Sunday, February 15, 2009

Cakes at Grossmont-Black Forest Gateau Tutorial

It was our first practical week at the cake class at Grossmont College. Chef chose the classic Black Forest Gateau to start.

I dont think there needs to be a recipe, its really just a chocolate cake with lots of whipped cream (2 cups!!) with kirsh, sour cherries and chocolate shavings.

This is the cake I made with my partner, she's a very accomplished decorator, so it was a breeze for her to get it looking perfect.

I thought I'd include the step by step process, apologies for a very long post!


First step was shaving the chocolate with a pallete knife to try and get curls. As usual, Chef makes it look a lot easier than it is! As we get more and more frustrated, the warmer the chocolate gets, the harder it is to make curls!!















We made a chiffon cake, where we separated the eggs and whipped up the whites for extra volume.











The cake was carefully cut into three. The key to this is keeping the knife flat and spinning the cake around instead of going straight through.











The cake layers were then placed on boards and brished with sweetened, kirsh and cherry juice.












Whipped cream was spread onto each layer, not too much!











Sour cherries are dotted around the cream












Another layer of cake













More cream!












Pop the top on!














Use a cake board to push everything down. Dont worry about the cream oozing out, we'll clean that up in a minute










Top with yet more cream!


Get the top really nice and smooth, that will be showing









Put cream around the sides. This isnt so important, since we'll be covering with chocolate












A clean white cream covered cake, already for decoration. Once again, chef makes it look much easier than it is! Take the spatula and dip in warm water, then smooth for a clean finish









Carefully put the chocolate curls on the sides.













Score marks to show where the cake will be sliced












Pipe rosettes in each of the slices. This should be super easy since we all learned in Basic Baking (cough!!).










Put a cherry on each of the rosettes and bob's your uncle!

Cut a slice and get everyone salivating as its really dinner time for everyone.

7 comments:

Kristin said...

Love your cupcakes! What do you think about the program at Grossmont? I know someone who is taking those courses right now at Grossmont too.

Jennywenny said...

Grossmont seems to be a pretty good programme. Its very reasonably priced, since it is a community college, and it is also accredited, which is important.

It seems to me that the program is on par, or better than some of the expensive classes you can do.

I've particularly enjoyed the pastry classes, James Foran is a great teacher and a brilliant pastry chef. I was also pleasantly surprised with the buffet class with chef Dave.

adozeneggs said...

I loved culinary school. The tasting and preparation of different foods, so fun.
Love the Black Forest Cake, looks so good.

RecipeGirl said...

I had no idea that Grossmont offered such classes! Will definitely want to check those out. Looks like great fun!

Coco Cake Land said...

awesome photo tutorial!!

Anonymous said...

YUM!!

Anonymous said...

I can not baking yet.
I like to get Blackforest cake recipe without baking.It is my favorite cake.
Thanks.

Maya