Lazy Days and Sundays

My daughter-in-law (Kim) and I had our second and last class with the instructor from the gourmet apple class.  Click here for that blog entry Eighteen people in one crowded room and only one microwave for melting chocolate was not a good set up.

Here we have a snowman and a chocolate spoon for your coffee.

The snowman might be okay for kids, but isn't something we will eat nor is it that attractive.  Using Nerds for the facial features is awkward because they are small and I don't like that they aren't uniform in size. If I were going to make these again, I would use melted dark chocolate and add the features, or use an edible marking pen.

The spoon as is, is just lame in my opinion.

The instructor really thought this was La-di-dah fancy. One Twinkie is cut on an angle and placed on either side of a whole Twinkie. Canned frosting was used and a "Spoon-fork from Taco Bell" (direct quote from her directions) is to be used to make it look like a log.

It would look more like a traditional Yule log with only one limb off the main log, and it needs to be smaller. This almost looks like back to back parentheses to me )(   A friend delicately pointed out that it reminded her of something that happens when she walks her dog. 

I am not a fan of spearmint gum drops because the flavor is over powering so I would not use them for holly leaves, and the red hots she gave us were too big to look nice. I would use red and green frosting to make the holly leaves and berries, but in reality, I won't be making this again. It cannot easily be picked off the wax paper and transferred to a plate. 

Snowball anyone?

Setting a chocolate covered round object on paper to dry results in a flat edge. This was almost unavoidable last night. There was barely enough room to work much less have a rack for the snowballs.  I would have liked these as a kid, but the confectioners sugar-butter-peanut butter center was achingly sweet to me.

How about some mice?

Cute idea, but I don't like the corn flake ears. The original idea with almonds is cuter in my opinion.

She wanted the same holly berry and leaves on the side of the mouse. Kim tried one. It was huge compared to the mouse and just not attractive. Here is that idea done with piping gel.

The Oreos are were soft the following morning. They were in a covered container with the Twinkie log. I don't know if splitting the Oreo open caused that or if the frosting on the Twinkie was too much moisture in the container. If I felt that had to go on a cookie platform, a chocolate covered graham cracker might hold up better, but I think they are cuter just by themselves.

I may sound overly critical but for what we paid on the class, not to mention supplies, this was disappointing. We were each told to bring 15 Oreos, 15 Hershey Kisses, 15 Maraschino cherries and  3 T. of butter. I bought supplies for both Kim and myself, therefore doubled everything. We used a total of 16 items between the two of us and only half of the butter. Do I sound irritated that the supply list was incorrect? I am.

Last month, in the caramel and chocolate apple class, she told us that chocolate would not adhere to an apple without the caramel. I took her word for it. Kim made 15 apples this week for her co-workers without the caramel and they turned out just great. They were much easier to slice and eat, and were pleasantly sweet as opposed to the caramel ones which were too much.

She told us last night to sift confectioners sugar on the Twinkie logs to look like snow. Not a good idea.... You can do that just before serving, but not in advance. The sugar will be absorbed into the frosting. When I asked her about this happening, she said she didn't think that would happen. Huh? Oh yeah, she's a real professional... Not.

Kim and I did have fun just being together, but there is no way we would take another class at this location or from this instructor.