Savoury petits fours

Cakes with some savoury petits fours – at the Cordon Bleu Paris

by Lili
December 14, 2015
21 comments
Cake news and fun

Yes, we had a savoury break and discovered the wonder of inverted puff pastry.  You make it by hanging it out of the window upside-down.  Sorry, I meant by having the butter on the outside of the dough instead of inside as in classic puff pastry.  The results are amazing, with regular flaky and less greasy layers so I’m going to experiment with it at home and post the recipe on the blog early next year.  I did so love the savoury petits fours we made:  sausage rolls, chorizo bites, cheese straws and meat patés.

Week 41 of cakes and savoury petits foursThe Vanilla-wild strawberry ‘treasure’ cake was a bit of a challenge though I love the whole concept of ‘berried treasure’ inside … hee hee.  Joke courtesy of an Instagram friend.  🙂  The chef in charge gesticulated enthusiastically as he encouraged us to put as much fruit in the dome as possible.  My raspberry mousse filled with fruit was perfectly formed.  And just as well.  Because my crème chibouste collapsed so instead of piping swirls with it, the cream just slithered down leaving me with a perfectly smoothe dome.  Oh well.  I hope to have things at the right temperature when combining them next time and improve.  🙂Treasure cake

The chestnut hedgehog cake (aka dôme de marrons) was the most amusing so far.  All it’s missing is eyes and a snout.  Great chestnut taste but a little heavy, it’s typical of cakes in post-war France when people wanted to feel full when eating dessert.  My mum loved it and almost finished it off single-handed, saying it reminded her of cakes from her childhood.  Personally I preferred my arty Entremets passionata, fruity raspberry and passion fruit mousses encircled by a lovely colourful pâte à cigarette, with a dacquoise base.  The technique for the colourful splashes is actually pretty easy if you’d like to find out more.Hedgehog and Entremets passionata

Which brings us to voting for cakes you’d like to see adapted and simplified up on the blog.  You might not want to spend ages in the kitchen but all the cakes on this course were made within 2 or 2 and a half hours.  Some were faster.  You could also just pick out elements or techniques and adapt them to create your own yummy cakes.

 

Pavlova anyone?

If you’d like a tasty tangy-sweet treat give this raspberry, goats’ cheese and fig pavlova a try!  It’s simple and yummy!

Raspberry, goats cheese, fig pavlova topping illustrated recipe

Pâtisserie skills… aargh

I must get back to studying for the practical final exam coming up tomorrow.  We have to make one of the cakes we had on the course (it’s a surprise!) and pipe ‘Opera’ with 2 borders in chocolate on some cardboard.  I have two nemeses in pâtisserie:  chocolate piping and glazes.  And maybe mousses.  I’ve been practising …

Practising chocolate piping
It could be worse.  And it definitely was.  lol.  Well the course will soon be over after Tuesday then I can do some Christmas baking – been collecting stuff for this and I’ll show you next time.  It’s all very well making these fancy schmancy French delights but I like a good mono-layer bake too!  🙂

Farewell for now sweet reader!  Wishing you a wonderful week ahead with lots of lovely treats.  Happy baking and eating! 🙂 x

 

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Baking on Sundays with my French mum was a lovely part of my childhood. Later I experimented with baking books or internet recipes and did the pâtisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Still trying out new recipes and inventing cakes with influences from all around the world, including some healthier ones. Yes, love cakes!!! Hope you'll love them too and have fun baking. :)

21 thoughts on “Cakes with some savoury petits fours – at the Cordon Bleu Paris”

  9. Pingback: Week 42 of cakes – a comedy of errors at the Cordon Bleu, the final vote and Xmas recipes | lili's cakes

  10. thebakinghermit says:

    Hei Lili, I am thinking of giving your inverted puff pastry recipe a try. But just like to check if I should omit the salt if I want to use the puff pastry for sweet pastries? Thanks. 😘

    Liked by 1 person

    • Lili says:

      Hi, that’s great! Keep the salt I think… it only makes the puff very slightly salty and that’s usually good for sweet pastries. I always make it with the salt. Looking forward to seeing your amazing puff pastry creations! 👍😙

      Liked by 1 person

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