use real butter

I had an extra vanilla chiffon cake from class and decided I’d use it for dessert this weekend when we had friends over for dinner. I normally like to work with chocolate despite my indifference toward it, but this time I wanted to try something orthogonal… something strawberry.

Originally I wanted to layer the cake with pastry cream and then frost in strawberry buttercream, but pastry cream can misbehave if it gets warm. I began the previous night washing the strawberries and setting them out to dry completely. First I wanted to do some garnishes, just for fun.

In my last pastry class, Shan had an extra sheet of this fabulous, moist, chocolate cake. The cake lacked good structural integrity because he had forgotten to adjust for altitude, but it was delicious. As folks packed up to leave, he called out for someone to take the last sheet cake. No one offered, so I said I’d take it. I loaded it carefully into the car along with my tub of praline butter chocolate mixture, and more chocolate petits fours than you could shake a stick at.

Today I decided it was time to clear out the refrigerator. I grabbed the sheet cake, chocolate mousse, and praline mixture and fashioned a layered torte/cake in my new hexagon ring mold.

**Jump for more butter**

I dropped Jeremy off at work today on my way to class. My pastry skills class is normally on Thursday evenings, but today, I was going to be a guest in the pastry arts class. The pastry arts class is the professional program and I was checking it out to see if perhaps I want to plunk down a large wad of cash to learn the ways of the pastry chef. Class starts at 8 am and I got there a little early. I had checked with the staff yesterday to make sure it was still on and also to verify that the instructor was okay with 1) my visit and 2) my camera. She was. The guest chef is an artisan chocolatier and the assistant in my pastry skills class works for him. Chef Will was incredibly friendly and delighted to have me take pictures.

Although we had already gone over tempering and enrobing, the PA class was doing it in far more depth and detail. Plus, it was fantastic to see how differently the chefs teach about chocolate. I learned so much more. Will told me that he is OC, not OCD, because he doesn’t believe it is a disorder. I felt as if I had stumbled upon a group of people who totally understood me. Will said being OC is an asset because, “who wants to eat shitty looking chocolate?” Many of the students asked about my PS class since several had considered taking that instead. I said it was great.

**Jump for more butter**