European Cakes & Tortes Final!!

Sorry, no pics from Week 10. That week consisted of making the components for our final torte. I got the White Chocolate Mousse w/Raspberry, which had the Emmanuel Sponge base, red-striped joconde border, white chocolate mousse filling, raspberry gelee insert, finished with raspberry glaze (*phew*).

My joconde got awfully crumbly and fell apart while assembling it--that was frustrating. All I could do was pack them in tightly and pray that the cracks won't show. I think I panned out the batter a little too thinly. I poured the mousse in, placed the raspberry insert, filled the rest of the torte, and put it in the freezer...

The following week (the final week), I made the glaze, and poured it over the frozen torte. I put it in the fridge and got to work on making the white chocolate decorations. And had the toughest time tempering it. I'm still getting used to tempering chocolates to proper temperature. My first three attempts resulted in chocolate that didn't set at all. I still had plenty of time, but it was stressing me out!

Finally, I got the white chocolate properly tempered, and made the lattice decoration. I propped it up glazed raspberries and a neatly cut block of raspberry gelee.

Thankfully, the cracks on the joconde were barely noticeable. I thought the torte looked gorgeous! But Chef thought that the block of gelee, while appropriate, would "confuse" customers, and took off a point just for that :( My insert was 1/8" lower than the middle and she took off 2 points. Boy, she grades harshly... I got a 97/100, which is good...well, being the perfectionist that I am, I was hoping for a 100/100.

I took the torte home to my family and also my stepniece. It was delicious, and everyone loved it, except Mom thought it was too rich; I could only have a small slice myself. (I get sick otherwise)

But that was my European Cakes final. It was a fun quarter! We now get a weeklong break, and then the new quarter starts. Until then...