"La Casa Gelato"

As our final assignment of the year for this foods class, we had to go to La Casa Gelato to sample and eat ice cream. With their many different flavors, 216 to be exact, there were many options to choose from. I decided to try some different flavors such as rice pudding and a pear and goat cheese combination. I also tried birthday cake, vanilla reeses pieces and mint fudge. After trying all these different delicious flavors, I decided to get birthday cake because it truly tasted like a cake just in ice cream form. One scoop of ice cream was $5 and very over-priced. However, the ice cream was well worth it and I would most likely go back there in the future. 

"Ice Cream Sandwiches"

For our next assignment we made ice cream sandwiches. We split this lab up into three days so that we would have enough time to make everything. On the first day we made the base for our ice cream and then the day after we put the ice cream in the ice cream machine so that it would turn into actual ice cream and we also baked our cookies. Our flavor combinations were a chocolate cookie and strawberry ice cream. Assembling the sandwiches on the third day was somewhat tedious because the ice cream had to be softened but not too soft so that it ran out of the cookie. After assembling them it was finally time to taste all of the hard work that we put into this lab. These ice cream sandwiches were delicious and it was nice to know that all of the components were homemade. I will definitely be making this recipe many times for the summer. 

"Fondant Cake"

After all that practice with fondant flowers we got to use them to decorate our cake. The cake was a basic white cake and the cake itself was two layers. I dirty iced the cake with buttercream icing so that the marshmallow fondant that we made would stick to the cake better. The marshmallow fondant was much tastier than the store-bought stuff we used to practice making flowers. I decided to cover my cake with white fondant and decorate the edges with stems and the top with pink and white roses to make my cake look like a bouquet of flowers. Also, to make the cake look more realistic I added leaves on top. As a finishing touch I added some red balls along the bottom of the cake. I am very proud of the way my cake turned out and I think the fondant flowers turned out well. This cake was very time consuming therefore I'm not sure whether or not I would do it again. 

"Fondant FLowers"

Next, our assignment was to create fondant flowers. This lab went on over a period of classes and wasn't meant to be eaten. Each class we were assigned a different flower or leaf to make and we practiced making them throughout the class. The different types of flowers and leaves we made included calla lilies, carnations, daisies, roses, mums, ivy leaves and lily leaves. Each design presented a new challenge but if you were patient the flowers would end up looking beautiful. The rose was the most difficult flower to make while the daisy was the easiest. I enjoyed practicing making these flowers however I couldn't wait to use them to decorate my cake.

"Cake Pops"

I was very excited for our next recipe because I knew that it would be both challenging and rewarding. I have always seen cake pops in stores and I really enjoy eating them so I was looking forward to the chance to get to make them myself. The process of forming the balls was fairly easy but when it came to spreading the wafers things got more challenging. The melted wafers weren't going on evenly therefore the surface wasn't the smoothest. We decided to design our cake pops to look like little chicks and I must say they turned out to be quite cute. Once the wafers melted it was easy to finish the cake pops with eyes, a nose, legs and arms. The cake pops were very sweet but they were very tasty. 

"Carrot Cake and Buttercream Icing"

Our next recipe was a carrot cake that we baked in an easter egg mold for Easter. The cake turned out very moist and tasty and to decorate it we made buttercream icing and piped designs on the egg. We got to choose any color we wanted for our icing and do any design we wanted. The product was both atteactive and delicious.

"Ukrainian Easter Eggs"

The next assignment that we started didn't involve a product that we would get to eat in the end, but it involved a lot of work and if done properly, the finished product would be incredible. This project was Ukrainian Easter eggs. First of all, you had to design what you wanted to put on your egg. There are many different symbols that represnt different things. I decided to go with a fairly simple design that involved a few colors. I began with white, then moved on to yellow, then green, then blue, then dark red and finally black. I used a border around the side of the egg to add detail and designed a flower in the middle. To keep the colors separated we used wax while we dyed the eggs different colors. My final product was much better than I expected and I was very proud of my work. This project was very tedious and I can't say whether or not I would try making more in the future.