Tuesday was sponge cake day. We made 3 different types of sponges for 3 different petit fours. The Petit Four sponge is for the Petit Fours Glaces, the Battenburg sponges for Battenburg Petit Fours and the Jaconde Biscuit is to make up the cake layers of the Opera cake.
On Wednesday, we made Almond Macaroons and French buttercream for the filling. I'm not talking about coconut macaroons with the bottoms dipped in chocolate. I'm talking about true french macaroons - crispy, chewy little circles of tasty deliciousness held together with decadent french buttercream. I have always wanted to make them, but there is this air of mystery and difficulty surrounding most recipes. They are a little tricky and the method is macaroner (French) - to slightly overmix in order to melt the sugar and avoid peaks. This is done by spreading the batter (sugar, powdered sugar and egg whites - meringue with almond meal and powdered sugar folded in) around a bowl with a spatula, gathering it all back in the middle and repeating the process until it is just right. I chose to make pistachio macaroons because I love how the green pops and pistachio buttercream is tasty and nutty. French buttercream is whipped egg yolks whipped some more with cooked sugar until cool. Then you whip in about a pound of butter. That is why it is so tasty. We also made ganache and were supposed to build our Opera cakes, but one of our classmates had a seizure during the demo, so we had a bit of delay with helping her and EMS arriving. She is ok.
Thursday was crazy busy. We were one cake behind and had to completely build the Opera cake and make a glaze for the top. The Opera is the most delicious little morsel ever. The base is a thin layer of melted chocolate topped with a layer of thin Jaconde Biscuit, soaked in coffee rum syrup, topped with coffee flavored French buttercream, topped with another layer of caked soaked in syrup, topped with ganache, topped with another layer of soaked caked, topped with coffee buttercream with a dark chocolate glaze poured over the top. It is cut into little squares and finished with a coffee buttercream rosette and a chocolate filigree. This is why Petit Fours are so pricey - they are tedious and take forever to make! We also assembled the Battenburg, which is pink and yellow sponge put together in a checkerboard pattern, layered with apricot jam and covered in marzipan. We got to use the torch again to bring out the crosshatch design on top. We also assembled the Petit Four sponge by spreading a thin layer of jam between two layers of petit four sponge cake. The cake is then cut into little squares and covered with poured fondant. The idea is to match the color of the fondant to the flavor of the jam. We chose apricot for ours. Normally, delicate little designs would be piped in chocolate to finish the squares, but we had about 1 minute to finish, so the piping didn't turn out so great. Whew. I'm tired just thinking about that day!The test on Friday was pretty straightforward and I didn't miss any questions on the written exam. We made macaroons with french buttercream, tempered chocolate and piped 3 different filigree designs and piped "Happy Birthday". Everything came out perfect! I can hardly believe we survived the week - it was pretty crazy! Luckily, we have Monday off because next week is going to be even crazier. Hopefully I will survive and live to bake another day. Until then, ciao!
-The Queen of Tarts-
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