There are many many things that a wonderful smile can get for you … one of them is partialness. Partialness to me.
I’d say my chef is partial to me, so even though I fudged up a few things on my cake, and my cake was NOT that great by any means, I did well. I faked it.
I’ll tell you what I screwed up, since I’m sharing the ugly:
1. My fruit bavarian tasted good (sour/sweet mixture of peach and passion fruit puree), but was cooked wrong. Embarrassingly the gelatin didn’t fully melt. Gross. So I strained it, I did what Tim Gun tells me every week on Project Runway, I “made it work.” That being said without gelatin the mixture was soupy. My whipped cream was barely soft peaks, so that added to the lack of viscosity. Stuck that puppy in a pastry bag and freezered it, thank God for the freezer. But like I said it tasted good!
2. Next, I fudged up my Italian meringue butter cream … twice … can’t really fake that one, I had to do it until I got it right. And I’m the QUEEN of buttercream, making it not eating it, and I never mess it up. Never say never.
3. My fondant was sticky beyond stick. Add that powder sugar and leave it up covered for longer than you would. Hardens up like a rock, success!
What I did do right is cover my cake. No cracks, no breaks, perfect according to the chef and I agree. Maybe a little thinner, but I just said the atmosphere this cake would be presented in was a warm spring day. The thicker layer of fondant helps protect the cake against the elements. Ha!
My decoration was simple, which is what I needed, because having screwed up essentially I learned months ago and had to redo, I didn’t have much time.
I’ve included a few classmates cakes, they’re much better, feel free to agree. But I stuck to my plan, so I can’t complain …
Now go get yourself a holiday cocktail!
A genoise is a simple French cake. Its an egg foam cake, which means the cake is leavened by creating air within the egg protein structures. No baking powder, baking soda, or 
