Chocolate showpieces!

So, I had planned to do a Super Mario Bros. fire flower for today... but I, and apparently no one else, really, knew that these were supposed to be done in teams. =/ Yeah.... So everyone got paired up (actually I was kind of not pairing with anyone on purpose.. >.>) and I got to work with Sarah and Chelsea on their Alice in Wonderland piece. xD I'm glad I waited because this was probably the most interesting (to me) that I could have worked on. The biggest thing I did was the caterpillar with the hookah. I made the whole thing while Chelsea worked on the mushrooms, cards and butterfly and Sarah worked on the Tree and base. We pretty much each had a focus, but we were still running around and helping each other with a lot of things. xD Oh, yeah, and I got a freeze burnt thumb... nothing serious because it stopped hurting after like 10 minutes but it really burnt!! haha It was because we were using quick-freeze spray and Chelsea went a little overboard on the spraying while I was holding pieces together.

OKAY, Now I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures. :D

Caterpillar! almost done : )


Whole thing in progress.

Done!



Side view.


Back!


My favorite pic cause my caterpillar looks kind of epic up there. xD



For our first time, we were all reaaallllyyyy proud of this. xD At the end the whole class ran out of quick freeze... so all the trees branched were glued on by holding them there, the caterpillar and hookah were basically air dried with the tiny amount that was left in the can with no pressure, and the cards were also just stuck on by hand with no freeze spray. So at the end it was pretty stressful because of that. xD The only thing I don't like is that you can see the white chocolate ("glue") that we used. Need to wipe that up next time before it sets. But, that's what school is for so it's okay. :)

Quick

Here's just a quick post for yesterday because the post I really want to make is coming right after this and it's going to involve a lot of pics....

Onion Rings!



Annndd...

Barley Risotto stuffs!



Yep, there were other things but they looked kinda lame plated so I didn't bother with pics ... Now for todays actual post!

OoOOOkkay!

My computer died for a little bit ... So this'll be a picture-tastic super post. xP

First! Hot Foods! This is the final plate. We made a lot of things that day (that I no longer remember) but he wanted us to plate our trout with a starch and a vegetable so here it is!



Next! Baking! We made truffles and did some more chocolate piping work also. The left is just ganache rolled in cocoa powder, the middle is dark chocolate tempered and set in a mold, filled with lemony goodness, and the right is a white-chocolate truffle. I had to temper the dipping chocolate for that, also.




The blurry one I took after I decided to add a little more to the plate. I apparently didn't hold the camera still enough. :P

I was the partner-less one this week so I got to temper chocolate 3-4 times! :) I actually was happy about that, because it's really pretty fun (despite the hand cramps! D:) If you haven't seen it before, that's where you melt chocolate, dump it all on a stainless steel or marble table, and then go mad on it with two scrapers to cool it down and incorporate air. It's supposed to be pretty tough, but I definitely think I have a knack for at least the tabling method of it, because it turned out great every time! :)

BTW, here are some of my piping deco rejects. xD I took a pic cause I wanted my smily to live forever.



BTW, you can see full size if you click on the thumbnail.

NEXT! Mediterranean! These grape leaves were stuffed with rice! ...and lamb. D: haha




And finally!! .... Falafel. It tasted like grossness. But they're cute, at least. :)




So.. we've got 2 weeks left, not counting written finals week. I just spent 5 hours on homework just for Fridays Food Service Management class. : / Plus I still have a tiny bit more to do for that project. *sigh* But we are doing chocolate sculptures this Tuesday and I finally decided that I want to do an old school Super Mario Fire Flower. xD In 3D of course. Chelsea and Sarah are doing two different Alice in Wonderland pieces that'll go together at the end. Anyway, if they can do AiW, I can damn well do Mario! :) So I've gotten a couple of weights lifted now... Not going to think about the giant study guide we got for Mediterraneans final right now. o.o

One more normalish week and then it's time again for 2 WEEKS OF HELL!
*DRAMATIC MUSIC*

I'll post pictures of anything we make the next two weeks, even if my fire flower looks like crap or something.

Chocolate Tart

This was made in Baking of course. The chocolate was kinda... well... really overbaked, actually so it's lumpy on top. xD I sort of forgot about it for a few minutes. hehe
I think the design we put by the cake was one of Holly's. Most of mine broke because it hadn't completely set when I tried to peel them off, but I swear they were pretty before I broke them! :D

Laaattee

There weren't a lot of pretty things to take pictures of this week. I did, however, forget to post this on Tuesday: It's the first rose (or anything, for that matter) that I've ever molded with chocolate! The white stuff is a bit of excess powdered sugar.