Watermelon Basket

So as you can tell from the title of this post or at least I hope you can, we made a watermelon basket! YAY! But it wasn't watermelon season :( so the watermelons weren't sweet.
We did the watermelon basket the same time we made the cucumber shark.

The garnishing tool we used to cut the watermelon was the 'V-Shaped Garnishing Tool' or it's also known as 'Harold Chef Harvey Decorator Knife'.

We just basically poked it through and connected each of them to make sure it comes out smoothly.

We used a melon baller to make the watermelon meat into balls. Since we only had 2, we took turns make the watermelon balls but as I found out I was not really good at this...which is weird because I have to say, I'm pretty darn good at scooping up ice cream with the ice cream scoop. So after I did a few I decided to spend my time trying to crave out hearts out of the watermelon peel (it was really hard to do) since I want to make our watermelon basket cute! :D

I felt like the handle for our basket was too thick...

I don't know why but every time I see those photos, they remind me of a whale...maybe we should have done a whale watermelon or a hedgehog.

In the end, since it wasn't watermelon season, the watermelon was not sweet at all and because the rest of my group (3 of them) had science (2 different classes and you're not allowed food because of safety/health issues) I had to take it to my Socials Studies Class since I thought it would be a waste to just throw it away like most of the class. I got some pretty weird stares as I was walking through the hall with this on a tray with toothpicks. 
Luckily I got my Socials Studies Class to finish most of it but I had to compost the rest since nobody wanted it.

Apple Bird

Here we learned how to make a apple bird garnish! This was a really fun and scary lab to do as I keep thinking I would do something totally wrong with my apple and then fail. It was really fun seeing everybody's birds and how they were totally different to each other!

 So we first made a base for out apple bird by cutting about 1/3 off a side of the apple.

 We used the paring knife to cute "V-shaped" wedges for the two side feathers and the top.

 The "feathers" with the body, I should have put a little more lemon juice as it was starting to brown a little.

 The bird with all the feather, I felt like I should have push the feathers out more to make a more outstanding bird.

 

 I felt like the head of the bird doesn't really look like a bird's head, more like a turtle...

The head was made by cutting a 1/4" strip from the base piece that we cut out.

 Finished product of the bird.

 I thought I made the sides pretty even but I should have made the feathers pushed out more. Totally regret that right now.

The head kind of ruins the magnificent bird (in my opinion)

Cucumber Shark

In this lab we got a cucumber and made a shark out of it! This lab took a lot longer than I expected but I guess it from the fear of messing up that made us take so long. This lab was really fun to do because it's really neat how we get this one thing and are able to make something 'different' with it.
We also made a watermelon basket in this lab too!

Banana Splitsville

So to continue with our candy making unit in Food Art we made Banana Splitsville which the recipe was from Good Eats: Citizen Cane. The recipe was split into 3 parts, the basic caramel software (which was the doodads, a random candy swirly thingy), the caramel sauce and the banana brulee. The recipe for me was personally confusing when I read it but when I watched the Good Eats video (Good Eats: Citizen Cane) it made more sense.

Finished Product

The recipe:

Ingredients:  

Basic Carmel Software:

• 500 mL sugar
• 250 mL water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Caramel Sauce Software:

• 1 batch caramel (above)
• 500 mL heavy cream

Banana Brulee Software:

• 4 bananas
• sugar for coating

Additional: ICE CREAM

Method:

1. Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a small, heavy saucepan and place over high heat.As soon as the sugar dissolved, heat your thermometer under warm tap water (to prevent thermal shock) and attach to the side of your pot,  making sure that the bulb is completely submerged but doesn't touch the bottom of the pot. DO NOT STIR THE MIXTURE OR AGITATE THE PAN AT THIS STAGE!
2. When the mixture reached 230°F (110°C), reduce the heat to medium and allow the sugar to colour gradually. As the temperature approached 300°F (150°C) the colour will start to turn amber. At this point, it's safe to swirl the pan gently to help distribute the heat evenly. As the caramel heads towards 340°F (170°C), it will reach a deep amber colour.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly stir with a metal spoon, allowing it to cool until the caramel falls from the spoon in a solid stream, like a string (keep stirring and lifting up the spoon). When it does, it's doodad time!
4. Form the doodads by holding the spoon 12 to 16 inches over with caramel and drizzling a pattern on the parchment. The thinner it fall from the spoon the better (Hint: allow the spoon to unload into the pan for a few seconds before attempting the doodads. This will allow a narrower stream).
5. Quick back and forth motions or side to side movements are the best (I personally like to make circles). It's all in the wrist. Allow the doodads to cool for 15 minutes then peel the paper off (not the other way around, you might break it). Stack in an airtight container with wax paper between in each pieces if you are not using it.
6. After making 15 to 20 doodads, you should have sufficient caramel reaming to move on to the sauce phase.
7. Return the remaining caramel to medium high heat and continue cooking until you dee the first sign of smoke (in the pot not the element!) Immediately remove from the heat, and add the cream all at once, at arms length (it will boil furiously). Once the mixture calms down, return to medium heat and boil for 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature and then move to squirt bottle (or just into a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap) and refrigerate for up to a week.
8. To make the banana brulee, quarter the bananas (peel on) and then remove the peel and put sugar (we put a lot) on the flat part of the banana and place on cooling racks over several players of foil. (Don't try to do this on you dining room table). Don you safety goggles and fire up your torch (you don't actually need goggles). Hold the torch so that the very tip of the flame barely touches the banana, and move quickly back and forth until the sugar melts, turns brown, and bubbles. As soon as it looks like caramel (the top of a crème brulee), move on. You know you've got it down when a solid, glass like sheet of gold (no graininess)  has formed on the banana.
9. To do the split (so to speak), squirt a pattern  of caramel sauce on a chilled plate top with 4 banana pieces (Lincoln log style), top with ice cream of your choice and finally, a doodad. But you can do it any style you want if you don't want to do the log one.

Product: 

I keep forgetting to bring my camera to class >.< (had to charge it last night and forgot to put back the battery so I brought a camera with no battery) so yet again I had to use my iPhone camera  which not only was crappy but in the middle of taking pictures it shut down on me when it still had 100% and refused to open again for the whole day until I plugged it in a charger! So I was only able to take few. I asked if someone (ie. one of my group mates that wasn't my sister) if she could take some pictures for me and send it to me but she refused which was pretty mean especially when she took pictures off my blog without asking me! Sorry for that little rant there but it was making me angry.

Sorry for the really bad pictures

heating the sugar

we didn't get an amber colour for our doodads >.<

Caramel sauce when we added the heavy cream (bubbling)

Our first attempts but we got better!

We actually put more sugar on it but it dissolved
but we put more in the end

Bananas we torched

close up, you want an amber colour

the plate that I decorated

my finished product! it was good though the ice
cream was kind of bad, it was all chunky 

tried to use this new app on my phone

Overall the product tasted really good (except the ice cream), my group really liked the caramel sauce, they were putting in everywhere! The doodads were kind of spiky when we ate it...it hurts when it when down our throat.