Plated desserts, anyone?

By now you've seen the cakes. You've seen wedding cakes! You've seen eclairs, chocolates and breads. But have you seen plated desserts?? Basically these are desserts that you would order in a restaurant rather than in a patisserie or other storefront. Here you go!

 This is a chocolate shell filled with vanilla ice cream.

Here, Cindy demonstrates how you pour the raspberry (framboise in French) sauce on top at the table. Super delicious.

This is another ice cream dish, but it includes pineapple (ananas in French) and the little liquid dropper at the back is filled with rum. So, when you get this at your table, you lift the dropper to spread the rum.

I got one all to myself! (OK, I shared ...)

This deliciousness basically tastes like an Oreo-cookie sundae. 

The dessert of the moment in France is the macaron. Here they have a regular macaron on top of a large macaron filled with cream and rum-dipped cherries.

This is another chocolate ball, filled (I believe) with strawberries or raspberries and covered in a beautiful shiny glaze.

A few of the others included tarts--mango, apple and lime (left to right).

Nice job!!

Delicate flowers

Last week Josh got a compliment he wasn't expecting: He was praised for his delicate flowers. Apparently big guys like him can't usually make the small flowers--but he did! This was all part of wedding-cake week. The class made traditional French wedding cakes--called croquembouche ...

This is Josh's croquembouche from two angles.

And then they made cakes that are more closely tied to American and other cultures, though you'd be hard-pressed to find anything quite like this in the U.S.

 Josh with his masterpiece. They worked for days on these.

Delicate flowers indeed!

The class and the other cakes.

Another view of the cakes.

The next step

We finally have some more to share about Josh's internship! We visited the town, called Montelimar, over the weekend and it is really very cool. Its population is about 60,000, it's located on the Rhone River, and you can still find parts of the medieval wall that once surrounded the city.

In addition, Montelimar is home to some genuine quirkiness. While we were there, we visited the Museum of Miniatures, where many of the exhibits were so small they had to be viewed through magnifying glasses. It's also famous for its nougat--the town's unique nougat recipe including honey and egg whites and was created in the 17th century. You can even visit the Palace of Sweets and Nougat in Montelimar!

The town is easy to navigate and it's full of shopping and restaurants. Definitely more going on there than in Yssingeaux. There was a Renaissance Fair going on the day we were there.

The pastry shop where Josh will be an intern is located smack in the middle of the "centre ville" and was opened in the 1930s. You can see a picture here--they do everything from small cakes and pastries to chocolates, ice creams, jams, syrups and, of course, nougat.

Exciting times ahead, with just a month of school left.