Piece o' Cake

I'm taking a class at the Cook's Warehouse on cake decorating. Last night was the first of 3 3-hour sessions. It's being taught by Barbara Pires who has quite the impressive resume. She contributed to Shirley Corriher's Bakewise (I love Shirley Corriher and was the only ultra-geeky student who gushed enthusiastically when asked "has anyone here heard of Shriley Corriher?". I immediately felt like a brown-noser when I realized no one else had raised a hand.), but she's done a ton of other stuff too, like starting the Metrotainment Bakery which began as just her in the basement of Einstein's and now sells baked goods to over 100 restaurants, etc. She's a self-taught baker, which I find somewhat inspiring. So anyway, that's Barbara Pires' cake on the cover of Bakewise. Today we'll be learning how to make those chocolate curls with something she calls chocolate clay (it's nothing but chocolate chips and light corn syrup and, after a night in the fridge, you make the curls by putting it through the pasta roller. I'm psyched.)

Here is my first decorating attempt using ganache and white chocolate. Very basic, very fun. The icing is dark chocolate mousse. It's a dark chocolate cake. Because last night's class began at 6:30 and I had to get to midtown from Sandy Springs (a stone's throw, but oh such odious traffic) this cake and some carrot cake on which Chef exhibited how to make and spread cream cheese icing followed by crushed nuts on the sides, were my dinner. Mmmmm. Healthy. Where was I? Oh yeah, my lab experiment. It's a bit messy but my classmates were impressed with my zany, if somewhat frenetic, use of the white chocolate on top. I'll be bringing it to Steve & Joy's tonight. Voila! I've made dessert! Er...hopefully my work will get prettier. We'll see if these classes pay off!