"Pulla Bread"

I have made a lot of different types of bread throughout the past few years, however I have to admit that Pulla bread has been one of my favorites. The process of making this finnish coffee bread was the same with most other types of bread but there was one thing that set this bread apart from the others that I've made; the sugar that was added on top. The coarse sugar that we got to sprinkle on top gave the bread the perfect amount of sweetness and made this bread a delicious snack. 

One of the most fun parts of this recipe was braiding the bread. I used five sections and rolled them out into long and thin strands. Using five strands was fairly easy and it made the presentation much better. This has been by far one of the best recipes we've made in class this year.

"Royal Icing Flowers"

Next, we were given the difficult task of creating flowers out of royal icing. We could choose from a variety of flowers such as daffodils, violets, primroses, and the most difficult of all: roses. Making these designs requires a steady hand, dedication, and attention to detail. I tried my best to make perfect daffodils and roses, however I would say that I need more practice.

"Cherry Pie Cake Stack"

Our next recipe included layers of sponge cake, cherry pie filling and whipped cream. Creating this Cherry Pie Cake Stack was fairly simple and created a delicious dessert. First, we made a wonderful vanilla sponge cake for our stack. We cut circles out of the cake itself and then divided those circles into three thinner circles to create different layers. Then, we began whipping the cream to create a fluffy whipped cream for the top of the cake and for one of the layers. Finally, the last thing we needed to create our Cherry Pie Cake Stack was the cherry pie filling. Once we had all these components, we began assembling our stack. We alternated layers of cake,cherry pie filling, cake, whipped cream and finally more cake. We topped the cake with more whipped cream and some chocolate sauce. All these flavors created a fantastic cake that I would make again many times.

"Cheesecake"

Our next tasty creation was an all-time favorite of mine: cheesecake. It involved three different components: the cheesecake itself, a strawberry coulis and chocolate leaves (not pictured above.) We used a dark cookie crumb crust to begin with and made the traditional cheesecake to go with it. There was also orange zest that was added to this recipe to add flavor. We prepared a strawberry coulis by combining strawberries, orange juice and sugar and refridgerating that mixture. Finally, the last part of this recipe was chocolate leaves. We washed and dried the leaves and simply painted a layer of chocolate on the underside of the leaves. Unfortunately, the layer of chocolate wasn't thick enough and we weren't able to peel the chocolate off the leaves successfully. Even with that minor complication the cheesecake still tasted delicious and we managed to plate it in an attractive manner.

"Truffles"

This recipe was not successful for my group because the chocolate mix did not set in time and it wasn't hard enough to form balls to make truffles. We followed the steps of the recipe, however, refrigerating the mixture for two days was not enough to set it completely and when we tried to form balls the chocolate was still in a liquid state. We tried to use cocoa powder to help with the shaping but the truffles were hopeless. The liquid truffles tasted delicious but they didn't look very appealing.  

"Garnishes: Apple Bird"

Another garnish that we made out of fruits and vegetables was an apple bird. This provided me with many challenges because I found it difficult to make clean and smooth cuts using a crisp apple. The wings were the easier part of this assingment meanwhile the head was very hard. I cut triangles out of the bird's wings to ressemble feathers and once I got to the head, I did my best to cut out the proper shape and make an eye. In the future I would try and make my cuts smoother and more rounded because I was not very impressed with my final apple bird. 

"Noodles with chicken, mushrooms and snow peas"

There are very few savory dishes that are made in this class becasue decorating is more common with desserts. The reason for making this stir-fry was to work on presentation and garnishing. The peas were used to add color to this dish and the different components on the plate were supposed to be arranged in an attractive manner. I found it interesting to see how simply changing where things are placed on a dish can make the dish look so much more appetizing. I am a very big fan of asian cuisine and I thought the stir-fry looked delicious and tasted great.