Chocolate & Confections Week 11 Final!!!

It's the Chocolates & Confections Final!
My group's theme is Finding Nemo. Remember that saltwater aquarium in the dentist's office with the Tank Gang? We made it out of pastillage and cast sugar. For the past few weeks, we've been making bits and pieces that would go into our project, like the gravel and the treasure chest, etc. Today we got to put it all together and make fresh confections for our instructors to sample for tasting.

Canadian Whiskey Truffles. Love the tempering job my teammate did. Good job!

Chocolate-covered Sponge Candy, with toasted coconuts.

All of our sample confections plated. The fish gummie is cinnamon-flavored.
I think this was the most laid-back final I've ever had in my entire two years of Culinary School. It's just that we had pretty much every component finished the day before the deadline, so my group ended up relaxing and wandering around the kitchen, watching everyone else frantically tempering chocolate, whipping marshmallows, and pulling last minute sugar decorations. :P

We got done before everyone else, so we put our project out in the lobby for display...

Titled "Nemo Found". The back and the bottom, treasure chest, aquatic plant, Mt. Wannahockaloogie, the tiki masks, and the clam shell are made of pastillage; the gravel, the glass sides, and the (droopy) starfish are cast sugar; the lava is gelatin gummie, the sponge is (of course) spong candy, diver's mask and the background fish are chocolate. The silver-dusted truffle pearl in the clam completed the look.

"But where is Nemo?" you may ask. Of course, the title of the project is "Nemo Found". Nemo should be in there, somewhere, right??

So here he is.

We found Nemo.

And that was the end of my schooling here at the Art Institute. I've learned SO much in the past two years, and still feel as though there are tons more to learn. Perhaps I'll go back and get a Culinary degree. Or a bachelor's in Culinary Management. We'll see what happens. Until then, I'll be job hunting and relaxing.