Cake Decorating has begun. Project #1 - Chocolate molding

Hi guys!

I am sorry that I have not blogged since the start of the class. This blog is going to be a little more sporadic than last time as things run a little slower in cake decorating class! The first day of class was a riot :) We were all standing outside the assigned classroom and our Chef was sitting inside his assigned classroom... yea, you guessed it!... we were in different buildings! ;) GOOO Le Cordon Bleu!! Wooo Hooo!!  :)

We finally made it into class and we got out 40 minutes later because the computer system was down and the Chef couldn't get prepared.  Day one served as an introduction and we were told we would be doing 5 projects in our 6 weeks with him.  The first of those projects being a chocolate molded cake.  :) Ahh chocolate, how I love thee. :) :)  I had no issue with this whatsoever. :)  We had to make our own chocolate moldings instead of using the store bought ones, so we each made a white chocolate batch and a dark chocolate batch.  I of course was the taster.. What?? I had to make sure they were not disastrous, you know. ;)

We ran out of dark chocolate though, ( SHOCKER!) and so Andrea and I made milk chocolate molding instead.  We were then told that our chocolate molding cake had to have a banner on it which had to be made out of pastillage... You guessed it, the next day we made pastillage! All these beauties are edible. They may not be the BEST tasting, but they are edible. I personally think they all taste delicious :). But then again, I love sugar.

So back to reality, everyone knows how I struggle with creativity.  To think that I have to come up with not one, but FIVE ideas?!?!? Ay yayay.... It made me put my thinking cap on.  :) I have been feeling a little gloomy lately so my initial theme for the chocolate molding was rain and a big umbrella... Don't ya know it, that day when I came out of class, the skies turned gray and it was rain and thunder all the way home.  Was it a sign?  Not sure.. but that night I sat on the couch talking to my niece and she was flipping through channels on the TV when she came across this super cute Bee movie! I LOVE BEE'S! And I totally save them every time I see them drowning in the ocean or pools or anywhere for that matter! The poor little guys are going to go extinct for heavens sake! I do my homework :).

So yea, I changed my gloomy rain theme to a Bee theme. :) You can see my creation above. I had the bee hive and the bee some what created by the end of the day.  I chose white chocolate as my base to be a little different than the rest since I knew most people would opt for the darker chocolate as the base.  We started to do  the actual work on our cake foams on day 3 of the class, which was last Thursday. I got pretty far considering I have never molded anything.. not even with play dough!  On Friday I got slightly further...and today I was just about done. A few more finishing touches to the bee's and the creatoin of my pastillage banner and I am ready to turn this baby in for grading.. ready to check it out?

This is the front of the cake.. although I have made changes.. my honey comb ended incorrectly so  I have now removed that retarded diamond you see in the front and have replaced it with a little bee. :)  You have to think quick and make corrections or else you get stuck! Or at least I do!  But I was proud of myself, I came up with that one pretty quickly.

You can barely see it in this picture, but the sides of the cake are the honey comb :) . I promise to get you a better picture tomorrow and also show you the creations of some of my class mates.  If I can not show you a picture, I will not blog. But I will have you up to speed on any tips that I think you may like.

In the meantime, this is what the cake is wrapped over... FOAM! :) 

Obviously this is for decorating purposes. :) I will find out for us tomorrow how the chocolate sticks to a  real cake although its more than likely with butter cream! :)

Good night everyone! Have a beautiful week.

XO