European Cakes & Tortes Week 6

European Cakes & Tortes Week 6

We made the components for the Diva Torte and Vanilla Bean Bavarois. Chef announced that she wants one of the tortes to be finished as a plated dessert--as in, individually portioned, with sauce, garnish, etc. She wanted us to plate the Vanilla Bean Bavarois. Bavarois (or Bavarian cream) is like a firmer version of mousse. While a volunteer made the Bavarois for everyone in the class, the rest of us got to work on the Diva Torte.

Diva Torte was my research project; we were supposed to find a historical background on it, but there was none. I mean, no on else could find a historical background on any of the tortes. So I presented a few interesting facts about the main ingredients of the torte: pistachio, apricot, and sesame.

Coincidentally, all three ingredients can be traced back to the Middle East. As a matter of fact, Turkey and Iran are the top major producers of pistachios and apricots. And sesame is used extensively in Middle Eastern cuisine. But why using these ingredients elevates this torte to the diva (meaning "goddess" in Latin) status, I have no idea.

Unfortunately, we didn't have any apricots, so we substituted pears instead. After we assembled the Diva Torte, we had to decide how to plate our Vanilla Bean Bavarois. My partner and I decided to serve ours in a drinking glass instead of on a plate. We ladled the cream into a glass, and put it away. We then finished the two tortes that we made last week...

Palomo Torte. For garnish, we glazed some strawberries and made pistachio glass. The glass ended up a little too thick and it was more like a brittle.

Rubies Torte. Finished with cocoa gelee, and garnished with glazed raspberries and chocolate decorations. The glaze emitted so much glare I had trouble taking a picture of this torte.

Cross-section of the Rubies Torte. There's the raspberry gelee and raspberry ganache layers. The only torte in the textbook without any mousse component, this cake is very rich and dense.

I served the Rubies Torte at my church. As for the Palomo torte...friends and family ate half of it, and I had to put the rest in the compost. We weren't too fond of this torte.