French Gateaux

Pepe surprised me at Christmas with a voucher to attend a Patisse cooking Class. I was spoilt for choice with the options including a macaron masterclass, croquembouche class, art of pastry, all about the tart, French classics and French gateaux. I was still up in the air about which class to attend so I posted a facebook entry and everyone was voting on all of the above which didn't help me at all.

I decided to learn how to make a classic cake with a French style and attend the 'French Gateaux' class.

Whilst I was on my way to class, Pepe had his hands full with attending a fairy birthday party with the boys. I was definitely looking forward to having a few hours to myself and hopefully learning a few things at class.

A short walk from Central Station to the Patisse cooking school, I got a little lost with another girl but we weren't the last to the class so that was a relief. My reputation of being late wasn't the case here. There was a table full of people with name tags and aprons and Bill, the manager made me feel at home with a coffee and a pastry filled chocolate custard to meet the rest of the class.

We met the team helping out for the day and Aren who was going to be our demonstrator for the day. We started off with making the almond sponge for the opera cake. I was given the job to whisk the almond meal paste together and was wondering why my arm was about to fall off, only to figure out a short while later that we were making double quantities.

Flying through the ready made ingredients of coffee syrup for the buttercream and sponge, Aren made chocolate ganache and chocolate glaze. It brought me back to the many times that Pepe had helped to make chocolate ganache to only have it split every time and then we would be running around like a headless chooks to throw the mixture into the kitchenaid and blitz it to have it come good again.


Learnt how to make a foolproof buttercream by making a swiss meringue whisking til it tripled in volume and then added the butter and white chocolate. Then we were ready to put our opera cake together. Layering the buttercream, sponge, brushing on coffee syrup with 2 more layers it was into the freezer to set.

Next we made choux pastry for the Paris best and piped into a bicycle rings.

These were then baked in the oven as we were treated to an amazing lunch of asparagus, peas risotto drizzled with truffle oil and a simple green leaf salad. Divine!

With no time to spare we were back into making our chocolate sponge layer for the Chocolate Framboise Pave and chocolate mousse. Assembling the cake with layers of chocolate sponge, brushing this with raspberry liquid then a layer of mousse and repeating this two more time with a sponge layer on top. This was then put into the freezer to set.

Whilst waiting for our pave to set, it was back to our choux pastry sprinkled with flaked almonds. Piped the choux full of hazelnut buttercream and it was made extra delicious with hazelnut praline sprinkled on top. Indulgence central.

Once the chocolate framboise pave had set, it was time to ladle the chocolate coating with the melted dark chocolate. Finished off with slivered pistachios and freeze dried raspberries. Perfect for a Valentine's treat.

With a box of goodies in hand, Pepe came to pick to me up with the boys. They couldn't wait to try the treats I had in store for them and I could tell it was fingerlicking good!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and couldn't have asked for a great bunch of people and patient presenter in Aren who managed to answer any curly question thrown his way. It was great to feel and taste our way through the class and of course have a few laughs along the way.

 

Patisse Cooking School

Ground Floor 67 -69 Regent Street
Chippendale NSW 2008

(02)9690 0665

W: www.patisse.com.au

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Patisse_Cafe

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