We had no idea what was in store for us that day for our final demo. The chef told us that he was informed by the school only a few days before to come up with a recipe to share with us. It could have been anything, really. But ultimately, it was another tart – tarte aux fruits.

This was a rather strange fruit tart. And very complicated too. The crust was made with a mixture of Sablé Breton crumbs and the usual pâte sucrée, there was a layer of pain de gènes on top of the crust, the pastry cream contained no milk in it and the tart was topped with mini babas soaked in passionfruit syrup! Outrageous! Why the hell would there be babas on a fruit tart? Chef was either mad, or a genius.

We were used to lining our tarts in a ring, but Chef showed us an alternative method of doing so without using a ring. This makes the tart look a little more rustic, using our fingers to crimp the sides too without using a pastry crimper. I hate those things!

You might be wondering still… A pastry cream without milk?! Well, it was a mango (or was it apricot?) pastry cream, and all that liquid was replaced with mango puree. Very clever. I thought it might be a disaster, but actually, it turned out quite well. And as for the babas? Mmm… I still don’t understand what purpose they served. I guess this tart is truly one of a kind.

As the chef was decorating the tarts, I was amazed at how beautiful the tarts looked. I wanted to hate it so badly, but when I finally tried it, I absolutely loved it. Chef Tranchant is a genius. He is a mad scientist. The flavours were a little tropical with the mango and the passionfruit soaking syrup. I actually really loved the pastry cream. But the best part of the tart to me is still, and always will be the crust. The addition of Sablé Breton crumbs made it a whole lot more special. Definitely worth the effort.

After devouring our tarts, we took our very last class photo together.

That was the last of our demos, and all that was left was the final practical exam. Strangely, I was not as stressed out about the practical than I was for the theory exam. There were only a handful of recipes that could possibly be tested, and since we’d already made them at least once during our practical class, we shouldn’t have that much of a problem with the exam, right?

That was what I told myself.

Alas, the day of our last practical. Earlier that morning, we were taught how to make the beautiful Charlotte. Pink sponge fingers hide layers of sponge, raspberry mousse, red berry jelly and almond bavarian cream. I was just happy to be making something that looked that pretty. The only other cake that we made that was comparable was the Fraisier. Everything else looked dull, mostly brown, not much decoration. The chef brought us through the demo which lasted longer than usual, but at the end, we were rewarded with a delicious cake.

Chef’s Charlottes

We had to work in pairs for this cake. I think if we were to do this by ourselves, it would take almost the entire 3 hours. I requested for a slightly more pink sponge finger and my partner did not protest, which was really nice of him! First, we piped our sponge. I tried my best to pipe them as evenly as possible. I was pretty happy with the way they turned out. Next, we moved onto the jelly, mousse and bavarian cream. As my partner can’t take pork, we had to split everything in half before adding the gelatin into the mixture. I wasn’t very happy with the way the chef dealt with it because although my partner was given a substitute, he was not told how to use it. This resulted in a less than ideal texture for the mousse and bavarian cream, and it did not set as well.

Charlotte aux fruits de saison

I had cut the sponge fingers at both ends to even them out, as the chef did during demo. I know this is a little unconventional, but the chef did mention that he preferred to do it that way. However, it seemed like not many people cut it for practical. When I looked at the uncut ones, they looked better and I was a little upset, but the chef which graded us totally understood that we were just replicating what we were taught in demo. I got pretty good marks for it, so I was happy again. He commented that my cake was extremely feminine and that the sponges were very well piped and defined. When I got home, I cut a slice to see how it looked inside, and I was quite pleased! The layers were straight and in good proportion. However, because we didn’t have enough time to chill the cake before arranging the fruits on top, the bavarian was still a little soft and the fruits sank in slightly.

This is truly a delicious cake. It’s not too sweet (very important), has good texture and is visually appealing. I just watched an episode of Masterchef Canada and they had to make a Charlotte in an hour! OMG! Obviously it was not as elaborate as ours and definitely not as pretty. There was a tropical one, a chocolate and mint flavoured one and caramel pecan one. Very innovative. I will have to try to bake some non-traditional ones too!

Our last demo is a “open” one, meaning the chef will be creating his own recipe, but we won’t have a practical on that. Let’s see what he comes up with!