Teaching and Learning

The truly wonderful thing about being involved with the teaching process, is that you always learn something new.  Seeing Handi work is such a pleasure, and working with students who are all creative in their own ways is very inspiring.  I am so proud to say that I've been trained by him and now I'm delighted that the Cake Love students have had this opportunity too.

Congratulations are in order this week also, as Handi was awarded Australia's Cake Decorator of the Year at a gala dinner in Brisbane with the National Bakers Association. 

 I'm so proud I could burst!  Here he is with the lovely Kirsten (post from my time at Savour) Tibballs and Mr Zumbo himself. 

This past week, teaching alongside Handi has been exhausting but also very rewarding!! 

Here are our adventures for the week.....

 Starting off with the beautiful cakes from the Beginner 1 class.  Present boxes and big smiles!

Moving onto the gorgeous results of Beginner Flowers workshop.  Just divine!!

The foundations for the massive Designer Double Barrel Cake.

A stunning sugar peony to adorn these masterpieces.

Watching the master at work.....

and of course the simply stunning results!!  Well done team!

Hardly time to take a breath and straight onto the Designer Handbag Workshop

I cant decide which one I love more!!

Last of the week....

The fine art of piping.  Anyone fancy replicating the latest Royal wedding cake??

Many thanks to all our students who shared our enthusiasm and gave Handi such a warm welcome.  We were blown away by all the creativity and talent in such a little room.  It was truly inspirational.  Thanks to Prontos for providing our delicious lunches when we got tired and hungry.  Thanks to all at the Cooking Professor that put up with us filling every corner with all our gear.  Many thanks to Handi for making the long journey over and your commitment to passing on all that you know.  And lastly, thanks to my family and the lovely Glenda, without whom, none of this would have been possible!

For those of you who missed out on this lot of courses, Handi will be back in October and December.  In the meantime, Cake Love Couture will be scheduling the beginner and intermediate classes leading up to Handi's advanced courses in October.  

Watch this space!

Entremet Class at Savour School

Entremets....??  What is an entremet?

Kirsten Tibballs explains :  It means between layers, or between servings. Somewhere along the line, a French patissier decided that seeing as housewives were producing cakes and calling them gateaux, that a professionally produced one should be called something else.  A well made entremet should be visually appealling, have textural contrast, and, of course, taste good. The taste buds should be tempted as well with different combinations of taste sensations like salty, sour, sweet and bitter.

The quality of the ingredients we used for our Entremets at Savour school, I can be certain to say is of superior quality to the majority of commercial products nationwide.  But now that I have tasted the best, I can determine quality from this very high benchmark comparison!

Some of the most exciting parts of learning, is meeting the interesting people you are in class with.  Like Sophie, I was so impressed with her attitude, almost enough to change my mind about Y Gen.  They CAN be focused, talented and have good attitudes.

 Sophie works with none other than the fabulous Clare...

Remember Clare?

Who gave me serious cake envy in Topsy Turvy class!

  or real life Australian Cake Boss - Dymon from the Hellenic Bakery, Marrickville in Sydney - yes, that's him in the back supervising the girls.....

As well as Poornima (3rd from left) who is returning to India this year with her other half to open their little dream business and Julianti (2nd from left) who is as equally cake crazed as me as well as being a fellow Planet Cake addict.  And Anna, fellow Westralian who made the cross country trek all in the name of cake!  Thanks team for making the learning experience so much more rewarding!

Moving on.....

Classes started with making a traditional strawberry charlotte - with a modern twist of course.
First up, learn how to make perfect sponge fingers

and the resulting creations.  Aren't they pretty in pink?

Add some rum and Flambe the bananas....

For the Ambre

A delicious combination of hazelnut brownie base, caramelized rum bananas, coconut mousse with a salted caramel glaze.

Introducing the Nirvana 

Covered with a gorgeous Titanium white chocolate glaze - just like Masterchef finals week!

Me carefully placing the finishing touches on top

Looks like Kirsten approved of my reproduction of her creation.   In class we dubbed this the 'Lego cake' - a delicious combination of nougat and apricot.  Those spheres are actually thin as wafer chocolate domes filled with Callebaut chocolate mousse, then sprayed with cocoa butter - for extra melt in the mouth deliciousness!

 Placement of the kirsch truffles on the Cube before adding the glaze.

Yes....the shell for the Yarra Tart is not precise enough...well, file it down!  Talk about perfection!

Gorgeous, gorgeous chocolate cherry spheres for our decorating the Cube.  Complete with that "Whoa" shine factor!

Oops.... not so happy......making jam is hazardous to your health!  One seriously burned finger sitting in a cool water bath......

Moving onto Macaron class, look at Yvette go!  

How fabulous to see another Planet Cake team member at Savour!!  The world is such a small place for cake enthusiasts!

Here are the little fussy things resting....
 

 and here they are about to be devoured by Paul who gets first pick...... caught in the action!

How to impress the students a bit more?  Hamburger macarons of course!

How adorable is that??

Not to mention, sinfully delicious.

And then I hand carried them all the way home!!

(photo courtesy of Joanne Tay)

I want to thank the dedicated team at Savour School.

Kirsten for her vision and passion to the pastry arts - where would Australians be without her spearheading our knowledge of fine patisserie and chocolate?

Paul for his Paulisms, good humour, flair and amazing talent and Robyn for her patience, perfection and love of teaching, 

Seung-Yun for her quiet persistance and excellence in her craft and of course the hard working office team, who's names we didnt always know, but certainly enabled everything to take place.  I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Meanwhile, back in Perth........
Planet Cake has landed.  Stay posted!