The Art of Cake Decorating

ohoadmin — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:26:27 +0000

The Art of Cake Decorating ohoadmin Thu, 07/03/2014 - 13:26 Life As a Pastry Student July 3, 2014

On our first day of class in Kitchen 501, Chef Gerri Sarnataro shared several indispensable truths about the food industry. One of them really struck me as odd: “There’s always a back door.” Meaning, there’s always more than one way of doing things, especially in cooking. I thought this was ironic, given my initial perception of pastry: we follow recipes to the gram in an effort to deliver consistent results. But of course, Chef Gerri’s words rang true throughout the program, and never more so than in cake decorating.

Professional cake decorating elevates the common, spongy dessert from ordinary to memorable. It’s an opportunity for the pastry chef to tune directly into the desires and expectations of a client. A cake is a canvas to delight the sense of sight, as much as the sense of taste.

Not surprisingly, it’s the details make or break a cake. If you want to create flowers, for example, you aim to make all the petals, leaves and buds look like nature intended. Subtle color gradients and textures bring to life what was once plain, pliable fondant.

But before you can begin to decorate your cake, you need a plan. A simple scheme for the tiers, colors and the placement or distribution of ornaments is essential. This plan is not only a powerful tool to help keep the decorator on point, but will also provide a preview of sorts, for the client. In the classroom, we presented our cake diagrams and planned the preparation of the decorating elements accordingly.

With a plan in mind, we proceeded to design our cakes. This was when Chef Gerri’s words echoed through the classroom. Yes, there is the way that we were taught to create a rose, but if you looked around the room, everyone was doing their petals just a bit differently. The diverse results would prove that there’s more than one way to translate an idea into a consistently beautiful product. In truth, cake decorating has been most challenging part of our program for me. I can’t sit still for very long, even if I’m working on a beautiful sugar flower.

However, the words of Chef Chad stick with me: “I understand, Orlando, but a true Pastry Chef must be able to tackle any project.” As if he were predicting the future, one of my family members was so excited about the cake I was making, she and her fiancé signed me up to make their wedding cake a year from now (no pressure!).

Several days later, we arrived at the end of our classes. We decorated our cakes and showed them in our final ceremony. As my class heads out to our externships with many skills at hand and lessons in mind, I can see that we have, individually, begun to find our culinary voice. Of course, bearing in thought that “there’s always a back door.”

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Pastry & Baking Arts

Life As A Pastry Student: Plated Desserts

ohoadmin — Tue, 27 May 2014 22:26:04 +0000

Life As A Pastry Student: Plated Desserts ohoadmin Tue, 05/27/2014 - 18:26 May 27, 2014

By Orlando Soto-Caceres

Desserts - plated desserts, especially - are the final impression a chef gives his guests. This high-stakes pressure means that the greatest pastry chefs take particular care with their creations, reviving guests' taste buds with a balanced composition of flavor, texture and presentation. This challenge, not surprisingly, hits home for ICE pastry students.

All photos: Orlando Soto-Caceres

In a recent lesson with Chef Instructors Chad Pagano and Michael Laiskonis, we learned the importance of having both complementary and contrasting elements in a dessert. These ingredients can vary widely in terms of flavor, color, temperature and texture. In order to achieve balance, the chef has to focus on what he wants the finished product to convey and create his or her components accordingly. Should the dessert be hot or cold? Delicate or crunchy? What combinations of flavor and texture will enhance the overall experience?

As far as personal style in plated desserts, you may have noticed a trend toward dishes that are designed to be playful or nostalgic. Tapping into childhood memories is often a question of details. Think of ice cream.

At its core, it's a simple dessert - a scoop is a scoop - but put that scoop in a waffle cone and add a drizzle of caramel or toasted nuts, and you're immediately transported to that moment when you first tried a pre-packaged cone from the ice cream truck.

You savored every creamy bite of that summer treat, enjoying the crisp-cold combination of cone and melting ice cream. These are the types of whimsical memories that we want to interpret and channel as chefs - even when crafting elegant, high-end desserts.

Along with striving to balance all the elements of a plated dessert, we also try to find stability in the kitchen. Recipe in hand, we make a plan and divide the tasks to have all the components of the dessert ready in a timely manner. Breaking up tasks also helps ensure consistency. Returning to our ice cream cone example, if one person is scooping the ice cream, the scoops are more likely to be all the same size.

Finally, one of the more elusive elements of a plated dessert is simplicity. Creating a visually simple dessert allows for the element of surprise. Think about a molten chocolate cake. At first glance, it’s just a chocolate cake, maybe with a scoop of ice cream on top.

But sink your spoon into the center, and you immediately realize there’s more to it than meets the eye. The contrasting temperatures and textures come together to deliver a whimsical experience. So while we try to make our desserts look beautiful, we also strive to make sure there's "more than what meets the eye."

Just like an seemingly simple dessert, assembled with carefully crafted ingredients, my class of students in my pastry program have become a cohesive team. Together, we are a collection of very different people, who, with our contrasting talents and personalities, come together to create a very memorable experience in Kitchen 501!

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