Snack Attack: Pastry Party!

The past three months have flown by....it's hard to believe we are already halfway done with pastry school. To celebrate our success thus far, we hosted a pastry party for friends and family at Tante Marie during our last Saturday class before a well-needed 2 week break. We spent the week preparing for the party, making what we could ahead of time and putting on finishing touches Saturday morning. Amazingly, Saturday turned out to be one the least stressful classes. Through some miracle of organization, we had everything set up and ready to go a full 20 minutes before guests were expected to arrive. Why doesn't every class go this smoothly?? We all had a blast and guests and students alike enjoyed the tasty treats. I've posted my favorite pictures below. (My apologies for the annoying underline on parts of the text...I am still trying to figure out why blogger does something completely random and unexpected every time I make a new post).

Cookies! Simple, but delicious as any other dessert when done correctly. The cookies with the currants (far left) were a part of our very first class at Tante Marie. The poor soul who made them then mistook the salt for sugar, resulting in probably the nastiest cookie anyone has ever eaten. Today they were much much better!

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine visited Bouchon Bakery in Yountville (Napa area). I asked her to bring me back a variety of macarons, the TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo), and a surprise item (a chocolate almond croissant). The TKO ended up being not only my favorite of the bunch, but one of my favorite treats that I've ever eaten. I wanted to recreate the TKO and found the actual recipe online. The chocolate sable dough was incredibly easy to work with, and the white chocolate ganache takes all of 3 minutes to make. What and easy recipe for such a fantastic cookie! Pictured below with a meyer lemon sandwich cookie.

No party is complete without one of my all time favorites -- (French macarons!!!)

Chocolate mint truffles. I love how these are rich and refreshing all at the same time. My only complaint is how they're nearly impossible to eat without getting cocoa powder all over your teeth and looking like a toothless pirate.

Strawberry truffles with balsamic and black pepper, dipped in white chocolate and rolled in strawberry flakes. Not your everyday truffle!

Pate de Fruit! I ate so many of these the first night we made them that my teeth went into sugar shock. I still get that omg I think I just gave myself 10 cavities feeling just looking at this picture.

A tried and true classic -- fresh fruit tartlets. You can never go wrong with these, breakfast, snack, or dessert -- always a winner.

Passionfruit meringue tartlets with poppyseeds sprinkled on the meringue to mimic the look of passionfruit seeds.

Chocolate ganache tartlets. Sometimes the simplest things are the biggest crowd pleasers.

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. I aboslutely love the sugared flowers on top.

Hazelnut cupcakes with caramel buttercream and spun sugar garnish. Wow, these are good! And that's coming from someone who doesn't even like hazelnut!!

Lemon cupcakes with mango buttercream. I love the pieces of fruit in these cupcakes. At the size of just about two bites, the were perfectly fruity and refreshing.

Chocolate cupcakes with blood orange ganache. These may have been my favorite of the day. We've been adding blood orange to a lot of things lately, and I haven't been a fan of them all, but this ganache cupcake combo was definitely spot on.

Ok, I know I already said macarons were my favorite thing in the world....but I they are actually tied with Entremets. The colors of the mousse and gelee are absolutely gorgeous.

I don't remember exactly what was in this coconut cake, but I do remember that biting into it made me feel like I was heading off on a tropical vacation. Pina Colada in cake form.

A mousse on a spoon....what a great idea! You pick it up, you slurp it up, and you are good to go! We had a rich chocolate mousse, a white orange mousse, and very tart and delicious passionfruit mousse.