Sweet Sassy Molassey! Chocolate and Candy Ribbons Demo

Wow...so it's been a while since my last post. Classes, projects, and quizzes have kept me way busy. I also got a job at our student rec center! It's just a desk job but now I'll have some spending money for the weekends. w00t. Okay..on to the main topic!

This school is just awesome. There's ALWAYS some sort of demo or event going on. Best part is...IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT FOOD!!! Muahahahha....

Earlier this month, I went to a chocolate basket and candy demo in one of the bakeshop kitchens. The baking and pastry society put together the demo and invited one of the baking and confectionery chefs to come demonstrate how to make some items for Easter. The techniques that were demonstrated were chocolate baskets, pulled isomalt ribbons, and marbleized chocolate eggs.

We were first welcomed with samples of chocolate dipped strawberries.

Marbleized Chocolate Egg...yea that's chocolate...shiny....

The chocolate eggs were so cool! The chef talked about the molds first and how to select the right type of mold. He then showed us how to paint the initial layer for color. Then the next step that really brings out the colors on the egg, was to prime the first layer with white chocolate. It's kind of like painting a wall with primer before you paint on the color. However in this case, since you want the color to be seen from the outside, you put the primer chocolate on second. Finally, to bring depth of color, you would add a third coat of dark chocolate. Coincidentally, at this point, the layers of the egg is pretty much thick enough to hold its shape so after it sets, you can pop each half out of the mold and seal it together. That was another neat trick! Instead of trying to heat the chocolate or even apply warm chocolate for glue, the chef took a torch to the bottom of a sheet pan, heating that up, then just slightly passed the eggs over the surface of the warmed sheet pans. This evenly melted the chocolate just enough so that you could seal the two halves together to form the whole egg. Guess who's gonna be trying that technique to make truffles in the future?

Next, the chef started demonstrating isomalt sugar manipulation... 

Chef posing for the camera

Pulling isomalt sugar into a sugar ribbon....sooo cooolll...

Chef wrapped the sugar around a rolling pin and made a sugar spiral

The resulting isomalt looked like metallic ribbons. He had a piece sitting on the table before the demonstration began and I seriously thought it was packaging ribbon for a gift box or something. Crazy!

Marble Chocolate Egg Centerpiece

The red stuff is actually edible isomalt sugar...yea..that's sugar...right?!

This made me want to do baking and pastry too! Nerd Alert: I wish I had a time-turner so I could go and take all the courses in baking and pastry too...ugh...

One of the school's restaurants called Apple Pie Bakery has an open kitchen so tourists visiting the school can see what goes on in a professional bakery. Aside from all sorts of delicious breads, cakes, pies, pastries and macaroons...APB also makes...

Giant Chocolate Eggs....just in case the size isn't evident...the smaller of the two eggs is about....3 feet tall.

Next Entry: In the year 3000....Modern Cuisine Society!