Fruit tarts

I made 35 fruit tarts today, for a graduation luncheon. That's an awful lot of tarts to make at home, especially during the week of my final exams. But they looked great!

Practical exams

I had practical exams last week. In Advanced Baking, we had to make 2 identical pulled-sugar roses, 2 identical marzipan strawberries, 2 identical marzipan lemons, a pastillage swan, a tempered-chocolate cup and 2 parchment piping bags. I did ok, except I burned my thumb pulling the sugar AGAIN! The blister was so bad, I couldn't finish my roses. I just couldn't put my hand under that hot lamp again.

But here are my marzipan fruits. I got a good grade on those.



And the leaves for my rose. Yes, they are pink. I'm very proud of the pearly sheen on these. I just wish I could have finished the rose.

In our Plated Dessert practical, we had to make Cappuccino Mousse in Chocolate Coffee Cups with Sambuco Cream. We made those before (see January 19), but this time each person had to make all the components for her dessert herself. I'm very proud of how mine turned out. It was dee-licious, and very pretty, even though I took the picture before I put the chocolate decoration on top.