Sweet as Sugar

This past week was sugar centerpiece. We worked with Isomolt which is an imitation sugar. The sugar is melted down with water. In order to cast the sugar into different molds we need to bring the temperature up to 332 F. Sugar burns are an instant third degree burn. Mmm sounds like fun! We casted sugar, which is pouring sugar into solid molds (it is the base of my sugar centerpiece). You can also make molds by drawing designs in a pan of lose sugar and pouring the liquid sugar into the design. I told my friend Kevin that he should stick his face in the sugar and make a sugar cast of his face! But when he asked Chef, she intently said “NO!” multiple times. The sugar can also be made into pulled sugar. When the sugar cools to where it can somewhat hold a shape, we pull it and fold it on itself. This creates a shiny pearl color in the sugar. We used our pulled sugar to create roses. We worked under heat lamps to pull and mold the sugar into petals. After a couple minuets under the heat lamp you want to cry. You feel like your burning your fingers. It takes a good minuet to make one petal, and it only takes one touch to snap that petal into pieces. In two days of work I only produced four roses. Those days consisted of a lot of breaks, I had to just step away and take a breather. It takes a lot of patients when working with sugar. With every technique I learn, I also develop a new respect for the people who use that technique on a regular basis.

Here's to you!

Since school started in the summer of 09 I have had many people genuinely ask me how I was doing, so with some encouragement (thanks Lara) I decided to start a blog. To everyone who wants to know what LeCordon Bleu is like… this one is for you!
Every three weeks I am in a new kitchen with a new Chef and a new subject. I have taken classes from bread baking to cake decorating. My last class was cake decorating techniques, we worked with fondant and modeling chocolate. In this class I had to make a child’s theme cake. I made mine after the book The Rainbow Fish. The fish are hand made out of modeling chocolate. The waves, scales and seaweed are made out of pastillage and painted with cocoa butter. Pastillage is the same thing as Necco Wafers, or the valentine candy hearts. The cake itself is Styrofoam and covered in chocolate fondant. My next big project in this class was my wedding cake. It is covered in fondant and the flowers were hand made with gum paste. The bottom tier has a faint paisley imprint. The middle tier has silver strips of fondant, and the top tier has dots of royal icing. The inspiration of this cake came from my parent’s wedding cake.