blah!

this is how i currently feel. its a combination of confused, anxious, and pessimistic. there are more descriptors then that, but pairs of three look nice and writing down too many feelings might bring about more unwanted emotions. i'm not actually getting along all that bad, but as can sometime happen the chemicals in my lab aren't balanced properly today. don't worry, antidepressants will not be prescribed.

lets redirect the focus of this post back to more digestible topics, like these three cakes that were made recently. the first of these desserts is a sacher cake. sacher was an austrian baker who came up with this recipe for a visiting count or some other royalty and claimed ownership of the new torte by signing his name on it. its a dense chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam in the middle, finished on top with a coating of ganache.

when finishing with the decorations i really wanted to focus on my pipping and penmanship, but was rushed to get the final design complete before the end of class. i hope to practice tempering and pipping chocolate at home to strengthen these abilities. there was a recipe for homemade girl scout cookies i just saw, thin mints and tag alongs to be exact. i think this would be the perfect application for practicing tempering or at least a good excuse to make such treats.



the next cake is a dobos. named after another baker who wasn't as cunning when it came to claiming his creations. this cake was mustard up during the mid 1800's as new possibilities of shipping prepared foods started to lay tracks. it was dressed with a new type of ingredient for the time called buttercream, which had the advantage of keeping quite well when transported. these first icings were french buttercreams, which unlike other buttercreams contains egg yolks, making a much more dense and rich product.

this is a six layered cake, with an almond flavored base. there is no real explanation to why there are so many layer, but i'm sure there was some air of competition around it.





last is a princess cake. it was made in sweden for a princess who was about to enter into the swedish court and was depressed about moving to, what she perceived as, a cold inhospitable environment. to pull up her attitude the royal chef produced this cake to signify the coming of spring, hoping to relieve the princesses concern by informing her that spring happens in sweden too.

i really like this cake a lot. it has a light crumb and a nice amount of filling in the form of whip cream, pastry cream, and a subtle bit of raspberry jam. this is all covered in a thin sheet of marzipan. mmm! yum!