Look what I can make!

I took my second class with Helen's Kitchen. It was called French Pastry and it was as awesome as it sounded! The baking instructors name is Leslie and the classes are out of her house in Belmont. Again, I won't share her recipes, except I will say that her buttercream is out of the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It was the first buttercream I have ever really looooved and is absolutely my new and only buttercream recipe. I kind of want to make a cake right now.

Here are some pictures!



This is called a roulade - it was chocolate sheet cake that we layered with a coffee buttercream, rolled and then covered with chocolate ganache. Oh man it was delicious.

Next up - a Paris-Brest:


This is a very classic french pastry (apparently). Most are made very large, but we made ours small enough so that one oven could accomodate several at once. It was created by a french pastry chef in honor of a bicycle race between Paris and Brest. It is shaped after the wheel of a bike! So I liked it even more! :-) They're the same type of dough as eclairs and similar filling, but topped with chopped almonds and confectioners sugar. Some even put chocolate on top and raspberries in the middle. It was very tasty!

Finally - look what I can make!! Homemade eclairs and puff pastries!


Turns out, they're the same thing in different form. They were lots of fun, and not hard but lots of steps. Everyone should start being nice to me because I'm already planning my Christmas box of treats to give out :-)