Almost done...

So I went into school all this weekend and finished up my work for my buffet and my last two showpieces - and I am almost done!!!  :)  All I have left to do for my buffet is to cut my biscotti and toast the sides.  If I have time I will temper some chocolate and dip them halfway in it.  I made chocolate cupcakes yesterday, but they didn't turn out quite right, so I am going to try to make either the sweet rice cakes or a cookie cup with peanut butter mousse in it, whichever I have time for.  I also have to make some creme chantilly for my swans and cut, fill, and put them together.  Other than that, I mostly just have to finish cutting out candies and decorating a few pieces with chocolate.  Yay!  I also did get my pastillage done - hopefully the royal icing holding it together will be fully dried by today so I can sand the edges down to look a little nicer.  I also got my sugar girl done - yay - though it was tough.  Her skirt broke in like 10 different places, but luckily the pieces stayed big enough that I could just put them right back on.  I cast a base for her to stand/dance on, and I got her head blown as well.  She doesn't have hair... but that is okay.  :)  If I have time I will pain some on.  But she does have arms and they're holding a flower, and I gave her a headpiece too, because I was worried that she wasn't tall enough for the needed measurements, so she is for sure now!  Overall I am pretty happy with how she came out, though I wish I had more time to perfect her.  I am super happy that I got her done though and that she looks like a person (at least I think so!) and didn't wind up having to change my whole idea too, too much.

Today I am going to have lunch at the school restaurant one last time with some girls in my class.  I am super excited, I want the yummy rock fish!  :)  Then it will be off to class for a review for our test and our buffet is due at 7:30pm tonight.  Tomorrow will be out last test, prepping some things for the luncheon on Wednesday, and then cleaning.  It's really almost done now!

Serve Safe

Woooo!  I just got my results and I passed my Serve Safe certification test that I took a week or so ago the day I was plating desserts for the restaurant.  I now have a food handlers card that is good all across the US!  Yay!

Cracked and searching for ideas...

So after I finished my chocolate piece, I cut out my pastillage lighthouse pieces and let them dry. They dried out perfect and so I sanded them down, and just need to put them together with some royal icing, but I'll probably do that this weekend.  I started my sugar piece, which was supposed to be a girl in a big pouffy dress like from the renaissance period or something.  I started with blowing the sugar to create a balloon with a flat bottom for her skirt.  I couldn't get a single blown piece to be big enough for the whole skirt, so I did two and stacked them.  I think blew a piece for her torso and attached that as well.  

Then yesterday, I was working on her dress.  I couldn't end up getting the renaissance looking dress going for her - I was having trouble making all the ribbon sugar the same width so it then looked funny - so I went with pulling lots and lots and LOTS of petal looking pieces for her skirt, think it'd look like fabric draped on each other.  It doesn't.  Now my sugar girl is now a sugar hula girl - grass skirt and all.  :)  I was starting on her skirt and doing just fine, when then her top blown piece for her skirt broke as I was turning her.  It was just so fragile and thin in that area that it broke.  It was really hard to see that, because blowing those pieces was really tough for me and I just did NOT want to have to do it again.  I was really, really frustrated, but I knew if I didn't keep going I would just scrap the whole thing, so I kept working on the skirt and tried to figure out how to cover the hole.  I was super frustrated that other people in class kept coming up and pointing out the hole to me, but in the end I was able to attach the skirt pieces together to cover it up - I just hope they hold up well enough.

Today, I was finishing up her skirt and needed only two more petals to be done with it and just kept breaking them as I'd try to attach them!  I ended up making my "last two petals" at least 6 times because they just were too thin at first, then melted down too much, then too thin again, then not big enough - aaaagh!  Finally I got them done and I said that is enough for today!  I also made her a little purple bra top to go with her green skirt since I couldn't easily make brown and I only needed it for her top.  Tomorrow or this weekend, I will blow another piece for her head and neck and then make her arms and hair.  Then all that is left is to cast a piece, which will be much easier than the rest of it I think, and I will be done!  Woo!  Hopefully it will all hold up okay til Monday and the sugar girl will be my showpiece for my buffet!

I started scaling out for my buffet today as well, though I still need some more ideas.  That is my homework for tonight.  I need to have a minimum of 3 types of pastries (3-6 bites big), 3 types of petit fours (2-3 bites big), and 3 types of candies (1-2 bites big).  So far, I am for sure going to make a homemade smore - pastry (a tart shell with a homemade marshmallow with ganache on top and a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs), pate a choux animals - pastry, italian cookies - petit four, sweet rice cakes - petit four, birds nests - petit four, truffles/filled chocolate - candy, and pralines - candy.  I am thinking about making a cake for another pastry and divinity for another candy, but I'm not sure.  I was hoping to make a couple of extra, just so my platter will have enough to cover it without it looking to bare, but we'll see how much time I have in the end!

And now it is off to laundry - again!  :)