"Garnishes: Watermelon Basket"

The next garnish that we created was a watermelon basket. It involved using a tool to cut around the center of a watermelon while leaving spaces for the handle of the basket. Once the shape was cut out we had to scrape out the inside of the watermelon so that it would be hollow. It is possible to use the watermelon that we scraped out to create "melon balls" that could be placed in the basket and eaten. This garnish was much simpler to create than the shark and I prefer the look of the basket to the cucumber shark.

"Garnishes: Cucumber Shark"

We have began creating garnishes in this class and there will be three that we will be making: a cucumber shark, a watermelon basket and an apple bird. The first of the three is the cucumber shark. There are many different steps to building this underwater fish. First of all, a flat bottom must be cut. With that piece that you cut off, you can create the fins on the top and on the sides of the shark by cutting slits into the shark and pushing the pieces of cucumber into the slits. You can also cut out a mouth full of teeth as well as some gills. A tail can also be made with a different cucumber piece and a slit at the back of the cucumber and finally you can give the shark some eyes by using a rounded tool. The challenges with this task were the size of the cucumber (it was very small and that made it difficult to add details) as well as the ability to use a knife.

 

"Cookie Monster Cake"

The second time that we used the monkey shaped novelty pan we had to be creative and think of a completely different design that would work with the shape of the pan. One of our ideas was doing cookie monster because we thought it would be fun and unique. Once the cake was ready to be iced the labor intense process began again. This time it was a bit simpler since most of cookie monster is blue. We decided to outline his hair to create more visual texture and to add detail to the cake. Also, we made cookies before hand to put on the cake so that it could be more realistic to cookie monster. This cake was a lot of fun to make and it turned out really well and tasted delicious.

"Monkey Cake"

To create this unique cake we used a novelty shaped pan, in this case a monkey, and used different icing techniques to make it resemble a monkey. Once the cake was baked and cooled it was time to begin what seemed like a big challenge. Five different colors of icing were required and it took patience and commitment to finish the decoration process. If your hands weren't shaking by the end then you weren't working hard enough.

The star tip was used on 95% of the cake and that's what helped give the cake texture. Otherwise, the smaller parts such as the eyes and the mouth were simply spread on. A grass border was created to give the impression of a monkey in its natural habitat. When the cake was finished it was easy to be proud of the work that had been accomplished. It truly looks like a monkey.

"Ze Bite"

A part of this course required me to taste the food from a local food cart. I went downtown and chose the traditional French cuisine of "Ze Bite." This food truck makes stews, soups and sandwiches and is a quick and healthy choice for a meal. I tried the Chicken Blanquette stew and everything tasted delicious.

Chicken Blanquette