YARRR!!! :D (click to see a great video)

Belated Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day everyone!!! That being said, here is how I celebrated:





































If only Target had that pirate accessories kit, I would have rocked a hook, an eyepatch, and a hat as well.. :) But yes. Bella and I spent most of our time yesterday from about 1pm and whenever class would let us permit up to right about 730pm to put that beaut together. The buttercream was melting pretty fast, probably because of the cocoa powder, orange oil, and rum that we put in there, so we ended up working in the walk-in for the last 30 minutes or so of production..but I am SOO PROUD OF BELLA for the beautiful waves she put together!! She really helped me put this whole cake together and make the idea a reality, so THANKS, BELLA!! :D

Which brings me to my next piece of news. So let's take it back a bit, to two Wednesdays ago. I was standing outside the Student Affairs office, casually looking at the announcements on the boards on the easel when Haley, one of the Student Affairs Officers comes out and asks me, "Are you joining the bake-off?" At first I said no, but Haley somehow was able to work her magic and convince me to take some applications and go find a partner right quick. I went to class and thought about it for a while until class began and pretty much left it alone with the thought that I might ask Dairn, or I might ask Bella (both of whom I sit between in class). I didn't bother with it until the next day, Thursday. Dairn mentioned that he was partners with his roommate, Chris, and when I turned to Bella, I noticed that she also had a blank application sheet. 30 seconds later, we had become partners.

It was rough, because our other classmates who had joined ahead of us had a few days, if not a whole week, on us in terms of practicing and getting their recipes together. We had from Friday to Monday 5pm to turn in our recipes. We needed to come up with recipes for a soufflé with a sauce, a flambé, and a hard candy to turn in for ingredient-ordering purposes, and just to come up with how to decorate our petit fours (the cake, marzipan, and fondant icing was provided for us, all we needed to do was assemble and further decorate the petit fours). Coming up with the soufflé and flambé recipes came easy, but we were stuck with the hard candy recipe. I really wanted to do something with lavender, and I wanted to come up with a Werther's style caramel that was lavender-scented. I was hard-pressed to find a basic hard caramel candy recipe (even until now!), so we tried to think of other things. Bella thought of dipping strawberries in caramel, which eventually evolved into Frangelico-soaked strawberries dipped in caramel. However, this didn't fly with Chef Tim when we asked with him on the following Monday, as it wasn't technically a hard candy (the caramel had to be boiled to hard crack stage, or 300-315 degrees).

I was at a total loss, since we needed to turn in a new recipe the next day. I decided that I would just go with the recipe in our baking textbook for my hard candy, and figured if I could make two different ropes of candy, I could twist them into a candy cane type deal. I finally decided on a lavender-peppermint combination, but I didn't know how I was going to get the lavender into the candy until my friend and fellow competitor, Justin, said that he would bring me some lavender from home and that I could just infuse the lavender into the candy syrup then strain it out later. As luck would have it, he got sick on Thursday and forgot to bring the lavender on Friday. I had already been practicing to make the candy, but Thursday yielded a lump of purple candy. So I ran to Whole Foods across the street, and as luck would have it they carried lavender essential oil, if not at an extremely exorbitant price of $10 for a tiny bottle the size of half my thumb. After 3 practice runs on Friday, I was as ready as I could be for Saturday.

Let me state at this point that Bella and I had everything else down, and were just planning the details at this point.

So...Saturday comes along, and basically I am blown away by Justin's team (he threw cinnamon in his flambé and made it sparkle for God's sake! And those candied walnuts...), Ashlynn and Alison's team (they had pretty homemade Butterfinger candy), and basically just proud of all of us, especially of all of the kids from my class who joined, despite the huge difference in skill set and experience.

So Justin and Alisha win third alongside Vivienne and her partner (forgot her name, last name Ontiveros). Second place is swept by Allison and Ashlynn. Bernard and Shawn take first (unfortunately I never got to see or taste anything they made). But you all should know, that Bella and I tied for first along with them. :)


































































Ashlynn's beautiful petit fours











Justin's awesome candied walnuts were amazing... :)











I taped glowsticks in the top part of the cat's mouth..I think the gimmick would have worked better, had I not put the candies to rest in a wet dish, and gotten them all sticky. :(









































All of Bella's beautiful hard work definitely paid off :)






Not pictured were my flambé and Bella's soufflé. Marga, who came out with Mike (as did Van, my roommate, for most of the competition, anyway), has a ton of pictures, so as soon as I get my hands on them, I will be posting them up promptly. To go along with our Halloween theme, Bella made a dark chocolate raspberry souffle which she turned into a scary face with raspberries for eyes and a couple of mint leaves still on its stem for eyebrows. Chef Lori, one of the judges, didn't realize this until she took the first scoop of the soufflé and made a huge scary grin to match the rest of the face. Also on the plate was a mint pesto ghoul and a vanilla ice cream skull with raspberry sauce eyes and mouth. It was so perfect, because as the ice cream melted, the eyes and mouth started to drip red like blood. I made a Hungarian walnut- and raisin-filled pancake and a chocolate and dark rum sauce for the flambé, and when I plated the pancakes I put a splash of heavy cream on both sides of the plate on the sauce and used a skewer to make eyes and mouths and stretch it into a ghost shape. But yes, more pictures to come :)




The winners with Chef Tim








L to R: Shawn, Bernard, me, Bella, Ashlynn, Chef Tim, and Allison








Marga and Me! I'm so glad she was able to come out and support. It was so fun knowing that they could share in our win!




Soooo there we go. We tied for first, and that rocks. :) I guess you can say that I'm doing pretty well in pastry school. hehe.

BONUS PICS!

At Ambrosia Bakery, on Ocean Ave.:




What a great Sunday morning...Tiramisu and a hot chocolate. :)









Bestie with a latte! It looks like a pre-"ARRR" in lieu of the holiday that was coming up. ;)









A beautiful fresh fruit tart








Princess cake








Delicious-looking cappuccino cake









I was thisclose to trying the pistachio mousse cake until I laid eyes on the tiramisu over on the other end. :) But I promise, that will be next!