Prior to pastry school, I had no knowledge of gumpaste flowers. It wasn’t until our chef for this unit, Chef Laura Ragano, began her class demonstration for us that I came to fully understand their construction and appreciate the artistic craftmanship required.

Gumpaste is a labor of love. The work is tedious and time-consuming. Yet, the result is spectacular. As extravagant wedding and specialty cakes continue to increase in popularity, choosing detailed, beautiful gumpaste flowers for one’s cake could be the defining feature that sets it apart from all others.

Here is a just a brief breakdown of the construction for a single gumpaste flower:

Day 1: Make gumpaste. Let sit overnight.

Day 2: Color gumpaste, if desired. Roll out gumpaste and cut out petals. Insert a wire into each petal. Detail the petals with veining, ruffling, or fringing and let dry. Also, create the flower centers.

Day 3: Each petal and center is tied into a base wire with floral tape. The flowers are dusted with color, if desired, and then steamed to set the color.

This can take awhile if you are making more than one flower. For example, a lily flower has 6 petals. That’s 6 petals to roll, cut, and embellish, as well as tie into the base wire and paint.

Despite the work involved in creating these flowers, they are rewarding to make and allow vast creativity to the decorator. The gumpaste flowers we created will be used to decorate our own three-tiered wedding cakes next week. I chose to decorate my cake with a mixture of green, yellow, and white flowers. I made a lime green gumpaste and painted the edges of my roses with a tangerine-pink.

Below are more photos of my gumpaste flowers, as well as some of my fellow classmates’ flowers. At the bottom of the page is the three-tiered fondant cake I created for my gumpaste flower spray.

We started the unit by making pate a choux, which is the thick, rich paste used for making eclairs, cream puffs, and other pastries. It has the amazing ability to puff as it bakes, then it hardens on the outside, leaving behind a hollow shell that is crusty and spongy at the same time. This creates the perfect base for filling with a rich, smooth pastry cream or nut cream.

Photograph (right): Chocolate espresso tartlets

For petit fours, we made mini eclairs filled with chocolate pastry cream and glazed in a chocolate fondant icing, the traditional French way. We also made chouqettes, or mini cream puffs, filled with a hazelnut praline cream; mini paris brests, and salambos. Salambos are probably one of my favorite new (new to me, at least) pastries. They are a shorter, fatter shape than an eclair and are filled with rich custardy pastry cream, then dipped in hot caramel. The caramel hardens on the top, so when you bite into the pastry it is crunchy, soft, and creamy all at the same time.

Photograph (below): Fruit tartlets filled with kirsch pastry cream, fresh fruit, and candied lemon

During this unit, we made a variety of tartlets, French macarons, and financiers. Financiers are made with ground almonds and buerre noissette, or browned butter. They have an amazing flavor and texture, and the almond flour keeps them really moist.

Photograph (below): Chocolate french macarons sandwiching Earl Grey ganache

Photograph (below): Chocolate financiers

During our final petit fours week, we made opera cake, which reminds me a lot of tiramisu, especially in both the texture and taste. It is a composed of numerous sponge cake, espresso syrup, coffee buttercream, and chocolate ganache layers.

Photograph (below): Opera cake

Week 7 was our first exam week. I was a little bit nervous about this, being the first one, but it went fairly smoothly. The first day was a bit hectic because I wanted to try and get as much done as I could, so the next few days would be mostly shaping proofed doughs and assembling products.

But I survived. I didn’t have any mishaps, fortunately. My products looked good and I was satisfied. Voila!

Photograph (below): Madeleines

So with that, I bid good-bye to Chef Jonathan and the breads, breakfast pastries, and petit fours unit.

I also had my first stage experience during these weeks. A stage is when you go to a restaurant, hotel, pastry shop, where ever; and work under the supervision of the pastry chef for one shift. This is really nice because if you hate it, it’s only for one shift. But more importantly, it gives you the opportunity the see what it’s like working in different areas of the industry and what will ultimately be the best fit for you.

My stage was at Le Flour Bakery in Edison Park. I have been flipping the idea of opening a cafe/bakery style shop over and over in my head for awhile now, and Le Flour has that vibe. It was very quaint and comforting inside. The owner, Nicole, went to The French Pastry School and hired two of her classmates. Sometimes I’m not sure if I would like the everyday, never-ending obligations of running a bakery, but one thing is for certain- if you are surrounded by friends and family, in a way, it’s not “work”.

Photograph (below): Chocolate espresso tartlets

We made brioche dough again, but this time we shaped it differently. The brioche has been one of my favorite breads we’ve made, especially when it is sprinkled with pearl sugar.

Photograph (right): Chouquettes

We also made a variety of breads- farmer’s bread, country bread, and sourdough multigrain. The country bread was dotted with walnuts. Croissant dough was made again (practice makes perfect!), but this time they were made into almond croissants and chocolate croissants.

On Friday we began making doughs for our petit fours unit. These included sweet dough, chocolate sweet dough, and two sable doughs.

Week 5 marked the start of our petit fours unit. French petit fours are small bite-sized desserts and pastries, which I like because not only are they cute, but they are perfect for having ‘just a taste’. We made pate a choux dough that was piped into a couple of shapes: mini eclairs, salambos, paris brest, and chouquettes.

A very rich, chocolate pastry cream was piped into the miniature eclairs, which were then topped with a chocolate fondant icing.

Salambos are shorter, fatter miniature eclair shapes that are filled with vanilla pastry cream and dipped in hot caramel, which hardens as it cools, creating an addictive crunchy, sweet, soft, and creamy experience in your mouth when you eat one.

The paris brest are circles filled with a praline cream and toasted almonds. Chouquettes are miniature cream puff shapes filled with a mixture of hazelnut paste, pastry cream, and buttercream.

Photograph (below): Salambos

Photograph (below): Pain au chocolat

Photograph (below): Country bread

Photograph (below): Farmer’s bread

We also made dacquoise, which are delightful nutty meringue wafers surrounding a rich filling. Then we made miniature blueberry tarts and almond-apricot tarts. The week was finished out by a large batch of French macarons.

That weekend I staged at a very cute bakery called Le Flour. The chefs and advisors here highly recommend we stage at restaurants, pastry shops, bakeries, and hotels as much as we can. To stage, you usually work one shift for free. While you may only be doing simple things, you can still check out the activity taking place and the best part is that it is just a short-term commitment.

One thing I noticed at Le Flour was how much fun the staff were having, working. They were all family and friends and that really got me thinking…

Photograph (below): Chouquettes

Photograph (below): Apricot almond tartlets

Photograph (below): Blueberry tartlets topped with streusel

I think I have been following a strict butter diet. On to the food…

Photograph (right): Pear danish

TUESDAY:

We didn’t have class on Monday due to MLK Day. Tuesday arrived with a bang, as we made french bread, started beignet dough and croissant dough, and made waffles.

The French bread was delicious, we shaped half of the dough into baguettes and the other half into loaves, or batons. It was crusty, soft, and not the least bit chewy.

The waffles turned out thick and fluffy, perfect for trapping tasty toppings.

Photograph (below): French baguettes

Photograph (below): French baguettes and batons

Photograph (below): Waffles

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was a fun day to me because I was so fascinated by the process for making croissant and danish dough. The dough is prepared to a certain point and then proofed in the refrigerator overnight. Then, on this day, we pounded butter into very thin sheets and incorporated them into the dough.

A series of folds is done with the dough to create distinct layers of fat in between the dough. It is these layers that will create all those marvelous flakes we fondly associate with a classic, true croissant. The butter melts during baking, and consequently releases steam, producing millions of flaky layers.

Photograph (below): A flaky croissant

Photograph (below): The cross-section of  a croissant

Photograph (below): Pain a La Biere

We fried our beignet dough balls into fluffy, soft “french doughnuts”, which were rolled in granulated sugar and dusted with powdered sugar. I enjoyed mine with Nutella and it was amazing.

We then made a very rustic version of beer bread, Pain de Biere. The bread had the hearty addition of rye flour, and was brushed with a mixture of beer, salt, yeast, and flour, giving it a gorgeous red color.

Photograph (below): Beignets

Photograph (below): A tender (and utterly irresistible) beignet

THURSDAY:

We made danish dough, another type of baguette using a sponge starter, pastry cream, and the dough for Kugelhopf, a German pastry. It reminds me of both a cake and a bread, and is studded with Kirsch-soaked golden raisins.

Photograph (below): Kugelhopf

FRIDAY:

We finished our Kugelhopf by baking it in beautiful molds that are made just for Kugelhopf. Before placing the dough in the molds, almonds are arranged in a pattern on the bottom. The danishes were completed today, and filled with almond frangipane- a delicious combination of pastry cream and almond cream, then topped with either apricot halves or pear slices.

Photograph (below): Apricot danish

Photograph (below): Pear danish

We also made croissants, again, but this time they will be frozen and baked later next week. Instead of making them the traditional style, they will be either chocolate and almond variations.

For additional practice, we baked lemon pound again. Practice truly does make perfect-they turned out even better this time.

Photograph (below): Lemon pound cake

Next week we will be finishing up our breads and breakfast pastries, so by Friday we can begin petit fours.

The great thing about being a pastry chef is that you can work anywhere, and anything is possible if you are motivated. If you can create great food, people will come.

Photograph (right): That’s a lot of bread: Toast bread, whole wheat bread, and brioche loaves

We also received our texts, and after flipping through it and seeing what we would be making, I was ready to start cooking!

My class will spend the first 8 weeks on breads, breakfast pastries, and petit fours with Chef Jonathan. Our typical routine for this unit starts with us scaling our ingredients for the day. We scale ingredients, rather than use measuring spoons and cups, because the scale ensures accuracy every time.

Not every measuring cup is exactly the same, nor are ingredients, like flour, measured into the cup in the same manner universally. I purchased my first kitchen scale this summer and I love it, especially for ingredients like cake flour.

After scaling, the chef-instructor demonstrates his approach and techniques for each of the recipes we will be making that day. Then the rest of the time is ours to bake with.

MONDAY:

Our first day started with some basics. We were given a tour of the kitchen we would be working in for these next 8 weeks and an introduction to the kitchen equipment.  We also practiced knife skills (kinda important, eh?) on apples. The chef also showed us how to make clarified butter, beurre noisette (a browned butter with a delicate nutty taste that can be used in pastry doughs), and our own baking grease for pans.

TUESDAY:

Our second day in the kitchen, and this time we would be making products for the first time. We made a versatile and beautiful vanilla bean-flecked sweet dough that can be used for tarts and cookies, streusel topping, and an almond cream for using with tarts or cakes.

We also had the opportunity to test out those fabulous pastry tips from our tool kits- we practiced our piping skills with butter.

Photograph (below): An arsenal of pastry tips

Photograph (below): Sablees

WEDNESDAY:

This is where things started getting busy. We rolled our sweet dough into cookies, made pastry cream, piped and baked French meringues, made Italian meringue, and Italian buttercream.

By the end of class the kitchen smelled deliciously of vanilla. There are several different types of meringues, and it can get confusing sometimes when reading recipes.

The main difference between a French meringue and an Italian meringue is that the French meringue is baked, creating a hard, yet melt-in-your-mouth shell that can be filled with fruit, pastry cream, etc.

Italian meringue is basically when a hot sugar syrup is beaten into egg whites, creating a stiff meringue that is usually combined with other ingredients, such as butter, to make a light, sweet, and beautifully spreadable frosting.

Photograph (below): An oven that’s too hot creates edible, yet cracked French meringues

THURSDAY:

On this day we started to dip into the baked goods department. We had our first opportunity to work with yeasted dough by making toast bread, a lovely white bread with a crumb.Perfect for toast or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Chef Jonathan spent a long time discussing yeasted doughs with us and showing us some of his techniques, as bread baking is his specialty. It’s amazing to watch how quickly and perfectly he shapes dough.

We baked blueberry muffins and started brioche dough, which rested overnight in the refrigerator.

Photograph (below): Blueberry muffins baked in mini charlotte molds

FRIDAY:

Our last day of the week ended with a bang. I had so much product to take back to my apartment that I didn’t know if I’d even be able to carry it all.

We made whole wheat bread, finished and baked our brioche, and made lemon pound cake. This created a massive number of mini loaves, as for the wheat bread alone we each made 6 loaves!

My favorite had to be the brioche, we made two mini loaves with our dough, then divided the rest into 6 individual balls that were brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with either Bee Sting (a delectable sugary honey almond mixture) or pearl sugar.

For lunch Friday I had bread with cheese, honey, and jams. The rest went into my freezer!

Photograph (below): An assortment of quick breads

And that concluded my first week of kitchen time. Despite the below zero temperatures, severe windchill, snow, and early mornings, the time in the kitchen has been truly enjoyable. I am looking forward to the next!

Photograph (below): Brioche topped with Bee Sting mixture

Highlight: Getting my pastry tool kit filled with all the goods.

Lowlight: Sanitation and food safety class. I think I’ll be afraid to eat out for awhile.

The more I get to know my chef instructors and the staff of the school, the more I realize how truly lucky I am to have this opportunity (thanks again, Mom and Dad). The French Pastry School is great. I haven’t spent any time in the kitchen yet but I know spending a semester here is the right move for my career goals.

I’m also really excited to get to know my classmates more. I’ve had food conversations with some of them already and we all share the same passion and creativity for baking and pastry arts. It’s a good feeling. My classmates come from all over and there is a wide range of ages.

The first “unit” my class will be focusing on is bread and breakfast pastries. The FPS recently acquired a new chef instructor, Jonathan Dendauw, who is a master bread baker, so this will for sure be a unique learning opportunity. I won’t be  posting recipes or material from class, but I can take photographs and I will share my experiences as a pastry student and my time in Chicago.

Once I get more settled into my new lifestyle and apartment, I also plan on resuming my own baking experiments, which I will be sure to post.

Photograph (below): My loaded pastry kit