Learning the Art of Classic Cake Making
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| Cakes we enjoyed at home after class. |
Birthdays mean cake! And what
better way to celebrate my birthday this year, than with a Lindt Studio Master
Class. Thanks for the AWESOME birthday gift Big Sister, Nishtha. It was tons of
fun spending the morning learning about cakes in the Lindt Studio kitchen.
We attended the Art of
Classical Cakes class, where we learnt how to bake 5 different types of cakes:
Black Forest Gateau, Helvetia Slice, Tiramisu, Paris-Brest and Sacher Torte. My
favourite, by far was the Helvetia Slice. It was full of white chocolate and
hazelnut delicious-ness!
Here’s a description of each
of the cakes:
Black Forest Gateau
This dessert is made from a
combination of chocolate cake, cherries and whipped cream. We made individual
sized versions of this classic cake using silicone moulds. Chocolate cream was
piped between thin layers of chocolate cake, finished with a layer of sprayed chocolate, a topping of Kirsch
cream and a cherry.
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| Big Sister spraying the Black Forest Gateau with tempered chocolate. |
Helvetia Slice
This version of the Swiss cake
is made from almonds, white chocolate and sponge cake. The cake is assembled by
alternating layers of the thin sponge and white chocolate almond ganache
several times.
Tiramisu
This popular dessert is made using coffee liqueur, boudoir
biscuits, mascarpone, and white chocolate coffee ganache. Once the different
components are layered, all that is needed to decorate is a generous dusting of
cocoa powder.
Paris-Brest
This ring of choux pastry represents the wheel of a
bicycle. The dessert commemorates the Paris-Brest-Paris race in France. The choux
pastry is baked with a sprinkling of almond slivers and filled with a rich
hazelnut praline pastry cream.
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| Paris-Brest ready to be filled. |
Sacher Torte
This sweet Austrian cake is made from an almond chocolate
cake, apricot jam and covered with a dark chocolate ganache.
I enjoyed learning new techniques from the Lindt pastry
chefs. Even though the class wasn’t very hands on I picked up some useful tips:
1. A
double boiler isn’t necessarily the best way to melt chocolate. A microwave is
fine as long as you only heat the chocolate in 30 second intervals while
stirring in between.
2. Ganache
is made by heating the cream first, then adding the chocolate. Not the other
way around! (For you, Nishtha).
3. Fresh
cream whips the best straight from the fridge.
4. The
trick to using silicone moulds is to freeze whatever you’ve made first, then
removing from the mould. This prevents any breaking of your special treats.
And finally, I discovered 2 more baking stores I can
visit; Culinary Co. and the Chocolate Den. I will now not ONLY be found at
Kadies and Baker’s Warehouse on the weekends!
I really enjoyed attending this class. But most of all I
enjoyed eating our treats at home. Don’t worry, we did share them! Tea and cake
with friends is what my baking is all about. Give me a shout if you want to
come over anytime.
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| Chocolate! Can't get enough of it. |
