake is used for something like a petits four glace it remains moist for a pretty long time. It is also a pretty stable cake, so is good for small applications. Because of the high amount of eggs, liquid, in this formula you have to be careful because it tends to break on you rather then stay emulsified.

Formula: yields a half sheet pan
Almond paste*, 4 oz.
Sugar, 6.5 oz.
Eggs, whole beaten at room temperature, 6 each
Almond extract, 1/2 t
Salt, 1/4 t
Butter, 8 oz.
Pastry flour, 3.5 oz.
Baking powder, 3/4 t
*make sure to keep almond paste covered when not using or it will dry out fast.



MOP: creaming method
  • Cream almond paste (almond paste is very high in fat so is usually considered a fat in a formula), butter, sugar until very well incorporated. The almond paste is a little hard to break up, so it might take longer then you'd think. You want to try to get rid of as many chunks as possible and get a smooth consistency.
  • Sift flour and leavening agent, twice. Because the sponge cake is so light you want to make sure you have no impurities in the flour. If you are making a two stage cake its a good idea to sift the flours three times).
  • Slowly add your room temperature beaten eggs to fats in three stages. The batter will break more easily then with other creaming method cakes. You really want the batter to grab at the sides leaving long strands before adding the next addition.
  • Fold in flour.
  • Pan batter into desired size sheet pan.
  • Run finger along the sides, and knock on counter once to let air bubbles escape.
  • Bake at 350°F to a springy and firm. Approximately 20 minutes.

Joconde Sponge


This formula can be made in different sized sheet pans depending on how thick you want your sponge to be. For mousse cakes we paned this amount in a full sheet pan, for the Opera Cake in a half sheet.


This 
formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, pg. 410

Formula: yields 1# 1 oz.    3.5 oz. (340%) Almond flour
    3 oz. (300%)  Confectioners' sugar
    10 oz. (100%)  Cake flour
    4.75 oz. (480%)  Whole eggs
    3.25 oz. (320%)  Egg whites
    0.4 oz. (2.5t) (40%)  Sugar



Variation: hazelnut flour with 1.25 oz. melted butter can be substituted for almond flour. This is the original or traditional way of making this sponge cake.




MOP: separated egg sponge

  • Prep a half sheet pan with spray and parchment.
  • Sift cake flour, nut flour, confectioners sugar into a bowl. Sift twice.
  • Make a well, and add beaten whole eggs into well. Stir from the center, bringing it to a paste. Set aside.
  • Make a soft meringue with the egg whites and sugar, it will leave trails when it reaches a soft stage. It should look more foamy then the meringues that are made with soft ball sugar.
  • Fold in the meringue 1/4, 1/4, 1/2. Its important to add the meringue this way because the first incorporation lightens the base, the second incorporates the mixtures, the third heaviest portion gives volume to the batter. This way deflation is avoided and equal distribution is achieved.
  • Pan the batter from the center. Run fingers along the edge before knocking the pan on the counter once.
  • Bake at 400°F for approximately 10 minutes. Until the cake springs back at your touch.


Opera Cake

This is a cake that was popularized at the French Pâtisserie Dalloyau in the early 1900's. It was then called L'Opéra, but it was and still is a multi layered thin layers of cake soaked in coffee and then layered with coffee flavoured buttercream and ganache. It really is quite a sweet and lovely little cake that is very visually appealing.

This formula is adapted from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 719Formula:
4 7/8 oz.  Coffee French Buttercream
2# Strong coffee
One half sheet, thinly sliced Jaconde Sponge
6 oz. Chocolate ganache
2.5#  Glacage opera
4 oz. Melted Chocolate
2 oz. Pate glace


MOP: assembly
Petits four: glace

  • Take cooled jaconde sponge and sprinkle sugar on top, generously before turning it out on to parchment.
  • Cut the sponge in even layers. For a bigger make up or for a whole cake, cut the sponge into two even layers. For a smaller make up, for petits four size (aprox. 1 1/2" x 1 1/2") cut the sponge into three even layers. The procedure for a small make up and large make up are similar, and fills can be various. I'll describe the small make up as the way we did it has the more components then the large make up we decided to do in class.
    The corners dont have to be perfectly
    enrobed because you will cut away
    the sides like in brownies. This shows
    the layers really well though.
  • Turn the sponges over, you want to assemble the cake upside down. Paint melted pâte glace in a thin layer on one third panel of sponge. Let this set up in the blast chiller.
  • Take the set up sponge and place it pâte glace side down on parchment on a cake board.
  • Soak the sponge in coffee using a pastry brush. Make sure to not over soak the sponge or else the next layer will start to slip when spreading.
  • Spread a thin layer of coffee flavoured buttercream on top of the soaked sponge.
  • Let set up in the blast chiller if necessary. Place another sheet of sponge on top.
  • Soak the second sponge in coffee identical to the last sponge. Spread a thin layer of ganache (or you can just use buttercream again, or a gelatin set mousse can also be used for the upper level as it does not need to support a lot of weight).
  • Place the last layer of sponge on top. Soak this with coffee and spread a very thin layer of the coffee flavoured buttercream on top. Let this set up in the blast chiller.
  • If you are doing a large make up enrobe the whole cake in chocolate glacage (your dont need to worry about the sides in the large make up because you will cut this away for presentation). If you are doing a small make up you can enrobe the whole cake to achieve a reveal during the final make up. Or you can cut the cake down to strips to achieve a partial reveal on two sides. 
  • Let this set up in the blast chiller.
  • For the smaller make ups, use a hot knife to cut it down to smaller pieces, 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" is a good proportionate width to height size.





A traditional finish for the large make up is pictured below: Opera is written in cursive with melted chocolate and a staff with a treble cleft and notes is piped below that. Traditional finishes for the 
smaller ones include notes, treble cleft, two base clefts, a division sign on an angle, other piped designs, etc.

Chocolate Glacage

This is a glaze that is a little bit thicker consistency then ganache that you enrobe with, but not quite as thick as fondant. It should be of a spreading consistency and should give a nice flat gloss to a dessert.


This formula is adapted from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg.
720100% Dark coating chocolate*, 2# 13 3/4oz.
40% Couverture 64%, 1# 2.25 oz.
14% Salad oil, 6 3/8 oz.
Total: 154%
*pate glace can also be used



MOP:

  • Melt the two chocolates together over a double boiler to 120°F.
  • When the chocolate is melted, add oil and whisk till emulsified
  • Reserve until needed, use at 90°F

French Buttercream

French buttercream is a pâte à bombe based cream that is very rich because of the fat in the egg yolks. It has a shorter shelf life then regular buttercream, and it really can not be layered very thick because of how sweet it is. Essentially think of a sugar infused stick of butter and that is what the buttercream tastes like.



This formula is adapted from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 63945%     Sugar 7 3/4 oz.
12.5%  Water 2 1/8 oz.
27%     Egg yolks, 4 5/8 oz.
100%   Butter, 1#1 3/8 oz. (add until it emulsifies, might not need all the butter)


MOP:

  • Heat sugar and water to a soft ball consistency (make a pâte à  bomb).
  • Whip up egg yolks while sugar/water is heating up. You cant over whip the egg yolks because of the fat content in the yolks.
  • When sugar reaches a soft ball, add to the eggs (like for Italian meringue). Cool while whipping.
  • When the mixture cools to body temperature, add the butter slowly. Add butter until the mixture emulsifies, you might not need all the butter scaled. 
  • Add a pinch of salt to aide in flavouring.
  • If you choose, you can add a flavour at this time. For instance, for the Opera Cake we added approximately 2 T of Triblit to the buttercream.