Week 7- tortes and souffles

This week in pastry we worked on tortes. We started with a mango torte and also made a caraibe torte. The mango torte used a patterned jaconde cake as the base so when it is inverted, it has a pretty patterned top. This was placed in a mold and the rest of the layers were spread or cut to fit on top of that so it was all nice and even. The next layer was a mascarpone mousse that we sprinkled with diced mangos. Next was a layer of spongecake topped with a layer of mango gelee. Another layer of spongecake was placed on top of that, followed by a final layer of the mascarpone mousse. It all got topped off with another layer of the jaconde cake. This got placed in the freezer to set up and then was unmolded. I do not have photos of this or the caraibe torte yet because we are going to finish them off another week. It is going to be used in a buffet that we are going to be doing with another class.

The caraibe torte was a layer of devils food cake that we brushed a simple syrup combined with rum on top of. We then spread a layer of chocolate buttercream on top and placed another layer of devils food cake on the top. We glazed that with the syrup again and it is being frozen. We will finish it off with a chocolate ganache and decorate it with chocolate meringue sticks.

The chocolate buttercream we made was absolutely amazing!! In case you are interested, here is the recipe. It is the smoothest icing I have ever had and I wanted to just eat a cup of it all by itself.
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First you make a pastry cream:

milk- 1 qt
vanilla bean, split- 1
granulated sugar- 7.5 oz
egg yolks- 6 oz (10 yolks)
cornstarch- 2.5 oz
unsalted butter- 2 oz

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Bring the milk, vanilla bean, and 3 oz of the sugar to a boil in a non reactive saucepan.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and gradually add the remaining sugar to them. Whisk in the cornstarch to combine.

Temper the yolk mixture with 1/4 of the boiling milk. *This means to slowly add the milk while whisking continuously into the eggs. It SLOWLY cooks the eggs without curdling them.* Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan and cook, whisking vigorously, until cream thickens. Boil about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and pour into a clean mixing bowl.

Fold in butter until melted. Do not overmix!!

Cover with plastic wrap on the surface of custard. Chill over ice bath. Remove vanilla bean just before using.

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When pastry cream is cold, make the buttercream:

butter- 1 lb
powdered sugar- 10 oz
vanilla extract- 1 fl oz
semisweet chocolate- 14 oz

In a mixing bowl fitted with whip attachment, whip all ingredients until light. Add 1 lb 8 oz of the COLD pastry cream and mix until combined. Turn off the machine and add 14 oz of melted and then cooled to 88 degrees semisweet chocolate. Whip until well blended.

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We also made souffles. We made a basic chocolate souffle and we also made a chocolate souffle cake with peanut butter honey centers. Here are the photo's of that. You serve them piping hot, straight from the oven before they deflate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and split with a fork at the table and pour in cream so they don't burn their mouths. My group topped the peanut butter chocolate souffle with a berry coulis, as well, and it tasted like peanut butter and jelly!





Here is my tablemate's plate: