BAKING AND PASTRY TECHNIQUES

May 8, 2013

 

The goal of the day in the kitchen was to complete cake assemble and decorating. We started by having demonstrations on how to make the buttercream for the yellow cake, assembly and decorating of the yellow cake, along with assembly and decoration of the chiffon cake. 

After demonstrations we started on our buttercream for the yellow cake.  There was a mix up with the cakes which resulted in our team having three beautiful fluffy lemon yellow cakes and one brown half size cake. The chef took pity on us regarding the situation and allowed us to switch out the half size cake for one of hers that was more in line with the rest of our cakes.  Lesson learned, always label the bottom of the cake boards (not just the parchment) with your team number so there is no question as to which cake is yours even if it is completely obvious by looking at them.

 

Cake Torte

After the buttercream was complete, we started with the cake torte, which is leveling and cutting the cake into three equal pieces. Once the top was level and the cake was cut, a line of buttercream was placed along one side of the cake to mark it so that it can be lined up in the exact location when assembling it after icing each layer. 

 

For the next step we put a new cake board on the turntable, placed a small dab of buttercream on the board, and then flipped the top piece of the cut cake onto the bottom of the new board and frost the layer.

 

Cake Assembled

The buttercream mark was lined on the side with each layer until the bottom piece was now on the top. 

Crumb Coat

Once this is complete, we started the crumb coat.  This is a very thin see through layer of buttercream to coat the crumbs so they do not come through on the final layer of frosting. After the crumb coat was complete we completed the final layer of frosting.  We then used a comb to smooth the sides with a decorative style. 

 

Decorative Comb

 

 

 

The top was then smoothed. I decorated mine with a basic shell border. We had to write Happy Birthday on top with chocolate using the paper cone (I would have preferred to use a pastry bag).  Below is the end result of my cake.  I have never used a comb before and there was a edge on the board that caught the comb on the side so the end result was not a smooth finish that I would have liked.  I was also in a rush to complete the writing on top before clean up so the writing was a bit sloppy. 

 

 

The Italian buttercream that was made to complete the Orange Chiffon Cake was put in the freezer by mistake so it was ruined and all teams had to remake the buttercream to complete the cake. We did not have any more orange juice concentrate so we made vanilla instead.  We ran out of time and were unable to complete the chiffon cake so that will be on the agenda for tomorrow.