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!

Petit Fours & Chocolates

Remember those little bite sized marzipan and fondant coated jam and sponge morsels with a curly piped filligree on top and dotted with bright coloured gels?

Well, as delightful as I once found them...... the French have really taken Petit Fours to a whole new level.  Petit Four means small oven in French, and the requirement is simple.  It has to be no bigger than 2 bites.

The petit four course at Savour is a must!  Regardless of whether you are an experienced pastry aficionado or not, this is a wonderful place to start!  The 2 day weekend course saw many students travelling from all parts of the country.  All the petit fours went back to good homes.  Here is a little peek into our weekend.

It started with Paul offereing a sneak peak of the choclates produced in the chocolates classes.  Such pretty, pretty chocolates!

Unmoulding our perfectly formed chocolate cups

Filling our orange chocolate cups with mousse.

Look at how happy Evelyn is!  Working with chocolate does that for you.  Talented Evelyn is actually a dentist by day......patissier by night..... cool, steady hands.....perfect for this chocolate task - making little stands for the chocolate cups.

See....don't they look adorable?

with a perfect dome of blood orange jellies.

Sigh!  Almost too good to eat.

Brentons topped with whipped ganache

Brenton finishing production

Filling the divine raspberry & chocolate tarts

They made me so so very happy.

Chocolate raspberry tart finishing production

So sleek, so sexy, soooo goood!!

Chocolate moons (I called them eyelashes) for our lemon praline tarts

Lemon tart production team

Et viola!  Don't they look stunning!?

Guinea ovals.  Almond friands topped with sesame praline & pineapple gelee.

Choux profiteroles being dipped into hot caramel.  Much much hotter than boiling water.....ouch! 

Ready for taste testing.....

What next you ask..... walnut macarons of course.

Look at their perfect 'feet' and gorgeous presentation.

And last but not least,

Slow baked dark chocolate mousse

Melt in the mouth with a wonderful hint of coffee.  The memory is making me drool.

There was also an amazing almond mini cake with cherry jam that simply did not last long enough to be photographed.... 

As if there was not enough sugar in my life, I moved straight onto Chocolate class..

Tempering chocolate is one of those terribly mesmerizing things to watch.  Heating chocolate to melt it and then cooling it to a certain temperature so that it recrystalises properly to give fine chocolate its trademark shine and crack is certainly not as easy as it looks.

Here Robin is tempering our dark Callebaut chocolate ready for class.

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Here I am.....attempting it...... somehow feels like an episode of Masterchef.....

The omnious looking Guitar cutter

See what it can do to a perfectly fine chocolate filling!

Dipped and dessed with the most beautiful chocolate transfer sheets

Smiles all round!  Chocolate is so good for the soul!

 

Perfect shine, filled with caramels and luscious ganaches all ready to be savoured.

So, get into Savour school, the art of patisserie is truly worth experiencing and you will have a whole new respect for the perfection that takes place there.

Back in Sydney, look where my topsy turvy cake has ended up.

Shop front at Alex and Alex shoes in Erskine Street, Sydney.  All glammed up and surrounded by shoes, every girls dream!

Hope you all have a great week ahead, stay posted for Entremet classes. 

(Entremets are formerly known as Gateaux)