Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Croquembouche, L'Opera gateau

Croquembouche is a traditional French wedding cake that is made of profiteroles filled with pastry cream built on a nougatine or short pastry base. Caramel (France) or chocolate (Italy) is used as a sticking agent.

L'Opera gateau is a moist, dense, layered Frech cake traditionally made from jaconde, coffee buttercream and dark ganache.

This has been a very tense week for me. And for everyone else in the class I guess. Croquembouche and Opera gateau. Two very tricksy, fiddly pieces. And you know what, I didn't even complete building my croquembouche. After all the bleeding preparation of making profiteroles, pastry cream and nougatine base, I gave up at the third ring. Problem was, my caramel was too thin, hence the choux balls cannot stick together properly. I had leaning tower of Pisa at stage three which will actually proceeded to completely lean over if I hadn't had my hand supporting it. Well, time ran out so my teacher said she will assess me based on my choux balls and caramel. Luckily I did those well. So yeah, 35/40. haha.

L'opera gateau, my end-term examination topic. That is the main reason why the whole class is so tense. We cannot afford to do a lousy job since it will be the only practice we get. Chef Andre's not-so-perfect Opera, or so he says. Take a look at my Opera. That is called imperfect.

Opera gateau as plated desserts. I personally prefer the one on your left. So cute!!!

Ahh, the runny Opera. The intermediate layers are all alright. The only fault is I made my glaze too thin, which is a major major fault because it is so obviously obvious. My for-all-to-see glaze can't even hold its shape. haha. On the bright side, it tastes good. :D

End.

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