Day TWENTY SIX. St Honore Cake.

Day TWENTY SIX. St. Honore Cake. Today's two classes were all about this "cake"...first the demonstration class, and then the cooking class. It is really a heart attack of the pastry world... sugar crust, pate a choux (eclair batter) piped around the edge, and the two are the baked. Then, it is topped with a combo of pastry cream and whipping cream. Then the edges are mini creme puffs, dipped in caramel, which are rolled in almond/ St. Honore is a french patron sain of bakers and pastry. Yes, there is a saint of pastry. A really old one at that (600 A.D.). Nothing too miraculous, just a tree grew out of a peel...I dont know we really didnt talk about him at all. Back to the cake. This dish has an element of all the three exam dishes, lemon merengues crust, pate a choux (eclairs), and the beginning stages of the frosting for the sponge cake. It is good to practice all of these things, but weird to see them all in the same dish. French pastry so far is pretty one level...i am sure the alcohol takes it up a notch, but um yah, I dont do that. Morning was lazilly getting ready, and then three hours at school studying before the cake. I got home at 1030 tonight, and cant believe how fast time flies.