Balmain Food Tour: Planet Cake, Victoire, Adriano Zumbo

 My Day's Loot

Every term LCB takes its students on a food tour to gain insight into the industry: once was a 2-day sojourn to Zokoko chocolate factory in the Blue Mountains (love the BM!), another time to attend a Chocolate Festival in Hunter Valley. Today's trip was a short bus ride to the hippie food enclave of Balmain to tour the neighborhood shops. Compared to past trips, some of us were disappointed with our agenda, but went anyway hoping to make the most out of it.

Pit Stop 1:  Planet Cake

From Simple To Stunning

Sweet Cupcakes, Not What We're Making...Yet

Planet Cake's gorgeous creations come in all shapes and sizes, from 5-tiered wedding cakes to adorable fairy cupcakes, and we were surprised with a demonstration and a go at making the latter this morning. Nothing fancy, just an easy rubber ducky and rabbit.

Leveling With White Chocolate Ganache, Covering With Fondant

Ducky Head, Body, Beak

Rabbit Tail, Body, Head, Finished Products

My first attempt at food modeling which I found quite easy and fun, not unlike playing with plaster of Paris and Playdoh when I was much younger. This can be a profitable side business, but I still prefer making desserts that is more about the flavor than their sweet appearance.

Pit Stop #2: Victoire

A short walk later, we arrive at Victoire, a proper bakery and patisserie that's more up my alley. They make more artisan breads (such gems they are) and tarts, but not so much cakes. We went on a quick tour around the kitchen, giving us an idea how a small scale business looks and runs, and what sells.

Artisan Breads, French Pastries

Lovely Tarts Come In All Sizes

Funky Bread Slicer

Chef Karen's Shopping Done

Amazing Blueberry Tart, Macadamia Nut Brownie

Their ever-popular blueberry tart had a mascapone filling that was surprisingly light, gently perfumed with lavender and brightened with a hint of lemon - Genius! Hurry if you wanna try one, they are not always in stock and when they are, they sell out real fast.

Pit Stop #3: Adriano Zumbo's "Lab"

Me & Margarita With Chef Luigi-Soprano Talking Business At The Back

The latest darling of the Sydney pastry scene, Adriano Zumbo has been blazing the trail in inventive and unconventional desserts from wasabi cakes to corn meringue, but it's his macarons that defines him best; from classic berry flavors to outrageous hamburger and pig's blood experiments, there is no stopping the man dubbed the next Willy Wonka.

Pouring Filling Into Macaron Machine

When producing macarons by the thousands each day, a piping machine comes in handy, ensuring uniformity throughout the platoon; mix and filling are still and best done by hand.

Macarons & Pastry Production Lines

Touring the kitchen, it felt more like a macaron factory than patisserie to me, which was a pity as they make pretty outstanding desserts which I personally prefer to macarons.

Silicon Molds

Instant Noodle Soup? Nope, Guess Again!

The chef was making a cake for an special event that day, using instant noodles instead of well, cake. Told you they were unconventional.

Chef's Creation: Chinese Noodle Man

Looks More Like A Big- Boobed Owl To Me

Warming Up The Chocolates

Automated Chocolate Tampering Machine!

No pastry kitchen is complete without a chocolate room, and Zumbo's lab had an entire floor dedicated to it. Employing the wonders of automation once again, they use a machine to tamper chocolate: no more tabling or vaccination by hand. What a great toy to have!

More Desserts, Something For The Road

I got a salted-caramel (for the classics) and apricot-rosemary macaron (for the wacky). The former was so-so, but I couldn't taste the apricot in the latter, and the rosemary flavor just didn't work for me.

So it ain't the Blue Mountains or the Hunter, but it was an overall alright tour that gave us some perspective on how different businesses in the industry are run. I would have appreciated a little more hands-on experience to make this a good tour and not feel like another brunch run in the neighbourhood. Next time, maybe?

Fondant In My Special Box

Tartelettes Individuelles Aux Fruits, Tartelettes À La Frangipane, Tarte Linzer, Frangipane, Crème Pâtissière, Almondine, Fruit For Fruit Cake

Chef Luigi's Tartelettes À La Frangipane

Tartelettes Individuelles Aux Fruits, Tarte Linzer

While the Frangipane and Fruit Tartlets are basic assembly jobs, I found Tarte Linzer most interesting, being the oldest-known torte in the history of tortes. First recorded in 1653, this Austrian holiday classic with its characteristic lattice top consists of a hazelnut-based pastry and a filling of berry jam or preserve. Cookie sized tortes are also known as Linzer Sablés.

Happy Hour Fruits

From Bûche de Noël to Panattone to today's Fruit Cake, I do think the semester would better suit Christmassy December then the middle of February, but that's class planning for ya.

I'm no fan of fruitcake, with its tongue-numbingly sweet raisins, sultanas, currents (yew, yeew and yeeew!), glacé cherries, apricots and pineapples (yuck, yuck and yuck). Brandy is the only saving grace in this onslaught of sugar, so much so I added twice as much Brandy and an equal slug of Kirsch to hopefully drown out the sweetness and leave the mix to macerate over the weekend. I also added more pineapples and angelica to brighten up the dull appearance of the cake.

 

Mise En Places: Crème Pâtissière, Frangipane

Almondine (Egg Whites, Brown Sugar & Flaked Almond Mix)

Piping Apricot Jam & Frangipane Into Unbaked Pâte Sablée Tart Shells

Topping Off With Almondine Before Baking

Touching Up Baked Tartelettes À La Frangipane 

With Icing Sugar & Apricot Jam

Tartelettes À La Frangipane With Icing Sugar (Quite Sweet)
& Apricot Jam (Too Sweet! Way Too Sweet!!)

Assembling Tartelettes Individuelles Aux Fruits

Filling Baked Pâte Sablée With Crème Pâtissière, Fruits & Dusting Of Icing Sugar

 

Tarte Linzer Dough Mix, Chilled & Firmed Up For Easy Rolling

Butter and sugar are creamed together, orange juice and zests then added to brighten up the flavors, eggs, flour and ground hazelnut mixed in to form the heavy dough with Bi-carb for lift,  finally ground cloves, cinnamon and salt to give the Tarte Linzer its distinguished flavor.

Rolling Out Tarte Linzer Dough, Lining Tart Case & Trimming

Filling With Raspberry Jam, Topping With Dough In Lattice Pattern

Baked Tarte Linzer, Way Way After

The guys in class got to the tarte before I could take a picture of the finished products. Seriously, guys?

My Tartelettes Individuelles Aux Fruits, Tartelettes À La Frangipane, Tarte Linzer

My fruit tarts could have used more berries, but we had to make do with our ration of 1 punnet which I stretched over 8 tarts. Well if you have lemons... I sprinkled on flaked almonds before baking the frangipane tarts for a contrasting  look and added crunch and finished with apricot jam for shine and a longer shelf life. 

I like both tarts, the former for its crunchy tart shell, rich pastry cream and fresh berries, the latter for the almond paste, of coz.

This is the first time I've made Tarte Linzer, and unlike the ones I've tried in the past which were nondescript (think boring, dry jam biscuits), this recipe was a revelation: The tarte was moist and fragrant with the cloves and cinnamon, and the jam, not too much and not too sweet, was a beautiful accompaniment.

Tartelettes Individuelles Aux Fruits With Dollies On A Silver Platter: Fancy!

Sneak Peek At The Tarte Linzer, Finally :p

After School Snack: A Slab Off My Chocolate Box