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In weeks 8-11, we focused on the celebration cake workshop, more plated desserts, chocolate tempering, and savory canapés.
Week Eight: Plated Desserts and Chocolate
Week eight kicked off with our final lesson on plated desserts. In this class, we learned to make a rum baba. A baba is a dense, yeast-based cake that is baked in a savarin mold and soaked in a syrup. We soaked our version in a lemongrass and ginger syrup. Then, we served it with an aerated crème anglaise, pan-fried pineapple, and an exotic fruit soup:
Next, we began our chocolate unit with a day spent making bon bons and chocolate bars. We practiced tempering dark chocolate and using it to prepare molded candies. We made a tablette chocolat (basically a fancy chocolate bar!) with chocolate caramel mou and white chocolate crisp. We also tried our hand at chocolate bon bons decorated with colored cocoa butter and filled with a citrus fruit ganache:
Wine and Desserts
This week also featured the wine lecture—always a favorite day of the term! We explored various food and wine pairings, tasting red and white wines. We learned how they complement the basic tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami, and how to pair them with different desserts:
Week Nine: Chocolat, Cake, and Canapés
This week was all about cake and chocolate! We began with a demonstration, where we learned how to make a chocolate box:
This was not my finest day in the kitchen. Although I’d worked with chocolate before, I’d never done anything like this. Sculpting the box involved brushing acetate sheets with colored cocoa butter, tempering the chocolate, pouring it over the cocoa butter, and then cutting and shaping the chocolate into all of the pieces of the box. Once the chocolate set, we used piped chocolate and a freeze spray to put everything together.
My chocolate box was pretty messy, as pieces kept breaking while I worked on it. But, at least I had something to present at the end of class, which was a victory in itself:
After the chocolate box practical, we finished the day with a lecture on chocolate tasting, tasting a variety of milk, white, dark, dulcey, and ruby chocolates from Callebaut and Valrhona:
Celebration Cake Workshop
The following morning, we moved on to our two-day celebration cake decorating workshop. This was probably the class I’d been most looking forward to. So, I was very very excited to get down to work!
We began with a demo where we were shown how to cover a cake with fondant, had a quick review of making gumpaste flowers, and learned how to make and use fondant modeling paste.
In the practical, which stretched over two days, we were given the freedom to create any type of themed cake we wanted, as long as was covered in fondant and featured either a gumpaste flower or a modelled figure. Quite a few people chose to make flowers, and there were also some fun holiday cakes in the room.
After much deliberation, I decided to make a macaron-themed cake, with all of the macarons made entirely of fondant!
Canapés
We finished out week nine with our final practical of the term: savoury canapés! In this lesson, our class worked together to create a variety of tasty treats like mini pizzas, anchovy sticks, bite-size quiches, pesto rolls, and cheese straws.
Weeks Ten and Eleven
Exams!!!
After our final practical of the term, we had a few days off to study for exams. For me this meant lots of flashcards…and lots of coffee!
First up was the theory exam, covering recipes, techniques, health and safety, French terminology, and just about anything else you can think of. The following day we had our practical exam. For our practical, we were assigned to make the fraisier cake, which we’d learned to make back in week four.
It wasn’t my finest exam performance. My génoise sponge was a bit overbaked, and my mousseline creme didn’t turn out as nicely as I’d hoped, but in the end…I passed!
And that’s a wrap on Intermediate Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu London. Just three more months until officially I’m a pastry chef!
Missed last week’s recap? Read it here.
About Rebecca:
Rebecca earned the Diplôme de Pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu London in 2020. She kept this detailed diary as a record of her journey, and as a way to help others decide if pastry school might be the right choice for them. Rebecca also holds an MSc in Culinary Innovation from Le Cordon Bleu and Birkbeck, University of London, and a Professional Chocolatier’s Certificate from Ecole Chocolate. She currently works as a recipe developer, food stylist, food photographer, writer, and pastry chef. Feel free to make one of her original recipes, or to follow her on Instagram @bastecutfold for more baking and pastry inspiration!
