Petite Gateaux

Petite gateaux, meaning 'little cake' in French is an individual serving of a layered cake, usually built in a mold and then glazed to finish. They are complexly flavored and extremely delicious. From the textures to the garnishes, these little gems were my favorite dessert that I made so far in my Individual Production Pastries class, and I think they would be perfect to sit center stage in a dessert bar at a wedding. 

This guy stands about 3" high and 2" wide. From the bottom up, the layers are hazelnut sponge cake, praline feuilletine (hazelnut crunchy goodness), creme brulee (oh yes, you heard me right), and milk chocolate mousse. We froze it and then used a spray gun (meant for paint, oops) to cover it in milk chocolate spray and create the velvety dot texture you see on the top. It's garnished with a caramelized hazelnut and two chocolate decor pieces. 

 At the end of every class, we create a display of all the desserts everyone made. The top row is my team's, and the others are all my classmates.

Just to give you a taste of the possible flavor combinations, we had raspberry and pistachio, mango and coconut, black forest, and chocolate caramel peanut butter (um...yeah). 

These little cakes are a beautiful way to fancy up your event and add a lot of color and flavor to a dessert display. I've had mini cakes on the brain lately in preparation for my sister's wedding next June, where we're plotting something similar for her big day. I'm still in the planning stage, but check out my Pinterest board to see her cake progress and check back here for all the delicious details! 

Friday Faves

Just in time for another weekend, here's a few of my favorite things that I found inspiring this gorgeous week in the Hudson Valley:

Favorite Summer Wedding Cake: The Naked Cake

There's something so crisp and summery about the way a naked cake topped with fresh cut flowers and juicy berries looks. I love this trend in general because I love seeing the colorful layers of a cake, but also because baring all in summer seems especially appropriate.

Favorite Instagram: 

Of my favorite breakfast and my favorite mag. Berries I picked from this farm last weekend, greek yogurt, museli and honey plus Bon Appetit's best restaurants edition made my morning.

Favorite Song: Burn- Ellie Goulding

This week (today!) I'm taking my 2nd term practical in pastry school and it's for all the marbles. Needed a little extra push and having this song in my head helped me through. Also Ellie Goulding is just the sh!t. This song will definitely be making it on my next wedding cake day playlist.

Favorite Quote: TJ

See above. Always persevere. 

The Dessert Bar

The class I'm currently taking in pastry school is called Individual Production Pastries (IPP). We make fancy, little desserts- a LOT of fancy little desserts. And as much as I love a gigantic tiered wedding cake, working on a smaller canvas in this class has been inspiring and it totally renewed my affection for dessert bars. Dessert bars offer a wide variety for guests at a wedding to choose from plus the set-up looks really elegant with the right selection of cake plates and platters. It's the easiest and most cost effective way to please everyone and still have a major wow factor. To give you an example of what I'm talking about, here's a beauty of a dessert bar featured by Southern Wedding Magazine:

A dessert bar can be any number of sweets and treats like homemade marshmallows, mini cakes and pies, donuts, cookies, bars, tarts or cupcakes. The idea is that a guest can walk up to the table, pick up a dessert and eat it off a small plate or in their hand. Smaller desserts work best, but depending on the type of event you could really make anything work. What we made in IPP is definitely more suitable for an upscale affair. In class we worked on one dessert item as a team of four, and then combined it with  four other teams' desserts to create a display at the end of every class. These desserts are from the collective effort of my whole group:

These are layered classical cakes clockwise from left: apricot pistachio opera, milk chocolate hazelnut ganache, pistachio and strawberry frasier, chocolate praline roulade and the traditional opera.

Most of these items are made from a dough called pate a choux (what you make cream puffs out of). From the top down, here's a lot of frecnch: macaron, Paris brest, St. Honore cake, banan, religiuse, solambo, macronade biscuit and eclair.

Mille fuille (Napoleon), chibouste and plum tart, yuzu lemon curd tart, chocolate apple tart and citrus tart:

These are called verrines, and they're just layered desserts you eat with a spoon (super fancy pudding cups?). From the top down: Cherry compote and panna cotta, creamscicle, chocolate peanut butter, rum spice with peaches, and tiramisu.

 I'll be going into more detail about some of my favorites coming up. Stay tuned for more dessert bar ideas!

Friday Faves

Back at pastry school and rollin' in my next class, Individual Production Pastries. We're finally getting to experiment with garnishes, chocolate and - wait for it - LUSTER DUST, every pastry chef's sparkly best friend. All the new creative freedom has my wheels turning, and here's what I've been loving lately:

Favorite Wedding Cake: Metallic cakes

I love this new trend so much it was hard to pick just one. The metallic sheen is simple but showstopping, and I'm in love. Also...those cake plates...!!!

Favorite Birthday Cake: Candles from Miso Bakes

So fun for a birthday!

Favorite Food Trend: Dark Chocolate Almond Milk

Twice the calcium and protein of dairy milk AND I get chocolate out of the deal? You can say whatever you want, but I've convinced myself that dark chocolate almond milk is healthy.

Favorite Read: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

I ate at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream in Nashville, TN when I was on vacation last month and it was love at first sight. When I saw she wrote a cookbook too, I could barely wait to get home to order it on Amazon. What goes better with cake than ice cream?!

Favorite Blog: 100 Layer Cake

It's a wedding and party planning blog that has sections for vendors, community members (cakelets), and DIY ideas for weddings, birthday parties, showers and more. Basically, a resource for LOTS of events that revolve around the cake, and a dream to be featured on.

White Ruffle Wedding Cake

My approach when it comes to designing a wedding cake is that less is more (this is definitely not my philosophy when it comes to eating it...). My signature style is clean and elegant. I love designs that remain traditional but have a modern, fresh feel. This is one of the major advantages of using fondant in a wedding cake, because it makes the whole surface impeccably smooth and you can cut decorations to have a perfect straight edge. Fondant is a sugar dough that can be rolled out and used to cover cakes like you see on Food Network Challenge. It is an amazing decorating tool, but not so fancy on the taste buds. I generally advise brides to use fondant sparingly, but in some cases the cleaner finish just fits the wedding better. As a compromise I still put a thick, yummy layer of buttercream on the cake for the guests to enjoy after peeling back the chewy fondant. And that way, you may eat your cake but I can make it look like this too:

The inside of this cake is actually a styrofoam dummy cake that I made a few years ago and finally found the courage to demolish and re-do. Now it  is covered in a new coat of fondant with fondant bands around the base of the tiers to cover the seams. 

The ruffles are made from gumpaste, which is very similar to fondant but holds a shape better and dries much harder. You wouldn't use gumpaste to cover a cake, but it is perfect to make detailed objects like flowers, bows and figures. 

Gumpaste dries almost like porcelain and can be rolled out extremely thin to make for delicate ruffles.

I love how classy this cake looks all white, but I had a hard time deciding whether or not to leave it that way while in the process. There may be a ruffle cake part two at some point in the near future...what do you think?

Friday Faves

Another weekend this way comes, here are some of my favorite current favorite finds and inspirations to get yours kicked off creatively!

Current trend I'm obsessed with: Fresh Herbs

In case you couldn't tell by the new flavors I've been experimenting with, I'm kinda obsessed with fresh herbs lately. From roasting, grilling, to putting them in tea and water - I'm crazy for the flavor and fragrance of fresh herbs. The rest of the foodie world is with me. All of my favorite magazines had a 'summer herb issue' with tips and tricks on how to cook, save and grow your own fresh herbs. From savory to sweet, it's definitely a train I want to be on!

Favorite texture: crunchy baked meringues

They are so simple to make (1:2; Egg whites: Sugar) and flavor however your heart desires (even with fresh herbs! Strawberry basil meringues...mmmm) plus you can pipe them into whatever shape you want. I love the rustic look of these meringues, that look like they have a little added crunchiness on the outsides. They crunch when you bite but melt in your mouth almost instantly. Crumbling these guys over ice cream, pudding, or the top of a cupcake adds an awesome crunchy, sticky texture.

Favorite Wedding Favor: Dog treats

Who doesn't love their furry friends? Spoiler alert, I'm planning on breaking into the wedding favor market coming soon and beginning with dog treats.

Favorite non-traditional wedding cake: Cheeeeeeese

I know its a funny thing for a wedding cake decorator to love, but I'm a big fan of non-traditional wedding cakes. This one got me this week and is perfect for cheese lovers, but I also love rice krispy cakes, cheesecake wedding cakes, the doughnut stack or even ice cream. I can also home make any of the latter to create your perfect wedding cake custom and from scratch for you (cheese...excluded, but I'll still attend :-).

Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Basil

This flavor has been on my radar since Spring when my parents visited me at school and we stumbled upon an oil and vinegar store in Rhinebeck, NY. Wherever there are free samples of something, you can be certain that I will not be far behind...I could smell this shop and it's endless samples of bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar from a MILE away. After trying probably close to twenty different oils and vinegars, I finally settled on a rather large bottle of dark chocolate balsamic vinegar (shocking, I know), and so began the idea for this cupcake.

Balsamic makes me think strawberry, automatically. The sweetness of the strawberries pairs beautifully with the tangy-ness of vinegar. And as you know, lately I've been obsessed with squeezing fresh herbs into everything possible - dessert included. Basil is one of my favorites because it has earthiness and sweetness. So naturally, balsamic + strawberry + basil = a match made in heaven for a cupcake. I started by sauteing the strawberries in the vinegar with freshly picked basil and a little bit of sugar.

I reduced the mixture until it was almost a puree consistency so I could add it to the cupcake batter without adding a ton of excess moisture. 

Once cooled, I topped the moist and spongy strawberry cake with Italian Meringue (no butter so I could get the toasty finish) and torched it for a gorgeously browned color. 

Each cupcake has a strawberry half and a fresh basil leaf to garnish for a little extra punch of flavor.

I love the way the colors of this one compliment each other and look so appetizing. On top of the mega-flavor built in, this cupcake looks just so darn yummy as a centerpiece to any summer picnic, cookout, or bridal shower. An experiment gone right for sure! For more sweet combos of fresh herbs and fruit, scroll down and check out my blackberry mojito cake.