Experimenting with flowers

Some pansies and apple blossoms made of royal icing...harder than I thought they would be! Practice is already helping though. These aren't as interesting when they're not attached to something covered with icing, but I'm saving all of them for my final cake in Week 10.

The last (lime) pie

I don't know how, but I've gone through life without ever tasting Key Lime Pie. It's very easy to make and doesn't need to be baked. Is it always so citrus-y? The lime taste was so strong I could barely finish a slice. The crust: Semi-sweet chocolate, butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs are heated then poured into coconut, rolled oats and chopped walnuts, then combined by hand and pressed into a fluted pie mould. The filling: Lime juice and zest are heated and then combined with softened gelatin sheets. Condensed milk is added into this mixture, as well as whipped cream. The filling is then poured into the shell and refrigerated until set. My pie class is officially over...The Art of Pastry starts next week!

Reeses pie

Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favourite combos! This Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie's crust (graham crumbs, sugar, butter, chopped peanuts) was baked for 10 minutes, cooled slightly and sprinkled with chocolate chips. The filling consisted of whipping cream, icing sugar (used as a stabilizer) and vanilla, combined with cream cheese, peanut butter, more icing sugar and milk. It was poured into the pie shell and refrigerated, then garnished with ganache (mmm...), chocolate chips and chopped nuts. There was a few steps to this one, but it was fairly quick to make. It's super-rich tasting and definitely satisfies a chocolate craving.

Progress in the form of cake

It's already Week 5 of my cake decorating class - time to start practicing on a real cake instead of parchment paper. My roses are getting better; a week ago they were a runny mess. Decorating is so precise and requires a lot of patience - and I none to speak of prior to taking this class, so it's helped me with that.

After class, someone on the elevator asked me what class I was taking and when I told him he said: "Cooking is an art, but baking is a science! You have to follow the rules." I think that's why I like it.

Another big butter tart

Chocolate Pecan Pie involved the same chocolate pastry as for the Maple Walnut..Pie and also the same filling - with the exception being that pecans were used instead of walnuts and raisins. The top was drizzled with melted chocolate...prettier than the previous pie, but I preferred the taste of the other one. I think walnuts and raisins worked better with the filling than the pecans. Also, the drizzled chocolate made it even sweeter than it already was - maybe a bit too much. I would love to use this filling along with the first pie dough I learned, to make butter tarts.