Lemon Hazelnut Crunch and Poopy Chocolate?

Have you ever made an emulsion sponge cake before? Until today, I had never heard of one before!

K-89 emulsion. It looks like simple yellow shortening but it enables bakers to make a cake with more sugar. It also made for a really fine textured cake. I ran my fingers over a slice of the cake and it was so smooth, almost like running my fingers over the table top. This is what the cake batter looked like after whipping it on high for exactly three minutes. No more, no less.

Looks like merginue!

It was sliced into three layers with lemon italian buttercream.

Somewhat even layers

The little brown bits are crunch hazelnut prarline pieces. So good! Like a cross between toffee and hazelnuts.  If only I weren't making this for class. I would sprinkle the praline crunch between layers for a wonderfully delicious nutty crunch. :)

Hazelnutty goodness!

To garnish we got to try our hand at chocolate tempering. Tempering chocolate is a process in which chocolate is heated and cooled to specific temperatures to encourage the development of a specific crystal. Making that one specific crystal formation dominant in the final chocolate is what gives chocolate that shine and crisp snap when you bite into it. Tempering is not difficult but it requires one's full attention. The best temperature for working with the chocolate is 31-32C, but if the chocolate hits 33C, it needs to be tempered all over again.

Roll the chocolate to give it a tube shape

After it sets, carefully peel the acetate paper off

This roll was cut into two pieces by heating thin metal to carefully melt through it. In my case, I used the Chef's torch to heat up my offset spatula. Gently, but quickly, place it on the lemon hazelnut crunch cake and done!

Don't cut through, melt through!

We also made carrot cake, chocolate pound cake and more chocolate pieces!

Giant sheet of carrot cake

Christmas themed transfer sheet

The life of a chocolate cake:

Start with a cookie base and raspberry jam

Add chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream

Another layer of cake and raspberry jam

More buttercream and the final layer of cake

Smooth it out and pipe some chocolate dots

Finish with frozen buttercream dots and chocolate pieces.

Is it just me, or do those buttercream dots remind you of something that comes out the behind? :P That color and that piping! Really, who decides the style of our cakes!? Those dots reminded me of a book of cake wrecks that had an entire chapter dedicated to cakes that, despite good intentions, looked like feces were thrown at it. Either way, it made for some good laughs, however immature. :P

Tomorrow we'll get to turn that giant sheet of carrot cake into individual portions as a change of pace to the 6 inch cakes we have been making thus far.

Chef: "You walk into a bakeshop and it's just you. You're not gonna buy a 6 inch cake for yourself."

Me: "You're right, I'd get the 10 inch." :)