A Disjointed Day With Some Pastry Surprises

There was a whole lotta action in our kitchen today. Man-alive. We made, are you ready? We made, four cakes, pate a choux (remember pat-a-shoe?), pastry cream, eclairs, chocolate glaze and finally, last but not least, an almost perfect strawberry miror cake. It was a busy day but a fun one too.

The cakes that we made today were all made using the biscuit method from yesterday. They were all baked in half-sheet or cookie trays and are all going to be put to some use next week. We made pan di spagna (which literally translates to 'bread of Spain' in Italian and will be used for tiramisu next week), walnut sponge, hazelnut sponge and biscuit jaconde (which is similar to regular ol' biscuit but with almond flour added to the mix).

We also made eclairs and I must say that they taste divine. The first time we made them, way back in the early days of school, they didn't turn out so hot, in fact, I don't think my team had any turn out...So chef thought that maybe we should give eclairs another go and this time they were fantastical.


The last part of this disjointed day (and disjointed post...sorry) is the (finally) finished miror. Oy. To recap, the miror is comprised of a genoise mousalline cake, strawberry Bavarian cream and a strawberry nappage top. At the end of the day, it is a pretty cake and a tasty cake but also a heck of a pain to make cake.


The blessed Strawberry Miror!


A look inside (sorry there is a little bit of the nappage on the side, not sure how that ended up there!)